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Asian, Appalachian folk music have similar sounds
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Albuquerque Journal, Asian, Appalachian folk music have similar sounds >>
BY DAVID STEINBERG
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Imagine a band from the remote Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan playing tunes that are compared to the traditional folk music from Appalachia.
Far-fetched?
Not according to Theodore Levin, an ethnomusicologist who specializes in the music of Siberia and Central Asia.
"You immediately hear a lot of similar ities," Levin said in a phone interview from his music department office at Dartmouth College.
"First of all, the instruments. They have strummed lutes that sound a lot like a guitar and very fast strumming patterns. They have an instrument, the kyl kiyak s the ancestor of the fid dle."
And Kyrgyzstan music has major and minor scales with the same pitches that1 s contained in American folk music, Levin added.
New Mexico residents can make their own comparison when the Kyrgyzstan group Tengir-Too will be in concert Saturday, March 25, at the KiMo Theatre.
Levin thinks that the folk music of the two disparate regions may share another connection. Kyrgyzstan, he said, influenced Appalachia's Anglo-Celtic musical roots.
The Kyrgyz are nomads and their music comes out of an ancient nomadic tradition. The Celts originally inhabited regions of Turkey east of the Danube and got pushed west. There were Celtic mercenaries who traveled widely in Asia," Levin said.
At 7 p.m., one hour before the concert starts, there will be a video and talk about Tengir-Too.
Tengir- Too Ensemble
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 25
WHERE: KiMo Theatre, Fifth and Central NW
HOW MUCH: $20 and $25 in advance at the KiMo box office or at www.Ticketmaster.com, or call 883-7800. 03/24/06
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