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The Mark Slobin Fieldwork Archive, Music in the Afghan North, 1967-1972 (1117)
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The Radio Afghanistan Series (20)
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Description
Radio Afghanistan, the only broadcasting outlet in the country, was very hospitable to my work, particularly through my friendship with the Music Director, Abdul Wahab Madadi, who had been recently trained in German, was himself a fine singer of traditional music of his region, Herat, and was eager to work with me. He even asked me to write a series on the music of the Beatles to give his audience access to music they had heard about but did not understand.
The radio held the country’s only sound archive, and I asked for copies of regional music that would amplify what I could learn in the field, and I received the materials on the following tapes. In return, I made copies of some of my field recordings for deposit.
The archive was presumed destroyed under the anti-music campaign of the Taliban, but it turned out that heroic archivists had saved it from their rampage. Hiromi Lorraine Sakata, who was the first to do fieldwork in Afghanistan, secured grants to digitize thousands of hours of irreplaceable recordings, but to date (2017), the Afghan government has not allowed copies of the archive to be deposited outside the country, so the material remains at risk. I feel it is appropriate to allow access to the material they released to me in a happier time.
For this specific series, please note the following:
- The MS8 reel is a duplicate set of recordings that already exist in MS7. Radio VII - Naghma Songs, Hazaregi and MS11. Baz Gul/Karim (Radio). Therefore, the MS8 reel is not listed in this collection.
- The MS10 reel is not available in Wesleyan University’s World Music Archive and therefore, is not listed in this collection.
- The MS17. Beatles Program reel is not available in this collection. However, it is accessible in Wesleyan University’s World Music Archive. Mark Slobin curated this at the request of Abdul Wahab Madadi, director of music at Radio Afghanistan, who thought listeners would appreciate an introduction to a group they might have heard of, but knew nothing about in 1967. Below is a listing of the specific tracks in this recording: 1. Spoken introduction/intro music 2. Within You Without You, some talking 3. Twist and Shout, more talking 4. Eleanor Rigby, more talking 5. Tomorrow Never Knows, talking 6. Love You To 7. Rock and Roll Music 8. I'm a Loser
- MS2. Radio II (6)
- MS12. Baijura, Zibajân, Na’atiya (1)
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MS13. Pashai (Radio) (1)
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DescriptionThese are recordings in the Pashai language.
- MS15. Uzbek (Radio) (6)
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MS16. Turkmen (radio) (6)
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DescriptionMusical instrument: Turkmen dutār. See associated film footage.
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The Faizabād Tapes (7)
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Description
Greta and I made our only trip to the northeastern province of Badakhshan in late summer of 1968. It was a place difficult of access, despite having an airport, as flights were few and often canceled, so we went overland. Hiromi Lorraine Sakata spent considerable time in the region and wrote a seminal book, Music in the Mind, about it, and devoted a section of her memoir, Afghanistan Encounters with Music and Friends to the region. As elsewhere, I gathered samples and tried to fit what I found into my developing regional survey of instruments, vocal style, functions of music, and ethnic identification.
Badakhshan is a complex zone of cultural contact and unique enclaves, with the presence of ancient Indo-Iranian languages only spoken there. So just calling it a Tajik, Persian-speaking region is insufficient to map the diversity. There was also a small population of Kyrgyz in the most inaccessible area, the Wakhan. The whole province is mountainous, and the Wakhan area rises to 20,000 feet as it merges into the Himalayas. There is a tiny border with China. Jurm, Sheghnan, Rustaq, Keshm, are local areas, musical styles, and sometimes languages. The region borders Tajikistan, much better studied than Afghan Badakhshan.
I accosted musicians in the bazaar and through any contacts I could find. I had an "a-ha" moment that I have told to students many times. In a sarai shed where men gathered to hear the musician who agreed to play for me, I innocently asked if he knew Naim, one of my major collaborators, of whom more below. Everyone broke into laughter unaccountably. Eventually I learned that the musician I was talking to was himself named Naim, though he had given me a pseudonym. The men thought that I was on to the trick. So it occurred to me that many of the names that musicians had given me might not be accurate, an important fieldwork lesson about collecting, in a country with a low opinion of music and musicians.
