When I was at college I had a voice coach who taught us a Bulgarian lullaby as a warm up. I have always wondered what it meant (this was several years ago and I no longer know this man to ask him). Problem is, I don’t speak the language, nor do I know what it looks like written down as it was all written more or less phonetically for us
Here are the lyrics as written by the coach:
Shtomi e milo,
Milo e drago,
Vo struga grado mamo,
Du kyenda imam.
Lele varai mome
Mome kalino
Vo struga grado mamo
Du Kyenda imam.
Anyone have any ideas at all, or any idea how I can find out? It’s driving me crazy. All I know is that it’s something to do with a mother and her son leaving home.
It seems to be more often listed as Macedonian, but of course the difference between that and Bulgarian is minimal ( especially if you ask a Bulgarian ). I can almost swear I have heard 3 Mustaphas 3 cover that one, but damn if I can find it on any album track list.
Okay, I’m really feeling the pressure here. The truth is that this is written in some kind of old Bulgarian (or Macedonian; Struga is in Macedonia…I think I’ve been through it on the bus) that I do not understand very well. I was in the town choir in my village and we sang some of those songs in the linked page and I often had NO idea what the heck I was singing. (I did understand the more modern songs, which were inevitably upbeat patriotic ditties about how we will fight the Turks until blood runs from the Rila to the Black Sea.)
Shto mi e milo, - How lovely it is for me
Milo e drago, - Lovely and pleasant
Vo struga grado mamo, - In the town of Struga, mother
Du kyenda imam. - Where I have a shop. (Okay, I had to get “shop” from the linked translation page; Bulgarians use the French word now.)
The second verse I have NO idea. I even checked the online dictionary and came up with nada.
If you want to see some badass Bulgarian folk singing, here’s one of my favorite performances. It’s from the next-to-last episode of Bulgarian Idol a couple years ago, where the contestants had to sing a folk song, backed by a choir. This girl was the eventual winner. I imagine that singing like this would be physically painful, but it’s really cool.
Kyla - thank you, your translation of the first verse is more detailed than any of the others I have found, so between yours and the one Tamerlane posted I now have a pretty decent idea of what it means.
Also that video is very impressive- I can’t think how she …vibrates her voice like that.
jjimm - I don’t know what the technique was called I’m afraid. It was taught in a large group with nothing but a harmonium to set the pitch, and then all singing was unaccompanied. I remembered that the focus was more on resonance and harmony and control than hitting specific notes or extending vocal range. I wish I could remember the tutors name, because he was wonderful.
That does sound exactly what I studied: Natural Voice. Which, for all its hippy-dippy overtones, had quite amazing and observable results in bringing a new openness, tone and volume to existing singers, and in the case of “tone deaf” people, coaxing out sometimes stunning voices.