Do Mice in Ukraine play the Balalaika?

Mice, you say? Do they? Do they really????

Judge for yourself.

This is a Ukrainian folk song. The musicians are of Ukrainian descent, but yes, they live in Maine. Mr. David Rapkievian and his lovely wife. We are doing a Ukraine benefit concert, but any such thing is not just trudging through the tunes as if you are taking distasteful medicine- it is also entertainment. I think these two “get it” – wouldn’t you agree?

I sent this as an email first

Sometimes I have sent out three versions of this, one to each group (Portland Oblast, Belfast and Ellsworth) but this time just one email to all. Please forward this to any interested parties including singers you know or anybody who wishes to contribute to the cause of peace in Ukraine using their voice and heart. 

I think we have made excellent progress in the few weeks we have started to rehearse.  Lots of enthusiasm and also a sense of focus which has been enjoyable. We have had weather challenges (and I am sure we will again). And we are still hoping to find more singers. So, you are invited to tell your friends about this and bring them along. At some point we will get all three groups together in one location (maybe on a saturday?) and work on the arrangements of the tunes, not just the singing of them.  I don’t have a date for that all-groups meeting though.

This week’s plan is: 

Tuesday Jan 31st at 6 PM in Belfast, at 17 Court st, for the Belfast group

Wednesday Feb 1st at 6:30 PM  at Linden Lea in Pownal, for the Portland Oblast group. detailed directions to Linden Lea  are to be found here: https://wp.me/p2mf8z-FJ

Wednesday at 6 PM at the Saint Andrews Lutheran Church in Ellsworth, at 6 pm, for the singers from the “Mother Ship” – Hancock County and beyond.

Thursday at 6 PM in Hope Maine for The Huddled Masses Orchestra.

The song list

I will be editing what is on the YouTube playlist to reflect what Anne and Sarah and I have been thinking. 

What we have sung so far depends on each group, they are not all in sync (they don’t need to be, yet). 

Mnohaja Lita – this is the “for he’s a jolly good fellow” of Ukraine

Oi I Luzi Chervona Kralyna” – this is the rousing call to action.  we’re getting there on the pronunciation. We’ve really only focused on the first verse though

Pliny Cacha

this one is simpler than it seems, inasmuch as each verse of four lines is subdivided into 2-and-2. We plan to assign the first half of each to different soloists ( as on the Spooky Men’s Choir version). Be thinking as to whether you wish to be one of the soloists.  

O Khodyt’ Son, Kolo Vikon – the lullaby

this one has sounded magical in the two subgroups that have tried it so far.

Bandura.

for this one, the Belfast group had some discussion as to the best key to sing it in.  This was an example of the folk process; we don’t need to make each tune sound like the record we learned it from, there is artistic license involved and we can create together to make best use of the voices we have, not the ones we wish we had. The written key is too low for the sopranoes; but when we tried a higher key it was too high for the men in the group ( there are about seven men in the Belfast group). Anne suggested that we simply make it a song for the just the men in the group  to sing, which I think is a good idea. I am going to talk to the Low Brass players of the Huddled Masses Orchestra to see about how we can fit in as well.

O Harna –

This is one Sarah suggested and I love the message of the lyrics, as explained at the beginning of the video. We haven’t broken it out yet. 

Hey Hey Sokoli –

none of the groups has worked on this one yet. This tune has a long history, and you can find versions of it in every Slavic language. Take a minute to listen to this version if you want to meditate on the folk process.  https://twitter.com/SlavaUk30722777/status/1619369212224618496?t=pc2KQ3hABsxVjCKcczSPJQ&s=19  pay attention to the part where the dad reminds them of the tempo change. 

Til now the version that has been on the playlist is the one from Pikkardiya Terskye, the men’s choir from Kiev. We think the version that most closely resembles what our choir can do is this version  https://youtu.be/10Ha80EgaB0 but some of those verses are in Polish not Ukrainian and we will adjust them. (It’s hard enough to learn Ukrainian pronunciation without also taking on the project of Polish pronunciation). we need to keep the slow verse, by the way….. 

