Eurovision and Folklore

I do love brash pop music. It's fun.
Romey Madley Croft

I never knew of the Eurovision Song Contest until I moved to Germany. My friends had everyone over to watch the show, which took place Saturday night in early May.  It was a social event, something like the Super Bowl here in the States. We ate, drank and critiqued the songs. I remember it as a mix of mostly sappy love songs with a few humorous ones thrown into the mix.

Songs in a foreign language don't tend to go over well in the States, with few exceptions because people don't understand the lyrics.  In Europe, children in elementary school learn at least one foreign language so they grow up multilingual. In the United States, young people don't usually learn a second language until high school.

Today's theme is the use of Balkan folklore in Eurovision. The theme for the year 2017 was "Celebrating Diversity." I didn't find any good songs for 2017, but here are some from years past with a strong folklore flavor.

Video #1 is the Bulgarian entry for 2013, Samo Shampioni (Only Champions) by Elitsa and Stoyan.  Back in 2007 they had made it to fifth place with the song Voda (Water).

There are several folklore elements: the gaida player with the mask, the three women in the background with elaborate embroidered costumes, and Elitsa singing in the style of the Shope region.

This song placed 12th in the semi-finals; why I don't know.  I give it a "thumbs up" for energetic performance (at one point it looked like a duel of the drums) and the use of Bulgarian folk motifs.



The Serbian entry for 2010 features brass band music, very popular in Serbia.

Ovo je Balkan (this is Balkan) is the name of the song.  I detected a kolo rhythm at 1:14 and several times throughout the song.  This is a dynamic performance, a bit crazy and fun to watch.  You wouldn't know it from watching the performers, but this is a sexy love song.  It finished 13th in the finals.



Video #3 is the Eurovision entry from 2013: Alcohol is Free, from Greece.  During the intro, one of the musicians plays a tiny stringed instrument (tambouras), then all hell breaks loose after the drums and the trumpet play (at 0:41).

I found the lyrics in English translation (something always gets lost in translation) and what I got from them was a song about drunken sailors on a sea of whiskey (why not ouzo?) I give them points for a dynamic and fun presentation with the presence of Greek folklore. The band's name is Koza Mostra  (a play on Cosa Nostra, maybe?) This is definitely not a love song!

The song placed 6th in the finals.



The Croatian entry for Eurovision 2006 was Moja štikla, (My High Heel)  The dancing reminded me of the Greek Pentozali,  the choral singing is pure Croatian.harmony.

The singer, Severina, really stands out in her red dress (she tosses it at 2:20) and her passionate performance, along with her backup (wearing folk costumes) was a pleasure to watch.

This song placed 12th in the finals.  Maybe the judges and the audience just don't appreciate folklore and pop culture as much as I do.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Beethoven with a Bulgarian Accent; Mozart Goes Greek

Bits and Pieces: More Folklore and Pop Culture From the Universe of YouTube


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Bring on the Border Crossers!

The question of the value of nationality in art is perhaps unsolvable.
Edward Hopper

Today's dances have a reputation for crossing borders. There are elements of one or more country's influence in all of them.

The first is Arap .Although it is often listed as a dance from Macedonia, it is also very popular in Bulgaria.

Most groups dance Arap to a familiar song about a rabbit headed for Thessaloniki to find a bride. There are other tunes for this dance as well, some with singing and some without.

The Bulgarian version is done to different music, with no vocals.



Recently, one of the ladies in the Sunday group requested Bregovsko Horo.  It is a dance from northwestern Bulgaria near the Serbian border. We hadn't done that one in a long time.

This dance is part Bulgarian, part Vlach and part Serbian.  The steps are similar to Serbian čačak and the music sounds Serbian as well! There is also Vlach influence in the stamps.  The Vlachs in Bulgaria originally came from Romania and influenced the music and dance of the Vidin region. They traveled far and wide all over the Balkans because they often worked as shepherds.

This dance probably has dual or even triple citizenship from all those border crossings :)



Here is a čačak from Serbia for comparison; it is also known as the Five Figure Čačak.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Travels of Padjusko Horo

The "Flavors" of Serbian Čačak

Three Variations of the Bulgarian/Macedonian Dance Arap


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Fun and Fast Kolos from Serbia

If you think of exercise as a 60-minute commitment 3 times a week at the gym, you're missing the point completely. If you think that going on a diet has something to do with nutrition, you don't see the forest through the trees. It is a lifestyle. I know it sounds cliche, but you have to find things you love to do.
Brett Hoeble

Today's post features some Serbian dances that I've done at one time or another.  They are fun and fast and get the heart rate going.  Who needs aerobics when there's kolo?

The first one is a bouncy little number that is often played early in the evening because it's a relatively easy dance to follow: Divčibarsko Kolo. It has something called "ethnic symmetry", which means the same footwork in both directions.







Rokoko Kolo is a hybrid dance from Vojvodina.  It's a Serbian dance that sounds Croatian because of the  tamburitza music.  The accordion is the national instrument of Serbia, but in Vojvodina they are more into tamburitza.  The heel clicks are common to Hungarian dances because a sizable Hungarian minority lives in this part of Serbia. Political borders in the Balkans don't always align with cultural ones.



Polomka is a medley of several Vlach dances with lots of stamping.  Except for the last figure this dance is fairly easy to follow.

Brass music is popular in Serbia, too.  Every year in August there is a festival called Guca where bands all from all over Serbia (and some from outside the country, like Zlatne Uste), compete. This year it was from August 3 to August 9.  If you missed it there's always next year.



Here's Polomka as it's done in the "village" of Maribor, in Slovenia:



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Serbian Folk Dance Around the World

The "Flavors" of Serbian Kolo

If you like tamburitza music, there is plenty of it in The River of Many Names, Part 6: The Danube in Croatian Folk Songs.  The earworms in this post will take up residence in your head, guaranteed.

If you're bored with your usual workout, try some Ethnic Dance and Exercise.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Serbian Folk Dance Around the World

The world's most famous and popular language is music.
Psy

What I like about the Universe of YouTube is that you can travel around the world without leaving your home. This is especially good during the fall and winter when it is sometimes too cold to venture outside.

Today's post features Serbian folk dance videos from the following countries: the United States, Canada, Israel, China and of course, Serbia!

Video #1 is from the United States. It took place at a festival in Sacramento, California and includes four dances: Groznica, Prekid, Treskavac, and Cicino from central Serbia.  The performers are the Asna Kolo Ensemble.

Their version of Prekid Kolo is different from the one done by recreational folk dancers, also known as "Kolo Interruptus."



Many Serbs emigrated to Canada, which is even colder than New England :) Folk dancing generates heat and is an excellent remedy for winter depression.  (Have you ever been to a dance in the middle of winter and watch people turn on the fans and open the windows?)

The group, Kolo, from Hamilton, Ontario performs at halftime during a basketball game. One of my daughters played basketball in high school, and the most annoying thing was that damned buzzer at the end of every quarter.

This is one of the best halftime shows I've seen. 

The dancers perform Vransko Polje, from the region of Vranje. Vranje is in southern Serbia near the borders of the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria.



If you are a regular reader of The Alien Diaries, you will recognize this group, Dunav from Jerusalem in Israel. The lady on the right, Mika, has a kolo named after her. It was created from two Serbian dances:  Liljano Kolo and  Kolo iz Dubrave.  It must be really cool to be named after a dance :)



This Chinese "Bonding Folk Dance Class" has been featured on this blog many times. Here they perform the very popular Popovicanka.



The final video in this post is a performance from the group Akud Branko Krsmanovic.  They are from the capital of  Serbia, Belgrade, and do a medley of dances from the region of Šumadija. I recognized Moravac (at 2:49) and Cacak  (at 4:32). If anyone out there can tell me the names of the other dances in this medley it would be very much appreciated.

If you can ignore the chatter in the background, this is a very good video. 



