Five Different Plucked Stringed Instruments

The Ruan (East Asia)

• From China.
• Also known as a moon guitar.
• Has a round wood topped body with four strings and 24 frets.
• Players use a plectrum.
• Dates back to the Qin Dynasty (200 B.C.).
• Used in modern Chines orchestra, tenor or bass.
• Adapts well to Western folk music.
• Tuned DADA / GDGD or GDAE / CGDA.

The Domra (Eastern Europe)

• The three string domra originated in Russian in 1896 and is tuned EAD.
• The Ukrainian version has four strings, dates to around 1920, and is tuned GDAE.
• Played with a plectrum.
• Fills a violin-like role in Russian folk ensembles where it is used to play lead melody lines.
• The top is almost a circle and has a floating bridge.
• It has a rounded, bowl-like back.

The Cümbüş (Middle East)

• Pronounced "joom-bush".
• Its name means "funny" or "revelry" because wherever it may appear it spreads fun.
• Invented in 1930 by Zeynd Abidin in Istanbul, Turkey and would later spread to Greece and Macedonia.
• Has six strings double-course strings, a round metallic top, and a skin or synthetic head.
• The neck is usually fretless and attaches to the rim by a hinge and screw which allows the neck angle to be changed.
• Is a cross between an Arabic oud and an American banjo, representing East and West.
• Never took off in Turkish classical music, but was adapted by folk musicians where its sound cuts through when played alongside instruments like trumpet or clarinet.
• Played with a type of plectrum called a "mizrap".
• Usually played in first position; melodies only (no chords).

The Tiple Doliente (Latin America)

• Tiple is pronounced "tee-play".
• From Puerto Rico.
• Its name means soprano.
• The tiple doliente has 5 single course steel strings tuned in all 4ths, EADGC.
• The scale is about 350 to 365mm.
• Players use a pick to pluck single-note melodies.
• The tiple is one of three Orquesta Jibara Antigua instruments, along with the cuatro and the bordonna.
• It dates to late 1800's, early 1900's Puerto Rico when it was popular due to its small size and for being inexpensive and easy to build however someone wanted to do it.

The Languedoc Guitar (North America)

• Electric guitar with a 25.5" scale like a Fender Stratocaster but with a hollow body and dual humbuckers like a Gibson Les Paul.
• Invented by luthier and sound engineer Paul Languedoc in Burlington, VT, circa 1987.
• The scale length gives the guitar a Fender-like bite while the hollow body lends it a woody, natural tone with lots of sustain.
• The hand carved arched top body is completely hollow.
• The types of tone woods used may include spruce, maple, koa, and padauk.
• The 24-fret neck is made of laminated curly maple and are set and glued to the body with a carved heel-joint.
• The headstock is designed to look like the shape of the state of Vermont.

***

The 2015 Richmond Folk Festival Saturday Schedule

In previous years I’ve often gone to all 3 days of the Richmond Folk Festival – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, due to the way the 2015 lineup comes together, attendance could be condensed into one day this time around. The five bands I’m most interested in seeing all perform at non-overlapping times on Saturday, October 10.

First off, there’s Grupo Rebolú (1:15-2:00 Dominion Dance Pavilion) from New York who play Afro-Colombian music. Their highly danceable rhythms are rooted in the music of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. After their set, there's the “Masters of Rhythm” workshop also on Brown's Island (2:30-3:30 WestRock Foundation Stage), featuring members of many of the different world music groups performing at this year’s festival. I love these types of workshops where they talk to musicians from different regions and traditions and have them provide examples of their respective styles and then jam together.

Grupo Rebolú

I might cut out of this rhythm meetup a little early to walk just north of Brown’s Island for The Alt’s set (3:30-4:15 VCU Health Stage). The Alt is more artistically appealing than most Irish bands at this level.  They rely on songcraft more than showmanship, offering obscure, sometime eery ballads that will stick with you long after the playing is done.  Eamon O’Leary is one of my all around favorite musicians in any style, John Doyle is a living legend and stringed instrument master, and the lovely Nuala Kennedy is both charming and impressive on flute and vocals.

