If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.
Tom Peters
There never seems to be an end to confusion in Balkan dance. I have seen programmers confused by requests because the names of two dances are very similar. I find this very amusing and often ask that both dances get played, so we can compare the differences.
The first two dances have several things in common: (1) they are slow and graceful (2) they are from the Oltenia region of Romania and (3) both are geared to the female gender. Notice that a man leads both of them. He is Yehuda Ben-Harush from the Dunav group in Jerusalem, Israel.
Video #3 is another version of Hora Fetelor with different choreography and different music. The ladies are in charge. Notice that in the previous videos a man led the dance. The Alien Diaries is an Equal Opportunity Blog, and features men leading women's dances as well as women leading men's dance.
Here the big girls take over: the dancing as well as the singing. (The men have their own circle on the side). This lively version of Hora Fetelor was recorded at a wedding in Craiova.
Today's post features two pieces of classical music plus one of the original tunes that became a part of Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody #1. Both were inspired by the composers' impressions of Romania.
The piece in Video #1 was created by a Norwegian, Johan Halvorsen. Halvorsen was offered a post at the Bucharest Conservatory. Although he didn't take the position, he took an interest in Bucharest and Boyars, in particular, the entrance of the Boyars into Bucharest in the 18th century. I don't know if he ever visited Romania, but it fired up enough of an interest in him to write a piece about it.
The result was The Entry March of the Boyars. It's 5 1/2 minutes of passion and excitement; I love it, even though it doesn't sound like anything Romanian. This is what inspiration sounds like.
The Romanian Rhapsody #1 by George Enescu uses Romanian folk motifs. One of the tunes in the Romanian Rhapsody is the music for the dance Hora Lui Dobrica.
Here is the Romanian Rhapsody in its entirety, with some beautiful scenery to go along with the music. Hora Lui Dobrica is at 2:20. After watching this video, I will always associate barges and bridges with Hora Lui Dobrica.
This piece starts off slow and gradually speeds up until the wild finale. Reminds me of some Romanian folk dances.
We are all human beings, and our nationality is simply an accident of birth.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
There are dances that have elements in common, even though they are from different countries. Alunelul from (Romania) is a very popular children's dance.. Here the grown-ups have taken over. Video #1 includes instruction and a translation of the lyrics. This version is instrumental; for the vocal check out Video #2.
Vocal version with sing-along lyrics:
Video #3 is Podaraki, a dance from Greece with similar steps. The music sounds more like something from Bulgarian Dobrudja than Greece. Must be the accordion and the stamping.
It's sensational to be part of a series that takes on a life of its own.
Robert Wagner
The series continues: who knew that the names of so many Balkan dances were so confusing?
Today's dances are similar when it comes to name (an additional syllable), the first from Romania (Bukovina), the second from Moldova. Moldova is a separate country, although they speak the Romanian language. Their folk music is very similar to Romanian. To confuse matters even more, there is a region named Moldavia (Moldova) in Romania.
Opinca is a dance very popular in my Sunday night group. The name is derived from the Romanian word for peasant sandals, now used as dance shoes. They are made of leather and tied to the feet with leather strips. Nobody in the video is wearing them.
Opincuta is a totally different dance. If you click on the link you can find the dance notes as well as the lyrics, so you can sing along.
The leader is Roy Butler. He has many videos on YouTube. He is really into folk dancing, especially Romanian dances.
“I think he’s suffering from a nervous shakedown.”
Stan Laurel
Today's post is about a piece we used for the final dance recently. One of the people there pronounced it "Hora of Misery."
Hora Miresei, from Romania, was actually a dance for the bride and her family, done after the wedding before she leaves with her new husband. Maybe that's what the "misery" is about. Can you imagine how maudlin they were about the bride moving to another village, to live with her new family? If there is booze involved, and there usually is, mourning her loss is even harder!
Nervous breakdowns (or "shakedowns") are common before, during and after weddings. The drinking and the dancing help by alleviating some of the stress. After the wedding is when reality sets in, especially for the parents of the bride. Then for the bride, there's the wedding night...
The lyrics for Hora Miresei are beautiful and poignant, and the story told from the viewpoint of her mother. She wants to prolong what little time she has left with her daughter. Here are the lyrics so you can sing along.
