March 22, 2007

Uyghur goes pop! Fully downloadable album (with samples to try before you don't buy) of pop music from Xinjiang, aka East Turkestan, home to the Uyghur.
posted by Abiezer_Coppe 17 years ago
  • Rocking. Thankee.
  • Wow. Just two strings, you say? Amazing. It reminds me a little bit of some throat-singing techniques; the one string complements t'other.
  • They don't call him Dutar Padishasi for nothing! (Apparently :D)
  • Thanks, Abiezer! That's some impressive playing, fish tick! He seems to be using something similar to rasguedo, although it's hard to make out details in a YouTube video. Trivia: 'dutar' is from 'two strings' in Persian; 'sitar' is from 'three strings'. However, the Indian instrument has gained a few extra strings over the centuries, while the dutar still has the two strings of its name[1]. 1. Except in Afghanistan, where, in a fit of twelve-upmanship, they've added up to a dozen extra sympathetic strings to the Herati dutar.
  • Okay, this is super cool.
  • well Abiezer, I haven't (yet) checked out these links, but I just spent a delightful 1/2 hour browsing thru the xinjiang/west china/uyghur etc. links at wikipedia...I have long been fascinated by that part of the world. thanks!
  • Thanks for the low-down on the dutar/sitar and all TDM!
  • How lovely! I actually really like some of the music-- it will be useful for practicing Middle Eastern dance moves. A professional dancer (and personal trainer, and Chinese speaker) in NYC who's a friend of mine recently spent a couple of months in Xinjiang studying Uyghur music and dance. She's blogged about her travels: August, September.
  • This is really cool, but I feel guilty for downloading so much from his site. (No bittorrent? I couldn't find anything on the usual databases.)