The "Flavors" of Macedonian Oro

Today's post features several dances from another former Yugoslav republic, Macedonia. The word for dance in Macedonian is similar to the Bulgarian (oro in Macedonia, horo in Bulgaria).

If you are looking for oro, as in gold, you have come to the wrong place. Do a search on Spanish conquistadors instead, they had an obsession about finding gold in the New World. But before you go, spend a few minutes here, you may find this blog more interesting and a lot more fun than Latin American history :)

Bavno Oro is familiar to folk dancers worldwide. The name comes from the slow part in the beginning of the dance, which speeds up at the end. This vintage recording, still played at dances today, was made by Boris Karlov, Bulgarian accordionist.  His repertoire included music from Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia, and unfortunately, he died at a very young age from a kidney infection.

The performers are the Surrey International Folk Dancers from British Columbia in Canada.



If you are a frequent visitor here you have seen these people before.  They are a part of a "bonding folk dance class" in China.  Their instructor is very good because I can follow him even though I don't understand a word of Chinese.  Balkan folk dance is very popular in China, judging from the number of videos I have seen posted by this group on YouTube.  The dance is Berovka and its time signature is 2/4. 



The next video was from the New England Folk Festival 2012, and features an excellent group from Brooklyn, NY who sing "Macedonian roots music."  I had the pleasure of listening and dancing to Niva recently at  Balkan Music Night 2014. 

Ratevka, the dance shown here, is usually played as part of a medley that includes Berovka. It has a different time signature than the previous dance:  7/8 or 7/16 depending on the speed.  This live version is a little slower than the recording. It's the same rhythm as the Bulgarian dance Chetvorno Horo (pineapple-apple-apple).



The Tanec ensemble is well-known all over the world for their performances of music and dance from the Republic of Macedonia. This is a men's dance, Teskoto, played on two zurnas and a tupan. The zurna is an instrument that resembles a horn.  It has a double reed, like an oboe, and finger holes and it is loud enough to wake the dead. The Turks introduced these instruments during their occupation of the Balkans.  They later became part of the musical fabric of Macedonia as well as the Pirin region of Bulgaria.

If you haven't noticed previously, Macedonian folk dances tend to start off slow and pick up speed as they progress. 



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Legacy of Boris Karlov, Bulgarian Folk Accordionist

The Bagpipe in Macedonian Folk Music

Two Variations on a Macedonian Folk Dance: Bufcansko

If you're interested in music from former Yugoslav republics click these links:

The "Flavors"of Serbian Kolo

The River of Many Names, Part 6, The Danube in Croatian Folk Songs


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

The Bagpipe in Macedonian Folk Music

"Gaidasheep", photo from Uncyclopedia

These are bagpipes. I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.
Alfred Hitchcock

If Alfred Hitchcock had lived in Macedonia, the pig probably would have been replaced by a goat.

Today's topic is the bagpipe in Macedonian folk music, also known as a gaida. The gaida plays a very important part in the music of Macedonia, and they love it as much as the Bulgarians, if not more.

If you are a regular reader of The Alien Diaries, you've probably noticed that I'm fond of music played on the gaida (Eastern European bagpipe). It has a unique sound, and can be haunting and annoying at the same time. For example, when one or more members of my family start to get on my nerves I find the loudest and most obnoxious piece of gaida music and play it from my computer. That usually keeps them in line. They think of it as an instrument of torture. To some people, it is.

Traditional instruments in the Balkans are created from the skins of animals; sheep, goats, or pigs. For example, the gaida is made from the hide of a sheep or goat, and the tupan (double headed drum) is often made from a pig's hide.

Balkan cuisine is very heavy on the meat; the farmers utilized just about every part of the animals they slaughtered. The skins came in very handy in the creation of musical instruments.

What really caught my attention in the first video is that the man plays a gaida made from the body of a goat, with the head still attached. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) would not approve, despite the fact that these instruments are very much part of the cultural fabric of Macedonia.

