Songs of Earth - Musical Examples

Cohesiveness in Sub Saharan African Folk Song
These songs have interlocking vocals, polyphony, and significant to maximal tonal blend and rhythmic coordination, all measures of cohesiveness in Cantometrics.

  1. Ademech I hembo/Chek I dafabara. A harvest song in unison hocket.
    Culture: Ouldeme
    Location: Dibon Village, Mandara Mountains, Cameroon
    Cameroon: Flutes of the Mandara Mountains. Ocora C560110, from U. of Pitt., CD4872, 1997, Track 4
  2. Kpereba. Two men and two women singing with accompaniment by mvet zither-harps.
    Culture: Bedzan
    Location: Kouen Village, Tikar Plain, Cameroon
    Bedzan Pygmies from the Tikar Plain. Inedit 260095, 2000, Track 5
  3. Alima Song. Women’s puberty song.
    Culture: Mbuti
    Location: Ituri Forest, Province Orientale, Democratic Republic of the Congo
    Music of the Ituri Forest. Folkways Records FE4483, 1957, Side 2, Track 3
  4. Gio Songs. Work song, initially sung by porters while they carried a rich man's hammock.
    Culture: Dan 
    Location: Bromley, St. Paul River, Liberia
    Folk Music of Liberia. Folkways Records FE4465, 1954, Side 1, Track 3
  5. Chant Himba. Male trio with clapping.
    Culture: Himba 
    Location: Kunene Region, Namibia
    Namibie: Bushmen et Himba. Buda 92632-2, 1995, Track 5

The next songs are synchronous and polyphonic as well, but rather than interlocking vocals, they feature overlap between a lead vocalist and a group, another highly cohesive way of organizing the vocal group.

  1. Yave-yave. Ceremonial farewell song.
    Culture: Lunda
    Location: Kapanga Territory, Katanga Province, Congo Belge, Democratic Republic of the Congo
    The Sounds of Africa. International Library of African Music AMA TR48, 1957, Side 1, Track 1
  2. Chant Des Piroguiers Badouma. A boat paddler's work song, with paddling sounds.
    Culture: Adouma 
    Location: Badouma, Gabon
    Musique Bantou D'Afrique Equatoriale Francaise. Musée de l'Homme. BAM LD-324, 1958, Side 1 Track 6
  3. Nini Nge Shikoko. Women’s drinking song.
    Culture: Chopi 
    Location: Zavala District, Sul do Save Province, Mozambique
    The Sounds of Africa. International Library of African Music AMA TR204, 1965, Side 1 Track 1
  4. Hinganyengisa, Masingita. Mzeno movement of a Ngodo orchestral dance, composed by Katini waNyamombe.
    Culture: Chopi 
    Location: Zavala, Zavala District, Inhambane, Mozambique
    This example of cohesiveness in Sub Saharan Africa features alternation between a leader and chorus, without overlap.
    World Library Of Folk And Primitive Music, Volume X: British East Africa. Columbia SL-213, 1955, Side 1 Track 7.

Cohesiveness in Afro-Caribbean Folk Song
The following examples from Trinidad show the African influence on Caribbean music in terms of cohesiveness. Both songs feature overlap, polyphony, and maximal tonal blend and rhythmic coordination.

  1. Pass, Manuel. A wake house game song.
    Culture: Trinidad Creole
    Location: Diego Martin, S E Trinidad, Trinidad & Tobago, Lesser Antilles
    Lomax Digital Archive, Caribbean 1962. T1051, Track 11.
  2. Doption. A Spiritual Baptist song/chant featuring percussive body movement and rhythmic hyperventilation, a device used to aid worshippers in achieving the exalted state of spirit possession.
    Culture: Trinidad
    Location: Syne Village, Trinidad, Trinidad & Tobago, Lesser Antilles
    Lomax Digital Archive, Caribbean 1962. T1074, Track 2.

Cohesiveness in Italian Folk Song
Contrast the African and Afro-Diasporic approaches to cohesiveness with these examples from Liguria and Sardinia, in Italy. Example #12 has interlocking vocals, while #13 has overlap between a group and a leader. 

