This concert podcast features the Yale Percussion Group performing James Wood’s “Village Burial with Fire” (1989). Here the memories are of a Hindu, princely funeral ceremony—for two months the villagers have been making preparations—hundreds have turned out wearing their most lavish and colourful clothes, and carrying offerings of food on their heads. First, there is the noisy procession down to the river for purification of the soul, then a short ceremony, and then the vast funeral pyre is set alight. At this moment it seems as though the whole village has exploded into music and dancing—soon, some go into trance. Gradually the physical form of the pyre disintegrates, and the spirit of the deceased is formally set free to mingle with the spirit world. In the evening, when the festivities have moved on to another place, some mourners lament beside the glowing embers.

Track 14 from Saydisc "Percussion Around the World" - notes from Maureen Hanke.

'Ritual Burial Dance', an African piece, features Mayinda Orawo, a highly respected chief of the Luos who is also known as the Hippo Man.
He is heard here playing a repeated pattern drum. The gourd horns, flutes, rattles and whistles create the mournful wailing of sorrow.