Another Folk Ensemble Named Horo

Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking.
~John Wain

In the past I have featured folk ensembles named Horo.  Here is another group with that name from Kozloduy, Bulgaria.

The town of Kozloduy is best known as the place where Hristo Botev landed after hijacking the Austrian steamship Radetsky on his way to Bulgaria from Romania to organize an anti-Ottoman uprising. He was shot and killed on June 1, 1876 near Vratsa.

Hristo Botev was one of the key figures in the overthrow of Ottoman rule in his country, and is much revered by the Bulgarian people. He left a legacy of revolutionary poetry.

There is a replica of the Radetsky docked in Kozloduy,  now used as a museum ship. It houses memorabilia of Hristo Botev. The Austrian
shipping company destroyed the original Radetsky in 1924. Forty years later, a group of school children raised money to build a replica, to be used as a museum, which opened in 1966.

In video #1 the group dances on the deck of the Radetsky.  They wear dresses instead of traditional Bulgarian folk costumes. (How can they dance so well on those high heels?)  It looks like they're doing a dance from the northern folklore region; if anyone out there can name that dance, please post it in the comments section.



In video #2 the dancers remind me of bees in their yellow T-shirts and black pants.  The dance is Sitno Selsko za Poyas (za poyas means belt hold) from the Shope folklore region.  It's similar to another dance from that area: Graovsko Horo.



Video #3 is a medley of two dances: the Vlach Trei Pazeste and Sitno Selsko (same dance as the previous video.)

There is also a group of dances from Romania with the name Trei Pazeste; there are different variations depending on the town they originated.  The steps in Bulgarian Vlach dances are similar to dances in Romania.(See my post on Vidinsko Horo).

The ensemble is decked out again in yellow and black; in fancier costumes this time. If you want to skip the introduction and the logo, the dancing starts at 2:14.



If you enjoyed this, you may also like

Folk Ensembles Named After Dances

Folk Ensembles Named Horo

Orchestra Horo:  Modern Bulgarian Folk Songs, Traditional Rhythms

Hristo Botev, Poet and Revolutionary (short bio of Hristo Botev with links to his poetry and the story of the Radetsky.)


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A Golden Record, Rhodope Folk Songs, and Valya Balkanska in Concert

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
Carl Sagan

Today's post is about  Bulgarian folk singer Valya Balkanska and her connection with an exhibit at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. (I was in Washington, D.C. recently and had paid a visit to several of the Smithsonian museums).

The exhibit (see photo above) is a copy of the Golden Record sent up into space on the Voyager in 1977 for the purpose of contacting intelligent life somewhere in the universe.

The hauntingly beautiful song Izlel e Delio Haidutin was on on that record, along with many other sounds from Planet Earth.

The large bagpipe is a kaba gaida, used as accompaniment for folk songs from the Rhodope region of Bulgaria.



Although Izlel e Delyu Haidutin is Valya Balkanska's  most popular song, there are many others in her repertoire. You can sample some of them in today's post.

The next two videos were part of a Bulgaria Liberation Day concert that took place in Toronto, Canada. It featured Valya Balkanska and Peter Yanev (on kaba gaida).

In the first video the audience dances a very long Pravo Horo. Afterwards the song Izlel e Delio Haidutin starts at 10:22 and goes into the next video. The person who recorded this performance had to do it in installments, which is a bit of a distraction.



Video #2  is a continuation of the first (on YouTube they are listed as 8 and 9).  After a short speech in Bulgarian, there is more singing and dancing at 2:55. The video concludes with the song  Tih bjal Dunav se valnuva, (also known as the Botev March) which commemorates Hristo Botev's historic crossing of the Danube from Romania to Bulgaria during the April Uprising of 1876. The lyrics are based on a poem by Ivan Vazov.



The other installments from this concert are on You Tube, for your watching and listening pleasure.

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Bagpipe in Bulgarian Folk Music

Outer Space: The Bulgarian Connection

The Rebels (Haidouks) in Bulgarian Folk Songs

Hristo Botev, Poet and Revolutionary


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

Deep, Dark Secrets (or things my daughters don't want their friends to know about)

There is a deep, dark, secret that my daughters don't want broadcast around their friends, and they don't want the neighbors to know, either.

They know I go to poetry workshops, and sometimes read at Open Mikes. At the end of this post you will find a link to one of my poems. There a number of poets I admire, like Langston Hughes, Hristo Botev (poet laureate of Bulgaria!) and Ogden Nash. Not to mention my daughters, who write some damned good stuff, and my poet friends on Facebook.

It's not the Zumba classes that I go to on Tuesday nights, although there have been a few times I've been tempted to ask the Zumba instructor to incoporate some Balkan music into our workouts. My youngest daughter, who goes to class with me, always manages to change the subject before I even say the "B" word...

Zumba keeps me in shape for Friday Night Rachenitsa. I danced this one last week and I was quite winded when the music ended, so obviously I need to exercise more, but then this is quite fast.



The big, bad secret is that I dance to folk music from Bulgaria. Only two of my daughters' friends know anything about Bulgaria.One is a musician, and the other an artist. The artist has an interest in folk costumes.

God forbid everyone else should know. Bulgarian folk dancing is too damned strange and the music we dance to is even weirder. The rhythms are downright crazy, who can move to this stuff? My girls think Bulgarians in folk costumes are aliens in disguise getting ready to take over the world. And that is what they fear most.

If you want to see some "aliens" singing and dancing check this out :) And they can take over the world anytime, IMHO. It would probably be a much better place.



Finally, there are a couple of poems about Bulgarian music and dance (yes, there are people who actually write about that stuff!)

The first one I wrote back in 2009. It's called The Sanctuary Within.
http://www.helium.com/items/1605744-my-santuary

The second is by Bill Holm, who passed on three years ago. He was a native of the state of Minnesota; he was a poet, essayist, and musician. I had never heard of him until this poem was sent to me by a friend who emails me periodically about dance events in the area.

Advice (by Bill Holm)

Someone dancing inside us
has learned only a few steps:
the "Do-Your-Work" in 4/4 time,
the "What-Do-You-Expect" Waltz.
He hasn't noticed yet the woman
standing away from the lamp.
the one with black eyes
who knows the rumba.
and strange steps in jumpy rhythms
from the mountains of Bulgaria.
If they dance together,
something unexpected will happen;
if they don't, the next world
will be a lot like this one.

If you want to see a performance of it on YouTube, check this out:



So, if you haven't tried Bulgarian folk dancing yet, maybe now is the time to give it a go. You need to get out and exercise, right?

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Hristo Botev, Poet and Revolutionary (some amazing but very sad and graphic Bulgarian revolutionary poetry in English translation plus music!)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/05/hristo-botev-poet-and-revolutionary.html

On Ethnic Dance and Exercise (much more fun than the gym!)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-ethnic-dance-and-exericise.html

What is rachenitsa? Find out here:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/07/flavors-of-bulgarian-rachenitsa.html

This is where an acronym will take you while doing Google searches (a post by a fellow blogger about Hristo Botev)

http://blogoftheeruptingvolcano.blogspot.com/2010/11/hristo-botev-our-poet-laureate.html


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

The Rebels (Haidouks) in Bulgarian Folk Songs

(statue of Raina Popgeorgieva, photo from Wikipedia Commons)

Better the grave than a slave. Bulgarian proverb

Today we're going to explore rebel songs in Bulgarian folklore, in honor of the April Uprising of 1876.

The Ottoman Turks occupied the Balkans for nearly 500 years. Religious conflict was a recurring theme in Eastern Europe and the Muslim Turks were at odds with the Orthodox Christian population of the Balkans who were subjected to what could be considered a form of slavery.

The Ottoman rule was quite harsh. The Turks taxed the population heavily and conscripted preadolescent boys into the Janissaries, the Sultan's elite army. These young men were taken forcibly from their families, sent to Turkey, converted to Islam, and subjected to extreme discipline when they were old enough to join the ranks of the Janissaries. The Bulgarians and other people of the Balkan countries got fed up with these injustices, and rose up against their Ottoman oppressors.

The April Uprising in Bulgaria was the start of a series of events which eventually led to the country's independence. The rebels, called Haidouks, the most renowned being the poet Hristo Botev, were ready to die for the cause and for their country. This song, based on a poem by Ivan Vazov, describes Botev's hijacking of the ship Radetsky from Romania to Bulgaria, and how the revolutionaries crossed the Danube to overthrow their Turkish oppressors. Not long after, on June 2, Botev died in battle near the town of Vratsa.



The translation for the song can be found here (although, as usual something gets a little bit lost....)

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

The story of a female freedom fighter who took part in the liberation of Bulgaria is very powerful and moving. Her name was Raina Popgeorgieva. Also known as Princess Raina, she was a teacher, midwife, and a revolutionary. She was a true feminist, in this respect she was way ahead of her time. She sewed the flag for the April Uprising and waved it with a fellow revolutionary, in defiance of the oppressors, who captured her and locked her up in Plovdiv prison. She subsisted on bread and water for over a month, and after she was released, she left Bulgaria and moved to Russia, where she studied medicine, and later became a nurse. Raina then returned to Bulgaria, married and had a family. There is a statue of her in Panagyurishte, Bulgaria, her home town. She died at the age of 61.

This song tells the story of Raina Popgeorgieva. The dance done to it is lesnoto, the rhythm is galloping-apple-apple.



You can read more about Princess Raina here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayna_Knyaginya

The song, Karmafil, is about a hero who was born in the Valley of the Roses, and his symbol was the red carnation. He was a true son of the Balkans, born in the Valley of the Roses. The lyrics can be found here:

http://www.dunav.org.il/lyrics/karamfil.html

Karamfil is very popular dance-song, and it's from the Pirin region of Bulgaria.



The last song is Sokole,Siri Sokole. (Gray Falcon) The falcon is a bird of prey and used as a symbol in a number of Bulgarian and Macedonian rebel songs. The video accompanying the song portrays the capture of a rebel being subjected to torture by the Ottomans. It is not pleasant to watch, but will give you an idea of what the Bulgarians went through to overthrow Turkish rule.



If you enjoyed this, you may also like Hristo Botev, Poet and Revolutionary, the story of Bulgaria's most beloved hero.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

Kaicho Kumenov, the singer of Sokole, Siri Sokole, also made a recording of a more lighthearted folk song, Kune Mome. Here you can hear it along with a more modern version.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/03/modern-versions-of-traditional.html

If you love flowers, this post is for you. Our hero, Karamfil, came from the Rose Valley, read more about it here.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/05/days-of-wine-and-roses-balkan-style.html

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

Hristo Botev, Poet and Revolutionary

There is no power over those who are ready to lose their lives in the name of freedom and the good of humanity.

- Hristo Botev

Today's "patron saint" of Bulgaria will be Hristo Botev, a poet and revolutionary who lived during the 19th century. He was born on January 6, 1848, and died in June 1876.

The combination of poet and revolutionary is often found in countries with a violent history. What is ironic is that poets, in general are usually very peaceful people, who despise violence and conflict. They are also idealists.

There are a number of countries with a literary history of revolutionary poets, such as Scotland (Robert Burns), Cuba (Jose Martí), China (Mao Zedong), and the United States (Phyllis Wheatley). Hristo Botev and Ivan Vazov (who will be mentioned later) are Bulgaria's contribution to the world of revolutionary poetry.

Hristo Botev died before the age of 30. He wrote 20 poems during his lifetime. Besides writing poetry, he was a teacher, writer, journalist, and revolutionary. He is considered a national hero in Bulgaria. Every year on June 2, the anniversary of his death, sirens sound at noon for several minutes and the entire country comes to a standstill. The city of Botevgrad is named after him, as well as a number of schools, sports stadiums, and even a program on the Bulgarian National Radio!

http://www.bnr.bg/sites/hristobotev/Pages/default.aspx

He was one of the key figures in the overthrow of Ottoman rule in his country, and is much revered by the Bulgarian people.

Bulgaria and a good portion of the Balkans had been under Ottoman Turkish rule for about 500 years, until the the end of the Russo Turkish War in 1878. Their rule was somewhat harsh; the Balkans have always been a hotbed for conflict, especially of the religious kind. The Turks were Muslim, and the Bulgarians, Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Bulgarians chafed under the Ottoman yoke; the Turks suppressed their religion and culture and taxed them heavily. They also took a number of Bulgarian boys away from their families and conscripted them into elite fighting units called the Janissaries. This did not sit well with the Bulgarians, either.

Hristo Botev's goal was to free his country from Turkish oppression. He was especially influenced by the Polish and Russian revolutionary movements and writers; nearly all his poetry was based on patriotic and revolutionary themes. Here is "The Hanging of Vasil Levski" in an English translation:

http://www.slovo.bg/old/f/en/botev/vlevski.htm

Vasil Levski was executed for spreading revolutionary ideas, and attempting to start an uprising, and this was Botev’s account of his death. It is very moving, graphic and sad. Poetry is emotion put on paper, and it’s not always about beautiful things. The description and its meaning to the poet, and to his readers, are what constitutes his message.