I'm a shepherd, not a sheep, and I've always prided myself on being a leader and not a follower.
Dustin Diamond
Today's post features Ciobanasul (Shepherd's Dance). I found three versions of it on YouTube that caught my attention.
Video #1 had me a bit confused. That seems to be a common occurrence on The Alien Diaries, where confusion rules the world of folk dance. This dance is listed as from Romania, but the description on YouTube mentions that this is a dance from Moldova. Moldova and Romania are different countries, although the official language is the same for both: Romanian. There are also similarities in music and dance styles.
To add even more to the confusion, there is a province in Romania named Moldova/Moldavia. It borders the country of Moldova.
The first figure looks like a part of the Chicken Dance. It is repeated several times in the dance.
Video #2 is a different version of Ciobanasul to different music, performed by a school group dressed in elaborate embroidered costumes. They perform it as a line dance (dances from Romania and Moldova are usually done in a circle).
Video #3 is Ciobanasul performed as a couple dance (it becomes a circle at 2:38). This group is from Bacau in Romania. What is really cool is to see all these young people performing folk dances and continuing the traditions.
If you want confusion, check out the series: Balkan Dances That Are Often Confused. It starts with the most recent post. The others can be accessed from there.
Dobrogea is a historical region which spans two countries. The northern part is in Romania and the southern part is in Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, the name is transliterated to Dobrudja.
Dobrogea is a region in Romania where much of the music is in odd rhythms. The song in video #1 is in 7/8 meter (pineapple-apple-apple). The accent in the music is similar to the Bulgarian sirto or Greek kalamatianos. You can dance to it.
Catalina Alexa is a young performer of Romanian folk songs. This song was originally made famous by Natalia Serbanescu, who passed on in 2007.
Video #2 is a group of women and girls performing Eu Sunt Fata Dobrogeana. It concludes with another song in geampara rhythm.
Video #3 is a totally different version of Eu Sunt Fata Dobrogeana performed by Elena Platica. In this song, there are two different rhythms: 7/8 geampara and 3/4 waltz.
There is info on Elena Platica in Romanian, but I couldn't find the lyrics to the song.
Songs in asymmetric rhythms are common in the Balkans and so are rhythm changes within the same song.
"Seagull Flying in a Blue Sky"by Michael Haddad (from Wikipedia)
There comes a time in a man's life when he hears the call of the sea. If the man has a brain in his head, he will hang up the phone immediately.
Dave Barry
Today's post features folk songs about the Black Sea. Seagulls are part of the seaside experience, and people tend to romanticize them (especially those who have read the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull. They are obnoxious birds that are a big nuisance at the beach and they will eat just about anything. Seagulls especially like to hang around while you're eating a sandwich; the smell of meat attracts them. A friend of mine used to feed them (bad idea!) and they never left us alone after that. They got into the potato chips while we were in the water. My husband saw one eat a spare rib bone, whole!
The Black Sea coast is a big resort area, and there are places that have a reputation for being party towns overrun with human seagulls :) especially Sunny Beach (see Video #1).
Video #2 is a song from Romania in an uneven rhythm (9/8): Cantec de la Marea Neagra (song from the Black Sea). The Black Sea region of Romania, Dobrogea, is an area known for music in odd rhythms. The dance to this is cadeneasca, similar to Bulgarian daichovo.
Video #2 is of a Roma song from Bulgaria, Karavana Chajka. The lyrics (in Bulgarian) are about the group Edessa, who have been invited to play at the Café Seagull on the Black Sea coast. You can find the lyrics here, along with an English translation. You can sing and/or dance along to the music (the dance is a cocek).
There are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. Our poetry, our ballads, our songs are full of repetition; nursery rhymes and the little chants and songs we use to teach young children have choruses and refrains. We are attracted to repetition, even as adults; we want the stimulus and the reward again and again, and in music we get it. Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability.
― Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
In previous posts I have written about songs called "earworms." They take up residence in your head for hours and refuse to move out. Today's post features earworms from five Balkan countries.
Video #1 is Valle Kosovare/Shqiptare from Albania. The group is Valle Tona from Worcester, Massachusetts. This song rang in my head for hours the first time I heard it. You can find the lyrics here, in Albanian and in English translation if you'd like to sing along.
