FTX-603 - SVECA DOGORJEVA
Folkmusic of Croatia
Recordings by Peter Kennedy of the International Folk Music
Festival held at Opatija in 1951. The performers were specially selected as
being the most authentic, coming from the most remote villages. After 1950 it
was only the professional Communist ensemble groups, approved by the party leaders,
that managed to survive, mainly for tourists, while the local customs and music
traditions either disappeared or went underground.
1. DRMES "Shaking Dance" from Gredecki Pavlovec (Vrbovec). While the tamburica
orchestra is loosening-up, this is a starting dance common to N.W. Croatia.
Plucked like a mandolin, there are four sizes of tamburica: the bisernica (smallest
& highest); the brac (an octave lower); the bugarija (accompanying with
chords) & the berde (large contrabass) 1.46
2. SVECA DOGORJEVA A ballad in Old Slav metre by a mixed group from Ljubescica,
Novi Marof 2.10
3. BRATEC MISKEC This is a more modern dance song. 2.10
4. LEPO NASE MEDJIMORJE Song by mixed group from Prelog, in praise of Medjimurje,
performed while returning home after working in the fields at the end of the
day. 1.17
5. SADILA SEM ROGOZEK Song by mixed group from Bukovec-Remete, Zagreb, with
a tamburica orchestra: "I have sown a tender rose"- a girl warns her young man
not to go near the road on which all the beautiful young ladies can be seen
going to Mass. 1.57
6. LADARICE "Lazarus" Midsummer Bonfire Song for St. John's Eve (June 24th.)
from Pokupski Gradec, Pisarovina, after which the young people dance and jump
through the flames of the bonfire. 1.25
7. PASLA CURA RACICE Wedding Song by mixed. group from Posavski Bregi, Ivanicgrad.
2.06
8. DRMES Shaking Dance by the same group with tamburica orchestra. The name
comes from "Drmati se" which means to shake. 0.55
9. MRAMOR MOSTE, NE ZIBAJ SE "Marmer Bridge" Ritual Dance Song from Sunja,
Posavina, shows blend of recent Slavonian with older Istrian & Primorje
tonal features. 2.12
l0.1 RANCE Baranje Wedding Song by mixed group from Beli Manastir, Dubosevica
with "gaide" bagpipes.
10.2 SOCACKO KOLO "dvejnice" bagpipes with double reed chanter, one pipe carrying
melody and the other, the "trubanj" a deep~toned drone.
11. LEPO PJEVA Popular Croatian love song by a mixed group from Durdic; "The
girl sings in the wood": Heard by both John and Nicola, she gets them to stand
at opposite ends of the vineyard and when she waves her handkerchief, Nicola
gets there first. 0.45
12. ZELENI DJURO "Green George" Spring Ritual Song from Durdic. The "Jurijasi" go from house to house collecting gifts on St.George's Day accompanied by a
boy covered in green branches.(Cf Slovenia) 1.16
13. ADJ' IDEMO, JAGODO Love Song by a mixed group from Bjelovar with the "dude"bagpipes.
1.48
14. BALUN Dance tune on the "miha" bagpipes from Pula, Medulin played for a
sprightly dance performed out of doors, generally in front of the church, preceded
and followed by a procession called the "pribiranje"(gathenng) and the "setnja" (promenading). 1.40
15. JA OBUCEM LANE St. Vitus' Day Song by a mixed group from Pisarovina for
a dance in which their clothes are torn. "1 am dressed in linen"; the song tells
the complete story of linen, the sowing of the flax and the weaving of the fine
cloth. 2.20
16. ZASPO JANKO POD JABLANOM Slow Love Song by a mixed group from Tomasica,
Garesnica; "Janko sleeps beneath the poplar" and his beloved prays he will soon
open his lovely dark eyes as he lies asleep in her garden. 2.27
17. ROZGALICA Five men from Brlog, Otocac, sing a special kind of short lyrical
song, improvised and harmonised on the final vowels, sung by young men out walking.
0.46
18. O LIKO Another example from Dobrinj, on the island of Krk, using Phrygian
(lowered 4th, 5th and 6th) of Istrian gamut. "O Lika, more fertile than Srem;
all mountains, hardly a field" 0.36
19. ZALAJALA KUJA VISE SLUNJA "A dog howling above Slunja catches sight of
a wolf and leaps into the Danube". 1.18
20. KRCKI TANAC Krk Dance played on 2 "sopele", large and small wooden horns
made by the players themselves. 2.42
21. POZDRAV DRUGA TITE "Salute to Marshall Tito", heroic ballad sung by Perkan
Efendic (68), accompanying himself on the one-string "gusle", in the traditional
"deseterac"10-syllable line with caesura after the 4th., but using a tune closer
to modern European scale than those formerly employed by the older guslars.
The singer, who comes from Obrovac, Kotar Sinj, composed the song himself and
boasts that he had sung it to Tito himself. 5.11
Recorded by Peter Kennedy, September 1951 with the aid of The Yugoslav Council
for Science & Culture. First published on Folktrax cassettes 1977.
