Kottke.org poses a fun question: How many languages in your music collection? Here's my inventory, not exhaustive, though many of the examples (e.g., Bulgarian) are the only examples I have:
Arabic: Sister Marie Keyrouz (Byzantine chant)
Bulgarian: Bulgarian Women's Choir
French: Clifton Chenier, Edith Piaf, Poulenc songs, Henri Salavador
English: I'll just keep going . . . .
German: Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera)
Greek: Sister Marie Keyrouz (Byzantine chant), field recordings of folk music
Italian: Beniamino Gigli, great Italian tenor
Japanese: "One Home Run," a song on Van Dyke Parks' Tokyo Rose, sung partly in Japanese
Portuguese: João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim
Spanish: Buena Vista Social Club, Eddie Palmieri
Tibetan: recordings from Buddhist monasteries
Yoruba: Sunny Adé
I have a handful of recordings about which I'm not sure: a gamelan recording from Bali, singers and kora players from Mali, "Ja Pehechaan Ho" (the opening music from Ghost World), and an Indian version of the Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda."
How many languages are in your music collection? Leave a reply by clicking on comments.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
How many languages?
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comments: 2
Our collection is very eclectic, with lots of pop (for which I am only partly responsible).
English: Mostly pop vocalists too numerous to list.
French: Mireille Mathieu, Celine Dion, Mylene Farmer
Georgian, Georgian State Academic Ensemble, plus several CDs of so-called "city songs"
German: Mozart, "Die Zauberflöte"
Italian: Andrea Bocelli, Mozart (again): "Le nozze di Figaro"
Norwegian: Sissel Kyrkjebø (most of our Norwegian stuff is instrumental)
Portuguese: Carmen Miranda
Russian: Irina Allegrova
Spanish: Gipsy Kings
Swedish: Sven-Bertil Taube, Lisa Ekdahl
Yiddish: Klezmer Conservatory Band
"Jaan Pehechaan Ho" from the Ghost World soundtrack is in Hindi. It is originally from Hindi film Gumnaam.
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