  1. La Partenza. A trallalero chorus of Genoese dockworkers in a bar singing tenor, baritone, chitarra, bass-drones and falsetto (donna), with overlapping, interlocking voices in rhythmic counterpoint. 
    Culture: Genoa 
    Location: Bar Tunghi, Genoa, Italy
    Alan Lomax Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  2. Su Tenore A Ballu. Cantu a tenore song for dancing.
    Culture: Barbagia
    Location: Orune, Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy
    Archivi di Etnomusicologia, Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma. Collection 026.

Examples of African Solo Singing

  1. Inkulu Into Ezakwenzeka. Self-delectative song with unbraced, open string, resonated hadi bow.
    Culture: Xhosa Ngqika
    Location: King William's Town, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa 
    The Sounds of Africa. International Library of African Music AMA TR13, 1957, Side 2, Track 1
  2. Chirombo Woye Nditerere. Self-delectative song performed by 13-year-old Mugadzikwa Mwanagona, with mbira accompaniment.
    Culture: Shona Karanga
    Location: Masvingo, Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe
    The Sounds of Africa. International Library of African Music AMA TR175, 1951, Side 2, Track 5

African Rhythms
The following songs employ regular meter (simple or compound) and polyrhythm, a distinctive combination in Sub Saharan African music.

  1. Ndaye Gouman. Women’s song.
    Culture: Mbum 
    Location: Near Foumban, Northern Cameroon
    Mbum de Cameroon. Philips 468449-2 / Prophet 23, Track 2
  2. Nnwomkoro. Women’s entertainment song.
    Culture: Ashanti
    Location: Huntaado, Ashantiland, Ghana
    Music of the Ashanti of Ghana. Folkways FE4240 (Pitt. Library EM 1659), 1979, Side 1, Track 2
  3. Nan-zambara. Meditative music featuring sanza (mbira).
    Culture: Gbaya Bodoe
    Location: Near Bouar, Central African Republic 
    Centrafrique: Musique Gbaya: Chants a penser. Ocora C560079 HM83, 1980, Track 2
  4. Mwemfwiti. Burial song.
    Culture: Bantu Lala
    Location: Serenje District, Zambia
    The Sounds of Africa, International Library of African Music, AMA TR19, 1957, Side 1, Track 9.
  5. Hunting Song
    Culture: Mbuti
    Location: Ituri Forest, Province Orientale, Democratic Republic of the Congo
    Excerpts from Colin M. Turnbull's personal recordings from 1954 and 1958. Research Library, American Museum of Natural History, New York.

African American Sacred Song from the Atlantic Fringe

  1. Adam in the Garden
    Performers: Georgia Sea Island Singers
    Culture: Georgia Sea Islands African Americans
    Location: Saint Simons, Glynn County, Georgia, United States
    Lomax Digital Archive, Southern U.S. 1959 and 1960. T923, Track 7.
  2. Dark Day
    Performers: Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk
    Culture: Hampton Roads African Americans
    Location: Ark, Gloucester County, Virginia, United States
    Lomax Digital Archive, Southern U.S. 1959 and 1960. T931, Track 6.
  3. Jonah
    Performers: Janie Hunter and the Moving Star Hall Singers
    Culture: Johns Island African Americans
    Location: Johns Island, Charleston County, South Carolina, United States
    Lomax Digital Archive, American Patchwork, Johns Island, South Carolina (1983). Archive ID 3yG2z6GC4Ww.

Cohesiveness in African American Folk Song
These examples all feature overlapping vocals between a leader and a group (or between two groups), polyphony, and significant to maximal tonal blend and rhythmic coordination.

  1. David Was a Shepherd Boy
    Performers: The Belleville A Capella Choir
    Culture: Hampton Roads African Americans
    Location: Belleville, Suffolk County, Virginia
    Southern Journey 12: Honor the Lamb: The Belleville A Capella Choir of the Church of God and Saints of Christ. Prestige Records INT 25012, 1961, Side 1, Track 3.
  2. The Gospel Train
    Performers: The Belleville A Capella Choir
    Culture: Hampton Roads African Americans
    Location: Belleville, Suffolk County, Virginia
    Southern Journey 12: Honor the Lamb: The Belleville A Capella Choir of the Church of God and Saints of Christ. Prestige Records INT 25012, 1961, Side 1, Track 1.
  3. Holy Babe Pt. I and II. A numbers song from Cumins State Farm inmates.
    Performers: Kelley Pace, Aaron Brown, Joe Green, Matthew Johnson, Paul Hayes
    Culture: Mississippi Delta African Americans
    Location: Cumins State Farm, Gould, Arkansas
    Negro Religious Songs and Services. Library of Congress AFS L10, 1942, Side 2, Track 1.
  4. Early in the Mornin'. Work song by inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.
    Performers: Benny Will '22' Richardson, Little Red, Walter 'Tangle-Eye' Jackson, Willy 'Hard Hat' Lacey
    Culture: Mississippi Delta African Americans
    Location: Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman, MS
    Negro Prison Songs. Tradition Records TLP 1020, 1958, Side 2, Track 4.

