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Field’s log. Planet: Sulliven, Solar year: G 65 18 90.
The “delma” songs are strophic chants traditionally created and performed by Arlàc mothers for their own children. The tune of a “delma” takes shape in the immediate hours following the childbirth and, since then, it will not undergo any alteration in its musical structure.
From the moment of their genesis, these songs are performed as pure and simple melodies aiming at maximum catchiness. Without words nor complex sentences, in the weeks following the childbirth the melodic line of a “delma” is reiterated by the Arlàc mother so that her child can quickly recognize its sound and tune as a second name.
The function of these songs is twofold and it varies according to the growth of the children and their achievement of social maturity. From birth to the end of childhood, the “delma” songs take on a crucial educational and pedagogical function, as it is clear from the analysis of the lyrics, which from the third month onwards enrich the purely-musical initial melody. The wide content spectrum of these moral “kinderreim” is offset by the strict melodic immutability: a solid foothold aimed at an easier understanding of the surrounding world by younger Arlàc generations. Starting from the teaching of the first words and basic syntactic rules, through a “delma” an Arlàc mother can follow and support the educational path of her child.
The second function of “delma” songs comes in once the Arlàc children show that they have reached their social maturity. In fact, mothers still continue to sing “delmas” to their daughters and sons during their adulthood, but the “kinderreim” educational and moral function gives way to the possibility of these musical performances to act as a musical coffer of family memories and remembrances. So doing, Arlàc women take on the fundamental tasks of cultural educators and keepers of personal and collective memory, thus ensuring continuity in their society.
The following musical example is taken from the moments following the genesis of a “delma” song, that is the mother’s vocal reiteration of the fixed melody on which moral “kinderreim” will be grafted first and then family memories.
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Field’s log. Planet: Ixilon, Solar year: 23 7. 41
The large Rbhuza metropolis exceeds 600 million individuals with a population density of 125,000 inhabitants per km². This density develops mostly vertically, within the walls of the colossal architectural canyons which characterize the urban landscape of the capital of the F-H11 system.
The intensive industrial and urban development of Rbhuza led to the colonial occupation of the Mel'ehkal territories, an indigenous population which inhabited the Vlu'uhkal fell for more than 3 000 years. Razed to the ground and definitively assimilated to the urban landscape of the metropolis, Vlu’uhkal, now Urusi, is the ward of Rbuhza where the Mel’ehkal continue to live as a minority and where they orally transmit their culture.
The processes of cultural resistance undertaken by Mel'ehkal peoples against the forced assimilation supported by Rbuhzian politics continue today in the streets of Urusi. An example of this resistance comes from the Kah'là, a ritual musical performance through which the Kals, Mel'ehkal monks, call the faithful to prayer. The Kah'là ritual determines, not only the oral transmission of the Mel'ehkal spiritual knowledge, but also the reconquest of the indigenous physical space of the Vlu'uhkal fell, as well as of the soundscape which for a few minutes drown out the noise pollution of Rbuhza and it brings the listener to another dimension.
In the following recording it is possible to listen to a brief Kah'là collected in front of the ancient Mel'ehlel temple, the only original Mel'ehkal temple left standing during the inexhaustible urban expansion of Rbhuza. The call to prayer occurs twice a day, every three days. During the performance the Kal monks are divided into two groups, one instrumental and one vocal-choral. The Kah'là ritual begins with the stroke of the great Reng made of bronze, from which the rhythmic pattern of tatàs bells and the shrilling signal of the feràfs respectively bloom. Double-reeded with conical bore aerophones, the feràfs introduce the vigorous Kal choir. The monks reiterated more or less homophonically and homorithmically a religious hymn, supported by the uf drums and by the powerful sound of the loi horns. Sometimes even a couple of Feràf joins the homophonic complex of the Kal choir so creating a counterpoint.