Sholem –

 though I just said I think learning Polish pronunciation would make things too complicated, I still am lobbying to include Sholem, https://youtu.be/hFMsHAD1qjo  which uses Yiddish in the verse. The message of the tune is to promote peace. It’s a great singalong. There is a great cantorial singer here in Maine and I emailed him to join us and lead it but have not heard back. If you haven’t heard that guy sing you are missing out. Odessa Ukraine has been a center of world Judaism for 800 years or more. 

Balalaika

There is a world-class balalaika player living on MDI whom I have requested to also do some tunes. see above. More on this later.

The Huddled Masses Orchestra

The H.M. O. will do one or two tunes. 

The all-important concert date

Lots of people have asked what the actual concert date will be. The simple answer is, I do not know. The original date of early March was always a “placeholder,” and I knew it was ambitious. I think it more likely we will do the concert in early June. If we try to force ourselves to perform a date before we are all ready and comfortable with the material, we will just create anxiety and a bad vibe, instead of the uplifting payoff of a job well done. Life is too short. 

In the meantime if we demonstrate that we are making a grassroots effort, this in and of itself will keep Ukraine in the news which will bolster political support for Ukraine.

Additions and subtraction to the tune list for the proposed concert?

The typical sit-down concert of this type is about an hour or maybe ninety minutes. We have nine tunes on the “reasonable target list.” Is we divide 60 by 9, that allots six and a half minutes per tune, but then you have to add in time between tunes. If I apply that calculation, we already have close to as many as we need, and these would better fit a ninety minute program. 

One way to put it in very practical terms, is that we will not be doing endless practice of new tunes. The program is getting delineated and coming into better focus. Keep working away at it!

Joe

Learning Cyrillic alphabet, the Ukrainian style, for the Maine Balkan Choir and other purposes (such as enriching your life in general).

Okay, so we always knew from the beginning that learning to sing in Ukrainian would be a challenge. Many of the singers have prior choral experience, with trained voice and can sing “solfeggio” – the style where you place the pitch aided by specific hand signals. I always envied people who could use that tool. I never was in choir in school – I played trumpet since I was ten. (and when I was twelve, I figured out what they were talking about when the subject of “tuning” came up. It was a revelation).

Transliterated lyrics

Anne and Sarah and I have set things up so that when we distribute sheet music we always include the transliterated lyrics. Converting the words into the American alphabet. Google will do it for you these days if you know which button to push. And we have also posted mp3 files of the music as presented by a native speaker. These are on a YouTube playlist so you can mimic the sounds made by native speakers on the video. Play it over and over while driving. and sing along to it. But there are some persons who are going the next step and trying to learn the Cyrillic alphabet.

The other day I websearched for Cyrillic flash cards, found a set that looked good, and emailed it out. Then a return email from Val Dingle – (or if I refer to her as “Valentina Teslenko Dingle” you will know that she has “street cred” on this subject). She lives near the New Hampsha border and is a native speaker of Ukrainian who will join the Portland Oblast group. She told that Ukrainian Cyrillic is not the same as Russian Cyrillic. So I went back and re-Googled, to find a Ukrainian cyrillic set of cards.

There is a whole lot of material to be found at https://www.ukrainianlessons.com/ukrainian-alphabet/ and that is where I got the ones I am now using.

start with this fifteen minute video.

They go through each letter thoroughly. It has English subtitles; that may seem like a drawback but it’s not – you need to start to look at words from the beginning, and you can listen to the spoken word as you read the written word.

How to get the flashcards?

go to https://www.ukrainianlessons.com/100words/ There you will find a spot where they ask you to submit your name and email address, then they send it as an email attachment pdf file. you can print from there. This is the exact flashcard stack I used in the video I made this morning.

UkraineLessons is on Twitter. follow them at: @ukrlessons

How to use the printed out flashcards

I am old school. I have done this with other languages and there is no substitute for repetitive rote memorization. I share my tips.

Other flashcard experts speak out!

I did a Google search on how to use flashcards. Here is a good article that tells about reshuffling your deck: https://blog.prepscholar.com/flashcards

Round Writing of Malayalam and Kannada

I have always loved alphabets. This reminds me of traveling in Kerala, India where they speak Malayalam. The dialect of Malayalam in Kerala is “Kannada.” The first time I saw somebody write something in “round writing,” I laughed out loud with simple happiness. Here is an example:

have a good day!

