Review

Reviewed Work(s): Epics and Diaphonic Singing from Central Asia and Siberia by Jose
Goncalves, Pierre Simonin and Pierre Bois
Review by: Theodore Levin
Source: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 30 (1998), p. 209
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/768619
Accessed: 13-03-2019 05:30 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Yearbook for
Traditional Music

This content downloaded from 191.54.241.32 on Wed, 13 Mar 2019 05:30:56 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 REVIEWS RECORDS / 209

CENTRAL ASIA

Epics and Diaphonic Singing from Central Asia and Siberia. Record
Jose Goncalves, Pierre Simonin, and-Pierre Bois. Annota
Francoise Grund and Pierre Bois. Inedit W-260067. CD with 18
of notes in French and English, 4 b/w photographs of perform
1 map of Central Asia. No bibliography. 9 tracks recorded in
in France. Tracks #1-3: Tuva, #4: Tadzhikistan, #5-8: Kalmu
Shor. 71'23. 1996.

Epics and Overtone Singing.- Central Asia, Siberia, vol. 1, is a compilation of

material recorded by La Maison des Cultures du Monde between 1983 and
1995. The single clue to how and where the various items were recorded
is a cryptic note on the inside cover of the booklet notes: "La venue en France
de ces artistes a ete rendue possible grace au concours d'Elvira Kunina et du Centre des
Ars Traditionnels de Russie (Moscou)." The contribution of this recording is to
demonstrate the connection between the stylized melodic overtone singing
of the Tuvans and Kalmyks and the broader Inner Asian tradition of epic
singing, typically performed with a tensed, laryngeally-constricted vocal
timbre. While the liner notes discuss a link between overtone singing and
shamanism, the recording contains no explicit examples of shamanic
vocalizations. The booklet notes to Epics and Overtone Singing contain much
useful information, but they are cobbled together from quotations or para-
phrases taken from a number of different scholarly sources and, unless one
is already well versed in the material, they may be difficult to follow
(particularly the English, which is not the best of translations).
THEODORE LEVIN
Dartmouth College

WEST ASIA & NORTH AFRICA

Tunisia: Anthology of Malouf Nuba al-iraq. Recordings by Radio

Annotations by Fethi Zghonda. Inedit W-260047. CD wit
of notes in French, English, Spanish, and Arabic, 6 b/w ph
of performers, 1 illustration of Muhammad Al-Rashid.
graphy. 6 tracks recorded in the studio. 47'17. 1993.
Tunisia: Anthology ofMalouf, Nuba al-sika. Recordings by Mohs
Annotations by Fethi Zghonda. Inedit W-260059. CD wit
of notes in French, English, Spanish, and Arabic, 6 b/w ph
of performers, and 1 illustration of Muhammad Al-Rashid.
graphy. 8 tracks recorded in the studio. 52'30. 1994.
Of the three principal styles of "Arabo-Andalusian" music in N
(from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia), the Tunisian variety, know
is the least well represented on recordings. Starting about five y
Maison des Cultures du Monde, in Paris, in cooperation with th
Ministry of Culture, set out to remedy that situation with the A
malouf
Not surprisingly, Tunisia, the easternmost country of the Maghreb, shows
the strongest influence of musical cultures further to the east. First, Tunisia
was affected more deeply by Turkish culture after the Ottoman occupation

This content downloaded from 191.54.241.32 on Wed, 13 Mar 2019 05:30:56 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms