Here is a piece of music that sounds fitting for a celebration of the new year . . .

I love the sound of this celtic fiddler and his band!  It is Alasdair Fraser, originally from Scotland, and now living in the United States.  He has perfomed for many years, and also founded two fiddle camps-- Valley of the Moon, among the redwood trees in California, and Sierra Fiddle Camp. In addition to playing music and teaching here in the U.S., Alasdair has been running a fiddle course on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, since 1987.

Here is a link to his website: 
​www.alasdairfraser.com/home

This song is from his award-winning Dawn Dance album, created with his band Skyedance, and released in 1996.

There is an instrument that is unique to Armenia; it is made with apricot wood, along with a reed plant that grows along the Arax River.  It looks something like a recorder, except for the reed mouthpiece.  And the sound it makes is rich and warm.  Playing it requires cheeks full of air, and circular breathing.  

This is the "duduk" (DOO-dook); it's name comes from a Turkish word for "pipe." It is played in Armenia for social and cultural events, usually with one duduk player making a drone sound and another playing a melody.

It is an ancient instrument, known to be used in Armenia at least since the reign of Armenia's king "Tigram the Great," 95 - 55 BC.

Its distinct sound has been sought for use in some Western films-- the sound of Mr. Timnus playing his "flute" in The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion. the Witch and the Wardrobe  was  created with a duduk.  

The sound of the duduk has been compared to sounds of the oboe, clarinet, and saxophone.  But really, it doesn't mimic any of these-- because the sound it makes can only be made by the duduk.

Would you like to hear it?

Here is a lovely duet composition with duduk and guitar,  played in this Youtube video by Vigen Hovsepyan and Vahan Ghalechyan:

It looks like playing this instrument takes a lot of concentration; and for a slender and small instrument, it is quite powerful in its audio output.  I like the sound of the guitar along with the duduk.

In Japan, there are several traditional musical instruments that are popular, and are used by modern players.  I was recently learning about them.  

One is the shamisen, a banjo-like stringed instrument with a very long neck that is played either using a "bachi" (looks kind of like a spatula) or plucked. It has only three strings.

Then there is the koto-- the names for different parts to this instrument all refer to it being a "dragon." Well, it IS long, like a dragon. . . about 6 feet long.  It's made from hollowed out wood, and has 13 strings raised above it lengthwise, supported by bridges.  The strings are plucked with special finger picks.

Other traditional Japanese instruments are bamboo flutes (some of these are blown through an end-- like a recorder, Irish tin whistle, etc.) and various drums.

All of these are being played in this very interesting piece of music, "Bad Apple!!" by formal musicians on a traditional stage.  The arrangement of this Japanese pop song is by Yorihide Fukushima.

                                                           See Video Here

"Bad Apple!!" is a musical piece composed for a video game created by gamemaker ZUN, in Japan.  It was in the game Lotus Land Story.  The song became extremely popular when Japanese pop singer Nomico performed and recorded it in 2007.  

Also, just because it is so awesome to watch, I'd like to share another video of this same song.  It is done in black and white 3-D silhouette art (by Anira, in Japan), and went viral when it was released in 2009-- maybe you've already seen it (10 million people did, a few years ago).  It's on YouTube, here.