Musics of the Soviet Union CD

Once a huge country, the USSR covered one-sixth of the earth's land surface and included over 100 distinct ethnic and linguistic groups. The music selected here represents a range of traditions and styles, recorded at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in 1988: Lithuanians, Estonians, South and North Russia, Tuvan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia are all represented. Descriptive notes and map. 14 performances.

Very little indigenous music from the former Soviet Union is known to the West. This recording, from 1988, offers a rich sampling from many of the more than 100 ethnic groups within this vast region. The record begins with passionate Lithuanian lullabies and proceeds through ancient seasonal and ceremonial village songs from southern and northern Russia and the asymmetrical dance rhythms performed by Estonian bagpipers. From the distant Mongolian frontier, the amazing art of Tuvan multiphonic "throat singing" can be heard as well as the richly harmonic male choral singing still practiced in Georgia. "...[A] compelling taste of sounds from a country with a huge amount of indigenous music..." — Option

     101      Lithuanian Lullaby      Veronika Povilioniene      1:16     
     102     Lithuanian Lullaby     Veronika Povilioniene     2:56    
     103     Estonian Bagpipe Music     Estonian bagpipe music     1:14    
     104     South Russian solo song from Belgorod Province     M.K. Mal´tseva leading vocal ensemble from Podserednee     1:56    
     105     South Russian wedding dance song from Belgorod Province     M.K. Mal´tseva leading vocal ensemble from Podserednee     1:35    
     106     North Russian wedding greeting song from Arkhangelsk Province     Kamenka village ensemble     5:05    
     107     North Russian wedding lament     Evdokiia Alexandrovna Oreshkina     1:15    
     108     North Russian lyric song     Singers from the village of Shostova Gora in Arkhangelsk province     6:03    
     109     Tuvan folk melody     S.B. Manchakai     1:35    
     110     Song from Khomeizhi     M.C. Daknai     2:37    
     111     Azerbaijani classical mugam     Bayat-i Kurd     7:16    
     112     Georgian song     Lile song and dance ensemble of the Lintekhskii House of Culture     3:00    
     113     Georgian song     Gugava Dzohkia     2:48    
     114     Georgian wedding song     Lile song and dance ensemble of the Lintekhskii House of Culture     2:42