The musician is a Macedonian living in Australia who makes his own bagpipes, tupans, and kavals and advertises them on YouTube. If you're looking for a one of a kind gift that stares back at you send Risto Todoroski an email at sirulsko@gmail.com. If you order one soon, it just may get to the recipient in time for Christmas :)



This eponomous piece is Gaidarsko Oro. It is also known as Narodno Oro, which means simply "folk dance." The piper is accompanied by an ensemble of traditional instruments; the tambura (lute), the tupan (drum) and the kaval (flute).



The Tanec folk ensemble of Skopje are ambassadors of Macedonian folklore. They have given numerous performances in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas since the group was founded in 1949. In this video, there's a great gaida solo (sans goat head). This video is a part of Tanec's 60th anniversary celebration in 2009. The group performs Osogovka Oro, a men's dance. Notice the men wearing short skirts, these are called "fustanella" and are part of the traditional costumes of Macedonia and Greece.



You can read about Tanec here:

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

If you liked this you may also enjoy:

The Bagpipe and Bulgarian Folk Music:

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

Another Country Heard From: The Bagpipe in Romanian Folk Music:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/08/another-country-heard-from-bagpipe-in.html

More Interesting and Unusual Instruments in Balkan Folk Music

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-interesting-and-unusual.html


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

The Different "Flavors" of Macedonian Folk Music

I love Macedonian folk music.

The reason for that is that it's a blend of multiple cultures, and uses motifs from Greek, Turkish, Roma (Gypsy) and Bulgarian folk music to create a distinctly Macedonian sound, which is almost, but not quite, Middle Eastern. Macedonia was under Turkish rule from the 1400's until 1912.

One of my favorite folk ensembles is Tanec, from the Macedonian capital of Skopje. In this video, a musician plays the zurna (at 6.13) a double reed instrument which looks like a wooden horn with finger holes. It has a loud and piercing sound, and was used in Ottoman military bands (presumably for war dances and to intimidate enemies). Notice the "skirts" on the men (these are similar to the Greek folk costumes, and can be compared to the kilts worn by men in Scotland).



More information on male folk dress in the Balkans can be found here:

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

Some Macedonian folk music and dances are similar to Bulgarian and there is a bit of overlap in the border region of southwestern Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad Province, also known as Pirin Macedonia.

The languages of the two countries are very similar (much like the speakers of Spanish and Italian, they can understand each other), and both countries use the Cyrillic alphabet.

Here Tanec performs music from the Pirin region. The second song, Snoshti E Dobra, (at 1:45) is popular in Bulgaria, too.



Here is the same song performed by the Pirin Ensemble of Blagoevgrad.



In the next video, the Pirin Ensemble performs a very beautiful folk song: Glasat Na Pirina (Voice of Pirin). Pirin is a derivation of Perun, who is the Slavic god of thunder and lightning, and is also the name of the mountain range in this part of Bulgaria (remember, lightning always hits the tallest objects!)



There are several countries which include the name of Macedonia as part of their territory. Although I don't want to get too much into politics (and start World War III), there is a lot of contention regarding the use of the name "Macedonia". Back in the days before political borders, Macedonia included territory now in Bulgaria, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia. The area now in Greece is Aegean Macedonia, and the next video is a sample of the folk music of that region.



The Greek Macedonians and the Slavic Macedonians don't always get along, which is something I don't understand. But unfortunately the Balkans have always been a hotbed for ethnic tensions, even in modern times, and these disputes sometimes get played out on YouTube, which is why comments have been disabled on many Macedonian folk music videos.

As for me, I enjoy the music, and think that people should set aside their differences and get along.

If you enjoyed this you may also like Ten Reasons Why You Should Read My Blog

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/01/ten-reasons-why-you-should-read-my-blog.html

For a look at the Roma influence in Macedonian music read:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/09/people-are-afraid-of-what-they-know.html


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