Category: Ethnic Music

Local music

  • Barokan Farewell

    Barokan Farewell

    You’ve heard Ashokan Farewell even if you don’t think you know it. You’ve heard it in a TV show, a film, or a documentary about the Civil War. Chances are, if someone played you the first bar, you could hum the rest. What if one were to write a somewhat Baroque-sounding variation of Ashokan Farewell, as a self-accompanied cello music?

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  • Afghan Song Now Banned

    Afghan Song Now Banned

    Cellist and conductor Dan Allcott rearranged a popular Afghan song, “Bia ke borem ba Mazar”, previously performed by his friend William Harvey on the violin, for the cello, self-accompanied. The title of the song means: “Let’s go to the lover city of Mazar-e-Sharif”. When played unaccompanied thus on a solo string instrument, the tune sounds even more haunting and exotic than voiced versions. Songs like this are now banned in Afghanistan, since the Taliban took over.

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