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Serbian Kolo

The "Flavors of Serbian Cacak"

Folk Ensembles Named After Dances

The Alien Diaries will be taking a break next week; look for the next post sometime in early November.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Dancing Across Borders: Ripna Maca

The Internet knows no national borders.
Alan Dershowitz

Today's dance is Ripna Maca. It is related to Chetvorno Horo in that it uses similar steps and has the same rhythm  (pineapple-apple-apple).  For the musicologists out there, the time signature is 7/16. There are several border crossing dances, for example: Godecki Cacak, that have dual citizenship. The jury is still out as to whether it is Serbian or Bulgarian, but to most of us dancers, it doesn't really matter.

Ripna Maca #1 is from East Serbia.  There is a Shope region in Serbia, and also across the border in Bulgaria. Dances from this area tend to be fast and done with a belt hold.

The lyrics describe a cat who steals sausage from the pantry.  I've lived with a number of cats and they are always getting into trouble.  One of their vices is stealing food meant for humans, especially meat.  That is usually not a problem unless they get into the roast that was designated for company. Nobody wants to eat Kitty's leftovers.



Ripna Maca #2  is from Bulgaria. . The leader calls the steps (in English). They have some interesting names: cross step, hop and horse.



Ripna Maca #3: same dance as the previous video with different music. It's heavy on clarinet and brass and I like it very much.



Recently, the Bulgarian National radio featured The Clarinet in Traditional Bulgarian Folk Music. They have some really good vintage recordings from their archives.

You can also read my post The Clarinet in Bulgarian Folk Music  and why some people consider it an "instrument of torture."

If you enjoyed this you may also like

The "Flavors" of Serbian Cacak

Three Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Dance Chetvorno Horo

Bulgarian Folk Music for the Year of the Horse



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The River of Many Names Part 7: Music for Danube Day

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.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The River of Many Names Parts 1-6

Part 1: A Musical Journey

Part 2: The Danube in Bulgarian Folk Music

Part 3: Folk Ensembles Named Dunav

Part 4: The Danube in Bulgarian Folk Songs

Part 5: The Danube in Serbian Folk Music (lots of accordion music, this is also known as the "Strudel" post!)

Part 6:  The Danube in Croatian Folk Songs

Modern Versions of Traditional Bulgarian Folk Songs Part 1  (two more versions of Dunave, Beli Dunave.  The Bulgarians must really like this song, I have found so many different versions of it on YouTube.)


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The "Flavors" of Serbian Čačak

Čačak is one of the first Serbian dances I learned many years ago at the Ethnic Folk Arts Center in lower Manhattan. (It is now the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.)

It comes in different "flavors" from easy to hold on to your belt difficult. The basic pattern of the dance is three-two-one and the rhythm is 2/4.

First, read the dance notes for a little background information . They are ancient and typewritten (from 1957) and mention a country that no longer exists: Yugoslavia. 

Čačak can be danced with a hand hold, a belt hold or a basket hold. You will see the different variations in the following videos. Čačak is also considered a kolo. Kolo means "circle" in Serbian and Croatian, but just because a dance is a kolo doesn't always mean it's done in a circle! Some kolos are performed as line dances, you will see that here too.

First is the teaching video. It's basic čačak , taught in Serbian, and easy to follow. The costumed dancers use a front basket hold.  The arms go over the waist of the person on both sides..



Here you will see the basic čačak  danced at a party.  The dancers are in circles and since kolo means "circle" it meets the definition of kolo. The www.goranstudio.com  on the bottom in large white letters on the bottom of the screen is a bit of a distraction. It did, however, give me enough incentive to visit their website, which specializes in photography for weddings, videos, and other events in the Houston, Texas area. 



The Tanzgruppe Bäckerstrasse is from Vienna, Austria. They have many videos on their Dancilla site, as well as a social network for dancers all over the world. Check them out sometime. They are also on YouTube.

They perform the next čačak, which is slightly more complicated.  My group calls it the Five Figure Čačak because it has five different figures, all in a three-two-one pattern.  Each figure is repeated throughout the dance, and depends on the whim of the person leading. If the leader has good counting skills, and can keep it together, the dance ends on the right foot in figure five. Figure five is similar to figure one with a bit more movement. This group uses a hand hold.

