The Watutsi

Watutsi Woman (Songs of the Watutsi cover)
14 x 11 inches, oil on canvas, 2019

The Watutsi (or Tutsi) belong to an ethnic group (shared by the Hutus) who live predominantly in Rwanda and neighboring Burundi. The Tutsi, among the tallest people on earth (average height 5'9") don't live too far from the forests where pygmies live (rather Central African Foragers, a rather sort people at an average of less than 4'11".) The text accompanying the previous painting of a Watutsi woman (unfortunately labeled as Watusi Girl) dealt with (the unfortunate history of) exoticism. Then, the woman, represented a young woman's voice from Burundi. The voice belonged to a Rundi not Tutsi singer. That painting, done from a postcard, became again a postcard as it was selected by me to represent the Top 100 2015. Now, for this year's Top 100, the Tutsi woman I painted actually represents a Tutsi singer. The image moreover, is taken from the cover of the record the song appears on. That song, Uwejeje Imana, is sung by women and girls from the royal court at Shyogwe. Before writing these pages I usually do a bit of (superficial) research as not to blunder on remembered information. The image used by Wikipedia on their Tutsi page features an image that also is found on Songs of the Watutsi (Ethnic Folkways, 1963) and was probably taken by Leo Verwilghen, who recorded the tracks on the album and, I assume, also wrote the texts. I also assume he's from Belgium, as Rwanda was a Belgian colony until 1962.

Te Bow

!Kung San Woman playing a gut pluriarc
14 x 9 inches, oil on canvas, 2019

The te bow is a traditional instrument made a wooden post and played with a gut bow. A recording of it made by Megan Biesele in Botswana in 1972 appears on Instrumental Music of the Kalahari San (Ethnic Folkways, 1982) and is featured in this year's 100. The traditional instruments of the !Kung San people, all heard on the record, are, beside the te bow, the hunting bow, the plurirac (depicted above) and the sitengena (a thumb piano.) Many recordings of the San People have been presented here under different labels: San, Khoisan, and !Kung, all posts comment on the links between them and the earliest people/music.

Narantsogt

Narantsogt
11 x 14 inches, oil on canvas, 2019

Narantsogt is the father of Gombojav who I painted earlier (see Father and Son.) Narantsogt was recorded twice before (in 1982 and 1989) but when Theodore Levin did research in Mongolia for his book Where Rivers and Mountains Sing Narantsogt was too old and frail to be able to play. Several videos exist on YouTube that feature Narantsogt. The one for the Top 100 is labeled Mongolian traditional instrument Tsuur. In the video you see Narantsogt ritually prepare for a tsuur performance. The tsuur is a simple three hole flute but difficult to play as it combines the techniques for throat singing (höömeii) and whistling. Narantsogt is quoted by Levin in the aforementioned book: "If I play for a long time, nature tells me what to do. I play for the mountains and the rivers, and the spirit masters take pleasure from this." The tsuur is typically performed alone without any audience (save for the spirit masters,) let alone recording equipment.