How to Maximise YouTube links when learning Slavic and Balkan singing style

We didn’t have YouTube back in the day. I don’t think it really took off until about 2008 or so. Nowadays there is useful stuff there for all kinds of things you might want to learn. I made several YouTube playlists in support of the Maine Balkan Choir and The Huddled Masses Orchestra and shared them with people. The only instruction I gave was “listen to this in your car to hear how the music is supposed to sound.” Now is time to elaborate, esp since a big storm is coming through over the weekend. You can do this while tending the fire.

Just listening to the tunes in your car is”hint number one” – about as basic a level as you can get. After a few run-throughs your eyes will glaze over and when you can hum the melody line you usually hit a plateau. The next step is to actually learn how to sing the words to the songs, and of course they are in Ukrainian. We included the “transliterated lyrics” with most songs, though the original would have generally been in Cyrillic.

Hint Number two – setting speed

The next step is to pick a song, and find it on the playlist. Get out the transliterated lyrics. Now? go to the lower right hand corner of your computer screen and you will see a small wheel for “settings.” click on that, and you will see “playback speed.” Click on playback speed and it gives you a choice of slowing it down to 75% or more, and also a choice to speed it up. If you slow it down past 75% the tone and register gets a bit too slo-mo. Sometimes this will help you as you listen intently to the way the words go and how each syllable is broken up to fit the melody.

You can try singing along at the slower speed, then speed it up.

Hint number three – closed captions

Next to settings wheel is an icon that says “CC.” Sometimes these come with auto-translation into English, but that is more likely when the language of the song is French or Spanish.

Hint Number four – closed captions in English transliteration. It is not often that you find a closed caption example in which the person is singing in Ukrainian and the caption uses transliteration. I did find one example and it is below. You can read (or sing) along the transliterations and listen to the song. These tend not to be pieces we are planning to do, but if it helps with your comfort level of transliteration, that is a good thing. if I find more I will add them. ( If you find one, send me the link).

Who is that!?!??!

The singer in the video above is quite well known, with 183,000 subscribers on YouTube. Her name is Marichka Marczyk. She is Ukrainian (of course) and has helped collect folk songs of that country for years. She lived in Toronto Canada where she was a member of The Lemon Bucket Orchestra, Toronto’s only “Balkan – Klezmer – Gypsy-Party-Punk -Super Band.” Here she sings with the band during a frenetic rendition of Tomu Kosa. Please note that she uses the classic polyphonic style and so do the other singers. This tune has been an earworm for me the past ten days. I think it broadens the idea as to the variety of genres of music in Ukraine. And Canada for that matter!

Marichka’s words of wisdom

Ms. Marczyk sings not just with LBO but also with Balaclava Blues. Below is an eight minute instructional video Ms. Marchyk made in 2020. In it, she describes Hint #5 – putting your feelings into the music and how to produce the sounds of polyphony. Actually it is more like hints #5 through #20, there is so much good advice here.

Now, the trick is, the video is in Ukrainian. BUT it does have English subtitles. If you can struggle through the subtitles it will worth it. This is a master class in polyphonic singing.

Marczyk in motion. The body language is colorful.

At the YouTube site, is a long description in Ukranian and of course, it is in Cyrillic alphabet. Did you know that if you highlight a passage in Ukrainian, there is a drop down where you can click on “translate this section into English.” When I did that, the following appeared:

(begin section by Ms. Marczyk) In this video you will learn about the technique of singing in a folk voice. It is based solely on my more than 20 years of experience singing folk songs and my observations of the processes of “extracting” an “open” “white” voice.

