Welcome to HoiChoi Likes! HoiChoi is an amateur music group from India. We, at HoiChoi, create original music while exploring different genres, styles and languages. We listen to a wide spectrum of music from all over the world. In this blog we share the music that we like.
Please feel free to suggest new music in the comments-box below. It could be music of your favourite artist or your own music. We are open to all varieties of music.
Last year, I had a chance to listen to 'Chaar Yaar (the FAQIRI QUARTET)' lead by Madan Gopal Singh in Ruhaaniyat. There, he sung an amazing song connecting Rumi, Kabir and John Lennon. The composition was based on Lennon's famous 'Imagine' and it was called "Socho Zara" (literally 'think a little'). The music was fantastic - Deepak Castelino was on guitar, Pritam Ghosal played the sarod and Amzad Khan was on the tabla - a good fusion. But, beyond the music, the song connected intellectually. I couldn't find that version in Youtube; but a shorter version connecting Rumi with Lennon.
There, another remarkable experience was to listen to "Two Siberians" - an instrumental duo from Russia. One guy (Artyom Yakushenko) played electric violin and Yuriy Matveyev played electric guitar. It is hard for me to classify their music beyond world-fusion/jazz-fusion. So I leave it at that.
Then there was a performance by a Manganiar group led by Kachra Khan. And what a performance that was! Manganiyars are hereditary musicians and they are a kind of custodians of folk history. Though they are " ... Muslim musicians, many of their songs are in praise of Hindu deities and celebrate Hindu festivals such as Diwali and Holi. The Manganiar performs (sic) traditionally invoke the Hindu god Krishna and seek his blessings before beginning their recital. At one time, the Manganiars were musicians of the Rajput courts, accompanying their chiefs to war and providing them with entertainment before and after the battles and in the event of his death, would perform at the ruler's vigil day and night until the mourning was over." (http://manganiar.com/music.html) Wikipedia says that they "... sing songs about Alexander the Great, about the local Maharajas and past battles in the region."
In 1961 Salil Chowdhury adapted the first movement of Mozart's Great G minor symphony (No. 40) in a beautiful song in Hindi for Indian audience. It appeared in the movie 'Chhaya' (meaning shadow), sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Talat Mahmood. It was a great adaptation, not a copy. The second melody is different and the whole arrangement sounds very Indian.
Symphony no. 40, of course, needs no introduction but it is one of the two symphonies Mozart wrote in minor keys (the other being the "Little G minor symphony", see the note below.) Here is Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields at a brisk tempo (incidentally this is the version I first heard. It was in an old EMI cassette containing various pieces of Mozart's music. I forgot the name though.)
This symphony was adapted time and again globally in different languages. This is "Ya Ana Ya Ana" (Oh Me, Oh Me) by the Rahbani Brothers, sung by the legendary Lebanese diva Fairouz:
This is one of my favourite folk melodies from Middle East. Sung by the legendary Fairouz, arranged by the Rahbani Brothers. To quote R. Malley,
“Bint El Shalabiya” is best known from the version sung by the Lebanese icon
Fairouz (1935 – present). The song is also known as a folk melody from the Greater Syrian
region before the area had split into autonomous countries. Composer Assi Rahbani, also
Fairouz’s husband, arranged the song in the late 1950s adding a bridge section to it.
I've heard some people saying that the name means "the Girl from Seville" while others say that it means "Pretty Girl". Whatever it is, it is a beautiful melody.
Transliteration:
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Bint e‘shalabiya 'ayunha lawzia
Hobek men 'albi ya 'albi wanti 'aynaya
Hod al anater mahbubi nater
Kasral khawater ya welfi ma han 'alaya
Bit tel wa tlooh wal alb majrooh
Ayam 'albal bit 'an watrooh
Taht el rumani hobi hakani
wa sam'ani ghenani ya 'ayooni watghazel fia
Translation:
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The pretty girl with almond eyes
I love you from my heart, oh, my heart, you’re my eyes
Near the bridge my love awaits
To break your thoughts, my child, was not my intention
You appear and gesture, but the heart is wounded
Days are on my mind, and the memories come and go
Under the pomegranate tree, my love spoke to me
He sang to me songs, oh my eyes, as he wooed me
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In my childhood I knew this as "the Barefoot Girl" played by the great Ron Goodwin in "The Music for an Arabian Night". Now, many people do not know about this, but just 20-30 years ago it was a very popular music album in India. You could hear it on radio, paan shops. I've seen a magician using it to create an Arabian ambience.