The song in Video #2 is by Maria Tanase, a Romanian singer who passed away in 1963 at age 49. During her relatively short life she gave performances around the world, and also had parts in movies and in a musical by Ralph Benatsky. Her most famous song, Ciuliandra, is very popular at folk dances.
Ciuleandra is not as much of an earworm as Bun ii vinu'ghiurhiulul. You will definitely need more than a glass of wine to remove this song from your head. You may even need an entire bottle!
Notice the 7/16 rhythm and repetitive refrain. It is the rhythm for the dance Geampara in Romania and Rachenitsain Bulgaria.
Earworms tend to have an element of repetition; a distinct rhythm and catchy lyrics, which is why they tend to stay in memory for a long time.They can even drive you crazy as you find ways to purge them from your head.
There is a science to this which is explained in Musicophilia, Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sachs, M.D. I borrowed the book from the library to check out his take on music. His research is primarily focused on neurology and experience with stroke, Parkinson's and dementia patients, musical savants, and classical composers.
There is an entire chapter devoted to rhythm and another devoted to what he calls "brainworms". I saw nothing on Balkan music and its asymmetric rhythms, nor does he mention folk instruments like the gaida and zurna. (If you want to read about how the Ottoman Turks used the zurna to intimate their enemies, see the list at the end of this post).
The song in Video #3 is from Croatia. For some reason, Croatian songs tend to stay in the brain forever. It's the repetitive lyrics and the tamburitza music that accompanies them.
U Selu Pokraj Dunava (In a village near the Danube) is about a man in love with the young woman who lives in the village. You can find the lyrics here, but no English translation.
One of the best sites for folk song lyrics in the original language, English and German is the Songbook for Nearsighted People, so named because because the lady who compiled typed the lyrics in a large font so they could be seen in places with poor lighting. It is also good for those who are visually challenged.
You can find the lyrics and sing along toOj Shope Shope in the Songbook. It has a German translation for the song which is about a young man from the Shope region of Bulgaria who thinks he's God's gift to the world. This is a song that refuses to be evicted from the brain. Last year it was part of a gala concert featuring several Bulgarian women's groups. It kept me awake that night.
Video #5 is a song from Macedonia, Dedo Mili Dedo, It tells the story of a day in the life of an elderly couple who still love each other after all the years they've been together. This song has that earworm quality: repetitive lyrics and a catchy rhythm. There is also a dance that goes with the music.
Skylark, photo Wikipedia Commons, Daniel Petterson
In a broader sense, the rhythms of nature, large and small - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music.
George Crumb
If you like music for the birds, you have come to the right place. If English is not your native language "for the birds" is an idiom meaning worthless. If you read today's post and listen to the music, you'll find it definitely worth your time.
Today's post focuses on a very popular tune from Romania, Ciocârlia(Skylark). It was a piece originally composed by Anghelus Dinicu for the pan flute (nai), and arranged for violin by his grandson Grigoraş Ionică Dinicu.
Pan flutes, or panpipes are common to other countries as well as Romania. It is also a folk instrument played in the Andean regions of South America. However, Romanian musicians developed such proficiency on this instrument that they made it sound birdlike. This is why Ciocârlia is so popular with pan flute players.
The performer below is a virtuoso on this instrument. He really gets that bird song on.
The second video is a bit longer than the first, and the soloist is accompanied by a band (violinist, pan flute, cello, cimbalom, accordion, saxophone and several violinists). Although this performance is over 20 years old it's worth a listen. This group sounds just like a flock of birds. Seriously, it sounds like a summer morning when the birds go mad with their chirping. It is amazing how creative these guys are.
It's almost winter and cold enough for snow and ice, in many places (unless global warming has cancelled winter for this year) Check out some variations of Hora pe Gheata.
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
Khalil Gibran
Today's post features dance songs from Croatia and Romania that are named after rivers.
Raka Plava po Dravi from Croatia is a very strange song. The title translates to Duck Swimming in the Drava. The lyrics are rather strange, because the duck has a hat on its head, and the refrain is "this year the roses will bloom." The woman recognizes her beloved as he walks off a ship (he supposedly has a distinctive walk), and she wants to marry him.. The lyrics are really random, and there was no English translation (although I was able translate from German).