Outside the most common stringed instrument, the dambura, the chang jaw-harp and a tula, a small wooden recorder-like flute, along with the occasional drum, are heard here. The zirbaghali is the standard drum of much of Afghanistan, related to the many pottery and wooden vase-shaped drums of the Middle East. Felak, or falak, is a characteristic mountain Tajik genre also developed strongly across the border. The word means "the heavens," with the connotation of "fate," which figures in the many songs about difficult or impossible loves and gharibi, the cruel experience of poverty and forced migration that plagues the region. Song texts can be by local poets or more broadly known Persian-language sources. Some tunes are just instrumental—naghma-- but many can also be used for dance as well, though I did not manage to see any local dance styles. For more on Badakhshani music, see The Music of Central Asia, ed. T. Levin, S. Daukeyeva and E. Köchümkulova, Indiana University Press, 2016, and Sakata, Music in the Mind, Smithsonian, 2002.
For this specific series, please note the following:
- The MS27 reel is a duplicate set of recordings that already exist in MS26. Faizabād IX. Therefore, the MS27 reel is not listed in this collection.
- MS19. Faizabād II, Sheghni, Jurm (5)
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MS28. Malang, Faizabād assorted 1-5, Naim III (2)
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DescriptionNote: Tracks 12-17 on MS28 are repeated material from earlier Faizabād tapes.
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The Aqcha Series (16)
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Description
I had meant my fieldwork to be in villages, but the government did not allow it, and there were no conditions to stay in a village, even overnight. So, I worked in a variety of towns of differing size and importance in the North’s three regions, Turkestan, Kataghan, and Badakhshan. Somewhere, thinking over what I had seen and the differences among towns, I had a "eureka" moment, realizing that the urban situation might offer a unifying theoretical and analytical framework. Eventually, the paper I delivered on town-types and musical life won me the graduate student prize of the Society for Ethnomusicology and helped me to gain my first and permanent appointment at Wesleyan University.
Aqcha was a crucial location for my collection and understanding of the general patterns of music in the North, since I came there early, in fall 1967 and returned there a year later. It presented the model for the local market town, a magnet for country folk—farmers and nomads—twice a week for the market days (usually Tuesday and Friday, Monday and Thursday in some location). This made it a point of intersection for ethnic groups and also a possible site for public music-making on a regular basis, as opposed to the private celebrations or occasional festivals that occasioned performance. While I tried hard to get people to find musicians I could record privately, always difficult, I knew I could also go to the teahouse to document first-hand, live musicianship. A key musician was Aq Pishak, "the white cat," a moniker for a Turkmen who added animal sounds to his repertoire of regional dance tunes from the Uzbek and Tajik traditions, played on those group’s favorite instrument, the dambura. I also found Akhmad-bakhshi, a Turkmen who played a purely Turkmen style on their instrument, the dutar. The Turkmens lived along a strip just south of the USSR border, now Turkmenistan, being largely refugees from Soviet control and collectivization of their lands and herds in the 1920s. A survey of the Aqcha bazaar can be found in the film footage section of this project, ending with a shot of Aq Pishak and two Uzbek singers in a teahouse. There is also a sequence on Akhmad-bakhshi.
I was, however, able to get to the countryside a bit, so this series also contains material from quick forays to villages, accompanied by some helpful person. Those visits add a bit of variety, such as the tale about a wrestler, Buniyat Palewan, that wouldn’t be sung in a teahouse.
As I discuss in my book, the language of teahouse songs can be mixed Uzbek and Dari, eloquent testimony to the co-territorial sharing of cultural expression also seen in the common use of the dambura lute, though some songs are all in Uzbek.
For this specific series, please note the following:
- The MS39-MS46 reels are duplicate sets of recordings that already exist in MS31-MS38 and Andkhoi VII. Therefore, the MS39-MS46 reels are not listed in this collection.
- MS29. Aqcha I - Kweinashar, Changalārekh (2)
- MS30. Aqcha II - Changalārekh, Chārshangei 4/2-3/1968 (2)
- MS32. Aqcha IV – Āq Pishak, Shiberghān (10)
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MS33. Aqcha V (1)
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DescriptionTypical teahouse band with dambura, zirbaghali drum, some jaw-harp, finger cymbals.
