The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan

Average Customer Rating: List Price: $21.98 Asia Trips Trips Price: $18.99 Your Savings: $ 2.99 ( 14% ) Subject To Change Without Notice Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: Smithsonian Folkways
Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0093074043820 Label: Smithsonian Folkways Manufacturer: Smithsonian Folkways Number Of Discs: 2 Publisher: Smithsonian Folkways Release Date: 2002-04-23 Studio: Smithsonian Folkways
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Editorial Reviews: What if Marco Polo had owned a tape recorder? And what if his epic travels along the Silk Road had taken place not at the end of the 13th century, but at the beginning of the 21st? Far-fetched conjectures to be sure, but our compilation The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan offers a glimpse of the rich musical life that an intrepid and curious traveler like Marco Polo might find in the lands of the Silk Road today.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Just what I was looking for! Comment: When I needed music from the Middle East and Asia, this was the perfect purchase. I especially appreciated the detailed descriptions in the booklet that accompanied the 2 CD set. It was so colorful, informative, and well done! There is vocabulary, maps and pictures from all over Asia. What a fabulous compilation of musical goodness! Customer Rating: Summary: Be a Marco Polo of music Comment: Its rather difficult to review this in the regular like it/don't like it way. This is the endemic music of the people along the silk road the runs across Asia. Some of it sounds very strange compared to Western music, like study for an Anthropology course, while some of it very enjoyable. Customer Rating: Summary: Northern Exposure Comment: This anthology is an outstanding survey of the northern section of the so-called Silk Road, taking us from Turkey, Azerbaijan,and Iran, through Uzbekistan, southern Siberia, China, and finally to Japan, but not in order, as the CD set is organized instead by category of musical function and the localities seem random. Although there are significant gaps in the styles, and I particularly miss the sweet lyric songs of Kyrgyz women, the powerful mugham voice of Qasimov of Azerbaijan, and more examples of the kylkobyz fiddle of Kzakhstan, the set provides a fine introduction of the musics of inner Asia and particularly the instruments. A glossary of instruments is provided, but unfortunately their images are often lacking. All the examples are short by necessity, when many traditional pieces are far longer in duration. For the uninitiated, it will take repeated listening to distinguish the uniqueness of timbre and rhythm from one land to the other; but this similarity of sounds helps demonstrate the role of the trade routes in sharing instruments and styles, such that the Japanese biwa, the Chinese pipa, and the Arabic oud all are related. If you want to attain some feel for the musics of inner Asia, then certainly these disks will meet the requirement. Customer Rating: Summary: Sparse Great Songs Comment: Some of the pieces on the first cd are "take away" great. The secound cd is ... I enjoy "world culture" music and sound however, the secound cd in this double collection was a monotonous let down. Customer Rating: Summary: The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan Comment: Thank you for this part of my research on Central Asia. More Reviews