If Drums Could Talk......

Esma would have plenty to say. She has done quite a bit of traveling in Bulgaria and the United States.

Giving names to inanimate objects is not unusual. People give names to cars and boats. It gives them personality, and even power. If you speak or understand an language other than English, which ascribes genders to nouns, this naming thing starts to make sense. For example, Spanish has masculine and feminine nouns. Things get even more complex in languages like German and Bulgarian, which have masculine, feminine and neuter nouns.

But this post isn't about the complexities of grammar and language, it's about music.

In this case, Esma is a very important part of her band. She's very colorful and loves keeping time (with a little help from her friends). What's unusual is that although she belongs to a Bulgarian band, the writing on her is in the Roman, not Cyrillic, alphabet.

Esma belongs to Kabile, a band from the Thracian region of Bulgaria, which is making yet another tour of the United States (the previous ones were in 2008 and 2010). She is a tupan, a double-headed drum who likes odd rhythms like 7/8 and 11/16.

Esma especially likes rachenitsa, the national dance of Bulgaria, which is in 7/8 time. Check out the video here:



Several of us watched a demonstration of a Bulgarian gaida (bagpipe), by one of the musicians, Dzhenko Andreev. There were musical instruments and CD's for sale on the table. If I had the time and the money, I wouldn't mind taking up kaval (an open ended flute). I don't have the lung power for playing the gaida.



Later in the evening,we danced to a kaval solo performed by Nikolay Doktorov. This is a tropanka (stamping dance) from Dobrudja, northeastern Bulgaria.



Kabile will be performing all over the United States between August and November of this year, with Esma in tow. If you would like to find the venue nearest you, click the link below:

http://balkandance.net/kabile2012/index.html

If you enjoyed this, you may also like:

Dancing to the Rhythm of a Different Drummer (why Balkan folk music is cool)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/01/dancing-to-rhythm-of-different-drummer.html

An Unforgettable Evening with Kabile (complete with video from their previous U.S. tour in 2010)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/11/unforgettable-evening-with-kabile-at-mt.html

Check out some really great music played on gadulka, which includes a solo performance by Nicolai Kolev of Kabile.

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


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

The Gadulka in Bulgarian Folk Music: Another Instrument of Torture Heard From (fifth in a series)

photo by KDB of "Oreo"

"The gadulka just isn’t meant to bring happiness to modern people." Rayko Baychev, from The Gadulka is Burning

You're probably wondering...why is there a picture of a cat here? Read on, you will find the answer later.

This is a musical intrument most people (except for Bulgarians) know little about, and some would consider it an instrument of torture like the bagpipe (gaida) or the accordion. People either love it or hate it. I describe it as a fiddle with attitude.

To get a sense of what a gadulka is about, first read this article from Wikipedia.

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

Now it's time to hear what a gadulka sounds like when played by a virtuoso. This is a solo performance by Nikolai Kolev. The piece is a rachenitsa, a Bulgarian folk dance in 7/8 time (apple-apple-pineapple).



Here is another piece with some beautiful scenery in the background...a gadulka serenade, how romantic :)



The gadulka is an integral part of the Bulgarian folk ensemble, and not usually featured as a solo instrument. It gets lonely all by itself, and prefers plenty of company. One of my favorite bands, Kabile, plays Bulgarian wedding music, and they go on tour in the United States every couple of years. I have danced to their music on several occasions, and they are one of the best groups around! In this video the gadulka is accompanied by its friends the gaida (bagpipe), accordion, clarinet, tupan, (drum), kaval (flute) and of course a singer! Synergy at its finest :)



A little gadulka humor is in order. This link goes to a memoir (in English translation) by a Bulgarian musician and gadulka player, Rayko Baychev. You will especially enjoy his description of how the Bulgarian folk orchestras use dead animals (cats, goats and pigs) to make music. Don't worry, it's funny, not gory. This is some excellent writing, enjoy!

http://www.granta.com/Online-Only/The-Gadulka-is-Burning

If you enjoyed this you may also like The Accordion in Bulgarian Folk Music

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/10/accordion-in-bulgarian-folk-music.html

The Bagpipe and Bulgarian Folk Music

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

The Clarinet in Bulgarian Folk Music

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


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

The Bagpipe in Bulgarian Folk Music

(photo from Wikipedia)

This is the musical instrument some people love to hate, and my daughter calls it music from Hell. The bagpipe is strident and loud, and you do not want to hear one the morning after a night of drinking! Most people associate the bagpipe with Scotland, where it is called the Great Highland Bagpipe. It takes a lot of lung power to play one.

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

Here's a traditional Scottish tune played on the Highland bagpipe:



Bagpipes are common to a number of cultures: the Scots, the Irish, the Bretons of northwest France, Macedonians, Greeks, and Bulgarians, to name a few. Here's some information about the Eastern European gaida (bagpipe) with some pictures, from Wikipedia:

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

An ad for Bulgarian rakia (brandy) cleverly combines Scottish bagpipes and kilts with Bulgarian music and dance:



In Bulgaria, the bagpipe is called the gaida. It is the predominant instrument in the Rhodope Mountains, near the Greek border, but common to all the folklore regions of Bulgaria. Most folk ensembles have a gaida player. You can really hear it in this performance of Kabile, a Bulgarian wedding band that toured the United States in 2008 and 2010.



This is what happens when 100 Bulgarians play the gaida at the same time. You will either be totally delighted by the performance or running to the medicine cabinet looking for a headache remedy. The fireworks add a nice touch!



When a female voice accompanies a gaida, you have a formidable combination. The song is Izlel e Delyu Haidutin, performed by a young lady named Nevena on the show Music Idol (the Bulgarian counterpart to American Idol). Her performance is on a par with that of Valya Balkanska, whose version of the song was launched into outer space in 1977.



There is no middle ground with bagpipes. You can love them or hate them, but they are pretty damn hard to ignore!

I love gaida music.

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