To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.
Agnes de Mille
Today's video features the group HKUD Osijek 1862 singing and dancing a kolo to tamburitza music. What is really cool is that they get practically the whole city to dance along with them in the square.
The cellist (Ana Rucner) is from the capital city of Zagreb. Check out the instrument she plays (it's made of metal instead of wood).
Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia, and it's located in the Slavonija region of the country. Slavonija is known for its lively and upbeat music. This city, along with Vukovar was damaged during the Croatian War for Independence in 1991 and a sizable number of lives were lost.
Tamburitza music is a staple of Croatian culture and the band in the video is a very fine example. The dance is a Drmes, of which there are many versions from different regions and towns. This one from Slavonija is one of my favorities.
The Universe of You Tube never fails to surprise me.
Today's post features some goodies from Lado, the National Folk Dance Ensemble of Croatia. They are a group of over fifty dancers and musicians and their repertoire includes all the folklore regions of Croatia.
The ensemble was founded in Zagreb in 1949 and has been performing for 67 years. In this post you will see some samples of them in action. If you like tamburitza music and choral singing you will love Lado.
Croatians usually sing and dance at the same time. The most popular dance is the kolo, which they do in circles and serpentine lines. They are also big on call and response songs and tamburitza music.
The medley in Video #1 is from the region of Posavina.
Video #2 is from the town of Valpovo, in the region of Slavonia. The women's costumes are colorful, ornate, and how many petticoats are they wearing?
Video #3 is of a dance called Drmes. It is a kolo with a "shaking" motion. There are many versions of this dance in Croatia and you can read a description of one here.
Video #4 is song/dance medley from the Baranja region of Croatia. There is also a district in Hungary with the same name. Oftentimes, names cross borders, another example is Dobrudja in Bulgaria and Dobrogea in Romania.
There is something particularly special and personal about the circle and how its curves comfortably rule every aspect of our lives.
Kat Lahr
Once upon a time there was a country called Yugoslavia. It broke apart in the 1990's during a series of ethnic and religious civil wars. After the breakup it became six different entities, one of which was Bosnia. Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo, was reduced to a pile of rubble during the The Siege of Sarajevo , when the Serbian Army held the city for almost four years.
Nowadays, Sarajevo is again a tourist attraction, although if you look closely you can see remnants of the war.
Today's post features kolos from Bosnia. Some are in circles and some are in lines.
Sarajevka Kolo, according to John Filcich in the video, was one of the original dances brought over by the immigrants in the 19th century. The notes have it listed as a Serbian because it originated with Serbs living in Bosnia, so this is a hybrid dance with dual nationality. The recording, judging from the sound, is an old one. Somehow the video got cut somewhere in the middle of the dance.
In the past, Balkan Music Night used to feature costumed folk dance ensembles in between bands. This video dates from 2010 and features a costumed group performing dances from Bosnia.
A commenter on YouTube had noticed that there were no guys dancing with the girls. The reason is that Islam is the dominant religion in Bosnia (Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism rate second and third). In Islam, contact with the opposite gender is forbidden (except for family relationships).
Video #3 is another Bosnian kolo, with a group from Seattle, Washington. There is no gender segregation here.
I would say happy new year but it's not happy; it's exactly the same as last year except colder.
Robert Clark
It is the end of 2015, and we have been very fortunate. This time last year was a lot colder and snowier. Yesterday was the first winter precipitation, mostly in the form of freezing rain and slush, but there's no escaping cold weather where I live.
Back in 2010, I started The Alien Diaries because at the time there were very few blogs in English about Balkan music, folklore and dance. I had no idea that almost six years later that I can still create a new post almost every week, and that so many people look forward to reading them. My goal was to make Balkan folklore interesting, accessible, and entertaining. It is also a plot to get more people (especially the young ones) on the dance floor.
Since 2016 is almost upon us, this year end post will focus on the best video(s) from each year (my choice). If you have a favorite, let me know in the "comments" section.
How do you mix folklore with pop culture? Dress a woman up in a Bulgarian folk costume. Poke fun at the World Cup, soccer players, Germans, and a psychic octopus named Paul.
During the playoffs of the 2010 World Cup, Paul picked the winning teams with a surprising degree of accuracy. Unfortunately, Paul lived in an aquarium in Germany, and when he predicted Spain as the winner of the World Cup, the Germans posted octopus recipes on the Internet. Fortunately he survived all the brouhaha and went to Pulpo Heaven later that year.
In Paul's honor, the Bulgarians created a satirical dance-song, the Octopod Rachenitsa.