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MS35. Aqcha VII- Āq Pishak (1)
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DescriptionContinuation of intensive session with Āq Pishak on local dambura tunes.
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The Tashqurghān Series (12)
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Description
Tashqurghān, also known as Khulm, was a key location for my work, as it was for the region. It’s on the border between Turkestan to the west and Kattaghan to the east, though that’s more a conceptual than an administrative line, so I spent some time asking people about the terms. The town was the closest you could find at the time to a medieval Islamic city. It had gates into the main bazaar area and night watchmen of two types: on the roofs and in the streets. The tradesmen and other professions were organized into guilds, with their own histories and memberships. But what made it particularly valuable was that it was the long-term home base for Pierre Centlivres and Micheline Centlivres-Demont, a dynamic and wise duo of anthropologists who influenced my thinking. Pierre’s study of the town can be found in Un bazar d’Asie Centrale" and many later publications (for a listing, see this site; for a listing including Micheline’s work, see Wikipedia)
We collaborated when we jointly discovered the hidden tradition of Central Asian shamanism still marginally alive in Tashqurghān (discussed in the notes on filming elsewhere), described in the article "A Muslim Shaman of Afghan Turkestan;" the sound of the séance can be found on tape 52 below and the field footage elsewhere. (Ethnology 10/2, 160-73.)
Musically, one striking aspect of the town is its production of pieces for the ghichak fiddle, which you could find across the north alongside the other exported lathe-turned wooden objects with distinctive colored bands, such as cradles and jackknife handles. And one of my main collaborators was the musician Bangecha Tashqurghāni. You could hear a variety of styles there, and it was home to a number of professionals. In my theorizing, I pointed to it as an unusual border-zone town with a special social and economic function.
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MS48. Tashkur II/Balkh (12)
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DescriptionSee associated film footage.
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MS48. Tashkur II/Balkh (12)
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The Samangān Series (5)
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DescriptionThe Samangān series moves to a number of other towns, starting with Samangān, in mid-1968.
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The Andkhoi Series (66)
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DescriptionAndkhoi is the town closest to the then-Soviet, now Uzbekistan border. It seemed the most remote, with the only public water supply being a common pond in the middle of town and a more pronounced Turkmen population signaling closeness to the border.
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MS58. Andkhoi I (5)
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DescriptionTracks 1-3: Mother-daughter professional women's duo. This is the only taping Mark Slobin did of professional women musicians, singing wedding songs, their main repertoire for employment. They had an extremely low social standing. Voice with large doira frame drum. Musicians for Tracks 1-3: Zulaikhā and Gulandām. Musician for Tracks 4-5: Ghafur Khan. Khan had a boot shop in the bazaar and was one of the rare musicians who knew the Uzbek classical music style, rare in Afghanistan, but a major repertoire in Uzbekistan across the border. Most Afghan Uzbeks are part of a population that dates back to the 1500s, but a small group of refugees arrived in the 1920s-30s, like their Turkmen neighbors, to flee Soviet collectivization. Ghafur Khan provided Mark Slobin with a memorable fieldwork moment. He let Slobin play his dutar lute, then boasted to passers-by that Slobin was his shagerd (apprentice) proving that by untuning the two-stringed dutar and asking Slobin to tune it up, not a difficult feat, since there was no absolute pitch and Slobin only had to tune it to a fourth. Taped on 4/4/1968
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MS59. Andkhoi II (5)
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DescriptionGhafur Khān, Sadruddin, Mowlanqul. All tracks by Ghafur Khān, 4/14/1968
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MS60. Andkhoi III (5)
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DescriptionMowlānqul, Abdul Karim, Ghafur Khan 4/15/1968. Musician: Ghafur Khān, Uzbek dutār
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MS61. Andkhoi IV (5)
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DescriptionAndkhoi IV, Ghafur Khan, Abdul Karim. Musicians: Ghafur Khan, Abdul Karim
- MS62. Andkhoi V (5)
- MS63. Andkhoi VI (12)
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MS64. Andkhoi VII (8)
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Description9/22/1968. Musicians and instruments for Tracks 1-5: Rahmatullah, ghichak. Uzbek repertoire. Musicians for Tracks 6-8: Mowlānqul band.