The performative structure described above, which alternates a purely instrumental stage with a choral one, can be repeated up to ten times according to the day of the week or the recurrence. It is enough to get out the temple for a few moments to realize how the wild urbanization of Rbhuza has altered the soundscape of the Mel'ehkal.
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Medicine and ritual healing among the Eieyi.
Field’s log. Planet: Serfe six. Lunar date: Jurede 13 47.5.
The Mumuo healers are actors of high social value within the Eieyi communities. Their role in society is limited to the task they must perform and, formally, they have no political-decision-making power.
However, because of their exceptional therapeutic knowledge and abilities, the whole community has such a high regard for them that it occasionally turns into awe. For this reason, it often happens that the Mumuos are consulted before events that could be harmful to the persistence of the group.
Not all healing sessions are performed in a ritual way.
Typically, this occurs when the heads of families fear an impending evil that could potentially spread to the entire community. A mostly usual event given the strong superstitious tendency of the Eieyi people.
In this sense, Mumuo’s ritual sessions can also take place when images of misfortune and illness, negative omens, appear as dreams to an individual within the community.
In the following musical example, three Mumuo healers, two women and a man, alternately perform a percutaneous intervention on an Eieyi hunter who got injured during a hunt along the Pari'lui river.
Once the correct observance for a strict set of taboos has been ascertained, one after the other the three Mumuos chew a leaf of Tespekia to produce a paste with a pungentful smell. Within seconds of each other, the ritual agents with the Tespekia paste inside the mouth begin to blow healing aromas into ritual medicinal instruments called Boi. Each Mumuo builds her/his own instrument and for this reason each Boi has a different tone.
On this particular occasion it is interesting to note the rhythmic plot created by the ceremonial blowing of the first two Mumuos and the latest entrance of the third one.
All around, the community watches in silence.
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Field’s log. Mexes Lufàr, Solar year: XIII Ertàfi 45 PR (Post-Revolution)
The social life of the Muul people is dotted with musical events and performances of all kinds.
In his famous monograph “The melodrama of life in Muul society”, the kesperiot xenomusicologist Hulòr Zekrài, one of the pioneers of the discipline, states that among Muul people the musical language is by far the most widely used and that its effectiveness exceeds that of speech.
The Muul daily life is marked by individual, family and collective musical moments: to wake up, to work, to have dinner… Each action traditionally and ritually reckon on a peculiar musical form. For this reason, Zekrài compared the social life of the Muul to the European melodrama.
In the boundless musical repertoire of the Muul populations, the performances of courtship and couple infatuation will be hereon analyzed. These are instrumental dances unique both from the point of view of the physical and emotional energy released, and as regards the mutuality of this music with the popular oral narrative. The infatuation of a Muul couple traditionally takes place through the union of male choreutical performances and female musical improvisations: the Paræsin dance.
The name of this dance derives from the Muul legend according to which centuries in the past there would have been an insect, the paræsin, whose sting was able to immediately infatuate the affected subjects (according to some sources, apparently this happened regardless of their gender).
As often happens within oral traditions, the myth has been translated and consolidated through the ritual. The Paræsin dance is organized in relation to the transition of a Muul girl into adulthood and the consequent search for a partner. This search traditionally takes place in a public ceremonial form, a real courtship competition in which the young male individuals of the community participate. A little stage is set up in front of the dwelling of the Muul maiden who, supported by a complex of mixed percussionists, performs a long and virtuoso solo improvised on the paræs: a double-reed aerophone whose name and timbre allegorically refer to paræsin. The girl’s improvisation metaphorically symbolizes the insect sting that collectively affects all the young males in the audience, who are induced into an exhausting dance from which only one winner will emerge, the one able to better move on the propulsive solo of the young Muul.
During the performance, of particular importance is the moment when the girl uses the paræs in an “onomatopoeic” way: the pulse of the percussions is suddenly halved or even decreases by two thirds, while the young Muul keeps blowing a protracted note making the pitch fluctuate microtonally, in order to imitate the buzzing of the insect.
