The Herdsmans' Duet

The Herdsman of the North Mountains have an interesting way of calling their sheep: they sing in duet. A slow, droning melody fills the North country every night at dusk. These nomadic people travel only in specific groups: two unmarried men tend the herd on the roam. And always two. The songs have a specific pattern too:

The two men start in a low, bellowing chorus, dancing around intervals of a minor key. By the time this overture is complete, the flock has gathered at their feet. The singers take a short break to count the sheep and assemble them in the appropriate procession, keeping the song together with short snaps of their tongues and whistles, interspersed with variably timed rests. The group then embarks on their walk home. After the movement has gotten into full swing, the older of the singers begins his solo which is a spoken poem, generally about three stanzas uttered quite slowly, as his partner accompanies him by whistling, knocking brush, and producing other miscellaneous low key sound with his body and surroundings. At the close of the older member's solo, the chorus begins again with a burst. This time, however, the piece is heavier, more dramatic; the melodies becomes tangled, the rhythm more erratic, the tempo faster, the improvisations more prominent. This reprise is the "all-out" version of what we heard before. The song becomes powerfully angry with loneliness and the herdsman don't appear to hold anything back. The pair wail until their voices crack and they become weary. As the pace of their walk has increased greatly during this stage of the song, they and their flock are now near their final destination. They quickly slow down almost to a halt as they approach their home, accompanying this change in speed by creating similar low volume sounds as before. Now the younger singer receives his opportunity to sing a solo - a short, usually melodically driven, yet poem-like piece often remanesent of the previous solo. This is the younger males chance to show what he has learned from his older counterpart; what songwriting techniques he has picked up on their journeys. As the songs ends on a quietly sung farewell, the flock settle into bed for the night and the two herdsman end their song for the night.

When the older herdsman takes a wife, the younger herdsman takes his place as the key soloist, acquiring a new, younger counterpart. In this way the same song has been playing for generations here in North Country - the same lonely duet.