By the way, the Drava is a tributary of the Danube, River of Many Names, which has written about extensively on this blog (see the links to other posts). The Drava flows from the west, through Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.
Here's Raca Plava taught by Yves Moreau. He is a well-known teacher, primarily of dances from Bulgaria. He leads workshops all over the world; this one was held in Israel.
In the "village" of Vienna, Austria, they dance Raca Plava a little differently. At dance we have a saying, "he or she is "from a different village" when someone visits one of our dances and does a different variation. Choreography is not a static entity. Remember the game "telephone" you may have played as a child? Dance works the same way.
The next dance song is about a river in Romania Siriul din Buzau. This is another love song, a bit more romantic than the one from Croatia, with beautiful imagery (you can find the English translation here). The music sounds like flowing water.
This group is from the United States.
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
The River of Many Names (all the links are accessible from part seven); a pan-Balkan series with Danube songs from different countries.
Beli Dunav (parts one, two and three) Danube Songs from Bulgaria
A great resource for dance songs and translations is the Songbook for Nearsighted People. The Songbook features lyrics from many different countries (especially the Balkans) in the original languages (transliterated for Bulgarian and Macedonian). Most of the songs are translated into German and English.
You can view the publication in its entirety or each song as a single page. The font is large, perfect for those who are visually challenged :)
Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed.
Judith Butler
This week 's dance begins with M and it's Mindrele from southern Romania. It is also known as Mandrele which translates to "the girls."In Romanian, the letter "i" sounds like "a" when there is a caret symbol ( ^) over the "i." Are you confused yet? There is a caret over the "i" in the dance notes.
Mindrele is an "equal opportunity dance." This group is from the United States; a women leads it and there are men in the line.
Another feminine dance, this time from northwestern Bulgaria, is Momino Horo, which translates to "girls' dance." This took place at a Christmas party in Canada back in 2010, and everyone is in a festive mood.What is really striking about this dance is its hybrid nature: the beginning is slow and graceful. Part two is totally different: all hell breaks loose with stamps and shouts.
Yves Moreau, who spent years in Bulgaria documenting folklore, arranged the choreography based on women's dances from the region of Lom. It's half Macedonian and half Vlach.
The bonus video is also connected with the letter "M." Since we want spring to come sooner rather than later, here is a tutorial on how to make a basic Martenitsa. Let's make Baba Marta happy!
This week's post will feature some lively songs from the folklore region of Dobrogea. I am not very familiar with the performers (except for Aneta Stan); nor the songs. Although they may be popular in Romania, they are not so well-known outside the country. The songs caught my attention, which is why they ended up on this blog.
The rhythms of Romanian Dobrogea have counterparts across the Danube in Bulgarian Dobrudja. Here are two examples:
Geampara - Rachenitsa
Cadaneasca - Daichovo
The Eliznik website goes into more detail about odd rhythms in folk dances from Romania. Rustemul is also mentioned. I couldn't find any songs with that name, but here's the dance:
Now it's time to enjoy some very danceable songs by several Romanian folk artists. Although there is no dancing in these videos, you probably will want to sing (and dance) along to them, and there are some very nice photos to go along with them.
The first song, by Natalia Serbanescu, is Mandra Floare de la Mare.I couldn't get a proper translation; Google ended up with Proud Flower to the Sea. In the video you can see some pictures of the Romanian Black Sea coast. For all I know this is probably an ad for tourism:
The song starts as a cadaneasca, then changes into sirba rhythm. Sirba is another popular Romanian folk dance that was featured on a post about a year ago (see link at the bottom of this page).
The next song is a geampara, (a dance in the rhythm of 7/16) performed by Ani Orheanu Stanciu: Sunt Fata de la Braila (I am a Girl From Braila). Braila is a port city near the Danube Delta. Some of pictures in this video are scenes from the Delta region. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Here's another example of geampara rhythm, performed by Elena Ionescu Cojocaru: Mult ma doare inima (my heart aches...a lot). If you didn't understand Romanian, you'd never guess this is a tragic love song. Your first impulse would be to dance to it.
