Music from Balkan Choir

[sonia]

The Balkan choir I'm in goes for 7 or 8 week sessions, and then at the end we do a "song sharing" where we invite family and friends, sing the songs we've been learning, and then have a little potluck party. Here are some of the songs we're learning this time.


Mesechinko Alena, Bulgaria. Bulgarian singers Kremena Stancheva, Vasilka Andonova, and Nadezhda Khvoineva, singing a lovely 5/4 song.

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Izraslo Durvo Visoko, Bulgaria. Our choir teacher is singing the top voice in these next two recordings.

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Uzh Vy Golubi, Russia

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Tsmindao Ghmerto, Georgia. We're not singing this one in concert this time because we're not ready, but we really like it. The three parts wander around almost independently and are hard to get right.
(I hadn't realized until I started making this post that all three songs are from the same Kitka album, 2008.)

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And Rustavi Ensemble from Georgia singing Tsmindao Ghmerto. They are the first Georgian choir to become known in the West.

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Comments

[asakiyume]

These are all lovely. I can remember the first time I ever heard this style of singing--it was on a Kate Bush album, actually, and I thought it was electrifying. It must be so satisfying to learn to sing.

I think my favorite of these you've shared is the third, Už vy golubi. (Do you know what the title means?)

[sonia]

Yes, Trio Bulgarka with Kate Bush. They're amazing. Here's their whole album on youtube, The Forest is Crying. It is satisfying to learn to sing! It's taking me a lot of years, but I'm getting better bit by bit.

Golubi are doves, and the title means "Ah, doves." They show up a lot in these Balkan songs, and the word is similar in a lot of the Slavic languages. The whole song is sad, and is noted to be a Russian pilgrim song.

Ah, doves, ah blue doves.
With bluish wings, where were you?
Ah, where were you, whither did you fly?
Where the soul left the white body,
The white body.
Left it and took leave
You, the white one, shall lie in the earth forever.
And I, the little soul, must lie far away.
Lie far away, bear heavy sins,
Heavy, oh so heavy,
Eternal torment, without end.

The wandering parts in Tsmindao Ghmerto

[jesse_the_k]

...are almost like jazz. Lovely and hard!

Re: The wandering parts in Tsmindao Ghmerto

[sonia]

Yes. The dang middle section is in a different key! Which is why we're not ready to sing it in front of other people yet, we're not making the transition in good order. I'm singing the top, and barely competent at it. When I get that down, I want to learn the middle, which is the main melody and more ornate.

[asakiyume]

Whoa; that is both very beautiful and very sad/sobering.

[sonia]

Agreed! Typing it out was a good reminder to keep the story in mind while I'm singing it.