The Women of Bulgarian Folk Songs: Dimitrija. Elerinka, and Jova

I think today women are very scared to celebrate themselves, because then they just get labeled.
Charlize Theron

In honor of International Women's Day, which falls every year on March 8, this post features  Bulgarian folk songs about three young women: Dimitrija, Elerinka, and Jova. There are links to the lyrics so you can sing along, if you want. 

The first song, Dimitrija, is from the Pirin region, and it's performed by the Goce Delchev folk ensemble from Sofia, Bulgaria. The closest translation I could get for this was from the Songbook for Nearsighted People, in German. According to the lyrics, Dimitrija sits on a chair, drinking wine and rakia (she certainly has a tolerance for alcohol!) Three falcons fly overhead, and cover the rakia with dust. This angers Dimitrija, and she whips out her gun! Don't mess with a female who's armed and dangerous, as well as drunk....



The lyrics can be found here:

http://www.hopp-zwei-drei.de/Texte/einzeln/Kurzsicht_Lieder_20110507_50.pdf

The next group, from the Boston, Massachusetts area, is Rakiya; the footage is from an gig they did in Wethersfield, Connecticut a couple of years ago. The band's name comes from the fiery brandy indigenous to the Balkans. They play traditional music from Bulgaria, Macedonia and other Eastern European countries with a modern touch, and it is a joy to listen to them.

The song, Elerinka, describes a beautiful girl held captive by her evil stepmother; she's not allowed to go to the well to fetch water with the other young ladies, nor can she go to the village dances to find a husband. The sun, however, fell in love with Elerinka, he shone on her for three days and three nights. The question of the day is...did she get burned? 

This dance has one of the quirkiest rhythms I've ever heard.  According to the dance notes I found, it alternates between 11/8 and 7/8. Odd rhythms and rhythm changes are very common in Bulgarian folk music.

http://www.folkdance.com/LDNotations/Elerinka2010LD.pdf



The lyrics (in German and English) can be found here:

http://www.hopp-zwei-drei.de/Texte/einzeln/Kurzsicht_Lieder_20110507_61.pdf

The tune Jove Malaj Mome is well-known amongst folk dancers all over the world. This is another dance in compound meter, like the previous one, it alternates between two different rhythms, 7/16 and 11/16.

Jove Malaj Mome  is from the Shope region of Bulgaria, ;and the lyrics describe a young woman who goes to the village dances to look for men. She's a hot shot, thinks she's God's gift to the world, and leads the dancing.  She's a snob when it comes to her choice of men, no country guys for her, she wants a big-city dude in an embroidered vest. Jova is definitely a gold-digger.

By the way, the group performing this dance is Dunav from Jerusalem in Israel.  For more songs and videos, you can visit their website:



Click the link below for the lyrics.

http://www.hopp-zwei-drei.de/Texte/einzeln/Kurzsicht_Lieder_20110507_73.pdf

If you enjoyed this you may also like my two previous International Women's Day posts

Songs From the Balkans About Women and Girls:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/03/to-celebrate-international-womens-day.html

Dances from the Balkans About Women and Girls

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/03/in-honor-of-international-womens-day.html

For some background and history about International Women's Day read:

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp


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

More Odds and Ends: Misconceptions About the Cyrillic Alphabet, Bagpipes, and Bulgarian Geography

This old T-shirt, which reads "Koprishvitsa 2005" was one of the first items I received in the mail from Bulgaria, along with a CD of songs by Kostadine Gugov. (I have never been to the Koprishvitsa festival, which is one of the places on my bucket list.) I got it back in the days when the website, http://balkanfolk.com/ gave a monthly prize in a drawing that the site used to have. In order to enter it, you had to vote on your favorite Bulgarian folk song.

The Cyrillic lettering aroused my daughter's curiosity, since she had taken Russian in elementary school. So she asked me:

"Is that the Russian alphabet?"

I explained to her that it wasn't Russian but Bulgarian.

"It's Russian."

"It's the Cyrillic alphabet. It's used both in Bulgaria and Russia." (there are other countries that use it too, but I wasn't going to get into that.)

"Oh." She had a bemused and confused look on her face. She still didn't get it. So much for explaining азбука (azbuka) to my daughter.

From what I've seen Americans don't see much of the Cyrillic alphabet except in old spy movies which took place in the former Soviet Union, which is why they automatically associate Cyrillic with Russian.

People are often surprised when they first hear Bulgarian folk music played on the bagpipe. In the States, bagpipes are associated with Scotland, men wearing kilts, parades, and sometimes funerals.



In this commercial, men play a Bulgarian folk tune on Scottish bagpipes. This is a cleverly crafted ad for rakia (brandy).
,


The Bulgarian bagpipe (gaida) is a totally different species from the Scottish. It's made from the stomach of a goat or sheep which gives it a distinctive sound. Although Scots have been known to dance to bagpipe music, Bulgarians sing as well as dance along to it. In this case it's the entire village, and there's a surprising display of firepower near the end.