Call & Response in African and African American Folk Song
Note the similarities between the Kabiyé work song from West Africa, and the children’s game song from the Georgia Sea Islands, led by Bessie Jones. In both, the leader and chorus’s phrases form a litany structure in which the leader’s melody varies while the chorus repeats the same phrase. The relatively high level of repetition and softened consonants are both measures of inclusivity.

  1. Work Song from the notorious Slave Coast, which skirts the Gulf of Guinea.
    Culture: Kabiyé
    Location: Central Togo
    World Library of Folk & Primitive Music, Vol. II: African Music from the French Colonies. Columbia Masterworks SL205, Side 2, Track 1e.
  2. Sometimes. A game song for children from the Georgia Sea Islands.
    Performers: Bessie Jones & group
    Culture: Georgia Sea Islands African Americans
    Location:  St Simons Island, Georgia
    Get in Union. Alan Lomax Archive, 2020, Track 8.

Variability in Tempo, Register, and Volume, Much to Extreme Rasp, Overlap
Compare the variable approach to singing and the social organization of the vocal group in this example of African American church music from Memphis with the following examples of pop songs by African American artists, which contain some of the same techniques.

  1. I’m Goin’ Home on the Mornin’ Train
    Performers: Rev. R. C. Crenshaw & Congregation
    Culture: Memphis African Americans
    Location: New Brown's Chapel, Memphis, Tennessee
    Southern Folk Heritage Series: Negro Church Music. Atlantic Records 1351, 1960, Side 1, Track 6.
  2. It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World
    James Brown
    It's a Man's Man's Man's World. King 985, 1966, Side 1, Track 2.
  3. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher
    Jackie Wilson
    Higher And Higher. Brunswick BL 54130, 1967, Side 1, Track 1.
  4. Proud Mary
    Ike & Tina Turner
    Workin’ Together. Liberty LST-7650, 1970, Side 2, Track 3.
  5. I’ve Got a Woman, Live at Newport Jazz Festival
    Ray Charles
    Ray Charles at Newport. Atlantic 1289, 1958, Side 1, Track 3.

Northwest European Folk Song
The following songs encapsulate a distinctive Northwest European combination of solo singing with precise enunciation, low repetition, and strophic form.

  1. The Bonny Wee Lassie Who Never Said No. Bawdy ballad sung by the great Jeannie Robertson.
    Culture: Aberdeen
    Location: Aberdeen, Scotland  
    The Folksongs of Britain, Volume II: Songs of Seduction. Caedmon Records TC-1143, 1961, Side 1, Track 2
  2. The Long Peggin' Awl. Bawdy ballad by Harry Cox, one of the most prolific songsters of eastern England.
    Culture: Norfolk
    Location: Catfield, Norfolk, England
    The Folksongs of Britain, Volume II: Songs of Seduction. Caedmon Records TC-1143, 1961, Side 1, Track 8
  3. Sulla Rulla Gjertrue Mi. Lullaby.
    Culture: Norwegian
    Location: Gudbrandsdalen, Oppland, Norway
    Folk Music of Norway. Folkways Records FM 4008, 1954, Side 2, Track 1
  4. The Bold Tenant Farmer. Ballad associated with the The Irish National Land League, a political organization that advocated for tenant farmers in the late 19th century.
    Culture: Cork
    Location: Ballymakeery, County Cork, Ireland
    World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Ireland. Columbia Masterworks KL 204, 1951, Side 1, Track 3.4
  5. M'y Promenant Le Long De Ces Verts Près. Ballad about the abduction of a lady by a sailor.
    Culture: Brittany
    Location: Mayun, Loire-Atlantique, Brittany, France
    World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: France. Columbia Masterworks KL-207, 1954, Side 2, Track 3.1
  6. Till Ab Crodh, Laochan. Milking song to soothe the cows.
    Culture: South Uist
    Location: Iochar, South Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
    This milking song from the Outer Hebrides contains many of the same features, but is organized as a complex litany rather than a strophe.
    World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Scotland. Columbia Masterworks KL 209, 1955, Side 2, Track 1.5

Other Northwest European solo songs can be quite repetitious, like this one from France.

