Music for the Birds!

Skylark, photo Wikipedia Commons, Daniel Petterson

In a broader sense, the rhythms of nature, large and small - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music.
George Crumb

If you like music for the birds, you have come to the right place.  If English is not your native language "for the birds" is an idiom meaning worthless.  If you read today's post and listen to the music, you'll find it definitely worth your time.

Today's post focuses on a very popular tune from Romania, Ciocârlia (Skylark). It was a piece originally composed by Anghelus Dinicu for the pan flute (nai), and arranged  for violin by his grandson Grigoraş Ionică Dinicu.

Pan flutes, or panpipes are common to other countries as well as Romania.  It is also a folk instrument played in the Andean regions of South America. However, Romanian musicians developed such proficiency on this instrument that they made it sound birdlike.  This is why Ciocârlia is so popular with pan flute players. 

The performer below is a virtuoso on this instrument.  He really gets that bird song on.



The second video is a bit longer than the first, and the soloist is accompanied by a band (violinist, pan flute, cello, cimbalom, accordion, saxophone and several violinists).  Although this performance is over 20 years old it's worth a listen.  This group sounds just like a flock of birds.  Seriously, it sounds like a summer morning when the birds go mad with their chirping. It is amazing how creative these guys are.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

More Interesting and Unusual Instruments in Balkan Folk Music

The Cimbalom/Tambal in Romanian Folk Music

It's almost winter and cold enough for snow and ice, in many places (unless global warming has cancelled winter for this year) Check out some variations of Hora pe Gheata.


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

Two Variations on a Romanian Folk Dance: Hora Fetelor

If you like to listen to panpipes and watch female dancers this post is for you.

Today's dance is Hora Fetelor from Romania.  It means Women's Dance (although in recreational folk dance men as well as women do it).  It is usually an equal opportunity dance, although during performances (like version #2), women are the preferred gender.

Version one is popular in the Western Hemisphere and with recreational folk dance groups. If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll recognize the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel. Here it's an equal opportunity dance.



This is Hora Fetelor distilled and refined, Romanian style; very beautifully done; danced slowly and gracefully by a female group with large white handkerchiefs.  The panpipe music accentuates the performance; it is the national instrument of Romania, where it is called the nai. This is a treat for the eyes and ears.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Women's Dances From the Balkans

The "Flavors" of Bulgarian Rachenitsa, Part 2 (a dance which can be masculine, feminine, or flirty!)

If you can't get enough of female performers, check out the Bulgarian singer Neli Andreeva and her two daughters in Nusha, a Family Music Project.


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

More Interesting and Unusual Instruments in Balkan Folk Music (part 4 of a series)

This is part 4 in a series about musical instruments in Balkan and Bulgarian folk music. Today's featured instruments are the panpipes, the gadulka, and the kaval.

Some people regard them as instruments of torture, and they are entitled to their opinion. They should also avoid The Alien Diaries like the plague, because the music here may give them a splitting headache, or worse, make them want to jump off the nearest bridge :) You can read about some of my favorite "instruments of torture" and their use in Bulgarian folk music here:

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

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

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

These are not the musical instruments that you'll find in your local band or symphony orchestra; although they may have some distant cousins there. You can learn to play them if you can make it to a Balkan Music and Dance Camp (if you're lucky enough to have one nearby), and you can maybe find a gadulka teacher in a large city, let's say, New York. Otherwise you'll have to do some traveling.

The first video is a that of a young woman playing a Romanian folk dance on the panpipes. The panpipes, also know as the panflute, are a multiculturally friendly instrument, like the accordion and the clarinet (both of which I've covered in previous posts). The panpipes has been around the world, but are most often associated with the music of South America (especially music of the indigenous people in Peru and Bolivia), and with Romania.



The gadulka is a string instrument, similar to the the fiddle, used in Bulgarian folk music. Nikolay Kolev, who plays solo gadulka in this video, is one of musicians of Kabile, a wedding orchestra from the Thracian region of Bulgaria. This piece is a rachenitsa, a Bulgarian dance in 7/8 rhythm (think apple-apple-pineapple).



The kaval, also known a shepherd's flute, is an instrument used in Bulgarian, Romanian and Macedonian folk music. In this performance, a kaval player, accompanied by two drummers plays a piece from Macedonia. It's in the odd time signature of 9/8.



Music in odd time signatures is typical of the Balkans, especially in Bulgaria and Macedonia. For more on this read :

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

The next video was taken during a performance of the Bulgarian band Lyuti Chushki at Mt. Holyoke College last year. The musicians play a very popular Bulgarian folk dance, Dunavsko Horo, on tambura, gadulka and kaval. For some reason you can't see the kaval player, but you can hear him loud and clear.



The tambura is an instrument used throughout the Balkans, where it's also known as a tamburitza. The strings are plucked with the fingers.



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

The tambura/tamburitza will have its own writeup in a future edition of The Alien Diaries., since it's played widely throughout the Balkans and is especially popular in Croatian folk music.


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