THE SOIL AND SOUL OF CROATIA
old sounds from Kvarner Bay and Istria
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a film by Vincent Moon
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images, sounds & edit by Vincent Moon
produced by Romano Peric & Diana Grguric
with the help of Igor Doricic, Mima Maric, Art Kino Croatia
part of the Rijeka workshop 2012
with Marta, Gloria, Emina, Ivana, Vanda
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shot in Western Croatia
march 2012
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album to listen and download on
petitesplanetes.bandcamp.com/album/bugarenje-o-old-voices-from-western-croatia
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The folklore of Istria, the Croatian Littoral and North Adriatic islands (Krk, Cres, Rab, Lošinj, west part of Pag) holds a special place in Croatian musical inheritance. Its distinctiveness can be seen in traditional untempered, old-styled singing and playing in two voices, with ending in unison or octavo.
In this region, people use chordophone cindra, an Istiran- Romanian instrument with two strings, most often Žejane. Very popular aerophones are vidalice (svirale, dvojnice), roženice (sopele, sopile), mih and šurle. In this film, you can see such singing and playing on cindra, vidalice and roženice. In previous time, shepherds made vidalice for their own pleasure, and rarely for playing.
Unlike vidalice, roženice is an instrument which is use as accompanying dance and it is always made and used in a pair. It is often used in ceremonial processions for performing instrumental introduction, mantinjada. Also, it can be used to accompany one or more singers. In recent time, it is not rare that two singers perform humorous text with tarankanje accompanied by two roženice. Another popular form of singing, similar to tarankanje, is singing na tanko and debelo, and bugarenje. Bugarenje is a traditional style of untempered singing in two voices with ending in unison. In the past, bugarenje was very popular in the whole Ćićarija as well as Žejane. Today it can be heard only rarely, performed by few elderly singers.
text by Mirna Maric