For some reason, they did the dance sequence twice, it seems that there were technical difficulties with either the dance or the camera (the camera glitch is at 2:45).  Maybe it was both.

.

Godecki Cacak is a border crossing dance.  Some say it's Bulgarian and some say it's Serbian. To me it can be either or both. It has dual citizenship.  There is a Shope region in both Bulgaria and Serbia and that's where the dance is from.  It is hold on to your belt fast, which is why the dancers use a belt hold. 

This čačak is more complicated than the previous dances and doesn't quite follow the 3-2-1 rule. It's one of my favorites and very popular with folk dance groups all over the world. If you're a frequent visitor to this blog you'll recognize the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel. 



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Bulgarian Rachenitsa (Part 1 and Part 2)

Two Variations on a Serbian Folk Dance: Stara Vlajna

Balkan Folk Dancing and Its Relationship to Math (or why math and physics people take up folk dancing)

And finally, some trivia.  Čačak is also a city in Serbia, but I'm not sure if the dance was named after it, if anyone out there knows why the city has that name, please let me know in the "comments" section.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Two Variations on a Serbian Folk Dance: Stara Vlajna

A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral.
Maynard James Keenan

Today's featured dance is a very popular and easy one from Serbia, Stara Vlajna.  The name translates to "Old Vlajna," and I couldn't find out whether it was named after a person or place. If anyone out there speaks Serbian and knows the meaning, please post it in the "comments" section.

Version one is more popular with folk dancers in the United States, and it's performed by the group Kolo Koalition. By the way, Kolo is a generic name for dances from most of the former Yugoslav republics (except for Macedonia).

The word "kolo" means circle in Serbian, although people sometimes dance it in a line.  There are hundreds, maybe thousands of them.  Kolos are often named after a town or region, although there are exceptions to this.  There is a funny dance named Fat Woman's Kolo, which is probably played in Serbian aerobics classes. Another one is Prekid Kolo, which is best described as Kolo Interruptus.

In the first version of Stara Vlajna, the music starts slowly and speeds up as the dance progresses (very common in Balkan folk dances). The dancers do several bounce steps when the music changes. The "bouncing" is rather subdued because this group uses a front baskethold; whereas our group does it with a simple handhold. We emphasize that bounce, especially when I lead it!

Don't pay attention to that distracting text on the bottom, either....all I know is that this was recorded on April 5, 2008 at 7:58 p.m. They were a little too early for the Doomsday Countdown. 



Version two is fast all the way through and the choreography and music are different, very bouncy and lively in true Serbian style.

By the way, Stara Vlajna is a Vlach dance; the Vlachs were decendants of Romans who lived in the Balkans, and they settled all over the place. They had wandering ways and in the old days, they made a living raising and herding sheep. The Vlach people are best known for dances with lots of stamping.

The Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel has posted many Balkan folk dance videos on YouTube and they have a website as well, where you can get dance notes, music scores and song lyrics for all of your favorite Balkan dances.  Check them out when you have a few minutes.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Two Variations on a Romanian Folk Dance: Hora de Mina

Two Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Dance: Opas

Two Variations on a Macedonian Folk Dance: Bufcansko

Stamping it Out: Vlach Dances From Serbia  (this will give you a feel for Vlach dancing, and it's a socially acceptable way to unleash the frustrations of daily life).


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Variations on a Vlaško Theme

When I first started Balkan folk dancing the dance Vlaško Horo from northern Bulgaria really got my attention. I watched a group of men dancing Vlaško one night and I loved the stamping and the shouting and the energy of it.

I've been practicing it for a while, and still have a little trouble with the fast parts (parts 1 and 2 are  easy). At a dance I went to a few weeks ago it was on the program; and I requested that it be taught. I still don't have it 100%. One of these days I'll be able to do it without the video; in the meantime, here's the dance, as I learned it.  You can also use a belt hold, it makes Vlaško more challenging and fun.