The concept of world perception of folk performers

The right feeling of your body in space

How to breathe

The main differences between classical vocals and folk vocals

The position of the mouth when singing

Some exercises Secrets of singing in a high voice

Safety during training (important) and much more

Of course, this is not all. But there is a beginning, I hope it will come in handy for someone. She recorded the most important video for me in my life. Far from perfect. But I did. In this video I will NOT tell you as I told my mom that I “hate folk songs” thinking it was just a throat dredge in a drunken voice how I learned to sing, closing in a narrow closet, crying into a pillow, so as not to scare the neighbors how aprons “breathe” on grandmothers when they sing – and it is immediately clear that they, like yogis, breathe in their stomachs about how you can “kill” with the power of your voice about how I received the best compliment from Georgian singers for the “right” singing technique about how the aborigines consider me to be their own and trust their secrets, because ancient Ukrainian songs arose in the same way in a deep connection with the earth and nature I didn’t understand a single word about how I went on the first folklore expedition in the songs and they all sounded “for one motive” to me. About how I realized how to sing in a high voice after only 20 years of singing in “Bass” and a lot of interesting things

BUT I would give a lot for the fact that in the years of my youth there was such a video that explains the secrets of the national spviu Therefore, I am indescribably grateful Ali Zagaykevych, composer and folklorist, who discovered folk music for me, Elena Ivanovna Murzina, for the discovery of the first expeditions for me, Evgeny Vasilyevich Efremov, who for a whole month took a man, a freshman, on an expedition to immigrants from the Chernobyl zone unlimited gratitude to the band Bozhychi and Ilya Fetisov for all expeditions, for experience, for songs, for trips and festivals. For love. You built and hardened me. My husband Mark, who opened me up, made me believe in myself and gave me peace. And to all of you, the people of the world, for the desire to learn and preserve the beautiful. I hope my experience will be useful to someone. Write your feedback and wishes – I will be happy to answer any questions. (end of translated section).

This is not a dry academic lecture about the singing, but one in which she punctuates the lesson with examples using her own voice. Very practical.

And the subtitles are in English. You can enjoy the aural music of Ukrainian, the way the words flow, and get an idea of tone and inflection. These points are true for all Slavic polyphonic singing.

I did find myself laughing out loud at the 3 minute, twentyfour second mark (3:24). Tell me what you thought when you also saw it?

Anyway, all three subgroups of the Maine Balkan Choir ( Ellsworth Oblast, Belfast Oblast, and Portland Oblast) have been launched. Bring your friends to the next rehearsal!

Ellsworth/Bar Harbor Maine Balkan Choir rehearsals start Wednesday January 25th, 6 PM

The Maine Balkan Choir has begun rehearsals in Belfast and Portland, and is now singing every Wednesday at the Ellsworth Unitarian-Universalist Church located at 121 Bucksport Rd in Ellsworth. 6 to 8 PM

The Maine Balkan Choir has been on pandemic hiatus but is now coming out of hibernation to perform a concert of Ukrainian folk music. Proceeds of the spring/summer event will be donated to a Ukraine Children’s charity.

The core group has sung together since 1998. We share our expertise with new singers. We will be singing Ukrainian folk songs, lullabies, and love songs that reflect the richness of Ukrainian culture. We invite all local singers to join us at our weekly rehearsals.

The event will be Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8 PM at the Ellsworth Unitarian-Universalist Church located at 121 Bucksport Rd in Ellsworth. call (808) 352 1714 for further information.

Two other subgroups

Due to wide interest around the state, two other subgroups are also practicing, one in Belfast and one in Pownal, between Portland and Brunswick (which we have jokingly referred to as Portland Oblast).

The Huddled Masses Orchestra is a full-service ethnic band in Maine. And we have returned, Jan 16th 2023

The Huddled Masses Orchestra was active in Maine from about 1994 until 2005. It hibernated for seventeen years, like a cicada. We are now emerging from the ground and ready to play. We will be playing folk dance parties; we will be part of the benefit concert for Ukrainian children along with the wonderful Maine Balkan Choir; and – We do wedding receptions. Reasonable rates! Book now for summer 2023!

We are fans of the New York-based Zlatne Uste Brass band. Here is a video that describes what they do:

The name “Huddled Masses” comes from a line in the famous poem by Emma Lazarus to be found on the base of the State of Liberty. During each wave of immigration to The Land of Opportunity, the people brought their culture. And their musical instruments.