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MS65. Andkhoi VIII (4)
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Description9/22/1968. Musicians and instruments for Tracks 1-3: Rahmatullah's band. Unnamed dambura player, occasional drum
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MS66. Andkhoi IX (4)
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DescriptionMusician for Tracks 2-4: Hamrā-bakhshi, Turkmen musician, on tüidük flute. See film footage for the sequence.
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MS67. Andkhoi X (7)
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Description10/9/1968. Ghafur Khān, Uzbek dutar.
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MS68. Andkhoi XI (6)
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DescriptionContinuation of Ghafur Khān, Uzbek dutar.
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MS58. Andkhoi I (5)
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The Bābā Qerān Series (16)
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MS76. Bābā Qerān I (9)
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Description3/30/1968. Mark Slobin characterized this outstanding musician earlier, under Tape 53 where Bābā Qerān first appears in this series. Here he performs on dambura with Mohmad Nazar on ghichak and voice as Tracks 1-4. Tracks 5-9 spotlight Mohmad Nazar more. He was located as in the zone between Baghlan and Balkh. The pieces include mountain Tajik falak, teahouse songs, and dambura medleys in the Kattaghani style.
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MS77. Bābā Qerān II (7)
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Description3/30/1968. Place: Tashqurghān. Musicians: Bābā Qerān, dambura, Mohmad Nazar, voice and ghichak
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MS76. Bābā Qerān I (9)
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The Herat Series (25)
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DescriptionMark Slobin made one short trip to the major western city, Herat, located near the Iranian border, a site of important old court and music traditions and allied to the broader region called Khorasan. Slobin simply found whoever he could, so it's a mixed bag. The city was much more thoroughly studied briefly by Lorraine Sakata before Slobin, and intensively by John Baily and Veronica Doubleday, after Slobin.
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MS81. Herat I (13)
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DescriptionMusicians for Tracks 3-13: Bābā Qerān, dambura, Mohmad Nazar, voice and ghichak
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MS82. Herat II (8)
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DescriptionMusician for Tracks 1-3: Akbar (flute). Musicians for Tracks 5-9: Abdul Xaleg (Khaleg?) with Ghulam Sarwa
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MS83. Herat III (4)
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DescriptionMusicians: Abdul Xaleg (Khaleg?) with Ghulam Sarwa
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MS81. Herat I (13)
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The Baghlan Series (11)
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MS84. Baghlan I (5)
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DescriptionMusic is in mountain Tajik style. Musician: Marullāh, from the village of Qulāye Qolombar, a village just outside Baghlan related to a schoolboy in Baghlan. He played music in a field with curious relatives around, and said he learned from Bāz Gul while in Badakhshan as a soldier. He spoke little Persian. He traded his smaller instrument for one with a larger tin can by taking the string off and putting it on his own instrument. He was incredulous at first about Mark Slobin's taping, but liked it, and played much.
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MS85. Baghlan II (4)
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DescriptionMusician: Khanjān from Salāmkhir. He and two other players were brought to the hotel by the police. He and his brother Sakhidār were both scared and inhibited. Khanjān played dambura somewhat mechanically for about ten minutes and stopped. He said he was really a ghichak player, but had not brought his instrument. Mahmud Khan from Chelezāi was more self-possessed and kept joking about being a bandit, due to the police. Said he had no radio, used his own words, and had never studied. Abdul Wahab Madadi, Music Director at Radio Afghanistan, says that his song comes from an Indian film- maybe he saw that in town.
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MS86. Baghlan III (2)
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DescriptionSolo songs with dambura, mixed Dari and Pashto. Here Mark Slobin refers to Abdul Wahab Madadi, Music Director at Radio Afghanistan.
