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.
  • 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.)