Aneta Stan sings Eu Sunt Fata Dobrogeana (I am a Girl from Dobrogea), another example of the cadaneasca. If anyone knows the name of the flower in the picture, please let me know in the "comments section." Aneta Stan is from the town of Cernavoda; there is a playlist of her songs on the Cernavoda Blog.
It is my personality alone that has brought back the waltz and made it a global craze.
Andre Rieu
Music from the Balkans is best known for its uneven rhythms and odd time signatures.
Western classical and popular music, for the most part, has an even number in the time signature. A notable exception is the waltz, a dance in 3/4 time.
The waltz originated as an Austrian folk dance, the Ländler, native to southern Germany (Bavaria) and Austria. The most renowned composer of waltzes was Johann Strauss, Junior; although the Viennese waltz did not begin with him. His father Johann Senior and his friend Josef Lanner took Austrian folk tunes and dressed them up for the sophisticated audiences in Vienna and its environs. Their music became part of the classical music repertoire worldwide.
Here is an example of a waltz borrowed from folk music, the Styrian Dancesby Josef Lanner. Styria (Steiermark, in German) is a region in southeastern Austria; it shares a border with Slovenia, part of a country that no longer exists, Yugoslavia.
The fame of the waltz traveled far and wide throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire; it spread to Hungary, where Emmerich Kalman and Franz Lehar incorporated it into their operettas. It went further down the Danube, River of Many Names (Johann Strauss' most famous waltz was about it), into the Balkans, and even as far east as Russia.
The next waltz is from Croatia. The tamburitza orchestra gives it a distinctly Croatian sound. I don't know if this is a folk tune or a piece that was composed. The recording sounds quite old. By the way, much of the music at folk dances comes from vintage recordings.
Diko Iliev, Bulgarian composer (best known for Dunavsko Horo), has a birthday this month on the 15th. Although he composed many pieces based on Bulgarian folk dances such as daichovo, rachenitsa, elenino, and pravo, he wrote waltzes, too. The title of this one, translated from the Bulgarian is In the Vineyards Over Rabine. I have no idea where Rabine is, but it is probably somewhere in Bulgaria, which is a big wine producing country.
In Bulgaria, February is the month of St. Trifon the Pruner (Trifon Zarezan); it is the time when the vintners get to work pruning the vines to make them ready for the next growing season. It it is also celebrated with lots of wine!
And finally, here is a very famous waltz from Romania by a composer who is practically unknown nowadays. Pop culture buffs will recognize this piece because it has undergone several incarnations. One of them was The Anniversary Song performed by Al Jolson (of classic movie fame), in The Jolson Story. The other was a song popular in Korea titled In Praise of Death. The woman who sang it died tragically at a very young age.
This version is the original, by a composer of Serbian descent who lived in Romania. His name was Iosef Ivanovici and he was a bandmaster stationed in Galati. He had his first introduction to music when an elderly man gave him a flute.
He composed a number of pieces including hora, a dance based on Romanian folk tunes, and many other works, including waltzes, polkas, and marches. However, his best known composition was a waltz titled Waves of the Danube, also known under the German title Donauwellen.
By the way, the conductor in this video, Minseok Kang, ironically, is from Korea, and he conducts the Botosani Philharmonic Orchestra. He is quite the character, and an excellent dancer!
Announcement!
My new blog Light and Shadow has now been launched! If you enjoy humor and satire, photos and poetry, stop by to visit! I will be posting there about once a month. Eventually I plan to sell chapbooks of my poetry on this site, as well as feature anthologies where my work has been published.
Today's theme is several variations on tunes with the name Hora Lautareasca.Lautareasca is an adjective which describes folk music from Romania played by groups of Roma (Gypsy) musicians, called "lautari." It comes from lăută, the Romanian word for lute. As you will see (and hear) in the following videos, lautareasca music includes a wide variety of instruments, including brass and woodwinds.
First, let's have a look at the first Hora Lautareasca, performed by the Dunav dancers of Jerusalem in Israel. This was the only version I could find on YouTube with a dance attached to it.
Version two is performed by a brass ensemble very popular in Romania, Fanfare Ciocarlia. My Friday night group does a dance named Coconeasa to this tune; they have it on their master list as a Vlach dance from Bulgaria. The country of origin doesn't matter; music and dance in the Balkans have this thing for crossing borders. I like it very much, and so do the commenters on YouTube. One mentioned that this was so beautiful she would like it played at her funeral. Another described this piece as "music for weddings and funerals."
