Sevdah from Herzegovina with adapted Guerrini

[maugein96]

Saw this clip which features several members of the Mostar Sevdah Reunion, and wondered where the regular accordionist was.

The wrong way round Guerrini Balkan PA appears to have been adapted for the player, who lost his right hand during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. His left hand also bears the scars of shrapnel wounds. 

I know the music wont tantalise many, but I put the clip on to illustrate the fact that the accordionist, [font=Roboto,Arial,sans-serif]Hajrudin Hadzimehmedagic-Pogorelic[/font], was able to learn to play the treble with his left hand. If you watch him playing youll see that the treble has been reconfigured, so that the high notes are at the bottom of the keyboard, almost as though the keyboard was a mirror image of a normal right handed accordion. 

I saw Mostar Sevdah Reunion play in Mostar several years ago, and their line up tends to change quite a bit. Never saw Hajrudin before, but hats off to him for persevering in adversity. He still has a forearm that he uses to control the bellows.

My wife has family in Croatia, and they wouldnt deign to listen to Sevdah under any circumstances. They fought bitter battles against the Bosnians during the conflict, and a lot of them moved to New Zealand after peace was restored. Time often heals bad blood, but religion is for keeps. 


The title of the song translates as The Star drives the Moon.

 

[Tom]

Politics aside, it's good.

 

[maugein96]

Politics aside, it's good.

Thanks Tom,

Sevdah, or more properly Sevdalinki/Sevdalinka, is a relatively little known music genre, and is mainly, but not exclusively, found in what is now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country with a population of about 3.5 million, 15% of whom are actually Croatian. My wife's relatives are from Drasnice in Croatia, a village on the Adriatic coast near Makarska, where the accordion is a rare sight among the legions of choirs and tamburitza bands (instruments of various sizes related to the mandolin). It seems that most Croatian accordion music is heard in the north of the country near the border with Slovenija, and I've certainly never heard an accordion in the centre of the country. 

I wouldn't say Sevdah music was politically motivated, but more orientated towards the Muslim factions in parts of the Balkans. However, these days there exist some fusion bands who appear to cover various genres of "Balkan" music.

 

[Dingo40]

Thanks, John.
Truly, a remarkable recovery from adversity!

 

[Tom]

Thanks John for ths info.