In this complex acoustic moment, which can occur several times, the musician generally becomes more aware of her love choice.
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Field’s log. Tori, Ixilon’s Moon, Ixilot date: 23 15. 4
In the Xùnui plain, the intense downpours that mark the end of the dry season are a prelude to the great ritual geronte hunting, the collective event richest in cosmological and social significance among the Xisxi populations: the great geronte ritual hunt.
It is twenty days of intense and feverish ceremonial activity revolving around the symbolic figure of the geronte, a mythological mammal associated with the Xisxi cosmogony. Hunting this animal ensures the main source of livelihood for the Xisxi communities facing the incoming long cold season.
In the ceremonial structure, the first ten days correspond to a period of uninterrupted feasts, propitiatory rites and divination sessions characterized by several strict taboos. In the remaining ten days, the great collective hunting is carried out along the Xùnui grassy plains, which have been invigorated by the rainfalls and crowded by the herds of gerontes looking for pastures.
Both women, men and androgynous cogenitors take part in the hunting session, while the children remain in the village with older members of the community. Through an interactive dramatic performance, they teach the new generations their experiences and the main hunting techniques in order to keep the ceremony alive.
The following musical example is an improvisation on a structured rhythmic pattern typical of the celebrations that take place the night before the big hunt. Traditionally, a dozen mixed Xisxi adults challenge each other on the bumb’tce, a large-sized cordophone whose strings can be stretched up to two meters in height.
The musical challenge consists in the performances of extremely technical solos. The most convincing performance elects the Xisxi who will lead the hunting session the following day, a charge that considerably raises social and family rank and prestige. The flying pizzicato on the bumb’tce’s fretboard is improvised on rhythmic formulas performed by the supporting percussion of Tore drums. These formulas are played by groups of young people who through this performance discover and embody the main morphological traits of the Xisxi musical tradition: the same one of which they will soon be protagonists.
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Field’s log. Sòpor IV, Solar year: 2 SD 457.
Jukki shepherds share a vast oral repertoire of chants and poems which traditionally guide them during the long transhumances of their quavra herds. The xenoetology of these animals, in fact, expects seasonal migrations in search of lefreas grazings, particular cryocerotes essential for the quavra diet. The herds are usually made up of more than fifty quavras and they travel over 1600 kilometers per seasonal cycle.
The erratic and wandering character of the quavras is the fulcrum around which the social life of the Jukki communities revolves. These are organized into nomadic bands which cyclically part and rebuild themselves in a balance determined by the alternation of warm and cold seasons.
Through the next musical example it is possible to listen to a Jukki shepherd’s chant sung during the crossing of the Vissi basin, beyond which the lefreas grow in abundance as they prefer marshy environments. These are usually lengthy vocal performances thanks to which the shepherds keep their herd together and even manage to orient themselves in the boundless landscapes they pass through. The lyrics of these chants, inherited from generation to generation, evoke places, colors, sounds and perfumes. To perform these chants means to vocally make explicit authentic cognitive maps that make the landscape of a region large more than 600,000 km2 intelligible.
Peculiar of this vocal tradition is also the use of extra-lexical sounds which alter the metric symmetry of the verse. The introduction of these sounds follows the step of the shepherds who, far from walking constantly, often stop, turns, slow down, accelerate to make sure they are keeping their herd together.
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Field’s log. Planet: Paulus IV, Solar year: M 22 48.
In the region of Fese (Northern Liloria), a ceremonial tradition of rare complexity of contents and forms has been inherited for centuries. This is the dressing of the bride, a real rite of passage for the young Lilorian women which requires the active participation of the entire community.
On the morning of the day before the wedding, the bride wears the ghesse, the wedding dress around which the whole ceremony revolves, symbolically and literally. The young woman is then accompanied by relatives to the garden of her dwelling, where she has to sit on a small altar set up for the occasion. The whole community, starting from the groom's family, gets to the altar and arranges around it to form concentric circles. These circles split the participants into groups with distinct roles.
