Louis Sarno gives a talk on his life and work with the BayAka in the Central African Republic. The clip is from the start of a seminar given at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford on the 23rd April 2012, and is introduced by the museum's ethnomusicologist, Dr Noel Lobley

Louis Sarno Seminar Clip (Pitt Rivers Museum, 23-04-12)

Out in the Forest With BayAka Hunters, Central African Republic, 13th March 1987. Recorded by Louis Sarno.

Out in the forest With BayAka hunters, Central African Republic

Afternoon Under a Palm Shelter, 22nd January 1986. A group of BayAka men singing with geedal (bow-harp) playing. Recorded by Louis Sarno in the Central African Republic.

BayAka men singing with geedal (bow harp) playing

Balonyona - a master geedal player, recorded by Louis Sarno at Yandoumbé in the Central African Republic, 20th August 1992.

Balonyona - a master geedal player (Central African Republic)

Boyobi music for a net hunt. Bobé spirits can be heard and the polyphony recedes as the group move into a rhythmic esimé section towards the end. Recorded by Louis Sarno at Mombongo hunting camp, Central African Republic, 1st November 1992.

Boyobi music, Mombongo hunting camp, Central African Republic

Camp scene at night, Momboli playing mbyo (four hole notched flute). Recorded by Louis Sarno in the Central African Republic, 25th September 1992.

Momboli playing mbyo (flute), forest camp scene, Central African Republic

Balonyona leads a gano session. Gano are sung story-fables, and the storyteller uses a variety of voices for different characters while a group provide a rhythmic vocal chorus. Recorded by Louis Sarno in the Central African Republic, 27th February 1987.

Balonyona singing Gano (BayAka sung fables), Central African Republic

BayAka women singing yeyi. Recorded by Louis Sarno in the Central African Republic, 7th April 1993.

BayAka women singing yeyi, Central African Republic

Engbeté, Sinakpa and others playing 'guerilla' music on the bulubu pot bow. A wire is pulled tight across a cooking pot, and plucked and beaten as the tension changes. The bow is usually attached to a hut and can make the whole shelter vibrate. Recorded by Louis Sarno in the Central African Republic on the 23rd April 1993.

Engbeté, Sinakpa and others playing 'guerilla' music on the bulubu pot bow

Makuti and Mbonjo playing mondumé and singing. Recorded by Louis Sarno in the Central African Republic, 1993. The image shows Géké - another musician -  playing the mondumé.

Mondumé (BayAka harp-zither)

Momboli playing mbyo (four hole notched BayAka flute). Recorded in the distance from the path leadings into a forest camp by Louis Sarno, Central African Republic, 24th September 1992.

Momboli playing mbyo (flute) in the distance, Central African Republic

BayAka boyobi ceremony to bless a hunt. Women sing polyphony to entice bobé forest spirits out to dance and sing. Recorded by Louis Sarno at Likumbi forest hunting camp, Central African Republic, 23rd September 1992.

BayAka boyobi music, Central African Republic

A group of BayAka women sing limboku songs, celebrating female power and sexuality and often mocking men. At times two different groups of women can be heard singing different songs. Recorded by Louis Sarno in early April 1987 at Kenyé in the Central African Republic.


BayAka women singing limboku songs, Central African Republic

Men singing and drumming in ejengi's lair, recorded from outside the lair by Louis Sarno in the Central African Republic, 12th December 1992.

BayAka ejengi ceremony, Central African Republic

Enyomo dance ceremony with mokoondi forest spirits. Recorded by Louis Sarno at Batari camp in the Central African Republic, mid February 1995.

BayAka enyomo ceremony, Batari, Central African Republic

BayAka Mafoodya ceremony recorded by Louis Sarno at the village of Bangui-Motaba in Northern Congo, 18th November 1992.

BayAka mafoodya ceremony, Northern Congo

BayAka ejengi music recorded by Louis Sarno at Yandoumbé in the Central African Republic, 1st December 1992.

BayAka ejengi music, Yandoumbé, Central African Republic

BayAka gano music (sung fables). These stories usually involve stories of kumba, the forest god, and the time when forest animals used to be people before kumba turned them into animals.

BaykAka gano music (sung fables),

BayAka boyobi music with bobé spirits calling, addressing the group, singing and urging the singers on to greater performance. Recorded by Louis Sarno at Lom forest camp in the Central African Republic, August 1992.

BayAka boyobi music with bobé spirits calling and conducting the music

A group of BayAka men and children singing and clapping as one person (Mowanja or Makuti) plays the mondumé (harp zither). Recorded by Louis Sarno in the Central African Republic, 9th February 1989.

BayAka mondumé (harp-zither) music

Field recording of U'wa music made by Anne Osborne on 27th October 1973. This is probably a Cobaria dance. The whole collection is curated by the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. See:
http://pittrivers-sound.blogspot.co.uk/ and
http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/reel2real/

Colombian Music: Cobaria Dance recorded by Ann Osborne in 1973 (2012 68 13 B 5)

Field recording of Chocó panpipe music recorded by Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith during an expedition to Colombia in the summer of 1965. More of these recordings are curated by the Pitt Rivers Museum. See:
http://pittrivers-sound.blogspot.co.uk/
http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/reel2real/

Noel Lobley

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