The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. (proverb, origin unknown)
Neli Andreeva, best known for the song Malka Moma, has two very talented daughters. The trio call themselves "Nusha" and the folk song in the video is Dambara Dumbara. It describes a hard working turtle who runs into lots of obstacles.
I wonder if someone was giving a lesson on food groups before this performance (see poster on the left side of this video) If so, why was it in English, and is turtle meat listed in the protein group?
You can read more on Nusha, the family project, here:
Mom is a talented musician in her own right. Here she performs Malka Moma (little girl) with the Filip Kutev ensemble.
Want to find out more about Bulgarian singing? Even in a small country like Bulgaria there are several distinct regional styles. There is also advice on how to get back at neighbors who play loud, obnoxious music late at night. Read more here.
A wise falcon hides his talons. Proverb, source unknown.
Why is the falcon so prominent in Bulgarian and Macedonian folk songs?
First of all, the falcon is a bird of prey. It symbolizes strength. Falcons have very keen eyesight, which enables them to hunt, and the nobles of medieval Europe used this to their advantage, training them specifically for hunting. They are also beautiful and very intelligent. If you've ever seen one in the air, they seem to fly with very little effort.
The falcon is a very important symbol in Bulgarian folklore. The legend of the martenitsa is connected with Khan Asperuh, founder of the first Bulgarian Kingdom and the falcon who led him to his sister, Huba. You can read the story in the next video while listening to some very beautiful music.
The falcon is also prominent in rebel (Haidouk) songs. The Haidouks fought the Ottoman Turks, who ruled the Balkan lands for nearly 500 years. A Macedonian folk song, More Sokol Pie (sokol is Macedonian/Bulgarian for falcon) describes a falcon drinking water from the Vardar river. I get the impression from the translation that the woman, Jana, is asking the falcon if she's seen a hero pass by with nine bullet wounds and one from a knife. (It's doubtful he would have survived with more holes than a Swiss cheese). This is a very beautiful and passionate performance by Elena Risteska. Too bad the last few seconds were cut.
The translation for this poignant and tragic song can be found here:
The last song, Malka Moma, is about a young girl praying to God, who wishes for the "wings of a falcon" so that she can fly and find the man of her dreams. This choir sounds like it came right out of a church. According to the person who posted the video on YouTube, the soloist was very nervous. Despite the "nervousness", she and her group do an excellent job.
Part of translation the for Malka Moma can be read here:
"Please god give me eyes of a dove,
please god give me wings of a falcon,
so I can fly over Dunav (Danube) river,
so I can find a boy that I love.
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
This Brings out the Animal in Me: Critters in Balkan Folk Music
Part of the experience of visiting a foreign country has to do with the food and drink and the fun things you get to do while mingling with the natives. You can get into the heart and soul of a culture and it's a great way to make new friends.
Today's post is about folk songs and booze. In the Balkans booze is big, and there are many different alcoholic beverages: Greek Ouzo, Bulgarian Rakia, and Serbian Slivovitz to name a few.
Then there is the ubiquitious fruit of the vine. Wine is one of the oldest drinks known to man. When the ancient peoples discovered wine it opened up new horizons, especially when primitive societies found that grape juice not only tasted good after it was fermented, but that it made people happy and sociable. A few drunken individuals entertained the rest of the group by doing really stupid things, this became known as "partying."
An enterprising individual found that he could make the wine stronger by distilling it into brandy, from that, rakia was born. And a very clever woman discovered that by planting a few grape vines, she could create a beverage that could knock a man out. He drank the wine, the rakia and the horse!
Can you count backwards from ten after a few shots of Slivovitz (the national drink of Serbia)? Niška Banja is a drinking song from Serbia, and that is exactly what they do after a day spent at the thermal baths in town; sing and drink slivovitz. Slivovitz is plum brandy and its taste and effects are nothing like prune juice :) I tried some on an freezing cold day in Germany, it warmed up those insides quite a bit.
Here are the lyrics in case you want to sing along. Make sure to pick up some slivovitz at the local liquor store first. If you have a Serbian neighbor who makes the stuff, it's probably much better than anything you can buy.
Unfortunately too much of a good thing has its drawbacks. Poor Gino! Don't drink the wine! Now he has an enormous headache. Or is he in pain from the loss of the one he loves?
The dance to the previous video was a lesnoto (galloping-apple-apple), which is a rhythm common in Bulgarian and Macedonian dances.
When I die, drink some red wine and break the glasses. Now that would be a fitting tribute to a life well lived. This beautiful and poignant folk song, Ako Umram il Zaginem, is from Macedonia. This song is also in lesnoto rhythm.
Here are the lyrics (and the music score) in case you want to sing along. We often do Ako Umram as a sing-along at the Sunday night dances, the description, in Bulgarian, for singing while dancing is called "horo na pesen."
A man's work is from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done.
source unknown
One holiday that I particularly like is International Women's Day, March 8th. Although I knew of its existence, I didn't pay much attention to it until my daughters started elementary school. The school that they went to had a large population of Russian immigrants, and a number of their teachers had emigrated to the United States from Russia during the early 1990's.
