187 articles
Cumbia
Cumbia: Colombian Caribbean music genre, dance, and social practice from the Bajo Magdalena, blending African drums, Indigenous gaita flutes, and European elements; spread across Latin America with variants like cumbia villera, sonidera, and chicha.
Dasa Kirtana
Dasa Kirtana is the body of Kannada devotional songs composed by the Haridasas of Karnataka from the 14th century onward, a form Purandara Dasa, father of Carnatic music, brought to maturity.
Deuda
Deuda (देउडा) is a folk song-and-dance tradition of western Nepal, sung in a circle by groups exchanging question-and-answer verse, notably at the Gaura festival, and also practiced in India's Kumaon and Garhwal.
Dhadi
Dhadi (Punjabi: ਢਾਡੀ) is a Punjabi ballad music genre and its performers, who accompany heroic and devotional narratives on the dhadd drum and sarangi, a tradition traced to Guru Hargobind.
Dhadi Var
Dhadi Var (ਢਾਡੀ ਵਾਰ) is a Punjabi heroic ballad sung by dhadis with dhad drum and sarangi, central to Sikh remembrance of warriors and martyrs.
Dikir Barat
Dikir barat is a Malay choral performance art from Kelantan, Malaysia, built on call-and-response singing, improvised pantun verse, and synchronized hand movements; it was listed as Malaysian National Heritage in 2009.
Djanggawul Song Cycle
The Djanggawul Song Cycle is a mythic chant cycle of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land, narrating the voyage of two sisters and their brother, dominant Dua moiety ancestors.
Dondang Sayang
Dondang Sayang is a traditional Malay performing art from Melaka, Malaysia, in which two singers of opposite sex exchange improvised love pantun quatrains in song, recognized by UNESCO in 2018.
Efik Ekpe society praise chants
Efik Ekpe society praise chants are sung texts of the Ékpè graded society of the Cross River Basin, performed publicly and mostly in the Efik language.
Estonian folk song
The Estonian folk song in its oldest form is the regilaul, also called runosong, an alliterative, unrhymed tradition that was nearly extinct by 1900 and later revived.
Extempo
Extempo, also called extempo war or calypso war, is an improvised form of calypso performed mainly in Trinidad, Tobago, and Grenada, where singers trade witty verses on a drawn topic.
Fado
Fado is a Portuguese music and poetry genre born in working-class Lisbon in the 1800s, sung solo with guitar and listed by UNESCO in 2011.
Fatele
Fatele is the traditional communal song and dance of Tuvalu, in which a seated chorus sings repeated lyrics with rhythmic accompaniment while dancers perform set movements.
Flamenco
Flamenco is an art form from southern Spain fusing song, dance, and guitar playing, with its heartland in Andalusia and UNESCO heritage status since 2010.
Folk music
Folk music: traditional, orally transmitted, regionally based music distinct from popular and art music; shaped by revivals, the Lomax archives, indie-folk, and UNESCO heritage listings.
Gambian griot tradition
The Gambian griot tradition, known in Mandinka as jaliya, is the hereditary profession of oral historians, praise singers, and musicians among the Mandinka people of The Gambia.
Ghost Dance songs
Ghost Dance songs are the ritual songs of the 1889–90 Ghost Dance, a messianic movement spread by the Paiute prophet Wovoka and associated with the Lakota and the Wounded Knee massacre, with some songs surviving today.
Gidayū-bushi
Gidayū-bushi (義太夫節) is a genre of jōruri, Japanese narrated storytelling to shamisen, founded in Osaka by Takemoto Gidayū and performed today in bunraku puppet theater.
Goalpariya folk songs
Goalpariya folk songs, or Goalpariya lokageet (গোয়ালপৰীয়া লোকগীত), are lyrical folk songs of western Assam's Goalpara region, sung mainly by women and popularized on stage by Pratima Barua Pandey.
Gopichandrer Git
Gopichandrer Git, also known as Maynamatir Gan, is a Bengali narrative folk ballad cycle in which the young king Gopichandra renounces his throne to take initiation from the yogi Hadipa.
Goryeo gayo
Goryeo gayo (고려가요), also called Goryeo jangga, are the vernacular Korean lyric songs created during the Goryeo dynasty, mainly love songs transmitted orally until written in hangul in the Joseon period; 14 survive.
Guna chant tradition
The Guna chant tradition is the ceremonial chanting of the Guna people of Panama and Colombia, in which trained male chanters perform fixed texts for curing, history, and rites.
Gungu
Gungu is a Swahili song-and-poetry genre of the East African coast combining dance, wedding song, and competitive poetic dialogue, performed at weddings in Lamu and Mombasa.
Hari-kirtan
Hari-kirtan (हरिकीर्तन) is a devotional performance tradition of India's Bhakti movement in which a solo kirtankar combines singing, storytelling, acting, and spiritual discourse; it is most elaborated in Maharashtra.
Hát quan họ
Hát quan họ is a Vietnamese folk song genre of alternating male and female group singing from Bắc Ninh province, added to UNESCO's heritage list in 2009.
Hát xoan
Hát xoan, also called Xoan singing, is a ritual form of Vietnamese folk singing and dancing from Phú Thọ province, tied to worship of the Hùng Kings.
Hausa bori performance songs
Hausa bori performance songs are the repertoire musicians use to summon and honor spirits during trance ceremonies of the Hausa bori cult in northern Nigeria and Niger.
Hausa maroka praise tradition
The Hausa maroka praise tradition, called roko in Hausa, is professional praise-singing in Northern Nigeria, in which specialists called maroka perform laudatory songs for patrons in return for gifts.
Hawaiian haku mele
Hawaiian haku mele is the Hawaiian term for composing Hawaiian poetry and for the composer of that poetry, covering chant and song from pre-contact times to today.
Historical song
A historical song (историческая песня) is a Russian folk song devoted to real events and figures of Russian history, flourishing in the 16th to 18th centuries.