The first volume contains three documentaries and starts mainly with the music of the Fulani. Music & dance in the regions of Timbuktu and Gao follow and are dedicated to the musical cultures of the Songhai, the Moors, the Tuareg, and the Daoussahak.

ODE TO THE HERD
The Fulani in Mopti (33min) 

Recitations, poems and songs are executed by the Fulani-shepherds in praise of what is most important in their life: the cattle. Besides the expressive vocal music, the one-stringed violin woogéru, the shepherd’s flutes, lutes, and the characteristic calabash drums with their distinctive, brisk rhythms can be heard when the shepherds return home from their long wanderings.

 

THE LEGENDARY TOWN
Dances in Timbuktu (35min)

From the desert regions of Timbuktu, the takamba-dance has gained great popularity. The delicate sounds of the lamellophone bigini may seem strange alongside modern lute melodies and hard calabash drumbeats. However, the mixture of the cultures of the Moors, the Songhai and the Tuareg in this region brings immense musical surprises.

 

THE MELTING-POT
In the Sahel around Gao (37min)

The harsh sound of the cylindrical drums hare and the high, elusive tones of the one-stringed lute zarka are characteristic for the desert peoples living in the region of Gao. Their musical richness becomes strikingly evident when the mortar drum tende joins in the sonorous songs or accompanies the famous lute imzad.

 

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