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MS84. Baghlan I (5)
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The Saripul and Qizilayāq Series (49)
- MS92. Saripul I, 4/19/1968 (8)
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MS93. Saripul II, 4/10/1968 (8)
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DescriptionMusicians for Tracks 1-3: Shāhpasand et al. Musician for Tracks 4-8: Abdurrahman, dambura
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MS94. Saripul III, Qizilayāq I (15)
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DescriptionQizilayāq series, 4/12/1968: Recorded in a large purely Turkmen town, the only time Mark Slobin managed to be invited to that milieu, courtesy of the head man, a young fellow in his 20s, who hosted them, with a partridge-hunt in the tall grass, barbeque, and allowing Greta a chance to mix with Turkmen women, trying on their wedding clothes and jewelry. The music here, as with other Turkmen music Mark Slobin collected, is, by all accounts, pretty badly played by Turkmenistan standards, but does offer a benchmark for what people knew in a border area isolated from its homeland, with no training or support for professional musicians. Musicians were brought to them in a reception hall. Saripul III, 4/10/1968: Songs of a Jat woman and her daughter, copied from a tape made covertly by Mr. Rasul of Saripul. An unusual opportunity to hear another set of women's songs for celebrations.
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MS96. Qizilayāq III/Shiberghan (14)
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DescriptionTracks 1-2: Place: Shiberghan, Musician: Mahmud. Tracks 3-15: Place: Qizilayaq, Musician: Khojumrat, dutar
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MS97. Qizilayāq IV (4)
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DescriptionMusician: Khojumrat, dutar
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The Mazar Series (89)
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DescriptionMazar-i Sharif is the major city of the north, so it had a variety of musics, including the urban sound of the tanbur lute, brought from Kabul. There were some amateur musicians willing to play for Mark Slobin, as well as professionals. You could hear music from all three northern regions: Badakhshan, Kattaghan, Turkestan, and there were musicians from Aqcha available at that time, perhaps partly because of the ongoing Nowruz (Persian New Year's) festival and pilgrimage, which attracted huge numbers of people, offering expanded audiences for musicians. Also, in town was Badruddin Sharafi, an Afghan Uzbek who had trained in oil technology in Texas and was very helpful in making contacts and who really enjoyed a chance to meet Americans. He was killed by the Communists later. Mark Slobin left his VW beetle stored with him and took to the rest of Turkestan on a variety of trucks and buses over nearly impassable roads at times.
- MS103. Mazar I – Sampler, 3/24/1968 (7)
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MS104. Mazar II, 3/25/1968 (8)
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DescriptionMusicians for Tracks 1-8: Abdullāh, dambura, Mohamad Sharif, drum, Hakim, tanbur and voice.
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MS105. Mazar III (8)
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DescriptionMusicians for Tracks 1-6: Abdul Ltif and his daughter Shirin, from Kunduz, Dalecha village- Kuchi nomads). Ghichak, zirbaghali drum, voice
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MS106. Mazar IV, 3/25/1968 (10)
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DescriptionMusicians for Tracks 1-5: Bange Aqchai, dambura with zang-i kaftar finger rattles, Amir Mohmad, voice (Aqcha). Musicians for Tracks 6-8: Bangecha Tashqurghāni, dambura, with Safar, voice (Dowlatabad). Musician for Tracks 9-10: Faiz Gul (Aqcha).
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MS107. Mazar V – Kazakh I, 9/19/1968 (22)
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DescriptionMusician: Qundikhān, Kazakh dümbüra. Like the Turkmens, the Kazakhs represented a diasporic population from across the Soviet border who had fled Soviet power in the 1920s and 1930s, but it was a much smaller community, mostly in Mazar. Mark Slobin only found one acknowledged musician, with a large repertoire and, like the Turkmen case, not one who would be respected in the homeland for his skills. Isolated for a couple of generations, Kazakh music in Afghanistan was a backwater, but important as a representation of a distinctive, not shared style in the North.
- MS109. Mazar VI – Kazakh II, 9/19/1968 (13)
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MS110. Mirzashbai (?), singer, and Qundikhān, dümbüra (21)
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DescriptionContinuation of session of Kazakh music in Mazar-i Sharif
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The Kunduz Series (29)
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MS111. Kunduz I (9)
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DescriptionTracks 1-4: 11/6/1967. Musician: Karim Showqi Darwāzi from Sheghnān on dambura, a professional musician and unemployed worker. His father was a musician. Tracks 5-9: In Khanabad, 11/9/1967, musician Lola Akbar, aged 70, on ghichak.