There are other variations of Vlaško.  These young ladies perform Sitno Vlaško Horo in a shopping mall in Bulgaria; it is a totally different dance than the previous one. They use electronic instead of traditional music, which suits the modern setting well.



My fascination with Vlaško doesn't end here; here is yet another version! If you are a regular reader of The Alien Diaries, this video will be totally familiar to you; this group is the Dunav ensemble of Vidin, and yes, that big boat is a distraction. Dunav means Danube in Bulgarian (and several other Slavic languages as well).



In the next video Vlaško travels to Serbia. The Vlachs, a people of Roman origin, traveled far and wide all over the Balkans, primarily because many of them were sheep herders and part of their job was to search for greener pastures. In Serbia, the dance becomes Vlaško Kolo. The word kolo describes a circle or wheel but sometimes kolo is danced in a line. Circles and lines are geometric figures.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Stamping it Out: Vlach Dances From Serbia

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/03/stamp-it-outvlach-dances-from-serbia.html

The River of Many Names, Part 3 features the Dunav Ensemble of Vidin; there is an excellent video of them in action.  You can get exhausted just watching. The scenery is nice, too.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/10/river-of-many-names-part-3-folk.html

Folk dances with stamping are a socially acceptable way of relieving the frustrations of everyday life. 

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-stamp-out-your-frustrations-and.html

Is Balkan folk dancing related to math?  Read more here.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/06/balkan-folk-dancing-and-its.html





This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Wine, Romance and Folk Songs

Wine enters through the mouth,
Love, the eyes.
I raise the glass to my mouth,
I look at you,
I sigh. ― W.B. Yeats

It's that time of year again. February is the month of Valentine's Day in many countries around the world.  In Bulgaria, there's the celebration of Trifon Zerezan, the patron saint of wine. Today's post features songs about love and wine from Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria.

The Macedonian folk song, Dafino Vino is about a woman whose boyfriend had his coat stolen by the haidouks (rebels) while he was sleeping. They sold the coat at a drinking establishment for wine and rakia (brandy). What really makes this song special is the accompaniment, a tamburitza orchestra, which adds a Croatian accent to the music.



You can read more about the performer, Elena Risteska, by clicking this link.  She is a Macedonian singer and songwriter and quite versatile. She performs both pop and folk songs, and has competed in the Eurovision song contest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Risteska

The next video features a dance song from Serbia, Savila se Bela Loza Vinova. It's about two people in love who chase each around the vineyard. The dance (starts at 0:21) is a favorite with kids. It's very easy to do and there's lots of running!



Here wine combines with romance in the Bulgarian song Kruchmaritse performed by Daniel Spasov. If you are a regular reader of The Alien Diaries you will recognize the song; the setting is different, however. This time the flirtation takes place in a bar on a riverboat, and the people are dressed in early 20th century costumes.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Blessed Wine, Cursed Drinking, A Look at St. Trifon, Patron Saint of Vintners

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/02/blessed-wine-cursed-drinking-look-at-st.html

Boozing it Up in the Balkans  (Bring on the wine and rakia!)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/04/boozing-it-up-in-balkans-via-song-and.html

Here Comes the Brass Band: Modern Bulgarian Folk Songs With Daniel Spasov (Kruchmaritse, on land this time;  a romantic riverboat excursion on the Danube, and some wild folk dancing at the Baba Vida fortress in Vidin)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/11/here-comes-brass-band-modern-bulgarian.html


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

The River of Many Names Part 5: The Danube in Serbian Folk Music

(photo: Strudel, from Wikipedia Commons)


(photo: Iron Gate, from Wikipedia Commons)

If you're wondering why this post starts with a picture of strudel, read on, you will find out later.

Are you ready for another close encounter of the Danubian kind? This post takes us to Serbia for yet more folk songs from the Universe of You Tube.

I found a couple of folk songs about Dunav, the River of Many Names, from Serbia. One is fun and one is romantic, both of them are great to listen to.