For more on Vasil Levski, read http://www.bnr.bg/sites/en/Lifestyle/HistoryAndReligion/Pages/1902LevsiplusPoem.aspx

One of the most famous incidents in Bulgarian history, and one that was in part, responsible for the overthrow of Ottoman domination of Bulgaria, was the May, 1876 takeover of the Radetsky, in which Botev, accompanied with about 200 men, dressed as gardeners, hijacked an Austro-Hungarian steamship. He, with a group of revolutionaries, exiles, living in Romania, were fed up with the situation in Bulgaria, and decided the time was ripe to return home and overthrow the Turks. Their plan was to cross the Danube into Bulgaria and join other rebels in hiding in the Vratsa region. His group, disguised as laborers, boarded, and as soon as they left Romania, Botev made the following demands to the captain:

(translation from Wikipedia)

“Mr Captain!
Dear passengers!
I have the honour to notify you that Bulgarian rebels, whom I have the honour to be the voivode of, are located on this steamship.
At the price of our livestock and our agricultural instruments, at the expense of great efforts and sacrifice of our goods, finally at the price of everything which is dear in this world (without the knowledge and despite the pursuit of the authorities in the country whose neutrality we respected), we have provided ourselves with what is necessary to us, in order to come to the assistance of our revolting brothers, who are fighting so brave under the Bulgarian lion for the liberty and independence of our dear Fatherland — Bulgaria.
We pray to the Lord that the passengers do not worry at all and remain calm. As for you, Mr Captain, I have the hard duty to invite you to place the ship at our disposal until our very getting-off, while at the same time I declare that even your smallest resistance will put me in the sorrowful necessity to use force and against my will to revenge for the disgusting incident on board the Germany steamboat in Rousse in 1867.
In one case or the other, our battle cry is the following:
Long live Bulgaria!
Long live Franz Joseph!
Long live Count Andrássy!
Long live Christian Europe!”

A poem by Ivan Vazov describes the Radetsky incident. Vazov was also a poet, writer, and revolutionary, and a contemporary of Botev. He lived long enough to see the Ottomans overthrown. Fortunately for him, he did not live to see the Nazis and later the Communists, since he died in 1921.

This is the poem "Radetsky" (translation found on Wikipedia, now deleted) by Vazov and a YouTube video of the song created from the poem. (Translations from Bulgarian can get a little strange but this one is actually quite good).

The placid white Danube is excited
And splashing merrily,
For the Radetzky is proudly sailing,
On its golden waves.
But as Kozloduy is sighted
A horn sounds on the ship,
A banner is unfurled.
Young Bulgarian warriors
Suddenly appear,
On their foreheads lion badges,
Ardour in their stare.
Proudly there stood before them,
Their leader young,
And thus spoke he to the captain
With bare sword in hand.
‘I am a Bulgarian voivod,
And these are all my men.
We are speeding now for freedom
to spill our blood today.
We are speeding to Bulgaria,
To offer our help,
And from oppressive tyranny
To rescue her today.'



The captain, Dagobert Engländer, was quite taken with Botev’s demeanor and described him as personable and well-mannered. He was impressed with the Botev’s willingness to die for a noble cause, and agreed to his demands. He wished the revolutionaries well when they docked in the Bulgarian port of Kozloduy, and this was all accomplished peacefully, without bloodshed.

By the way, the ship was named after an Austro-Hungarian general, Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. He was immortalized in a march by Johann Strauss Senior, this is his most famous work, the Radetsky March. Every year (except for 2005) this piece has been the rousing finale of the yearly Vienna New Year's Day Concert. Another interesting fact: the composer was the father of the man who wrote that very famous waltz about the Danube :)



There is a statue of Radetsky in Vienna, and a town named Radetski in Bulgaria. Everyone in Bulgaria is familiar with the name Radetsky, and it’s written forever in their history books as well as Austria’s.

Here is the account of Botev's death from last year's Bulgarian National Radio entry on the Internet (which is no longer on their web site, so I have quoted it here).

At that point, when Bulgaria was in the fire of the April events, when the houses of the rebellious Bulgarians were set on fire and the bodies of the slaughtered lay unburied, 200 brave young men decided to cross the Danube River and return home to fight side by side with their compatriots. On May 29 they set off from Giugriu determined to fight for Bulgaria’s freedom. Hristo Botev was their leader. On May 30 they set foot on the Bulgarian bank of the River at the town of Kozloduy and headed for the Balkan Range. After heavy and unequal fighting with the Turkish police units and regular army, on June 2, just below Okolchitsa Peak, in the region of Vratsa, Northern Bulgaria, Botev’s detachment was inflicted the heaviest blow and its leader – Hristo Botev was killed in battle. He was only 27.

To this day, Hristo Botev, poet and revolutionary, is one of the most important figures in Bulgarian history.

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