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MS112. Kunduz II (8)
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Description11/9/1967. Musician for Tracks 1-3: Lola Akbar, ghichak, Said Ismael, voice, drumming on a pail, Location: Khanabad. Musician for Tracks 4-5: Karim Aqchai, aged 70. Musicians for Tracks 6-8: Almās from Kunduz, and Rasul from Andkhoi with Karim Aqchai
- MS113. Kunduz III (11)
- MS114. Kunduz IV (1)
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MS111. Kunduz I (9)
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The Southern Pashtun Series (73)
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DescriptionIn early 1968, not being able to travel north due to snow-blocked passes, Mark Slobin went south, accompanied by friends with contacts in Pashtun country, a region not covered by ethnomusicology to this day. It was the scene of fierce fighting and American engagement for years.
- MS121: Lundai/Naim IV (7)
- MS116: Lashk/Girishk I (13)
- MS117. Girishk II (12)
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MS118. Naim-Rezā I (8)
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DescriptionBābā Naim was one of Mark Slobin's major collaborators. He lived in Kabul, playing in the Radio Afghanistan orchestra and at the downtown Spinzar Hotel, so was readily available for taping and interview. He was a bit anomalous, being a Pashtun from Badakhshan, in mountain Tajik territory, but as a result, was versatile, as well as helpful. He often played with Malang, one of the great drummers on zirbaghali, the vernacular pottery vase-shaped drum (as opposed to the more urban Indian tabla).
- MS119. Naim-Rezā II (7)
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MS120: Naim et al. III - instrumental (16)
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DescriptionMusicians: Bābā Naim, Malang (drum), Mirazājan (tanbur)
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MS122. Naim V/Madadi (7)
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DescriptionMusicians for Tracks 1-5: Bābā Naim, Malang. Musician for Tracks 6-7: Abdul Wahab Madadi
- MS123. Naim VI (3)
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The Khānabād 1972 and Nurjanov I Series (13)
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MS124: Khānabād, 5/25/1972 (4)
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DescriptionLast recordings: These are from Mark Slobin's last return trip in May of 1972. Musician: Mohamad Azim, dambura
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MS125: Khānabād 1972, 5/30/1972 (9)
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DescriptionMusicians for Tracks 1-6: Jelal (dambura), Menān (voice). Musicians for Tracks 7-9: Einār, Bulbul (from Tashqurghān)
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MS124: Khānabād, 5/25/1972 (4)
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The Maimana and Qaisar Series (20)
- MS128. Maimana III-Police band/Qaisar I (6)
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MS127. Maimana II, 4/20/1968 (6)
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DescriptionMusicians for Tracks 1-3: Ghulam Nabi and others. Musician for Tracks 4-6: Sher Mohmad (a Pashtun from Pashtunkot)
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MS129. Qaisar II, 4/23/1968 (6)
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DescriptionTracks 1-2: Place: Qaisar. Musician: Juma-khān with singers. Tracks 3-6: Musician: Abdul Wahab (Uzbek), dambura
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MS130: Qaisar III (2)
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DescriptionTracks 1-2: Place: Qaisar, 4/23/1968. Musician: Sayed Amanullah (Pashtun)
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The Ziā Khojā Series (33)
- MS131. Ziā Khojā I (12)
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MS132. Ziā Khojā II (5)
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DescriptionContinuation of 10/6/1967 session.
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MS133. Ziā Khojā III, 3/21/1968 (7)
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DescriptionMusician: Ziā Khojā, Uzbek dutar, with Mir Mahmud, drum
- MS134. Ziā Khojā IV (3)
- MS135. Ziā Khojā V (6)
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The Parwanta Series (1)
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MS142. Parwanta (1)
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DescriptionMusician: Parwanta and friends. Parwanta was the rare Kabul amateur musician willing to be taped in his home circle.
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MS142. Parwanta (1)
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The Shah Mansur Series (4)
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MS143. Shāh Mansur (4)
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DescriptionMusician: Shāh Mansur, another member of the small Uzbek-classical circle in Kabul.
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MS143. Shāh Mansur (4)
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The Laghman Series (32)
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MS144. Laghman (32)
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DescriptionPlace: Laghman valley, Mark Slobin invited by Aziz Kakār, anthropologist, to visit his kinfolk during the winter when Slobin couldn't go north. Musicians: Rahman, from Diwa, Alishang valley, dambura. Aminullah, from Diwa, ghichak. Alāgul, drum.
