Eastern European(ish) Choirs (Round 1)

I've been enjoying World Passport today (definitely one of my favorite vintage world music podcasts - y'all should check it out) and now, after listening again to the "World Passport Signature Series (No.1), I figured I'd start with my favorite track in the list: a love song by the Bulgarian Women's Choir.

Eastern European traditional choral music is remarkable in its lyricism and sustained dissonances which, as though by magic, fluidly resolve and suddenly return to eerie atonality. It's a far cry from what most Westerners know as choral music. Most of us in the West probably don't listen to much choral music unless we have a particular penchant for it, and usually our only immersal in such music comes during the holidays ---especially now, around Christmastime, with church choirs singing Haydn and radios blaring carols. Don't let the at times overly-sugarplum stylings of holiday choral music deter you from coming to know other aspects of choral music as a whole.

For instance, recently featured in a National Geographic World Music blurb (listen to the podcast on iTunes), Kitka is a San Fransisco-based vocal ensemble featuring nine women and producing amazingly haunting music. "Kitka" means "Bouquet" in Bulgaria and Macedonia, and their members are actively engaged in the collection of folktales and music of the Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria, etc. Their most recent project, "The Rusalka Cycle," is named for the presence in Slavic folklore of Rusalki - the "sort of restless spirts of women who've died before their time.. who dwell in the rivers or in the forests. They are known to be kind of shapeshifters... they can in one moment they can be beautiful, seductive sirens -- they can also shift form and become revolting hags and terrifying, scary kind of demons... In this folklore, particularly in Ukraine, it's believed that during one week of the year, in springtime, the Rusalki kind of leave their underworld dwellings and roam among the living, and while they're doing this they can wreak all kinds of havoc in the natural world. They're really forces of nature that need to be appeased and need to be acknowledged, because if you don't acknowledge them, the whole balance of nature and the whole balance of life can be thrown quite off... [They went] to Ukraine during Rusalka week, and met with elder women who are still singing the songs and practicing the rituals."

..."And in this particular week you can see them [Rusalki], and you can talk to them, and you have to seat them -- you will share your meals with them. And after this week is over women will gather together and will walk with procession singing Rusalian songs, and believe that with this song, they will lead Rusalki back to the other world."



Here's a video of something Rusalka. Not the best quality, but it can give you an idea.

If you enjoy Kitka's multilayered melodies and are interested in furthering your Eastern European choral music collection, my favorite ensembles along these lines are the Bulgarian Women's Choir and Bulgarian State Radio Choir, directed by Dora Hristova. Comprised of twenty four women's voices, they toured the United States in 2004, promoting their "Mystery of Bulgarian Voices" album --- which is definitely worth the Amazon purchase, if you're feeling like it.

Here's a YouTube video of the Bulgarian State Radio Choir singing three songs:



1. Ergen dedo
2. Polegnala e Todora
and, amusingly enough - 3: Oh, Susana

Enjoy!

After a long hibernation,

I've finally decided to start this blog back up again, though primarily with the goal of sharing (at least what I consider) information about good (and often little-known) music, both vintage and modern. My concerns lately have been flip-flopping between a wide variety of seemingly disparate styles… namely, traditional Jewish/Klezmer/etc bands from Eastern Europe, Balkan Romani music and its derivatives, Mongolian/Siberian throat singing at its best, field recordings of West African beats and Inuit story-songs, Thai longhouse music, and, of course, traditional Appalachian Stringband.

I am also interested in folklore, and the presence of folklore in music and culture, and how these unique facets of a culture interact with and/or are shaped by one another, particularly in modern times.

Loosely joined, I suppose I’m interested in discovering and getting to know mainly acoustic, identity-defining grooves from across the globe, and the way those have metamorphosed (or not) over time.

Here are some biases you ought to know about:

1. The word “acoustic” up there is nothing to be taken too seriously. I adore acoustic music, but as a member of the 21^st century Western world, I am surrounded by the whirring and buzzing of the electrified and digital age. I love that new technology has the ability to take us into experimental realms we’ve never been able to traverse before as far as music goes, and I have my hefty collection of music that can be categorized as strictly “digital.” I’m also very curious as to how the acoustic and digital worlds are beginning to be integrated with one another. More on that later.
   
   Really, though, for the purposes of this blog, acoustic music will probably be the norm.
   
   
   
2. I am a musician. I play the cello, piano, and concertina. I am stumbling through violin/fiddle, and mandolin at present also. I sing. As a result, I'm often drawn to music that includes both voice and the above-mentioned instruments.
   
   
   
3. I am very busy, so I doubt I'll be posting daily, but I promise to post as often as I can.
   
   
   
4. I live in the United States. This isn't really the best location for stumbling upon vintage Balkan Klezmer or likewise dusty African beats, but all the same, there are enough international communities in our cities to where it's not completely impossible. I did, after all, fall in love with Klezmer as a result of buying some old CDs in a thrift store in a Ukranian community outside of Los Angeles.
   
   
   
5. I am (selfishly, perhaps) using this blog as a way to further explore my own roots and sense of heritage. I am of Jewish stock, but have never really gotten to know much of my cultural ancestry. I grew up in two very disparate worlds: urban Alaska (if you can call Anchorage urban) and the coal-dusted heart of Appalachia-- West Virginia, so getting to further know the musical essence of both places (both past and present) is extremely important to me. Also, I feel the urge to really become familiar with cultural aspects of places rarely paid much respect in the West (i.e., Asia, Africa, Russia, etc).
   
   
   So, voila. Maybe I'm a bit crazy for even attemping to pull all of this together, but it should be an interesting adventure, at the very least.
   
   Cheers!