  1. Briolée. Plowing song.
    Culture: Berry
    Location: Nohant, Berry, Indre, France
    World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: France. Columbia Masterworks KL-207, 1954, Side 1, Track 2.4
  2. Para Lou Loup. A well known dance song.
    Culture: Auvergne
    Location: Bastille, Paris, France
    In this example, rather than a single solo singer, lead singers alternate, sometimes accompanied by others singing in unison.
    World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: France. Columbia Masterworks KL-207, 1954, Side 1, Track 1.3
  3. The Barley Mow. A drinking song performed by singers at the Ship Inn in Blaxhall.
    Culture: Suffolk
    Location: Blaxhall, Suffolk, England
    This English drinking song, which alternates between solo singing on the verses and unison singing on the choruses, exemplifies the casual style of unison singing with little to moderate tonal blend common in the region’s pubs.
    Lomax Digital Archive, England 1951–1958. T3338, Track 9.

Northwest European-American Folk and Pre-pop
These selections from White Americans of Northwest European descent contain the same characteristics as the Northwest European examples: solo singing, precise or moderate enunciation, little repetition, and strophic form. Note unornamented, hard, clear delivery in most of these.

  1. Single Girl, Married Girl
    Performers: Carter Family
    Culture: Appalachia White
    Location: Maces Springs, Virginia
    American Folk Music: Vol. 3 Songs. Folkways Records FP 253, 1952, Selection 67.
  2. The Coo Coo Bird. Appalachian rendition of a traditional English folk song.
    Performer: Clarence Ashley
    Culture: Appalachia White
    Location: Shouns, Tennessee
    American Folk Music: Vol. 3 Songs. Folkways Records FP 253, 1952, Selection 57.
  3. Hick's Farewell. Texas Gladden, who might well have been Jeannie Robertson’s American counterpart, knew hundreds of ballads which she sang with an intonation and delicacy all her own.
    Performer: Texas Gladden
    Culture: Appalachia White
    Location: Saltville, Virginia
    Southern Journey 11: Southern White Spirituals. Prestige Records INT 25011, 1961, Side 2, Track 6.
  4. White House Blues. Ballad about the assassination of President William McKinley.
    Performers: Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers
    Culture: Piedmont White
    Location: Eden, North Carolina
    American Folk Music: Vol. 1 Ballads. Folkways Records FP 253, 1952, Selection 20.
  5. The Little Brown Bulls. Classic ballad of American lumber camps.
    Performer: Robert Walker
    Culture: N European American Lumberjack
    Location: Crandon, Wisconsin
    Wolf River Songs. Folkways Records FE 4001, 1956, Side 1, Track 1.
  6. Los Angeles New Year's Flood
    Performer: Woody Guthrie
    Culture: Dust Bowl
    Location: Okemah, Oklahoma
    Woody Guthrie--Library of Congress Recordings. Elektra EKL 271/272, 1964, Side 6, Track 8.
  7. Family Circle. The Old Way of Singing, practiced in churches in rural New England, Appalachia, and the Southern States, exemplifies the slow, burry unison style associated with this psalm-singing tradition.
    Performers: The Shelton Family Band
    Culture: Appalachia White
    Location: Balsam Grove, Transylvania County, North Carolina
    Lomax Digital Archive, American Patchwork, Appalachia (1982–1983). Archive ID _iyQdh4s_Dw.
  8. Moaning
    Performers: Maple Springs Baptist Church congregation
    Culture: Mississippi Delta African Americans
    Location: Friars Point, Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States
    Lomax Digital Archive, Mississippi Delta Survey 1941–1942. AFS4767, Track 1.

In contrast, close harmonies were popular both in bluegrass and in popular music of the 1940s.