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MS144. Laghman (32)
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The Nuristani Series (3)
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MS145. Interview with Yusuf Nuristani, 3/19/1974 (3)
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DescriptionInterview done in Middletown, Connecticut occasioned by the visit of Yusuf Nuristani, an Afghan from the Nuristan region, who explained the playing of the vadzh, the rare harp of which Mark Slobin owned an example (now at the Musical Instrument Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art). His information is very helpful about this instrument. For a thorough account of Nuristani music, but not including playing technique information for the vadzh, see Christer Irgens-Møller, Music in Nuristan (Jutland Archeological Society, Moesgaard Museum, 2009)
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MS145. Interview with Yusuf Nuristani, 3/19/1974 (3)
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The Naim-Malang 1971 I and II Series (9)
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MS146. Naim-Malang I, 1971 (6)
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DescriptionMusicians: Bābā Naim and Malang. Interviews and samples as follow-up.
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MS147. Naim-Malang II, 1971 (3)
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DescriptionMusician: Bābā Naim
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MS146. Naim-Malang I, 1971 (6)
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The Bangeda 1971 Series (8)
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MS148. Bangecha 1971: Songs of Xuram (8)
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DescriptionMusician: Bangecha Tashqurghāni. This was a follow-up interview with a key collaborator to get more specifics. Bangecha recites verses of songs he sings, also playing dambura. Poems are by Khuram of Tashqurghān, so this a highly local repertoire. He also adds a poem by himself.
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MS148. Bangecha 1971: Songs of Xuram (8)
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The Aq Pishak 1971 I-III Series (15)
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MS150. Āq Pishak, 6/28/1971 (6)
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DescriptionMusicians: Āq Pishak, dambura, ghichak (Bange), tambura (Abdul Shuqar), Unnamed voice and drum
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MS151. Āq Pishak II, 6/25/1971 (6)
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DescriptionMusicians: Āq Pishak, dambura, ghichak (Bange), tambura (Abdul Shuqar), Unnamed voice and drum
- MS152. Āq Pishak III, 1971 (3)
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MS150. Āq Pishak, 6/28/1971 (6)
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The Kazakh 1971 Series (19)
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MS153. Kazakh, 1971 (19)
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DescriptionPlace: Mazar-i Sharif. Musician for Tracks 1-6, 10-19: Mirzashbāi. Musician for Tracks 7-9: Kengshilbāi
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MS153. Kazakh, 1971 (19)
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The Radio 1972 Series (10)
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MS154. Radio 1972 (10)
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DescriptionThis was taped at the home of the Taymuree family, wonderful friends and collaborators of Mark Slobin.
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MS154. Radio 1972 (10)
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Film Footage and Monographs (1)
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DescriptionIn the mid-1980s, when VHS tape was available, Mark Slobin decided to transfer and edit some of the original Super8 footage into a film, for classroom and academic use, as there was no such survey of Afghan music available (and still isn’t). With virtually no budget, Slobin economized, making title cards by hand. The stock was ¾ inch video tape, "UMatic," the highest standard at the time. This was converted to dv format in 2016, so now the film represents three generations of film: Super8, VHS, and digital. Slobin found this conversion issue problematic, as he felt the aura of the original footage had been lost, particularly in the digitization that you see for all the footage, where decisions about color, sharpness, brightness, etc. had to be made for the pixel-by-pixel replacement of the Super 8, making it hard to get a sense of the original film stock’s visual narrative of the scenes inscribed on it by his small Canon camera. To flesh out the silent footage, I added sounds from my field tapes, sometimes arbitrarily (aerial footage, partridge fight), sometimes as close to sync as I could get for the music performance footage. For a closer, I picked a sunset shot and left open the question of what would happen to Afghanistan, which at the time was under Soviet occupation. Overall, it might be said that there is a slightly sentimental, if not nostalgic, tinge to the film. The content was designed to parallel topics in the book Music in the Culture of Northern Afghanistan.
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Settings and Landscapes (1)
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DescriptionAs opposed to the musician footage to fix technical details of performance, Mark Slobin also shot a few places, thinking ahead to classroom teaching as well as fixing place memory for his work.
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Settings and Landscapes (1)
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- Miscellaneous Field Cards and Photos (531)
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The Radio Afghanistan Series (20)
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