Planina's Bulgaria 2018 Chronicle

Many, many thanks to all the donors who helped us cover expenses for our Bulgaria trip! We visited three villages, worked with numerous singers, had several performances of our own, and experienced unprecedented musical and cultural opportunities. Thank you, thank you for your support!

I was so happy to rejoin with Planina to travel through Bulgaria. Reflecting on the trip, I am overcome with gratitude and inspiration. Not long after we gathered in Sofia we were singing and dancing along with the locals! I was excited to gain a deeper awareness of the culture and history. The Planinans gathered for a very informative historic walking tour through the city of Sofia and visited ethnographic museums. For me, learning about traditions which connect with the lyrics of our songs, and how music is expressed in Bulgarian culture, was invaluable. I also recognized very interesting similarities with Bulgarian traditions and some calendrical practices I have seen in Latvian and Russian traditions. Contextualizing the songs culturally and regionally enriches and deepens my understanding and connection with the music.

Not long after arriving, Nicholas and his friend Ernie pulled out their instruments to work on some music. Although it was the first time I was meeting them it wasn’t long before we were all jamming on the patio and working out new instrumental parts for the group.

Our teachers in Breznitsa were phenomenal and we were singing along in no time. It was truly like a dream to make music with such wonderful people in the backdrop of a cozy village surrounded by mountains. One thing that particularly stands out to me about Bresnitza is the beautiful call to prayer from the Mosque. At scheduled times a beautifully ornamented voice would just cut through the air and we could not help but to take pause and appreciate the moment.

From Breznitsa we made our way to Draginovo to meet our old friends Milyo and Elka. Elka gave us a tour of the local chitalishte [cultural center], which contains a small ethnographic exhibit they set up with help of the villagers. She explained the exhibit, which shows a bride prepared for a traditional village wedding.

(Above: Draginovo ethnographic display of bride prepared for village wedding)

Back in Draginovo, Elka told us about an upcoming wedding and told us we were invited to view the dowry. We were brought into a room behind a village home where we saw elaborate and flashy handmade scarves, socks, shoes, blankets and many other items lining the room from floor to ceiling. We would later return to participate in part of the extensive wedding celebrations by dancing in the street with the wedding party and guests. We would spend our final hours in Draginovo soaking in the mineral pools before heading to the nearby village of Dorkovo.

When we arrived in Dorkovo the folk music festival was in the process of being set up and many ensembles were arriving. Laura was asked for an interview with the Bulgarian national radio. We then prepared for the parade and opening ceremonies of the folk music festival, which featured many impressive international ensembles! When it was our turn to perform, we shared songs we had learned from the surrounding areas which were very well received! Many of us then explored the festival market which included crafts by local artisans and of course farming equipment. Throughout the festival we met with members of a couple of different Bulgarian ensembles and did a workshop with the local musicians of Dorkovo. BWeesides having the pleasure and honor of preforming, we were able to see Milio perform with the Draginovo ensemble, which was a real treat! We concluded our trip with a very special visit to Janko, who is an old friend to many of the members of Planina. We spent the evening sharing songs as he and his wife brought out plate after plate of delicious homemade dishes, wines, and liquors. It was the perfect end to a remarkable journey through the Balkans.

- S.P.

Images from top left to bottom right - 

• Laura getting interviewed by Bulgarian national radio in Dorkovo

• One of the international ensemble performances during the opening ceremonies in Dorkovo

• Bells and harnesses at the Dorkovo festival market

• Planina members during a workshop in Dorkovo

• Laura with members of a Bulgarian ensemble

• Milio with the Draginovo ensemble

In Dorkovo

Planina’s last trip to Bulgaria was in 2005. That year, we spent a week in the village of Dorkovo and attended their festival at the end of the week. I’ve been to Bulgaria several times in the past 13 years for my research, and went back to visit Dorkovo and give the ensemble our CD (which contained several songs we had learned from them) in 2013. But I haven’t attended the Dorkovo festival since 2005, so I was curious to see who in the village I would remember, and who would remember us.  

On the first night, after we sang in the opening ceremonies, the headline band was warming up as we walked along the main street set up with bars and grills, I found Julie and Jim sharing mutton steaks with a couple they had just met from Sofia who are folk dance aficionados and regulars at the festival. Mutton steak is a local specialty, apparently—predictably, I found it to be tough meat, but it was well-seasoned and tasty. The couple was friendly and we talked politics and folk music.

The next day, when the Dorkovo ensemble came to the house where we were renting rooms to sit at the outside table and exchange music, snacks and rakiya, the couple from Sofia from the night before showed up too, to our surprise. They danced to many of the songs and tried to accomplish the local dance “Dzup-dzup” that we had learned—incompletely—in 2005. I was gratified to see that even these dance aficionados were having trouble reproducing dzup-dzup!