The first video is a group of crazy musicians having a blast on a beautiful spring day. So they decide to take a boat on the river and sing a folk song (in English translation the title is Dunave, Dunave moje more (Danube, My Sea.) For some reason there are no women along for the ride, although they are watching on shore...why is that? Do the guys have a monopoly on music and fun?



The way these musicians carried on in the boat, I thought Dunave moje more would have been more of a party song, but the actual translation was something totally different. The gist of the song was that the person in the song sees Dunav day and night and that he has given his life to the river. (I presume he dreams about it, as well.) I have dreamed about it since I was eleven years old. And for me it's a recurring dream which pops up in my subconscious periodically.

The lyrics (in transliterated Serbian) are here, but there is no translation. I had to resort to Google Translate.

http://tekstovi.net/2,563,5690.html

Despite the fact I was able to travel to Europe and actually camped out on the banks of the Danube 14 years after the first dream, the dreams haven't stopped. Now that is the persistence of memory at its finest. Except that I don't dream about melted clocks :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persistence_of_Memory

The next video conveys a completely different mood, although the lyrics have a similarity to Dunave, Dunave moje more. This song conveys nostalgia and longing. From what I get from the translation (again, courtesy of Google) it's about a man who grew up along the Danube, who had to go far away, left his heart there, but still sees it in his dreams (the dream theme seems to be a recurring one....)



Next is a musician playing a lively kolo on an accordion, the most popular instrument in Serbia. The kolo is a folk dance popular in Serbia as well as Croatia. It is usually (but not always) done in a circle. You won't see any dancing in this video, except maybe for the accordionist's fingers moving over the keys. He does an amazing job with this piece; the name of it (in English) is Danubian Whirlpools.



Now it's time to see what inspired the composer of the previous piece of music. It has something to do with strudel.

Water is fascinating. Like the other elements of antiquity, fire, air and earth, each has its good side and its destructive side. The River of Many Names is no exception. Although the beauty of it is celebrated in poetry and folk songs, flood season wreaks havoc and destruction. In the city of Passau, Germany I saw buildings along the Danube with high water marks. Written next to them was the day, month and year of the flood, which in a few instances was as high as the second story of the building.

Then there are the mysterious whirlpools and cross-currents which can be dangerous if you're not careful. By the way, in German, strudel has two meanings; the first one is the fruit filled pastry that everyone knows and loves. The second meaning is that of a whirlpool or vortex, and something you definitely don't want to have for dessert. The music matches the mood of this video which looks quite ominous...



By the way, the cafés in Passau have delicious strudel, and great coffee too. And if you go further down the Danube, to Vienna, you can get your strudel in fancy surroundings, like the Hotel Sacher.

If you enjoyed this post, you will also like the series The River of Many Names., parts 1-4. The first one is a musical journey.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/10/river-of-many-names-musical-journey.html

Part two has songs and dances from Bulgaria related to the Danube:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/10/river-of-many-names-part-2-danube-in.html

Part three features folk ensembles from Bulgaria, Croatia, Great Britain and Israel named after the river.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/10/river-of-many-names-part-3-folk.html

Part four has more Bulgarian folk songs inspired by (what else?) Dunav, along with some stunning scenery and dancers in elaborate embroidered costumes.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/03/river-of-many-names-part-4-danube-in.html

If you didn't get enough Serbian folk music here, this post will satisfy your cravings as well as relieve your frustrations, since there are lots of dances with stamping!

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/03/stamp-it-outvlach-dances-from-serbia.html


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Some Fun for April Fool's Day: Silly Songs, Strange Sayings, Proverbs, and Insults from the Balkans

The world lasts because it laughs (motto for the House of Humor and Satire, Gabrovo, Bulgaria)

Warning: The reading of this post may cause uncontrollable laughter. Reader discretion is advised.

Why is there a picture of a centipede on the top of this page? You'll find out later.

Today's April Fool's Day post contains humor, insults, silly songs and proverbs from the Balkans.

If you are looking for creative ways to insult your enemies, here are some really strange put-downs from the Balkans. The first two from Serbia sound like they date back to the NATO bombing of Belgrade back in the 1990's.

