Projects

Ethnomusicologists' Cookbook

Damai Music feature for Spiny Babbler's online museum

Subi Shah's album: Lok Bhakama Ekal Prayas

The Ethnomusicologists' Cookbook
Edited by Sean Williams
Routledge 2006

My contribution includes a feast of Nepali recipes, along with a short soundscape essay, mostly about Bhaktapur and other places in the Kathmandu Valley. Maria Hnaraki's Greek recipes are delicious, and I can't wait to try the others.

back to top

Damai Music

This website contains summary information about the music traditionally performed by members of the Damai caste in Nepal, along with audio examples and profiles of individual musicians. It is part of Spiny Babbler's larger project to make information about Nepalese arts accessible worldwide.

back to top

Subi Shah presents melodies from before the 1950 onset of mass media in Nepal.

Lok Bhakama Ekal Prayas
Nepali Folk Music: One Man's Endeavors

Performed by Subi Shah
Produced by Anna Stirr

Left: Subi Shah poses with his instruments and the two tape recorders he used to record his album.

Listen to track 9: Baisalu Naani

When I first met Subi Shah, he was delighted to have an audience with whom to share his wealth of knowledge about the folk music of the Gandaki area hills, and his colorful opinions regarding the state of music in Nepal today, as the mass media has, in his opinion, co-opted folk music forever. He took out a cassette tape, placed it in one of the recorders in the picture above, and with the lively beat of the madal, kaijadi and jhyali backing a murchunga-enhanced flute melody, this project was born.

A dancer in his youth, Shah is now 77 and enjoying retirement after a long military career. In the last fourteen years since he retired, he has dedicated himself to documenting the music that he has learned throughout his life, with special attention to songs created before the advent of mass media in 1950, and the instrumental techniques specific to his region, the Gandaki zone. He compiled a manual on flute technique, invented a dance notation, and wrote everything down in volumes that now lie stacked knee-high on his bedroom floor, awaiting the distant possibility of publication. He attempted to make instrumental recordings of several songs in studios, but could not afford the studio rates and found that no record companies were interested in his project. Undaunted, he sat down in his own room with two cassette recorders and five instruments, and recorded his album himself. Six years later, he played it for me. I suggested he re-record the album in a studio, but his age had now left him unable to play some of the instruments. He wanted to release this album, and I am happy to have been able to help him realize his wish. My contributions include the cover design and printing, editing and English translation of the liner notes (along with Manjul and Susmita Nepal), and all the audio editing that was possible. All views expressed in the liner notes are Shah's own. Mangal Maharjan of East Meets West Music has graciously contributed the production of 200 CD's.