Balkan party music in Seattle

Posts made in October, 2018

Kceri moja Aliji

Posted by on Oct 17, 2018 in 2/4, Balkan Sheet Music | 0 comments

Popular in much of former Yugoslavia, this traditional song is said to be Turkish in origin. It’s one of several songs in which the daughter says she doesn’t want to marry any of the village worthies that her father proposes – oh no, she wants to marry a bekrija, a bad boy who likes to party. The song is often performed with a man singing the father’s lyrics, a woman singing the daughter’s lyrics, and both singing the chorus.

 

Kceri moja Aliji

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Kceri moja Aliji lyrics

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Usnija Redzepova, 1988 (similar to chart above:

 

Nenad Jovanovic, 1975 (less similar to chart above):

 

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Dobrolushko horo

Posted by on Oct 9, 2018 in 2/4, Balkan Sheet Music | 1 comment

A lively pravo horo instrumental dance tune from the region of Thrace in Bulgaria, recorded by the Prvomaiskata Grupa (May 1 Group). This 2-page chart is based on a transcription by Stewart Mennin and Stuart Brotman.

 

Dobrolusko horo

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Also, here’s an audio recording.

 

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Phirava daje

Posted by on Oct 2, 2018 in 2/4, Balkan Sheet Music | 0 comments

Phirava daje is a Rom song heard in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo that tells a charming love story. We learned it from Carol Silverman at balkanalia!, the dance and music camp held near Portland every summer. We play it with a Bo Diddley beat, to which people often do the dance cocek.

(Ph = hard p + h, not f. Kh = hard k + h, not Scots loch.)

 

Phirava daje

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Our source recording isn’t online, but here’s a version sung by Safet Ibrahimi with a slightly different break:

 

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