  1. State of Arkansas
    Earl Taylor, Jim McCall, the Stoney Mountain Boys
    24 Bluegrass Favorites. Rural Rhythm, 2007, Track 2.
  2. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
    The Andrews Sisters
    Boogie woogie bugle boy / Bounce me, brother.with a solid four. Decca 3598, 1941.

American Pop Music in the 1950s and 1960s
Some figures of the folk music revival of the early 1960s made hits of traditional folk songs, as well as of the protest songs written in the context of the emerging leftist movements of the previous decades.

  1. Silkie. A version of “The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry,” a traditional ballad from Shetland and Orkney, in the Northern Isles of Scotland.
    Joan Baez
    Joan Baez, Vol. 2. Vanguard VSD-2097, 1961, Side 1, Track 4.
  2. If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song). Written in 1949 by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays as a protest song in support of the Progressive movement. 
    Peter, Paul & Mary
    Peter, Paul and Mary. Warner Bros. 1449, 1962, Side 2, Track 4.

Others, like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, became known for their original, text-heavy songs, dealing with loss, pain, love, and ambiguity in both the political and personal realms. Their lyrics are laden with irony, allusion, and dark humor, and sung matter-of-factly in un-virtuosic, even grating voices.

  1. Like A Rolling Stone
    Bob Dylan
    Highway 61 Revisited. Columbia CL 2389, 1965, Side 1, Track 1.
  2. Bird on the Wire
    Leonard Cohen
    Songs From A Room. Columbia CS 9767, 1969, Side 1, Track 1.

These heavier, more serious and critical stances emerging in popular music in the 1960s contrasted with the light-hearted embrace of adolescent fun and heartbreak, sex, and consumerism that characterized many White musicians’ take on rock n roll in the 1950s and early 1960s.

  1. Great Balls of Fire
    Jerry Lee Lewis
    Great Balls of Fire / You Win Again. Sun 281, 1957.
  2. Don’t Be Cruel
    Elvis Presley
    Hound Dog / Don't Be Cruel. RCA Victor 20-6604, 1956.

In contrast, Bobby Darin had a hit in 1959 with  “Mack the Knife,” adapted from a moritat (medieval murder ballad) featured in the 1928 play The Threepenny Opera. This is an example of darker themes and older material existing within the smoother and more mature milieu of 1950s swing, as opposed to the light-hearted rebelliousness of early rock n roll. Note the controlled, deadpan delivery in Darin’s voice in contrast with the highly varied, dynamic, and emotive Southern accented singing of Lewis and Presley in the examples above.

  1. Mack the Knife
    Bobby Darin
    That’s All. ATCO SD 33-104, 1959, Side 1, Track 1.

Of course, White rockers like Lewis and Presley were heavily influenced by blues and gospel music, and derived much of their vocabulary, including many of the songs themselves, from the Black originators of rock n roll who came more directly out of these older spiritual and secular traditions.

  1. Roll Over Beethoven
    Chuck Berry
    Chuck Berry Is on Top. Chess LP–1435, 1959, Side 2, Track 3.
  2. Lucille
    Little Richard
    Little Richard. Specialty SP-2103, 1958, Side 2, Track 6.

Old Eurasian Style
This Islamic liturgical song encapsulates many of the major elements of Old Eurasian style: a through-composed form, a melody consisting of narrow intervals and melismatic phrases, and nasal, raspy, narrow vocal style.

  1. Supplications for Mercy and Blessings. Supplications for mercy invoking blessings upon the Prophet, followed by the Second Call to Prayer (Iqamah), recorded inside a mosque.
    Culture: Dervish
    Location: Konya, Central Anatolia Region, Turkey
    Islamic Liturgy: Song and Dance at a Meeting of Dervishes. Folkways Records FR 8943, 1960, Side 1, Track 8.

The following songs from Africa operate within more repetitive forms (litany and strophe), but contain some of the important markers of Old Eurasian vocal style: melisma, embellishment, rasp, and nasality.