One of the highlights of 2011 was Balkan Music Night. It is an event that takes place in the Boston area every year right around mid-March and features numerous musicians and dance ensembles. Balkan Music night has two parts: the concert from 7-9 p.m., and afterwards, participatory dance to live music.
I took this video just before midnight when everyone was high on endorphins and finishing a medley of dances played by the tamburitza group Pajdashi. What's really cool is how the dancers flow around the room and end up in a circle, which is the definition of kolo.
The best video of 2012 is an excerpt from the Bulgarian TV program Ide Duhovata Muzika. Itfeatured brass band music and songs performed by Daniel Spassov. The backdrop is the town of Vidin, Bulgaria.
You can usually recognize Daniel Spassov by his shades (they look like Transitions lenses). In this video he looks different with a mustache minus his glasses. The group dresses like gypsies, and the woman wears a colorful outfit. She is the only female in the video.
The song is Tsiganko. It sounds upbeat but is actually a lament about a man who's in love with a gypsy girl. According to the lyrics, he can't sleep and misses her badly because she's far away. You'd never know it from the music.
One of the best videos of 2013 took place at a dance workshop in Austria : "Schmitz mit Fritz." It was the most fun that I've seen during a dance teach. Fritz called the steps, and the dancers hummed along with the music. They didn't sweat very hard because Pogonishte is a slow dance. You can find the lyrics here, in the original Albanian with German translation.
In 2014, Miss Piggy and her entourage of dancing pigs were a big hit on The Alien Diaries with Never on Sunday. The setting is right out of a Greek taverna, with bottles of ouzo on the table.The tradition of celebratory gunfire is part of the culture on the island of Crete and other regions of the Balkans, so the creators of this episode knew something about Greek celebrations. The characters also went crazy breaking plates.
The Muppet Show was broadcast from 1976-1981 and it was designed to appeal to both adults and kids. I see things here that would never be allowed on a children's show today...though I have to admit this video was fun to watch and my kids, who were fans of the Muppet Show, suffered no ill effects.
Another Muppet who made an appearance on The Alien Diaries in 2014 was the Count from an early episode of Sesame Street (1973). He is the only Muppet with a Romanian accent, and the coolest vampire on the planet.
During the summer of 2015, there was a series of posts on Danube songs from Bulgaria. Part Three featured modern folk songs. My favorite was this plum from Plam.
The band takes its name from accordionist Plamen Dimitrov. It looks like the group added more members; there are five on the website, and nine in the video.
The song is Kray Dunava, or how people amuse themselves along the Danube, River of Many Names. There's a man shaking a bottle of sparkling wine, another man with a broom, attractive women, and the Bulgarian version of aerobic exercise, with the river as a backdrop.
Another fun video from the blog in 2015 was the Romanian dance Hora Veche, also known as Horror from Veche. A group of young people took this dance and made it fun. It was a stellar performance. "We did it!"
Since the New Year is upon us, let's have a blast with Diko Iliev. Somebody paired an excerpt from a war movie with Iliev's Dunavsko Horo. The explosions are timed perfectly with the music, and, yes, you can dance to it. It is a tradition to dance to this music at midnight on New Year's Day in Bulgaria.
Happy New Year 2016! A big "Thank You" to Alien Diaries readers and followers. May the New Year bring peace and joy (not war).
You can find the posts where these videos originally appeared below, except the Diko Iliev link. Enjoy! See you next year.
The cook looked at the old man, and her gibenica burned. Sukačica, Croatian folk song
Todays' dances can easily be confused because the names are similar. The first one is the very popular Sukačko Kolo from Croatia, based on a humorous song, Sukačica. It's about a cook who burned a gibenica (cheese pastry). Despite the disaster in the kitchen, everyone has a great time dancing. You can find the lyrics here, in Croatian, German and in English.
The video itself is also cool, because of the male-female costume reversal. It was mentioned in the comments on YouTube that the dancers wore Serbian costumes. A cultural faux pas, maybe, but certainly not a punishable offense :)
By the way, if you come to my house for dinner, you'll know that the food is ready when the smoke detector goes off:
Dance #2 is spelled a bit differently and has a different meaning. With the diacritical marks it's Šokačko Kolo, a dance of the Šokač people who live in Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary. Ethnically, they consider themselves Croats and dance to music played by tamburitza orchestras.
You can see why it's easy to confuse the name with the better known Sukačko Kolo. I couldn't find any videos of this dance from the States or Canada although I did find notes from the Folk Dance Federation of California. It was taught at a workshop back in 2009. For some reason it didn't become part of the repertoire.
High heels are not the best footwear to be worn when dancing, but since this video was taken at a wedding, that is to be expected. I recommend kicking off the shoes, all they do is get in the way.