Here's another brass rendition of Hora Lautareasca. performed by the group Fanfare Transilvania. Transylvania is the region of Romania best known for the infamous vampire, Dracula. He was an actual person (his real name was Vlad Tepes), and had a reputation for impaling his enemies on stakes. Dracula, the vampire, was based on Balkan vampire legends, and was a fictional creation of the Irish author Bram Stoker.
I guess the term "lautari" can also include brass bands as well as traditional instruments. Traditional instruments in Romanian bands include violins, panpipes, cimbalom, and accordion. Some are more traditional than others.
Version four is the one my group dances to on Sunday nights. This one has a number of folk instruments: if you listen carefully, there's a trombone, violin, accordion, and cimbalom. The full name of this piece is Hora Lautareasca Din Dolj. Dolj is a region in southern Romania.
Unfortunately I couldn't find a video of the dance; the music will have to do.
I've never understood why men in the United States are afraid to dance. It must be a cultural thing. Fortunately, in the Balkans, dancing is an expression of masculine prowess, and there are certain dances in which the men love to show off.
Today's post features two different variations of the Romanian folk dance Arcanul. The first is a very lively and energetic dance, very masculine in nature. By the way, Arcanul is also popular in Moldova, a country north of Romania, where the language and culture are similar to their neighbors to the south.
Arcanul Batrinesc, according to the dance notes, is for senior citizens who still want to show off their dancing prowess with deep knee bends and stamps. This can be especially painful if they suffer from arthritis.
If you're a regular visitor to The Alien Diaries, you'll recognize the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel. They have a website and YouTube videos. Go visit them sometime.
Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things. J.H. Poincare
This quote got my attention because dancing is related to math. There are a number of dances that use the same name and different music. Today's dance, Hora de la Munte, from Romania, is one of them.
I learned it many years ago from a lady named Sasha in New York City. At that time she ran a folk dance group that met at the 92nd Street Y on Saturday evenings. I don't know how old she is but my guess is that she is in her eighties (dancers tend to have very long lifespans), and she's still going strong. I saw her last summer at a workshop given by Yves Moreau.
Version one is the one most people know; it is slow and easy to follow. This group is the International Folk Dancers of Ottawa from Canada. Check out their blog: Easy Folk Dances. They have dances posted from all over the world, including Eastern Europe, and they also have a YouTube channel.
This is Hora de la Munte,version two, performed by the same group. It's not a difficult dance; most of it consists of rhythmic walking and it's a bit more lively. Instead of the clarinet solo, there is a woman singing. Version two also has a step in and out sequence.
Today's post features several variations of a popular folk dance from Romania, Alunelul. It means "little hazelnut" and how a dance came by with that name, I don't know. It probably started out as a children's song with the following lyrics:
Alunelul, Alunelul hai la joc Sa ne fie, sa ne fie, cu noroc...
You will find the rest of the song, with translation in German and English, here:
First, here's some background on the dance. It has variations that are done in the different villages and districts in Romania. We will explore a few of them today.
The first video shows the basic version titled simply Alunelul. It is is the one most commonly used by recreational folk dance groups, and an easy dance that anyone can do. It is also very popular with children, probably because of the stamping.
Alunelul Batut takes the dance to the next level. This variation is a bit more complex than the previous one, and there is no song to accompany it, although there are violins and an accordion.
Here it's performed by a group from Copenhagen, Denmark. The translation of the second word, according to Google Translate, is "beaten." My guess is that it has to do with the amount of stamping. They are beating up the hazelnuts here.
The next video shows Roy and the gang dancing Alunelul de la Urzica. If you want to see some really cool folk dance videos, check out Roy Butler's YouTube Channel.
Roy seems to be partial to Balkan dances, especially those from Romania. For some reason the person who took the video was a little too close, so it looks like the heads and feet have been cut off. There is enough here, however, to make watching it worthwhile. They are even wearing folk costumes!
Urzica is a small district in southern Romania. Some of the best dances come from the rural regions; this is one of them.