  1. Ikigwiti/Amararo. Warrior’s songs accompanied by harp. The second song recounts the places where King Muhigirwa’s warriors camped.
    Culture: Tutsi
    Location: Muhanga District, Former Gitarama Province, Rwanda
    Songs of the Watutsi. Folkways 4428, 1952, Side 2, Tracks 4 and 5.
  2. Chant Lyrique. Lyric song
    Culture: Wodaabe
    Location: Zinder, Niger
    Afrique: Disque 1: Peuls. Collection Universelle de Musicque Populaire AI70, 1948.

This strain can also be heard in African American field hollers and early blues, as in the examples below.

  1. Levee Camp Holler. Holler sung while raising the levees in the Mississippi Valley.
    Performer: W.D. 'Bama' Stewart 
    Culture: Mississippi Delta African Americans
    Location: Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman, MS
    Lomax Digital Archive, Parchman Farm 1947 and 1948. T803, Track 7.
  2. Boll Weevil Holler 
    Performer: Vera Hall
    Culture: Alabama African Americans
    Location: Livingston, Alabama
    Lomax Digital Archive, Southern U.S. 1959 and 1960. T921, Track 19.
  3. I Could Hear My Name Ringin'. Composed by Williamson while working in a levee camp.
    Performer: Sonny Boy Williamson
    Culture: Memphis African Americans
    Location: Memphis, Tennessee
    Alan Lomax: Blues Songbook. Rounder Records 82161-1866-2, 2003, Disc 2, Track 1.
  4. Catfish Blues. Country-style blues in which longtime comrades Owens and Spires give free reign to their personalities, clearly relishing their badinage and enjoyment of playing together.
    Performers: Jack Owens & Bud Spires
    Culture: Mississippi Delta African Americans
    Location: Bentonia, Mississippi
    It Must Have Been the Devil (Mississippi Country Blues by Jack Owens & Bud Spires). Testament T-2222, 1971, Side 2, Track 1.

Melismatic singing with much embellishment has been prevalent in pop singing since the 1990s, exemplified by virtuosic Black female vocalists like Aaliyah, Beyonce, and Alicia Keys.

  1. Fallin’ 
    Alicia Keys 
    In addition to melismatic and embellished singing, this song features overlap, tempo change, texture change, and register contrast.
    Songs in A Minor. J Records 80813-20002-2, 2001, Track 4.
  2. Are You That Somebody 
    Aaliyah
    Dr. Dolittle: The Album. Atlantic 83113-2, 1998, Track 3.
  3. Survivor 
    Destiny’s Child 
    Enunciation is crisp and sung syllabically by main singer Beyonce, who also goes into brief melismatic passages, short phrases
    Survivor. Columbia 501783 2, 2001, Track 2.
  4. holy terrain
    FKA Twigs
    Magdalene. Young Turks YT191CD, 2019, Track 4.
  5. F.U.B.U. 
    Solange
    A Seat at the Table. Columbia, 2016, Track 13.

The Neapolitan Strain:
Belcanto, Romantic Opera, Neapolitan Song, and Crooners

  1. Lassa Che Io Pianga
    Composed by George Frideric Handel
    Culture: Naples 
    From the motion picture Farinelli, directed by Gérard Corbiau. Sony Pictures Classics, 1994.
  2. Una Furtiva Lagrima
    Composed by Gaetano Donizetti
    Performed by Enrico Caruso
    Culture: Naples Region
    Location: Carnegie Hall, New York City
    Enrico Caruso – Great Opera Arias. BMG Classics 74321 98651 2, 2003, Track 2.
  3. Ti Voglio Bene Assai (Dicitencello Vuje)
    Performer: Aurelio Fierro
    Culture: Naples Region
    Location: Naples, Italy
    Copy in Alan Lomax Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  4. “Canto dei Portatori” (Porters’ Song)
    Culture: Naples Region
    Location: Positano, Salerno, Italy 
    World Library Of Folk And Primitive Music, Volume XVI: Southern Italy And The Islands. Columbia KL 5174, 1957, Side 1, Track 1.2.
  5. Tammuriata per la Madonna del Castello. Ritual song and dance with frame drums for the Madonna del Castello.
    Performers: Giovanni Coffarelli and La Paranza d'Ognundo
    Culture: Naples Region
    Location:  Somma Vesuviana, Napoli, Italy
    La Tradizione In Campania. EMI 3C 164-18431/37, 1979, Side 1, Track 3.
  6. My Way
    Frank Sinatra
    My Way. Reprise FS 1029, 1969, Side 2, Track 1.
  7. Come Prima 
    Marino Marini
    Come Prima / Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu). Durium 45-DC 16632, 1958.
  8. It’s Only A Paper Moon
    Ella Fitzgerald
    Ella Fitzgerald: The War Years, 1941-1947. The Original Decca Recordings. GRP GRD 2-628, 1994, Disc 1, Track 18. 
  9. Tea for Two
    Doris Day, Gordon McCrae
    Day Time On The Radio: Lost Radio Duets From The Doris Day Show 1952-1953. Real Gone Music RGM 0590, 2017, Track 15.
  10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
    The Platters
    Remember When? Mercury MG 20410, 1959, Side 1, Track 2.
  11. Mambo Italiano
    Dean Martin
    Dino: The Essential Dean Martin. Capitol 72435-98487-2-3, 2004, Track 11.