The majority of the group we traveled with this time are newer members of Planina and had never been to Bulgaria before. It felt like a completed circle to see them singing Dorkovo’s songs with the ensemble who originally taught them to us. We alternated versions of Dorkovo’s hit song “Yane, Yane”—first theirs, then ours. Mutual admiration all around, several shots of rakiya. Ernie, Nicholas’s friend who joined us for this adventure, filmed the occasion using the videocam which I bought with a grant from CU in 2012.  

We also sang with the women the a capella song, also on our Telegram on the Wind CD, “Ne dui more vetre.” With the whole ensemble we sang several other songs we remembered from our time there. We forgot to ask for the title tune of our CD, “Telegrama doide” [A telegram has come], in part because Thorn was not there. Thorn and Jessica had monstrous issues with their airline tickets, and didn’t end up coming, although they had planned to. We did a reprise of the one Aromani song we had learned from the Aromani ensemble, “La Valya,” also on the “Telegram” CD. Although the Aromani ensemble is no longer active, a few of the singers knew this songs and sang it with us. A woman who used to sing in the Aromani ensemble later sang another beautiful Aromani song for us with her sister, who happened to be in the village with her ensemble from a different Rhodope town. She really wants us to learn it – she even wrote out the translation into Bulgarian and had me specially record that so we’d be sure to have it.

We remembered that I had first met Yanko in January, 1990, when I had a Fulbright for studying Rhodope singing and came to the village for the celebration of Babinden, the celebration of the Bulgarian midwife—he was the village’s mayor at the time.He is a consummate host and party facilitator, and plied us with homemade red and white wine and rakiya, tomatoes just picked from the garden, Bulgarian white cheese, and some leftover grilled meats. We delivered to him a gift specially picked out and purchased by Valerie and carried over the ocean by Rose—a small flask of Colorado whiskey—as well as a Colorado T-shirt and a scarf for Kate (pronounced Kah-tay), Yanko's wife. (The return gift was two liters of his homemade rakiya, which made it home to the US safely – party time!). Yanko wanted to know where was “moi chovek” [my person]—a phrase he and Valerie use to say to each other during our visit in 2005,which I translate as something like “you are a person who suits my soul!” Alas, Valerie could not join us on this trip because of work commitments. It was a kick to introduce our newer members to Yanko and Kate. And Yanko was thrilled to be serenaded, at 11:00 on a Sunday night, with Bulgarian and Russian songs sung at the top of ten well-wetted throats, accompanied by Nicholas’s inspired accordion playing and Ernie’s sousaphone. Of course Yanko sang along with every song, and no neighbors complained.  A fitting end to our trip, memories indelibly etched and friendships formed and refortified.

- L.O.

Breznitsa Costumes

The Breznitsa groups brought local costumes for our group members to try on during both of the big parties they threw for us. Here, Mallie and Galina are the lucky members chosen to “dress” at the lamb event; they are joined in one shot by two of the Breznitsa kids.

- L.O. and J.L.

On the evening of the 22nd, Salih invited us up to his "music hut,” where he was working with a student. Besides directing a group of women singers, Salih is a specialist in a traditional local style of music in which a sole male singer plays the drŭnka (a small, tambura-like instrument, see photo above) and sings many-versed ballads about historic events and stories ranging from funny to grisly.

We climbed a steep, rutted dirt road that leveled out onto a ridge. As we walked we could look down to our right and see the town, and down to our left and see wild country. We passed a tree laden with almost-black small plums and sampled them.

It was almost nightfall when we arrived at the hut. Stepping down from the road, we passed through a gate and onto the threshold of the hut, where we sat at the picnic table. Inside the hut I could see a colorful blanket and rug and some musical instruments, but we did not go in.

Salih and his student played, Salih sang, then he handed around the instruments for us to feel and try out and we talked, with Laura translating. Salih has studied this style from older singers as the tradition has slowly faded, and he has also studied from books, memorizing many songs.

Down in the valley, little lights were twinkling on all over town. In the other direction, on the opposite side of the ridge, lightning was playing in the clouds. I was struck by the sincerity of Salih’s pursuit, the sincerity of our appreciation for all we were experiencing, the thought of how much music might have been made through the years at this little hut, and the thundering beauty of nature.  

- J.L.

Over the past couple of days, as our host's daughter, Fatme, was inquiring whether we wanted this outing, she would say, "Let me know so we can order the lamb," and every time she would say "order the lamb," she pulled her finger across her neck. Fatme has been our support staff, cooking meals and shopping. She is a very sweet young woman who lived in Sofia for 10 years and in the US briefly, before deciding she prefers village life. She's a textile engineer whose plant is in a neighboring town a bus ride away.

- J.S.

On the way to Breznitsa

Here we are at a rest stop on the way to our first village, Breznitza. The peaches were fabulous, as was the Koka Kola. According to one connoisseur (Laura's son, Dan) it tastes just like Coke.

- J.S.