The next video is of a group from China that is very fond of music from the Balkans and calls itself a "bonding folkdance class." This dance teacher posts under the name gpknh and he also has many videos on his YouTube channel. If you are a regular reader of this blog you have seen some of them.
Here they dance Alunelul de la Goicea. Goicea is a district in southern Romania, in the county of Dolj. This one is done to a bagpipe accompaniment; they call it a "cimpoi" in Romania. The Romanians like the bagpipe,almost as much as their Bulgarian neighbors :)
Now that there are two bridges crossing the Danube instead of one, hopefully there will be even more intercultural exchange between Bulgaria and Romania. According to the Bulgarian Radio's Vidin affiliate, this has already been happening...
Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.
M. Scott Peck
I like to start Alien Diaries posts with quotes, and this one is no exception. I especially like M. Scott Peck's quote because it is so true.
What delights me the most about Balkan music is the asymmetrical rhythms, the sounds of unusual musical instruments such as the tambura, cimbalom, and kaval and the distinctness of each country's music. What I have found, however, is despite the differences, music from different Balkan countries often crosses borders, with some interesting results. For example, the Bulgarian dance rachenitsa has a Romanian counterpart, geampara.
In honor of Danube Day 2013, which takes place on June 29th, today's post features four songs from four different Balkan Danube countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Croatia. They share one thing in common: a river runs through them.
The first song is from Romania (we are working our way upstream here). Balada Fetei Dunarene ("Ballad of the Danube Girl") is a poignant and beautiful song, with clarinet, violin and cimbalom accompaniment. The video has some beautiful photos of the town of Cernavoda. Cernavoda is a Romanian town with a Bulgarian name, and it means "black water."
This song is from YouTube via the Cernavoda Blog, which you may find interesting if you can read Romanian. I went there to find the lyrics for the song, but couldn't find them.
What I find disturbing is that the Cernavoda coat of arms has the symbol for nuclear energy. The town has a nuclear power plant, and those things don't have a very good reputation. I would definitely sings the blues about something like that. Do some of you readers remember Cherno byl? It wasn't all that long ago.....
More music, scenery, and this time dancers with elaborate embroidered costumes, from Bulgaria. This song is Dunave, Beli Dunave which means "White Danube." The River of Many Names is also the River of Many Colors. From what I've seen it can be white (during fog), gray, blue, gold, green and even brown.
This feel-good song conveys a completely different mood than previous one. It's lively and upbeat and accompanied by a loud brass band. According to the Bulgarian notes, the performers had to wait two hours for the fog to lift . Here is a translated excerpt which describes the making of the video.
Video for Dunave is realized in Oryahovo and it involved local dance group "Spring" community center "Hope 1871" and the brass band from Lovech - birthplace of the singer. Much fog proved an obstacle to the pictures, but the participants patiently waited for 2 hours. The picture completely meets the elevated mood of the song. The presence of different age participants passing ships, fishermen and boatmen, visually complement the song.......
If you are familiar with Bulgarian folk music, you will recognize the dance Devetorka. It is in an odd rhythm; the top number on the time signature is a nine. Devet means "nine" in Bulgarian. By the way, Devetorka is popular in Macedonia and Serbia as well as Bulgaria.
In the next song from Serbia Oj Dunave Plavi, the Danube is blue! You can see it here, through the viewfinder of a cellphone camera. According to the translation I found, this is a song about a lost love. If there is such a thing as blues music in Serbia, this is it. Instead of guitars and saxophones, Serbs sing the blues accompanied by an accordion or two. If they don't have an accordion, a keyboard will do. Some people consider accordions instruments of torture, that is not the case in Serbia.
The last song is from Croatia, and the singer is accompanied by a tamburitza orchestra. Tamburitza ensembles are extremely popular in Croatia and they have a unique and distinctive sound. When Croatians emigrated abroad, especially to the United States they brought tamburitza music with them, so they wouldn't be so homesick.
The song U selu pokraj Dunava is about the dark-eyed girl who lives in a village by the river. The singer is (supposedly) in love with her. She must be a damned good cook.
photo from Wikipedia Commons, Danube Bridge 2, taken March 2013
We build too many walls and not enough bridges.