Another question I've been asked is if Bulgaria has a seacost. Americans, in general, know little of European geography unless they've actually traveled around the Continent.

I lived in Germany for four years, so ignorance of geography was not an option, especially when guiding my husband with the map (yes, we actually used those in the days before the GPS!) And we did sometimes get lost!

Bulgaria not only has a seacoast, it is a very popular vacation spot for Western Europeans, especially those from cooler, rainier climes like Germany and Holland. The North Sea is too cold (even in summer) and the main attraction of the Black Sea towns, so I've been told, is the endless party, especially for the under 30 crowd. Then of course, there's the beach.



Judging from the travel ads I've received in the mail, Bulgaria is not a very popular tourist destination in the United States (except for people involved in folk music, who see visiting this country as a pilgrimage of sorts.) Friends of mine who actually been there have told me their visit was religious experience of the musical kind, especially that aforementioned Koprishvitsa festival.

The problem with a tourist destination becoming popular is that it loses the local flavor. I'm for traveling off the beaten path, which I was able to do when I lived in Germany; living in a foreign country is a lot different than visiting during a short vacation.

Maybe it's a good thing Bulgaria isn't infested with tourists from the United States :) Otherwise the entire country would resemble Sunny Beach.

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Bagpipe and Bulgarian Folk Music (it's an instrument some people love to hate)

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

The Cyrillic Alphabet: Cracking the Code (have you ever wondered is there is such as thing as Cyrillic alphabet soup?

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/05/cyrillic-alphabet-cracking-code-and.html

Listening to Bulgarian folk music can induce altered states in susceptible people.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-bulgarian-folk-music-induces.html


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

Boozing it up in the Balkans, via Song and Dance

Part of the experience of visiting a foreign country has to do with the food and drink and the fun things you get to do while mingling with the natives. You can get into the heart and soul of a culture and it's a great way to make new friends.

Today's post is about folk songs and booze. In the Balkans booze is big, and there are many different alcoholic beverages: Greek Ouzo, Bulgarian Rakia, and Serbian Slivovitz to name a few.

Then there is the ubiquitious fruit of the vine. Wine is one of the oldest drinks known to man. When the ancient peoples discovered wine it opened up new horizons, especially when primitive societies found that grape juice not only tasted good after it was fermented, but that it made people happy and sociable. A few drunken individuals entertained the rest of the group by doing really stupid things, this became known as "partying."

An enterprising individual found that he could make the wine stronger by distilling it into brandy, from that, rakia was born. And a very clever woman discovered that by planting a few grape vines, she could create a beverage that could knock a man out. He drank the wine, the rakia and the horse!



You can read about rakia here:
:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakia

Can you count backwards from ten after a few shots of Slivovitz (the national drink of Serbia)? Niška Banja is a drinking song from Serbia, and that is exactly what they do after a day spent at the thermal baths in town; sing and drink slivovitz. Slivovitz is plum brandy and its taste and effects are nothing like prune juice :) I tried some on an freezing cold day in Germany, it warmed up those insides quite a bit.



Here are the lyrics in case you want to sing along. Make sure to pick up some slivovitz at the local liquor store first. If you have a Serbian neighbor who makes the stuff, it's probably much better than anything you can buy.

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

Everything you always wanted to know about slivovitz can be found here:

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

Unfortunately too much of a good thing has its drawbacks. Poor Gino! Don't drink the wine! Now he has an enormous headache. Or is he in pain from the loss of the one he loves?



The dance to the previous video was a lesnoto (galloping-apple-apple), which is a rhythm common in Bulgarian and Macedonian dances.

When I die, drink some red wine and break the glasses. Now that would be a fitting tribute to a life well lived. This beautiful and poignant folk song, Ako Umram il Zaginem, is from Macedonia. This song is also in lesnoto rhythm.



Here are the lyrics (and the music score) in case you want to sing along. We often do Ako Umram as a sing-along at the Sunday night dances, the description, in Bulgarian, for singing while dancing is called "horo na pesen."

http://balkanarama.com/ako_umram.htm

If you enjoyed this, you may also like Days of Wine and Roses, Balkan Style

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

The Bulgarians have a patron saint of wine. Read about St. Trifon the Pruner here:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/02/blessed-wine-cursed-drinking-look-at-st.html

Wine has a very important significance in Bulgarian folklore.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/05/significance-of-wine-in-bulgarian.html

If you'd like something stronger, there's always Rakiya, the band from the Boston area who plays electric Balkan dance music.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/01/some-electric-balkan-music-rakiya.html

If you're a teetotaler, this post may be more to your taste. Reading this will definitely stimulate the appetite.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/08/folklore-food-and-fun-at-festivals.html


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