Northern Light, Southern Skies

Sivugun (or Nunana)/Kiighwyak (lead singer)

The Top 100 2021 is compiled from pretty much the same genres and songs as the previous two editions from 2019 and 2020. A few (female) singer-songwriters, some (post) punk classics, (free) jazz, and a vast majority of ethnographic recordings. The latter come two distinct parts of the world: The Arctic and equatorial regions. The spirit world of the south and throat singing from the harsh climates up north. Not only are half the songs in this year's list a repeat from last year, almost a third of the songs are listed for the third year in a row. This includes Ay-ay-amamay, a nonsensical work song in the pic'eine'rkin genre, specific to the Chukchi people of northern Siberia. The song of (I assume) ancient origins is performed by two generations of women from the pic'eine'rkin ensemble Kiighwyak, shown back to back in a video published by the Swiss research institute OPOS (Open Planet of Sound.)

Miss Velongo Kupu Fakaua/Richard Moyle

The second painting completed in the last few days is one that illustrates a recording of a Tongan nose flute trio belonging to the southern-spirit-music category I just mentioned. The Tongans, and other Polynesians, believe that the breath of the spirit is manifest through the nose, rather than mouth. The nose flute, called fangufangu in Tonga, is considered a sacred instrument. The recording comes from a compilation record called The Music of Primitive Man, compiled by Joseph Prostakoff for the Horizon record label in 1973. The record has been with me for more than ten years and functioned as a primer for consequent inquiries. The record is very well curated but lacks any data. Only a short description of each of the 50(!) songs on the record. All of the songs, furthermore, are only short outtakes from longer recordings from different sources. This year I revisited this record and have tried to locate the original sources of the recordings. I have been only partly successful in this quest. The Tonga trio is one of my favorite tunes from the record but the source of the recording remains elusive. Therefore I was at liberty to illustrate the song with whatever images I fancied. Looking at images of Tongan nose flute players I found mostly heave set men playing solo or in small groups. When I added "vintage" to my query I found just as many female nose flute players as men. Illustrations from before the era of photography showed the nose flute the property of women. I settled for for a black and white image of Miss Velongo Kupu Fakaua, a cousin of Queen Salote of Tonga. For the ethnomusicologist I chose Richard Moyle, a scholar from neighboring New Zealand. Mr. Moyle is an authority on Pacific lore and music who spend decades traveling the Islands.

Paga, Wopkai songwriter/Christopher Roberts

For the third painting the geography shifts back to Papua New Guinea, a country very well represented in this year's list. At the very center of the large Island, in the highlands bordering West Papua (belonging to Indonesia) live the Wopkai people or Wopkaimin. The classical musician Christopher Roberts traveled to New Guinea to study and record the Wopkaimin in the early 1980s. He encountered a vibrant but quickly disappearing culture of song. Through extensive recording he preserved the dying tradition of singing rather than talking for future generations to come. Interestingly Roberts found a natural ability to compose songs in all Wopkai people. I have not yet purchased Robert's book (including a cd) Music of Star Mountains from which A Woman's Song in the Top 100 list is taken and my only evidence of it is a small soundbite embedded in the podcast Missionaries almost erased a tribe's history, but for a Pasedena man's tape recorder by Chris Greenspon for OffRamp. The seven-minute interview has taken the place of the Woman's Songs and the whole interview is now in the Top 100.