The Alt

After The Alt it’ll be time to head back over to Brown’s Island for more Latin/Caribbean music, this time presented by the New York based Amargue Bachata Quintet with Andre Veloz (4:30-5:15 Dominion Dance Pavilion). Bachata is a Latino music from the Dominican Republic. Andre Veloz is the band’s frontwoman, and from what I understand it is rare for there to be a female bachata singer. The bachata music ends by 5:15 which should leave ample time to get a good spot for The Alt’s 2nd set of the day (5:45-6:30 Westrock Foundation Stage). This stage, which is under a tent and seated, will be a good place to watch The Alt work their magic.

Andre Veloz

This day’s itinerary closes with two jazz ensembles: the Feedel Band (7:00-8:00 Dominion Dance Pavilion) and the Sun Ra Arkestra (8:30-9:30 Community Foundation Stage). Feedel Band plays Ethiopian Jazz out of Washington DC. I'm not sure what this will be but I'm eager to find out.  The Sun Ra Arkestra dates back to the 1950’s and is on the short-list of the most important jazz collectives of all time. Mr. Sun Ra himself returned to Saturn in 1993, but the Arkestra continues to explore the outer realms under the direction of alto-saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Allen.

Feedel Band

Sun Ra Arkestra

Another cool thing about this plan is that it is logistically easy to pull off. It doesn’t involve as much walking through the crowds as usual because of the multiple back-to-back performances all taking place on Brown’s Island on either the Dominion Dance Pavilion or the WestRock Foundation Stage. There are plenty of food and beer vendors in that vicinity. The only time it leaves the island is for The Alt on the nearby VCU Health Stage at 3:30 and then for Sun Ra Arkestra all the way over at Community Foundation Stage for the final set of the day. That too makes sense logistically.

2015 Richmond Folk Festival map showing the sets mentioned above

I will probably wake up on Sunday morning with the notion to head back down to the festival. Sunday's highlights include DJ Grandmaster Flash, a “Global Voices” workshop and Deacon John’s Jump Blues, along with bonus sets by some of the performers I will have seen on Saturday.  But, even without Friday or Sunday, Saturday is a strong enough day to be a stand alone.

Vangelis Pytharoulis - Cretan Melodies

One of the fun ways of using a music streaming service like Spotify or Rhapsody is to search for random, far out titles. For example, last week I had a hankering to hear more exotic sounding folk music from around the globe, so I created a huge playlist populated by albums that came up via searches for words like "Balkan", "Cretan", "bouzouki", "musette", "balalaika", "Turkish", "Middle Eastern", "Oriental", "Romanian", "Arabic", "pasodoble", "ngoni", "marimba", "choro" and so on. Anything I could think of in that vein.  I put it on random play and one thing I universally liked each time it came up were tracks from this generic looking album called Cretan Melodies - Instrumentals.

It says the album is by Vangelis Pytharoulis.  I have no idea who this is and I haven't been able to find anything out about this album. I just know I like the sound of it. Crete is an island that is part of Greece, but Cretan music is different than Greek music; it has a mixture of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences and probably some African and Oriental influences as well. It's kind of like everything I was looking for in that search all rolled into one.  One of my favorite albums of 2014 was Goats by Xylouris White, which is based on Cretan folk music, but with a more avant-garde flair. The presumably traditional music on this Cretan Melodies album had a lot of similarities to Goats but of course with a more indigenous sound.

These Cretan tunes run together in long, hypnotic medleys. Having never listened to this music until recently, and never having tried to play it before today, I wasn't sure what would happen but within a few minutes of trying to play along with the first tune on the album - called Esvis aeras to keri (sp?) - I was playing along with it! The time signature and rhythm may be different, but it was definitely using the D major scale, although it wanted to resolve to B so maybe it was B-Aeolian?  (see recording above). Looking forward to delving deeper into this album of Cretan music.

My search also uncovered some interesting Bal Musette and Middle Eastern gems, so I hope to cover those in future posts.