Medeno Kolo

[Eddy Yates]

There doesnt seem to be much about Balkan music on this forum, so thought Id share a piece I really like and am learning. You can actually download the sheet music with all the ornaments from MuseScore.

 

[craptiger]

There doesnt seem to be much about Balkan music on this forum, so thought Id share a piece I really like and am learning. You can actually download the sheet music with all the ornaments from MuseScore.

What an amazing piece of music, I was mesmerised by it!!  What style would you call that?

 

[Dingo40]

Balkan?

 

[TomBR]

Google translates the Youtube description as "With much care and love, we played this jewel of folk music and one of the most beautiful works of Serbian instrumental creation."

Wikipedia (I know, see the sources) says "In Southeastern Europe, the South Slavic people traditionally dance the circle dance, known as kolo (Serbian Cyrillic: коло), named after the circle formed by the dancers. It is instead known as horo (Bulgarian: хоро) and oro (Macedonian: оро) in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, respectively."

The piano accompaniment sounds very similar to Scottish/Irish/Cape Breton style. But if it was played on a cimbalom....

 

[Deleted member 48]

If you like playing Balkan folk music on the accordion , I see this pdf balkan fake book is still active for download 

https://hjj.home.xs4all.nl/Bladmuziek/Fakebook_Bulgarian_Music.pdf

 

[Eddy Yates]

Thanks for the link, Stephen. The ornaments really give the “juice”, but I suppose looking up some performances of these tunes and slowing them down would help gain some fluency. I’m sure I’ll sound clumsy for a few years!

 

[TomBR]

Some video lessons from Liberty Bellows start here....

 

[Eddy Yates]

Thanks, Tom!

 

[Eddy Yates]

Practicing “Medeno Kolo” I’ve found that learning the tune without the ornaments really helps. Once I’ve got that in my fingers and keep it steady, adding the ornaments seems natural. I know very little about Serbian music or Balkan music in general, but jumping into this reminds me of something one of my piano teachers said: “When you learn to play the piano [or accordion] the whole universe is at your fingertips.”

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Here’s an interesting blog site on Balkan accordion:
http://www.laurenbrody.com/blog/

More:
https://eefc.org/teacher/lauren-brody/

 

[Tom]

Thanks Eddy, interesting.