The Russian faculty gave a celebration dinner at the school every year for International Women's Day and invited the entire student body and their parents. They gave carnations to the women and girls attending and after the dinner, the teachers spoke of the importance of this holiday and the achievements of famous women.
Although in the States March is Women's History Month, in general International Women's Day is unfortunately, not really observed here. Too bad, because we need a day of our own.
Today's post celebrates International Women's Day with some beautiful songs from the Balkans about women and girls, sung by women and girls (with the exception of Kune, Mome). After all, the Alien Diaries is an Equal Opportunity Blog :) You won't find any radical feminism in these folk songs, but that's the way things were back in the old days. You will find that out by reading the lyrics.
"There is no girl as beautiful as a girl from Macedonia" is the refrain of the song Makendonsko Devojce. The singer is Karolina Goceva, from Macedonia.
The group, Semya, from Holland performs Rusi Kosi, a folk song from Bulgaria. Two women sing accompanied by two men (on cello and drums) and a woman on an accordion. The song is about a blonde named Elena who needs a comb, powder for her face, and a man to love. Too bad she doesn't have loftier ambitions :)
You can find the lyrics here (in Bulgarian and German, but not in English)
The Alien Diaries is an Equal Opportunity Blog. Although the subject of the song is female (her name is Kune), the band is almost entirely male, although if you look closely you can find the single female flutist. This is a very modern and lively brass arrangement of a traditional Bulgarian folk song. I get the impression from the lyrics that the person singing to Kune is looking to seduce her with some wine and rakia. Hmmmm.....something a guy would do:) The gaida (bagpipe) solo in here is out of this world.
This little girl is a show stopper, and the voice on her is really amazing for someone so young. She sings the beautiful Macedonian folk song Jovano Jovanke about a woman named Jovana, who's washing some linens on the banks of the Vardar River. (Sounds like a woman's work is never done, and doing the laundry is all in a day's work). Her mom watches proudly from the sidelines.
According to the person who posted this video, it was taken in Semlitsa, Bulgaria, and if you look closely you can catch a glimpse of the Bulgarian flag. This song is popular in Bulgaria as well as Macedonia.
That old and faded picture of one of the most unusual boats I've ever seen was taken about 10 kilometers downstream from the Danube town of Passau, on the border of Germany and Austria.
I would have liked to have spoken with the crew, but they cast off shortly after I took the picture. The name of the boat was "Stadt Wien" (city of Vienna) and my guess is that they had started in Ulm, a German town about 200 miles upstream.
This unusual watercraft, I found out years later, was an Ulmer Schachtel, (Ulm Box) a boat used to transport people and goods downstream from Ulm to Vienna and even as far as the Balkans. They had no motors and could only go with the current; they were steered with rudders and paddles and when the boats reached their destination, they were taken apart and the wood re-used.
My husband and I found this very beautiful campground on the way to Vienna and had pitched our tent here for several days. The owner, not having met Americans before, was thrilled to talk with us, and absolutely delighted that we spoke German. He gave us a site with the most magnificent view of the river.
The Danube has been in the news lately with the recent environmental disaster in Hungary, since the toxic red sludge flood (by-products of aluminum production) occurred in a village on one of its tributaries. Between the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and now this, our environment is under assault (again). What's really tragic is that these events were man-made, and possibly could have been prevented.
I've said my piece and it's time to get off the soap box. Today's post is a musical journey down the River of Many Names, which are: Danube, Donau, Duna, Dunaj, Dunav, and Dunărea.
The Danube starts in southern Germany and flows through some interesting territory (including the Balkan countries of Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania), and there is music all along its banks.
This pop-folk song from Germany celebrates the city of Passau, which I visited many years ago. The architecture is magnificent, and some of the buildings date from the Middle Ages. Passau is at the conjunction of three rivers, Danube, Inn, and Ilz, and it is here that ships can travel all the way to the Black Sea.
The next video is of the Eva Quartet from Bulgaria singing a folk song. They are on a boat passing through Vienna, the Donauturm TV tower is in the background. I went up to the top of the tower, and on a clear day, you can see Slovakia, Hungary, and looking south, the foothills of the Alps.
This was taken during the Danube Music Festival, back in 2007, which was the brainchild of Bulgarian film maker Zlatina Rousseva. For more about it, click on the link below.
Now, these guys are really having fun and making music 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 "Danube, My Sea.") My guess is that they are somewhere in Serbia or Croatia, where it is quite wide.
This quote from Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows sums it up: "There is nothing--absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."
Let's hope the recent disaster in Hungary doesn't destroy the River of Many Names. (so far it hasn't although it has destroyed part of the Hungarian countryside, caused the death of 8 people, and killed a tributary stream, which is certainly bad enough, although a Hungarian friend told me things could have been worse).
Here is the link to part 2: The River of Many Names in Bulgarian folk music:
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!
