30th smf, day fifteen, noon and night, with film

Today's noon30 at the CMC was easily my favorite event of the entire music festival.
Not only was the music phenomenal for the ear and my dancing feet, but this was also a much-welcomed visual treat after the sparse eye appeal of last night's concert.
Just look at the instruments!
How ornate and beautifully colored!
You know how I am about things being prettier than they need to be - I appreciate aesthetic details!
All total, there where twelve

stringed Mongolian instruments on stage, as well as a flute, a horse's hoof, and a drum that had ridges on the side.
I have never seen so many people taking photographs of the empty orchestra before!
Notice the rich, vibrant colors!
The people wore rich colors, too.
The nine members of An Da Union hail from different regions, but have a united goal of keeping alive the music of their homeland.
Mission accomplished with me!
From the very first song, they had me dancing and trying to sing along on the refrains, even though I didn't speak the language.
That first one convinced me that their highlands music was akin to bluegrass. However, instead of train sounds, we were treated to herds of galloping horses, tossing their manes and giving an occasional whinny!
All true, all true! I saw them with my own eyes!
(smile!)
Don't believe me? Give a listen to "Wind Horse" and see I speak truth!
Not that all the songs dealt with horses, of course.
"The Herdsman" featured "Cassanova" singing and hamming it up - fun!
A more somber, more beautiful song was "Altargana", about a mother waiting for her child to return. The singer gave me a warm hug when she came back to the stage door.
(smile!)
They both sang another song about love of mothers, which has a video with scenes of their homeland - beautiful.
But what was truly thrilling was the throat singing! "Derlcha" showed that off quite well, rap battle style!
I admit to being fascinated with the throat singing. I even tried it out and was surprised how much I felt it in my chest! Maybe that will be helpful for clearing up congestion there? I'll have to give it a whirl sometime!
Many thanks for the inspiration - and the inspiring concert!!!
i thank You, God, for leading me to these music gatherers!

My second event was one of the six on my "must have" list.
I knew it to be a combination of live music and a silent film composed of video and photographs taken in 1941 of life in a Southern town (as opposed to a Northern town).
(That was a little inside joke for me, based on a karaoke experience.)
"Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait" was the result of Jenny Scheinman, folk musician, poring through almost three hours of H. Lee Waters' footage at Duke University.

That was back in 2015, when she was commissioned to create this work of art.
After editing the three reels of film into cohesive story segments, and composing the music to accompany those segments, the film shown tonight was created, as well as the separate soundtrack, "Here On Earth".
We were graced with the music performed live!
That was very nice, as was the 'moving portrait' of that North Carolina town.
Still, it was a rather somber experience for me.
I kept wondering how many of the people in the film were still alive.
Those videos and pictures were produced seventy-eight years ago.
My Aunt Linda will be 79 years old on Monday.
She is too young to have any memories of 1941.
I really wish my stepdad was here to talk to about that.
He would have been a teen then... and 97 years old, if still alive today.