The innermost circle, called “terte” and with a diameter of about 5 meters, is composed of the two newlyweds families gathered, including the groom. Around the terte, the other members of the community are arranged in two larger circles called “cassi” and respectively of about 15 and 17 meters in diameter. Outside the “cassi” circles, an ensamble of professional musicians, usually hired from neighboring communities, begins to perform a lively dance motif ritually associated with the dressing action.
Listening to the musical performance, the drone created by the “refias” stands out immediately. Thanks to their large bag and to the phenomenal breathing techniques of their players, these aerophones sustain a low but bright sound for the entire duration of the dressing. The rhythm of the dance is defined by the strumming of the “tiléras” section, particular chordophones of Tughfi origins. As for the melodic-metric discourse, it is taken alternately by three “welia” (or “wigermonium”) players.
As in a sequence of gears, the rhythmic-melodic impulse of the instrumental dance determines the rotational movement of the two cassi, which move in opposite directions. At the same time, the terte circle begins to embroider a series of motifs on the long veil of the Lilorian bride’s ghesse. These patterns, shapes and colors can vary from family to family, from community to community. Not only the embroidery takes place at an impressive speed, but also does not lack a precise coordination with the cassi dance steps, directed by the melodic-rhythmic flow of the musical performance. An interactive collective performance that aims at impeccability and for which the whole community is engaged.
Here is a brief excerpt from the dance conclusive coda.
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Field’s log. Planet: Kafesos (Uro-Demos system), Fifth winter of the Feyete Year on day 34.
The Peretón people live the vast frozen plains of the mainland island of Férre. Their communities are socially and politically organized into three clans structured on distinct totemic relationships. The three totems on which the Peretón clans built their ancestry are based on the antithetical and complementary categories of Tuhulka (upper-world), Elllà (ground-world) and Poshka (underwater-world). For this reason, each individual relies on a vast repertoire of creatures and helper spirits associated with the elements of the totem they belong.
The social and spiritual system of the Peretón is expressed in all its complexity within the funeral ritual. This moment coincides with the disjunction of the soul of the deceased from the material body and its reunion with the original totemic body, to which it belongs. This solemn event calls for the participation of the whole community, therefore the members of all three clans.
The ceremony takes on a performative-theatrical formal structure. All the participants, arranged circularly around the deceased body in a large homophonic and homorhythmic choir, begin to turn slowly around the central fulcrum reiterating the words «Sheremon Tibate» (“We’ll take you home”).
In distinct moments, the obsessive repetition of this “motto” triggers a trance-state on three members of the choir, each belonging to a different clan. These three individuals interpret the event as if they are possessed by their totemic ancestor, who exploiting their earthly presence turn to the soul of the deceased trying to attract it to its “home”, its totem. It is a real struggle for propaganda between clan members, each persuading the soul of the deceased to change direction within the Peretón vertical cosmology.
Each message, alternately declaimed by the three actors, breaks the ritual reiteration of the homophonic choir, as well as the circular movement around the central body. To consolidate their strong will in trying to change the soul’s path, at the end of their vocal expression each actor powerfully hits an object related to his clan. According to the Peretòn’s cosmology, this blow symbolically aims to push the soul of the deceased towards the desired totemic sphere. In the following musical example, a hammer blow on a rock, the sound of a Macsimé bell and an air displacement generated by a large Félir cloak succeed one another.
Generally, the souls of the deceased follow the path inherent in them from birth, reaching the totemic spheres which have protected them throughout their life. However, there is no lack of twists, changes of direction justified by the sum of the deceased’s relationships until the moment of their death. In conclusion, the final result of this ceremony determines also the treatment of the corpse: inhumation, immersion and cremation respectively at the prevailing of the clan of Elllà, Poshka and Tuhulka.