Sir Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton's words certainly ring true, both literally and figuratively, and here at The Alien Diaries building bridges between cultures is one of the main reasons for this blog.
I find bridges fascinating because I grew up in New York City, a city linked together by hundreds of bridges. One of my childhood nightmares involved a drawbridge that opened when I was halfway across, and one of my favorite memories was summer nights in one of New York's waterfront parks. We often stayed late enough to watch the bridge lights come on.
Many years ago I had won tickets to the 100th Anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a beautiful, festive ceremony that I will never forget.
Today's post celebrates the official opening of Danube Bridge 2, (Bulgarian: Дунав мост 2, Romanian: Podul Vidin-Calafat), connecting the cities of Vidin, Bulgaria, and Calafat, Romania.
You can get information on Danube Bridge 2 from its official website: Click on one the flags to read about it in the language of your choice.
Until Danube Bridge 2 was completed in 2013, there was only one bridge crossing between Romania and Bulgaria; the Giurgiu–Ruse Bridge, completed in 1954. This made things especially difficult for truck drivers and other commercial traffic; they had to deal with long waits at ferry crossings, since one bridge couldn't accommodate them all.
The Giurgiu–Ruse Bridge was also known as the "Friendship Bridge" during socialist days, a term used for propaganda purposes. There couldn't have been too much friendship going on between the two countries. The dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania, had his country under lockdown. The situation in Romania became so bad under his regime that people risked their lives swimming across to Bulgaria to escape oppression.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, things have changed in Eastern Europe for the better. Hopefully.
Because The Alien Diaries is a music and dance blog (among other things), the first video is a dance piece, Sârba de la Calafat. The notes on the video a describe a course for accordion video lessons. (If you're interested click here:) The accordionist here does an excellent job, he has learned his lessons well.
Unfortunately, there is no dancing in this video, if you want to see some Sârba, click this link. It is a very energetic and lively dance, especially when it's done by people who've had a little too much booze.
This colorful group of costumed dancers performs Vidinsko Horo. Energetic dances like this are typical of the Severnjasko (northwest) region of Bulgaria.
Diko Iliev, a Bulgarian composer who lived from 1898 to 1984 wrote a very well-known piece which has almost become the second national anthem of Bulgaria. It's played during celebrations, especially at the start of the New Year. This is Iliev's Dunavsko Horo, which was most likely written while the composer lived in Oryahovo. If you look closely you can see a photo of Iliev at center stage.
And now we come to the water underneath that bridge. The composer of this waltz (yes, they play waltzes in the Balkans!) was of Serbian origin and he made his home in Romania. His name was Ion Iosef Ivanovici, and he was a bandmaster in the Romanian army who composed music in his spare time. He was quite prolific, having written over 350 dance pieces.
His compositions was quite popular at the end of the 19th century, but unfortunately he was pretty much forgotten after his death in 1902.
According to the article here, Ivanovici was influenced not only by the music of the Austro-Hungarian empire (they and the Ottomans held sway over this part of the world in the late 19th century), but also by Romanian traditional music. He wrote several hora pieces, hora being the national dance of Romania.
This is his best-known piece, Waves of the Danube. If you read the Wikipedia article, you'll find it has undergone several incarnations such as as The Anniversary Song in the United States and in Korea as the Psalm of Death (how morbid!) This is the original orchestration, and like many other pieces on The Alien Diaries, it has an odd time signature. This one is in 3/4, and played in true Romanian style. Note that the conductor is Korean, but the orchestra is from the town of Bostusani, in northern Romania.
By the way, the waltz is listed on the video under its German name, Donauwellen. There is also a cake with the same name!
If you enjoyed this, you may also enjoy the rest of the series Crossing the River Parts 1, 2 and 3. Part 3 is where you'll find the links to the earlier posts.
The River of Many Names, parts 1 -6. (you can find the links from 1-5 in Part 6. If you like Close Encounters of the Danubian kind, you will love this series.
If you love Balkan music and dance you have come to the right place! The Alien Diaries began in February 2010 and is updated at least twice a month.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my cat Fatso (see avatar), who passed away on April 9, 2011 from congestive heart failure. He was the inspiration for several of my early posts.
Don't forget to check out my second blog, Light and Shadow, for some humor, satire, photos and poetry!
