Quote from: milos on June 22, 2025, 07:57:45 AMOh, I didn't know she comes from the Far East. Yes, when you have an empire like Russia, many lands are recently conquered, and so those regions don't have long cultural tradition. I also really don't know if the Communist Soviet regime suppressed the traditional Russian culture including the music.

I have noticed one funny detail, when you talk about traditional music, you have in mind traditional instruments in the first place, and then the music is modern from the video games. I am not into that video gaming stuff to be honest, and I don't know if that video games music is traditional or not.

Here in Serbia, and generally in the Balkans, the situation is quite the opposite, we play traditional music using modern instruments. There are some ancient instruments, like "gusle" (not the same as Russian "gusli"), an ancient instrument with just one string, then wooden pipe called "frula", and the Balkan type of bagpipes called "gajde". But they are almost extinct, nowadays the instuments mostly being used are violin, double bass, clarinet, trumpet, accordion.

I would give some examples of these ancient music instruments.

...

That guy gets a lot of music out of the single string gusle.  The frula is said to be southern Slav and the Svirel eastern Slav.  I learned of different bag pipes only a few years ago. I have seen bagpipe and drum bands in Syria.

I am not into gaming and only recently learned of such music. It is one platform for composers to reach wide audiences. Some games like Witcher 3 have better music than others. Witcher 3 music was from a Polish folk group Percival. Some  symphony orchestras cover such music. Some musicians cover video game music.

I don't believe that the communists suppressed music. Initially they promoted minorities to show how much better they were than the Russian empire. The orthodox church and Russian empire did suppress music.

Grok:

QuoteThe domra was effectively banned in Russia during the 17th century as part of a broader suppression of folk music and musicians. In 1648, Tsar Alexis of Russia issued a decree that prohibited the activities of skomorokhs (traveling minstrels who played instruments like the domra), labeling their performances as "demonic" and pagan due to their association with pre-Christian traditions and perceived moral corruption. This edict, reinforced by the Russian Orthodox Church and earlier church rulings like the Stoglav (1551), ordered the destruction of folk instruments, including the domra, and imposed harsh penalties: corporal punishment for the first two offenses and exile for a third offense of engaging with skomorokh music. ... The domra's revival in Russia started in 1896 with Andreyev's rediscovery and reconstruction efforts, gaining prominence in the early 20th century.  That year, a broken domra was found in a stable in the Vyatka province

I have seen Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk in video blogs. Blagoveshchensk is on the Amur river with a bigger Chinese city on the other side of the river. Khabarovsk is north of Vladivostok also on the Amur river. China is close. Khabarovsk used to be the last stop on the trans Siberian RR for most as Vladivostok was a closed city in USSR.

I learned that Khabarovsk was the site of post WWII war crime trials for the Japanese who were very nasty. to regional Chinese and others. It is also the site of a summer RR run by teenagers.

Here is a domra played in Blagoveshchensk on the river bank used to play an Irish piece. This young woman got me started on all this Slavic folk and video game music.

https://youtu.be/aEadQcDQT08?list=PLVmg3ofLiKGoew6Oc4wg9vULZU6c1Dxkf

As an example, here is a symphony orchestra built around the Polish folk group who did the music for Witcher3. I jumped into the middle.  Jump to 45:40

https://youtu.be/bLUyKn7I6b8?t=2741

El Cóndor Pasa by Fejat Sejdić. Being musically illiterate, but relaying on musical ear and experience, he had managed to form the best Serbian Gypsy brass orchestra ever. This should be recording from 1981 or so.

Quote from: milos on July 02, 2025, 07:25:33 AMEl Cóndor Pasa by Fejat Sejdić. Being musically illiterate, but relaying on musical ear and experience, he had managed to form the best Serbian Gypsy brass orchestra ever. This should be recording from 1981 or so.

Very nice. The art work reminds me of A&M records, maybe Tijuana Brass.
I recall some data. What is the most common language being studied on Duolingo in Europe.
The most common language was English. BUT in former Yugoslavia German was the most common.
I see that brass is common in Germany and here in Serbia.  It is not common in the Eastern Slavic music I have been watching.

Quote from: patentlymn on July 02, 2025, 02:32:16 PMVery nice. The art work reminds me of A&M records, maybe Tijuana Brass.
I recall some data. What is the most common language being studied on Duolingo in Europe.
The most common language was English. BUT in former Yugoslavia German was the most common.
I see that brass is common in Germany and here in Serbia.  It is not common in the Eastern Slavic music I have been watching.

I believe that brass was popularized by military brass bands somewhere in the 19th century. At least in Serbia, brass is related to military music.

I couldn't resist. Serbian patriotic song on the occasion of the liberation of Kosovo from the Turks in 1912.


Serbian trumpet is heard from Kosovo (circa 1912)

Serbian trumpet is heard from Kosovo
to make every Serb joyful!
Play your trumpets brothers, louder, better,
Kosovo Field is Serbian once again!

Serbian heroes, the Sun rises upon you,
you took revenge on your enemy!
You have avenged Tsar Lazar,
all the Jugovićs, old Bogdan!

Ivan, Milan, Miloš the lion,
Serbdom shouts praise and glory to them!
Banović Strahinja, King Marko,
we were all born by a Serbian mother!

And now still in disbelief that America has sided with the Ottoman Turks, Fascists, Nazis, Communists, Albanians, all of the Serbian enemies who were taking Kosovo from us, like WTAF.

Military orchestras like this, I don't know if you call them brass bands or marching bands, I believe they were popularized somewhere in the 19th century, and they have inspired the civilians to also form brass bands.

This is The Representative Orchestra of the Guard of the Army of Serbia, performing at International Festival of Military Music, Liege, Belgium, September 16th 2018, for the celebration of one century from the WWI.

Quote from: milos on Today at 08:24:48 AMMilitary orchestras like this, I don't know if you call them brass bands or marching bands, I believe they were popularized somewhere in the 19th century, and they have inspired the civilians to also form brass bands.

This is The Representative Orchestra of the Guard of the Army of Serbia, performing at International Festival of Military Music, Liege, Belgium, September 16th 2018, for the celebration of one century from the WWI.

Nice. In is book Ethnic America, Thomas Sowell said that the German contribution to America was that it was OK to drink and have fun. Compare to the rather dour puritans. WI and MN have large German population. At my wedding long ago we had a small 3 piece polka band. I recall one was a tuba.

At football games males would pair up with cheerleaders and do the polka. No cheerleaders in this video.

https://youtu.be/Ljw28HBNlL4?t=148

https://youtu.be/AfMAOI-yaxY?t=78