"May your house be live on CNN." (on fire for the world to see...)

May God give you to search for your children with a Geiger counter." (Maybe the Serbs thought those NATO bombs were radioactive?)

Another insult from Serbia: "May your wife give birth to a centipede so you have to work for shoes all your life." (Maybe she had sex with an arthropod. Centipedes are nasty ugly things, so she must have been pretty desperate.....)

If you want to insult a Bulgarian, compare him to a salad.

"You're as ugly as a salad." (Maybe the salad was left out in the sun too long.)

This is one of those Bulgarian "yo' momma" insults:

"Your mother sucks bears in the forest."

Hmmm...this one borders one the obscene. Bear sucking? The whole bear or just a part? Was a vacuum cleaner involved? And is this a male or female bear?

This Bulgarian proverb proves something that I've known all along about men:

"It is easier to fondle lassies, than to cut timbers." Cutting wood isn't much fun, anyway....

The Shope region of Bulgaria is known for humorous and satirical folk songs. Oi Shope Shope, about a young man who's full of himself as well as a know it all, is one of my favorites.



You can find the the song (in German and transliterated Bulgarian) on a page from the Songbook for Nearsighted People. You don't have to be nearsighted to read this book, but the large font is very helpful for those with vision difficulties (actually the book was created so that the musicians and singers could see the lyrics in semi-lit rooms). Rumor has it that some of them also needed reading glasses :)

http://www.hopp-zwei-drei.de/Texte/einzeln/Kurzsicht_Lieder_20110507_96.pdf

The House of Humor and Satire in Gabrovo, Bulgaria celebrates its 40th year on April 1, 2012. The symbol of the Humor House is a cat with a part of its tail cut off (so less heat would escape from the house when the cat went out). This cat is also a symbol of the town. It is said that cats in Gabrovo are sent down chimneys to clean them, in order to save money on chimney sweeps.

The link for the House of Humor and Satire can be found here (along with jokes and sayings from the town of Gabrovo):

If you didn't get enough humor today, this Croatian dance will put a smile on your face. Burning dinner is par for the course at my place (my daughter says that the food is done when the smoke detector goes off). The premise of the song is basically this:

The cook burned up a delicious cheese pie
Because the old man gave her the evil eye.

Reminds me of something I wrote for Bad Poetry Night on Facebook :) What's even funnier is that this video involves a male-female role reversal.



For some reason the Songbook for Nearsighted People has the lyrics for Sukačko Kolo in English and German as well as the original Croatian. Read them, they're quite funny :)

If you enjoyed this you may also like A Cat Who Likes the Gaida and the Cat of Gabrovo. Have you ever wondered why critters like music made from the bodies of other animals? I've wondered about that, too.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/04/cat-who-likes-gaida-and-cat-of-gabrovo.html

The Gadulka in Bulgarian Folk Music goes into detail into the "bloodbath" that is Bulgarian folk music. On this post you will find a link to a funny story, written by a Bulgarian musician, on how folk instruments are made.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/11/gadulka-in-bulgarian-folk-music-another.html

Sometimes Lost in Translation is a humorous take on Bulgarian proverbs.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/09/sometimes-lost-in-translation-bulgarian.html


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Stamp it Out....Vlach Dances from Serbia

"Their way of Dancing, is nothing but a sort of stamping Motion, much like the treading upon Founders Bellows."
John Lawson

I don't know what kind of dancing John Lawson was referring to, but he could have been referring to the Vlachs.

The Vlachs also known as Wallachians, had wandering ways and settled all over the Balkans. They were most likely descendents of the Romans, a Latin-speaking ethnic group. The Roman influence lives on in the country of Romania, whose language is based primarily on Latin. The word "Vlach" is a Germanization of "Wallachian", from "Wlaha" which means foreigner or stranger. Wallachia is located in what is now southern Romania (the provinces of Oltenia and Muntenia).

Today's post will feature Vlach dances from Serbia. They are very lively and have lots of stamping, a good way to get out your frustrations on bad days. And the music will lift your spirits, too.

