Origin: This is a Russian folk tune performed on the balalaika, a traditional instrument
Orchestration: balalaika
I chose to look for a piece from a country that I have not heard much about in this course thus far: Russia. I pulled up a world map (since I'm pretty bad at geography) and realized I had no idea how close the border of Russia is to some of the Middle Eastern countries. Actually, Russia borders a lot of VERY diverse countries, and it is interesting to hear the sound of its folk music when I keep that fact in mind. I can almost hear a similarity between this piece and some Midlde Eastern music, but then again it is also very different--it sounds like it uses a different scale but at the same time it uses flourishes and quick passages like I have heard in my study of Turkish music.I am always looking for ways to link what I hear with what I already know, but this is a unique sound.