Here is the recording of a Peretón funeral ceremony for the death of a member of the Elllà clan.
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>[you can read the english translation of each "Log entry" by clicking on the "Lyrics" button beside the tracks]
>[this is a binaural recording. Please, put your headphones on for a deepening listening performance]
MANIFESTO
Xenomusicology: [zen.ə.mjuː.zɪˈkɒl.ə.dʒ] noun.
«In science fiction, Xenomusicology is the scientific study of extraterrestrial written and oral musical cultures».
This album is an attempt to create new soundscapes, a new fictional milieu within which sci-fi studies, Freitas' concept for xenology and ethnomusicology are the main inspirations.
If through cinema science fiction has succeeded in providing the audience with a complex and heterogeneous visual and narrative imaginary and its unlimited developments, in music this happened only in a few rare and non-programmatic cases. The science fiction musical imaginary has found fertile ground in the vast world of soundtracks. However, the directorial and cinematic needs limited the growth of a sci-fi soundscape to the will of image and audio-video editing.
“Interstellar Ethnographies - A study on Xenomusicology” intends to develop new experimental musical forms through the creation of alternative sound universes mainly generated in the artist's mind or drawn from the great existing sci-fi mythologies. The starting point is necessarily that of one's own cultural background, earthly in all its respects, and which therefore requires (in this embryonic phase) a series of musical conventions that generate contradictions with respect to the main experimental purpose of the project. This is clear in Vol. I, where a fictional Xenomusicologist introduces eight different extra-terrestrial musical traditions. As a matter of facts, the sounds of the musical examples evidently refer here to truly existing musical traditions and the sounds fall within an acoustic spectrum audible to the terrestrial ear, when instead the extra-terrestrial listening possibilities are not necessarily constrained by the same physical limits.
"Interstellar Ethnographies Vol.I" is built as an alternation of "Log Entries", introductory spoken words passages, and the related "Musical Examples". The "Log Entries" draw form and contents from the theoretical developments of disciplines such as Ethnomusicology, Cultural and Social Anthropology, drawing attention to definitely contemporary issues, such as the indigenous question, the gender question and the environmental issues. The "Musical Examples" follow the "Log Entries" seamlessly and are short recordings that translate in musical and acoustic terms what was described through spoken words in the previous track.
In conclusion, this recording sets sail in search of new sounds. We begin with what we have closest and, through the following volumes, we will gradually move away from common soundscape in order to expand the possibilities of listening and artistic-cultural reflection.
Quoting Star Trek:
«[...] to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!»
But this journey takes place within music, through pure sound. And hearing will be the only analysis tool needed.
Turku, 29.01.2020 - Nicola Renzi
released February 19, 2020
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I would like to express particular gratitude to Amato Laura Chiara, Cera Maria Carla, Kafousis Dimos and Renzi Massimo for lending me their voice, respectively:
Laura Chiara Amato in "Medicina e guarigione rituale tra gli Eieyi" and "Cerimonia funebre e performance totemica tra i Peretòn di Férre"
Maria Carla Cera in "Canto di una madre Arlàc per la propria figlia"
Dimos Kafousis in "Cerimonia funebre e performance totemica tra i Peretòn di Férre"
Massimo Renzi in "Cerimonia funebre e performance totemica tra i Peretòn di Férre".
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Composed and directed by Nicola Renzi
Performed by Nicola Renzi, Maria Carla Cera, Laura Chiara Amato, Massimo Renzi and Dimos Kafousis
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Nicola Renzi
Album cover and design by Nicola Renzi
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Field recordings sites:
-Inari, Finland
-Levi, Finland
-Pakasaivo Lake, Finland
-Karasjok, Norway
-Smørfjord, Norway
-Bologna, Italy
-Imola, Italy
-Uras, Italy
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As often happens in science fiction, any reference to people or things is purely coincidental.
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«Here's to the ones who dream...»