Cohesiveness in Eastern European/Russian/Caucasus Folk Song
As in Africa, overlapping or interlocking vocals, polyphony, and significant to maximal tonal blend and rhythmic coordination contribute to cohesiveness in the village choral traditions of Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus.

  1. Dimitro, Sino Dimitro. Dance song.  
    Culture: Rhodope
    Location: Rhodope, Bulgaria
    Village Music of Bulgaria. Explorer Series H 72034, 1988, Side 2, Track 2.
  2. Sutartine Choral Round
    Culture: Žemaitija
    Location: Samogitia, N. W. Lithuania
    Lithuanian Folk Songs in the United States. Ethnic Folkways Library FM 4009, 1955, Side 1, Track 1.
  3. Khasanbegura. Song about hero Beg Khasan, Khasan Tavdgiridze from Kobuleti, concerning the events of 1841.  
    Culture: Guria 
    Location: Guria, Georgia
    Lomax Digital Archive, Soviet Union 1964. T1716, Track 1.
  4. At Our Place in the Meadow. Dance song.
    Culture: Kursk  
    Location: Afanas'yevka, Alekseev District, Belgorod Oblast, Russia
    Lomax Digital Archive, Soviet Union 1964. T1708, Track 9.
  5. Nouze, Nouze Normuchei 
    Culture: Karelia  
    Location: Shyoltozero, Karelia, Russia
    Anthology of Russian Folk Songs, 3 Record Set, 016491 to 016496, 12 LPs, 1971.

Cohesiveness in Central European Folk Song
The tradition of cohesive polyphony in Central Europe seems to manifest more prominently as unison group singing rather than overlapping or interlocking vocal parts.

  1. Bohemian Folk Song 5
    Culture: Bohemian
    Location: Southern Bohemia, Subcarpathia, Czech Republic
    Recordings of Bohemia, Moravia, Stredoslovensky, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, and Subcarpathia. Moravia Reel #1 pt. 3. In Czechoslovakian Broadcasting Corporation Archives.
  2. Graf Und Nonne  
    Culture: Baden-Württemberg
    Location: Bühlerzell, Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
    Deutsche Volkslieder: Teil I, Alte Lieder. Camerata CM 30 003/002 K, 1961, Side 4, Track 3.
  3. Aleluya for the Feast of St. Stephen. 12th-13th century saint’s song.
    Culture: Ecclesiatic N Germans
    The School of Notre Dame, Archivblue, 477 5004, 1997, Track 10.  
  4. Sah ein Knab' ein Röslein Stehn (A Boy Saw A Rose). Text from the poem Heidenröslein  (J.W. von Goethe, 1771) set to music by Heinrich Werner. 
    Culture: Canadian Mennonites
    Location: Hamburg, Germany [Recorded by Mennonites in Montreal, Canada]
    German Folk Songs. Folkways Records FW 8805, 1957, Side 2, Track 1.

However, there are Central European examples of cohesiveness employing interlock in both folk and art music contexts, like these below.

  1. Montee L'alpage. Group celebration featuring yodeling.  
    Culture: Alpine Swiss
    Location: Grindelwald, Switzerland 
    Selected Swiss Folk Songs by Marthe Dominjond. Musée d'ethnographie de Genève. 
  2. Fugue 504 from Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf. Motet composed by J.S. Bach in 1729 for the funeral of Johann Heinrich Ernesti.
    Culture: Urban E Germans
    Location: Leipzig, Germany 
    J.S. Bach: German Motets. Two Thousand Years Of Music series. Parlophone R1025, 1931.

