Music
Traditional Newar music consists of sacred music, devotional songs, seasonal songs, ballads and folk songs. One of the most well-known seasonal songs is Sitala Maju. The ballad describes the expulsion of children from Kathmandu in the early 19th century. Another seasonal song Silu is about a pilgrimage to Gosaikunda that went wrong. Ji Waya La Lachhi Maduni is a tragedy song about a newly-married couple. The ballad Rajamati about unlucky lovers is widely popular.
Common percussion instruments consist of the dhimay, khin, naykhin and dhaa. Wind instruments include the bansuri (flute), payntah (long trumpet) and mwahali (short trumpet). Chhusya, bhusya and taa (cymbals) and gongs are other popular instruments. String instruments are very rare.
Musical bands accompany religious processions in which an idol of a deity is placed in a chariot or portable shrine and taken around the city. Devotional songs known as bhajan may be sung daily in community houses. Dapa songs are sung during hymn singing seasons at temple squares and sacred courtyards. Gunla Bajan musical bands parade through the streets during Gunla, the 10th month of the Nepal Sambat calendar which is a holy month for Newar Buddhists. Musical performances start with an overture which is a salutation to the gods. Seasonal songs and ballads are associated with particular seasons and festivals. Music is also played during wedding processions, life-cycle ceremonies and funeral processions.
Read more about this topic: Newa People
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Westminster Abbey is nature crystallized into a conventional form by man, with his sorrows, his joys, his failures, and his seeking for the Great Spirit. It is a frozen requiem, with a nation’s prayer ever in dumb music ascending.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half-fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears.... It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)