There is more tamburitza music in version #2 of Šokačko Kolo. The video was taken during a party (Šokačka Večer) in 2014. You'll see dancers in traditional folk costumes along with the band.
Croatian dances are usually circular, and move in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction (or both). The word kolo means either "circle" or wheel in Croatian (as well as Serbian).
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: DivčibarskoKolo. 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:
Blessed are they who go around in circles for they shall be known as wheels.
source unknown
Today's post features two kolos from Croatia that begin with the letter K, and a mystery kolo from Balkan Music Night 2011.
A kolo is a dance usually performed in a circle and sometimes in a line. In Croatia, they're done in a circle, using a hand hold, front basket hold, or back basket hold. The Croatian kolo is usually accompanied by tamburitza music, singing, and sometimes both.
Croatia was once a part of the multi-ethnic multi-cultural nation of Yugoslavia, which, surprisingly, stayed together for nearly fifty years. Yugoslavia broke up after the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 and became like Humpty Dumpty. Once it fell apart, it never got back together. Croatia declared independence in 1991; it has been its own entity ever since.
The first video is of the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel performing Krici, Krici, Ticek(Chirp, Chirp Little Bird). The lyrics are provided so you can sing along :) It's moderately fast, and the dancers use a back basket hold. If you watch them closely, they resemble a wheel, going round.
The next video took place at a New Year's Eve party at a restaurant in Australia in 2009 The dance is Kukunjesce Kolo. The music, played by a tamburitza orchestra, is loud enough to way the dead! The crawling baby (at 4:56) wants to get into the act, too.
This video goes back four years, to Balkan Music Night 2011. It was quite late and by that time everyone was high on endorphins from all that dancing. The group Padjashi was finishing up a medley of Croatian folk songs and so far no one was kolo-ed out.
Notice the way the line flows around the room and then ends in a circle. Does anyone know the name of this dance or the music that goes with it? If you do, please post it in the "comments" section.
This weeks bonus video is a lesson on How to be a Croatian.. It focuses on important skills like cooking from scratch, preparing the house for guests and loading them up on leftovers when they leave. Oh. and don't leave the windows open in the bedroom, even in summer. The drafts can kill you!
Since this week's dance has two c's instead of one, here's the Cookie Monster to tell you what the letter C is all about. Eating too many cookies results in weight gain, which is why Cookie Monster should take up Balkan dancing.
The featured dance is from the Sumadija region of Central Serbia, Cicino Kolo. Translated into English it means "Grandfather's Kolo" At first it looks like something your grandfather can easily do until it starts to speed up.. Cicino Kolo is not recommended for those who have arthritis in the knees or other mobility problems. No disrespect meant to grandfathers, some are very fit and active people.
Kolo means "circle"and it can also mean wheel. Not all kolos are danced in a circle, as you will see in the here, since there are only two people, not enough to form a circle. Circles and lines, by the way, are geometric figures, which are very prominent in folk dances from Eastern Europe.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you'll recognize the dancers. They are members of the Dunav group, from Jerusalem, Israel. By the way, Dunav means Danube in Serbian and Bulgarian.
Although I'm not quite ready to move to letter D I thought I'd include, as an added bonus, the Bulgarian New Year Dance: Diko Iliev's Dunavsko Horo. He composed it in honor of the Danube, River of Many Names. It was a big part of his life because he spent many years in the town of Oryahovo, along the river. The music and the dance are associated with Diko Iliev, even though he wrote many other compositions.
Play it at midnight and turn the volume loud enough to wake the dead. Get all your friends to line up behind you and dance around the living room instead of having a drunken Auld Lang Syne singalong. If you want to learn the dance, the first post on the list below will help.
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 ofPrekid 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.
Blessed are they who go around in circles, for they shall be known as wheels.
Anonymous
Today's post is about a dance much-loved in Serbia, the kolo.
The Serbs don't have a monopoly on the kolo because people dance it in Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia. These countries used to be part of a larger entity, Yugoslavia, the place that brought us the Yugo, the car that didn't go. The country went the way of the car. May they both rest in peace.
Kolo means "circle"and it can also mean wheel. Not all kolos are danced in a circle, as you will see in the following videos. From what I've observed most groups do them in a line. Professional ensembles are more likely to dance them in an actual circle. Circles and lines, by the way, are geometric figures, which are very prominent in folk dances from Eastern Europe.
The first video is Ersko Kolo, an easy and fun dance, performed by the Tanzgruppe Schmelz from Vienna, Austria.
The next dance is a medley of three Serbian kolos, and judging from the stamping, the dances are probably of Vlach origin. The Vlachs were people of Romanian (Latin) ancestry, and they travelled all over the Balkans. They traditionally worked as shepherds, which explains their wandering ways.
