Gh’emshir

Gh’emshir is a music genre indigenous to Lathadu and an adjoining section of southern Ordrey. Created in the 1940s by young Lathadun and Ordrish musicians, it combines Ushteyghoo-style brass band, new Sedic folk, and traditional Lathadun and Ordrish musical influences. Although a fairly region-locked genre, gh’emshir maintains a large audience throughout East Alutra, and has acquired small but passionate followings elsewhere.

Origin of the term
The origin of the word “gh’emshir” is believed to have been derived from the Gundiagh phrase “drogh-emshir,” which translates both to “bad weather” and “bad times.” Additionally, the phrase translates idiomatically to signify the speaker’s fatigue or lack of energy. The earliest recorded use of the term may have been the music group called the Gh’emshir Shlieeyree Skillad (Sad-Time Skillet Lickers) who recorded the song, “The Waters Will Go Down One Day” in 1939.

Characteristics
Gh’emshir’s sound is typified by highly emotional, lovelorn lyrics, tripleting pianos, undulating bass lines, bellowing horn sections, and a strong, rhythmic backseat. It is exemplified by slow ballads, but has also produced many upbeat compositions. Gh’emshir was originally created at house or clan dances, where families and friends gathered for socializing. During the genre’s heyday (1948-1964), several songs appeared on national record charts across East Alutra. In gh’emshir’s Lathadu-south Ordrey birthplace, fans regarded many bands and songs that never became national hits as classics. As a result, the music integrated subsequent forms in addition to the traditional ones, and continued to evolve.

Roots and early history
The musicians who went on birth gh’emshir listened to (and often performed) traditional Lathadun and Ordrish music as children, as well as more modern, broader genres that had emerged in the modern world. Like other Sedic youth of the day, they discovered these new alluring sounds and shifted away from the more traditional compositions. At the same time, they incorporated folk instruments like the accordion, fiddle, and triangle to modern ones such as the electric guitar and bass, upright piano, saxophone, and drumming trap set in their performances. By the early 1950s, gh’emshir musicians had developed their own distinct sound and repertoires. They performed to receptive crowds in local dancehalls and released recordings on local record labels.

Lathadun gh’emshir musicians often adopted Ordrish stage names that masked their Gundiagh surnames in hopes of appealing to a wider audience. Some of these musicians changed their names because they were ashamed of their rural Gundiagh heritage - a feeled shared at the time by a segment of the Gundiagh population of Lathadu. But economics motivated most gh’emshir musicians: they wanted to sell records and book gigs not only in Lathadu and southern Ordrey, but beyond, where pronunciation of Gundiagh surnames often eluded record promoters, disc jockeys, and consumers. Despite its more obvious modern influences, gh’emshir was not devoid of folkish characteristics. Many popular ballads were recorded bilingually in both Gundiagh and Ordrish, with many even employing Salian and Tretuish dialects following the spread of the genre to Lathadu’s southeast and west respectively.

Legacy
More than a dozen gh’emshir songs have appeared in top 100 charts since the genre’s origin in the mid-1940s. While gh’emshir drew heavily on Ushteyghoo-style brass band and other popular styles of its day, it reciprocated by making a detectable impact on the genres that followed, particularly in Ordrey. Although gh’emshir began a slow decline with the mid-’60s, the genre continues to draw devoted fans to Lathadu and south Ordrey festivals and nightclubs. Some younger non-gh’emshir south Sedic folk musicians have acknowledged a strong influence in their work.