The Smithsonian Folkways catalog also contains Dances of the World's
Peoples, Vol. 1: Dances of the Balkans and Near East, as well as Vol. 4
which is Middle Eastern.
 
Typing "Balkan Music" into the Excite search engine brought up a great
wealth of sites for anyone interested.
 
Bill Wagner
 
Ted Boucher wrote:
 
> Bill Wagner wrote:
>  > Dear Jay,
>  >
>  > Regarding Balkan folk music... The Bulgarian State Radio
> and Television Female
>  > Vocal Choir has an interesting collection on Elektra/
> Nonesuch's Explorer Series
>  > titled "Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares" and may have done a
> second album.
>  >
>  > The Pennywhistlers, a women's vocal group from the
> sixties, has several wonderful
>  > albums, including "Folk Songs of Eastern Europe" and
> "Songs of the Earth" with
>  > Theodore Bikel.  I'm sorry to say I do not know if they
> are still available.
>  >
>  > Instrumentally, the Irish musician Andy Ervine has done
> some wonderful recording
>  > of Eastern-European dance tunes with very complex rythyms.
> Green Linnet and
>  > Shanachie Records are two major Irish labels.  Folk Legacy
> also has a large
>  > catalog, and the Smithsonian took over the Folkways
> archives which should include
>  > some Balkan music.
>  >
>  > I hope this is helpful.
>  >
>  > Bill Wagner
>
> I've been trying to send a post about this for days, and it
> keeps bouncing back--I was going to mention the ""Le Mystere
> Des Voix Bulgares", there is a second album, the group was
> actually a subset of a larger group directed by Philip Koutev
> and there is a nice CD compilation under that name as well.
>
> Also on Nonesuch is A harvest,a shepherd, a bride,  that is
> field music collected by Martin Koenig and Ethel RaiM(who
> founded the Pennywhistlers).
>
> I don't care for Andy Statman's stuff, because he doesn't
> really keep the rhythms well enough to dance to (which is
> what is all about).  As an alternative, I'd suggest
> Zlatne Uste, who are a traditional balkan brass band that
> play the music.  This stuff can be ordered from Elderly
> Instruments, who are on the web, and Tower has been known to
> carry it--especially the Voix Bulgares, which was a big hit
> on college radio a few years ago, and one of the cuts,
> Polegnala e Tudora, is actually now used in a Volvo
> commercial.
>
> Ted
>
> ______________________________________________________
> Get your free web-based email at http://www.xoom.com
> Special clipart offer:  http://orders.xoom.com/email