Speaking of spirits, stamping while dancing was supposed to drive away evil spirits.

The first group, Dunav, from Calgary in the province of Alberta, Canada performs a medley of Vlach dances.



Gaida (bagpipe) music is popular in Serbia, although they prefer the accordion. Instruments of torture seem to vary by country. The Macedonians and Bulgarians like the gaida, the Romanians the panpipe, and the Greeks the bouzouki.

This video looks like an promotion for a piper named Bulgjigič Tomaslav. He has dancers and musicians here as a backup to make sure you know his music is good. (By the way you can't dance if the music is no good!) If you want to call him, let's say to play for your next party, his phone number is on the video, although if you lived far away, let's say, in North America, it would get rather expensive to pay for him and his group to travel across the Pond :)

His speciality is Vlach melodies and circle dances (the plural of kolo is kola). The backdrop is the Iron Gate gorge, along the Danube, River of Many Names. Here we go with that Dunav thing again....



Now it's time for another Dunav group, this time from Israel. The dance is Vlaško Serbsko.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:
The River of Many Names Part 3: Folk Ensembles Named Dunav

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/10/river-of-many-names-part-3-folk.html

The bagpipe (gaida) can be used as an instrument of torture. The same can also be said about the clarinet. Follow these links and find out why.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/06/bagpipe-and-bulgarian-folk-music.html

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/01/clarinet-in-bulgarian-folk-music-third.html

A Jamaican proverb takes on a life of its own in Those Who Can't Dance Say the Music is no Good. http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/09/those-who-cant-dance-say-music-is-no.html


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Dancing by the Numbers

Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting. ~Gottfried Leibniz

People in the Balkans seem to have an obsession with numbers, which is probably why they're so good at math. They are good at dancing as well, after all it's just a matter of counting.

Today's post is about dances named after numbers. The first one, from Serbia, is the Five Figure Cacak. If you watch carefully, you'll notice a three-two-one pattern very common to Serbian dances. There are five different sequences (figures) and each one is repeated. Twice.



Chetvorno is a dance connected with the number four, which is четири,(chetiri) in Bulgarian. In Cyrillic, the "ch" resembles a 4.



If you are looking for the children's game "Connect Four", you'll find it here :)

https://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-A5640E86-Gaming-Connect4-Game/dp/B0745QFHP3

Trite Puti, another dance from Bulgaria, translates to "three times." Three times what? Despite the fact that math was not my favorite subject, I like this dance very much. Three happens to be one of my lucky numbers. In numerology, three is the number of artistic talent, creativity, and a way with words. In astrology it corresponds to the sign Gemini. Yes, I know Gemini is the sign of the twins, but it's also the third sign of the zodiac. (I think the guy commenting in the next video must be a Gemini....he's a bit on the chatty side. Just ignore him and his running commentary...he's a distraction. Watch the dancers instead.)



The third time is a charm. Here is another dance with the number three, which must be a lucky number in the Balkan world. The dance Trei Pazeste is from Romania.  They are even dancing in groups of three!  The shouts are characteristic of Romanian dances, they are called strigaturi.



By the way, the most famous vampire in the world, Count Dracula, was based on an actual person, the Romanian nobleman, Vlad Tepes. I mention this bit of trivia because it's October, and Halloween falls on the very last day of the month. This holiday is a big deal in the States. After dark on Halloween, children (accompanied by adults) traipse from house to house, and some of them dress as vampires. Scary costumes are the norm on Halloween; it is the holiday of ghosts, ghouls, monsters and vampires. The purpose of this activity is to acquire as much free candy as possible. The adults come home exhausted after making the rounds of the neighborhood; the children get a burst of energy from a sugar overdose.

Dracula (Romanian for devil) was quite the character and his favorite method of putting people to death was impaling them on wooden stakes. According to some estimates, he may have killed up to 100,000 people in this manner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_tepes

You can see a more benign version of the Count on the children's show Sesame Street.



If you enjoyed this, you may also like Balkan Folk Dancing and its Relationship to... Math?

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/06/balkan-folk-dancing-and-its.html


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.