German and Austrian Jewish Composers and Musicians in Hollywood

  1. Sephardic Lullaby
    Composed by Paul Ben-Haim
    Performers: Artur Kaganovskiy, violin; Alla Milchtein, piano
    Culture: German Jewish
    Location: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Leo Baeck Institute, New York City
    Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series
    The Spring 2013 program, "Jewish Composers: A German Connection," presents masterpieces by Jewish composers who were influenced by German musical culture.

The Yivo program also featured these pieces:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LweXTmXhF-w&t=0s

  1. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy 
    String Quartet no. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13. 3rd Movement: Intermezzo : Allegretto con moto – Allegro di molto
  2. Louis Lewandowski 
    “Kol Nidre”, for violin and piano, Op. 6.
  3. Gustav Mahler
    Piano Quartet (1876)
  4. Anton Rubinstein
    “El Dachtarawan: Marche Orientale”, Op. 93 for piano solo
  5. Arnold Schoenberg
    Suite for piano, Op. 25. Gavotte
  6. Kurt Weill “Polly's Song from The Threepenny Opera: Ballade of Immoral Earnings”, 
    Arranged for violin and piano by Stefan Frenkel 
  7. Joel Engel 
    Freylekhs for violin and piano, Op. 2, no.2
  8. Tzvi Avni 
    Prayer for String Quartet

Yiddish Song and Jewish American Klezmer

  1.  In droysn iz finster. A 19th century Ashkenazi love song about a small town Romeo, performed by a Lithuanian immigrant born in Grodno, Lithuania.
    Culture: Ashkenazi Jewish
    Jewish Life: In the Old Country. Smithsonian Folkways FW03801, FG 3801, 1958, Side 1, Track 11.

In droysn iz finster, s'iz spet baynacht
Men hert kay zhum, kayn shorkh,
Kayn feygele flien oyf der gas.
Avu bistu geven? Kh'vil mit dir tsvey verter redn,
Avu bistu geven? Kh'vil mit dir tsuzamen geyn.
To kum aroys tsu mir, mayn tayere zis lebn,
Ikh shtey un vart in gas, ikh veys aleyn nit farvos,
Kum zhe aroys, kh'vil mit dir tsvey verter redn,
Kum zhe aroys, kh'vil mit dir tsuzamen zayn.
Oy dayn sheyn ponim, mit dayne shvartsinke ochkelekh,
Oy un dayn moyl mit dayne sheyne vaysinke tseyn.
Avu biztu geven? Kh'vil mit dir tsvey verter redn,
Kum zhe aroys, kh'vil mit dir tsuzamen zayn

It is dark outdoors
It is dark outdoors and late at night,
Not a hum, not a stir,
Not a bird is on the wing in the street.
Where were you? I want to have a word with you,
Where were you? I want to talk with you.
Come on out, my sweet darling,
I stand here waiting in the street, bewildered,
Come on out, I want to talk to you,
Come on out, I want to walk with you.
Oh your lovely face and your black little eyes,
Your sweet mouth and pretty white teeth.
Where have you been? I want to talk with you,
Come on out, I want to talk with you.

  1. Die Goldene Chasene 
    Performer: Dave Tarras
    Culture: Ashkenazi Jewish
    Yiddish-American Klezmer Music, 1925-1956. Yazoo 7001, 1992, Track 10.
  2. A Vaibele a Tsnien
    Performer: Dave Tarras
    Culture: Ashkenazi Jewish
    Yiddish-American Klezmer Music, 1925-1956. Yazoo 7001, 1992, Track 13.
  3. Hora Lui Damian
    Performers: The Klezmorim
    Culture: Ashkenazi Jewish
    First Recordings 1976-78. Arhoolie 309, 1989, Track 3.
  4. Sherele
    Performers: The Klezmorim
    Culture: Ashkenazi Jewish
    First Recordings 1976-78. Arhoolie 309, 1989, Track 7.
  5.  In Droysn Iz Finster 
    The Nightingale Trio
    A contemporary version of this beautiful Yiddish song.
    Love Songs, 2020, Track 1.