New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On August 28, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will release Playing 'Til Your Soul Comes Out!
Music of Macedonia, an album of field recordings collected by noted music and dance ethnographer
Martin Koenig in 1968 and 1973. A sonic time capsule of this region of Southeastern Europe, these recordings are from a significant period in Macedonian traditional music, made just prior to the popularization of modernized or newly composed folk music. The only known recordings of these skilled traditional musicians, the seventeen tracks and detailed fieldwork travelogue included on Playing 'Til Your Soul Comes Out! document popular and historically significant urban and rural traditions ignored by state radio and folkloric productions.
Playing 'Til Your Soul Comes Out! showcases three styles of Macedonian traditional music: Christian female village singing, Romani (Gypsy) zurli-tapan ensembles, and the Ottoman Turkish urban ensemble called calgija. These varying styles demonstrate the ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity of Macedonia. Calgija, the rarest of the three, is an instrumental urban style that uses the Macedonian mekam, of which there are only three performers remaining (Koenig). All but one of the musicians that Koenig recorded are now deceased.
Martin Koenig and Sonia
Tamar Seeman provide historical background and unique insight via the liner notes, and include an overview of the music of mid-20th-century Macedonia with historical and cultural context for each track, as well as transcriptions of all lyrics into English.
The album was produced by
Martin Koenig, and research was supported by the International
Music and Art Foundation,
Margaret Mead and the
Institute for Intercultural Studies, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
ALEKSO "ALO" TON?OV, MUSTAFA EMINOV, TRAJ?E NA?EV, AND ZDRAVE STAFILOV
1. Pesnata na spai?eto (The Young Cavalryman's Song)
2. Oro od Alo Ton?ov (Alo Ton?ov's Dance)/Ramnoto - instrumental
3. Pesnata za Le?ovskiot Manastir tikve?ko (The Song of the Le?ovo Monastery)
4. Pesnata Ibraim Od?a (The Song of Ibraim Od?a)
5. Pesnata na seloto Resava tikve?ko (The Song of the Village of Resava)
6. Oroto Devoj?e devoj?e crveno jabol?e (Dance - Girl, Girl,
Little Red Apple) - instrumental
7. Taksimot Hid?as od Alo Ton?ov (Alo Ton?ov's Taksim Hid?as) - MARIJA MICOVA
8. ?ela moma novi stomni (The Young Girl Has Bought New Pots)
9. More ka?i ka?i Tode bre sino (Tell Me, Tell Me, Tode My Son)
10. Jana bole belo grlo (Jana Has Pain in Her White Throat)--Marija Micova, Mitra G´urova
11. Crna se ?uma zadade (There Came the
Black Plague [to Macedonia])
G´ORG´I ?ARLAND?IEV, ILIJA GULEV, AND TODOR GO?EV
12. Zlata (Crni Jusuf/Kara Jusuf) - rusali dance
13. Povrni?ka (?ekerinka)
14. Kapidan avasi - rusali dance
15. ?enil se Petre Vojvoda (Commander
Peter Is Getting Married) (Skender avasi)
16. Guro?evica (Pehlivan avasi/?arlagan avasi) - ALEKSO "ALO" TON?OV AND SLOBODANKA TON?OVA
17. Sultan Hamid's March
