Film Library: Music

THROAT SINGING

SEPTEMBER 2007

Inuit throat singing is a unique and enchanting form of musical expression. A mixture of husky chanting and low growling, throat singing is a competition in which the first person to laugh, stop, or run out of breath loses.

LEARNING THROUGH SONGS

FEBRUARY 2008

Jack Johnson explains how music can be a beautiful way to approach problems and deal with important issues. Music has the ability to transform anger into calm meditation, and can even develop into life philosophies, he says.

MUD FOOTBALL - GOING TO SCHOOL

FEBRUARY 2008

Jack Johnson performs his song "Mud Football" and shares one of the stories behind the lyrics.

GRAVITY'S GOT A HOLD ON US ALL

FEBRUARY 2008

Charles Annenberg Weingarten asks Jack Johnson why it is important to be selfless and gets a lyrical reply: We're all interconnected, he says. "Gravity's got a hold on us all."

INUIT SONG

SEPTEMBER 2007

On the shores of Canada's Arctic Bay, two teenage Inuit girls sing a traditional melody. Their friend keeps the beat with a qilaut, a drum made of stretched caribou skin.

DICKEY ORPHANAGE

APRIL 2006

Most of the children living in Dickey Orphanage have been orphaned by accidents, illness, or abandoned as a result of economic hardship.

GIFT OF MUSIC

NOVEMBER 2006

At the Kiran Centre in Varanasi, music classes for differently-abled people serve to unlock their talents. Students not only discover a new form of artistic and emotional expression, but many turn their new skills into a way to support themselves.

RUAN

APRIL 2006

The ruan is a Chinese musical instrument with a long history that stretches back 2,000 years. It is similar to a banjo, with a fretted neck, circular body, and four strings.

PIPA

APRIL 2006

Playing the pipa - a long, pear-shaped wooden instrument - requires exceptional hand coordination. It is said that one cannot play the pipa without an open heart and open mind.

BAMBOO FLUTE

APRIL 2006

Simple to make and easy to carry, the bamboo flute has been a favored instrument in China for centuries. Many elderly people, particularly those living in the rural countryside, will often take out their flute during lunchtime and play it by a nearby brook or stream.

DRUMS AND DANCE

JULY 2005

The djembe, common throughout all of West Africa, is a skin-covered hand drum shaped like a large goblet. Watch as people come together to perform traditional African dance to the beat of this drum.