This is another example of a Vlach dance from Serbia: Vlashko Kolo.
Kolo Koalition, a group from California in the USA, has many dances, including Serbian kolos, posted on their YouTube channel. Prekid Kolo, best described as kolo interruptus, is related to another very popular Serbian dance, U šest. Read the notes to find out why.
Finally, here's the Kolo Ensemble performing during a halftime show at an NBA basketball game in Canada.
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)
And finally, some trivia. Čačakis 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.
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.
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).
You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.
Theodore Bikel
Today's post features some traditional (and not so traditional) instruments in Serbian folk music.
The first group plays a kolo on an accordion (the national instrument of Serbia) accompanied by two men on frula (a high-pitched flute). What I find strange is that these guys are wearing business suits instead of traditional clothing. Kolo in Serbian means "circle dance" but you can dance kolo in a line as well. It depends on the whim of the leader.
The next video features some eye candy for the guys. Sandra Milosevic on accordion plays Stara Vlajna with some violinists as backup. I'm trying to figure out why at the beginning of the video there's a woman dancing in high heels...that is very bad for the feet, but I've seen women dancing in all sorts of uncomfortable shoes: high heels and flip-flops are the worst.
If you thought you were going to escape the bagpipes this time: you won't. Although the bagpipe (gaida) is more closely associated with Serbia's neighbors, Bulgaria and Macedonia, they like it in Serbia as well.
If you follow this blog regularly, you have seen this group before....this piper and his band play Serbian Vlach melodies on the gaida. This is an ad for the band complete with dancers as backup dressed in traditional folk costumes, and the Iron Gate Gorge as a backdrop. Give him a call next time you're in the neighborhood :) His phone number is on the video.
This tamburitza ensemble from the Vojvodina region of Serbia has not one, but three "instruments of torture", a gaida and two accordions. The gaida is the dominating sound here. If you want to read why some people consider bagpipes and accordions instruments of torture, check out the links at the end of this post.
At this party, the musicians play something called Gaida Kolo. Where is the gaida? The keyboard player actually does a pretty good imitation of a bagpipe, though. It certainly gets people up on the dance floor.
If you enjoyed this you may also like:
The Bagpipe and Bulgarian Folk Music (and why it's an instrument some people love to hate...)
The River of Many Names, Part 5: The Danube in Serbian Folk Music (some beautiful scenery, music and thoughts on dreams and the mutability of time here)
Musicians from the beginning of time have been there to express the mood and the musical feelings in the air for whatever's going on in that particular culture. It's the greatest joy as a musician to be able to translate that, be part of something and watch the scenery around you.
Trey Anastasio
In today's post we'll explore music by classical composers who were inspired by folk dances from the Balkans.
The Romantic Period in classical music, which took place during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was a time of musical nationalism, and composers from several countries used folk motifs as part of their compositions. Some famous examples from the 19th century include Brahms (who wrote 21 Hungarian Dances); Smetena (his folk opera The Bartered Bride is very popular to this day), and Franz Liszt, who wrote a set of Hungarian Rhapsodies.
There were also composers in Balkan countries who wrote music based on folklore themes; most of them they are unknown in the States, except for George Enescu, who did quite a bit of traveling. He gave concert tours in the United States and Europe and spent his final years in Paris, France, after the Communist takeover of Romania. They had confiscated his home in Bucharest, and he never went back.
This video of Romanian Rhapsody #1, composed in 1901 by George Enescu features some beautiful scenery from his homeland. The work was based on songs and dances from Romania; it's a very dramatic and beautiful piece. Although it's a bit long (14 minutes) it's worth a look and listen.
The next piece is by Bulgarian composer Petko Stainov (1896-1977). Stainov composed a number of works based on Bulgarian folk dances, this one is Rachenitsa (Thracian Dance). The concert commemorates a Bulgarian holiday, March 3, 1878, celebrating the liberation of that country from Ottoman rule.
The last video is of a kolo (circle dance) from the folk opera Ero s onoga svijeta (Ero the Joker). The composer, Jakov Gotovac, was a native of Croatia. When the opera made its debut in 1935, Croatia was part of a larger entity, Yugoslavia.
I heard the orchestral version of the kolo many years ago on a New York classical music station and maybe once or twice. I searched for it on YouTube using the words "folk opera Yugoslavia kolo," since had no idea who the composer was, and I had forgotten the name of the opera, but I recognized the music when I heard it.
This is the lively finale from Ero the Joker, Zavrsno Kolo, done in true Croatian style, with tamburitza accompaniment.
There is an article on Wikipedia about Jakov Gotovac, click here for information about his life and 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!