Bringing Back Horns

Joe Niemczura on Cerveny rotary-valve trumpet

The band consists of accordion, tuba, trumpet, clarinet, and percussion. Our motto? “We play country music. From The Old Country.” which just about sums it up. We do play waltzes and polkas, and just a few things you would expect at wedding, but we are not a cover band playing Green Day, or Taylor Swift, or any Metal songs. (I spent a bit of time living outside the USA and I confess I never heard any Taylor Swift songs until recently). We play circle dances. Such things as a Greek Syrto or Hasapiko, a Bulgarian lesnoto, or a Jewish hora. Our gig is to get the guests on their feet and out on the dance floor. There are now several excellent Jewish and/or Yiddish bands in Maine, but back in the day, The Huddled Masses also did Jewish weddings in Eastern Maine and at least one Bar Mitzvah. In fall we played Oktoberfest music. We were the first to play live Zwiefachermusik at dance festivals. We played at various festivals including NEFFA.

YouTube

Smartphones with good video cameras along with YouTube were not the phenomenon they are now, so I don’t have a video of us back in the day. Some things are better off not to be filmed. When we do a circle dance we focus on ones with easy steps that people can have fun with. Recently I compiled a YouTube playlist to include our folk dance repertoire. The videos in the playlist show other bands along with dancers not from Maine, but you get the idea. Usually the front man of the band serves as emcee of the event we are playing. If the couple has some specific requests for tunes to be played, we will work those out in advance and play them.

The Lady of The Harbor

My father’s parents each came to USA via New York, with Lady Liberty to greet them. My parents were from Ware and Palmer, Massachusetts, each town with a large Polish-American contingent. Family weddings in the 1950s and 1960s were held at the White Eagle Club on Pulaski Street in Ware, with (you guessed it) a polka band at the reception. My mom taught me and my siblings how to polka, waltz and oberek when I was five.

Happy Louis and his band. In dim memory I am pretty sure this was a band that played for a family wedding. The Huddled Masses were decked out in matching bowling shirts. We haven’t even talked about uniform dress code this time around.

My early memories of family weddings are a blur. Whiskey, cigar smoke and cheap men’s cologne. The guests singing and toasting to the Polish National Anthem. Going to the bar and bringing back a highball or two for my uncles. Sleeping at Babciu and Dziadjiu’s house across from the Polish church on South Street. That world was not homogeneous and neither is the one we live in today.

Actively looking for low brass players

The core group of Huddled Masses Orchestra is very flexible, but sometimes we add other musicians depending on what the job entails. When we do Oktoberfest music we add low brass. (trombones, baritone horn.) A fully-staffed low brass section produces a rippling rumbling pulsating background like the engine of a muscle car idling at a red light. If that fits you, give us a call at (808) 352 1714.

Zabave and one earworm

Helping to plan a concert of Ukrainian music has been fun. We found out that Ukraine has it’s own version of “Happy Birthday.” and also that one genre of music is called “Zabave,” which translates literally as “party.”

The Huddled Masses Orchestra was a Zabave band this whole time and we didn’t even know it.

About Пливе кача по Тисині (Plyvi Cacha Po Tysini) and Orthodox Church choral singing in #Ukraine

The Maine Balkan Choir is now rehearsing our programme of Ukrainian music for an upcoming concert to benefit a children’s charity in Ukraine. We have selected songs to reflect the wide variety of musical genres and the rich traditions of Slavic/East European choral music. We will sing mostly in Ukrainian but also in Russian and Yiddish. Pop tunes, love songs, classic folk songs and children’s lullabies make up the tapestry of sound we will present.

This week we begin one in particular that deserves explanation – “The Duck Swims.”

It’s not new to this war

The song has been around for thirty years or more. A choir in Canada sang it in 1987. The link to their essay is: https://www.cheremshyna.ca/the-story-of-the-song-plyve-kacha-po-tysyni/

The essay referenced this version:

don’t let the duck fool you. from the surface it looks like they are effortlessly gliding against any current. From underwater you see they are paddling like crazy.

Pikkardiyska Tertsiya is a well-known choral group in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine started in 2014, and at that time the reality of war was driven home. The nation grieved. This song became indelibly linked to events of that period of the war. The lyrics of the song comprise a dialogue between a mother and her son as he goes off to join the military. One poignant line is when the boy asks his mother for her opinion and she says: “(There was a time when) you lay on my beating heart.” Is there a line in music that could possibly convey a mother’s love for her child better than this?

Many artists have covered this song, with many sets of visual images to convey the feeling imparted by the music. Here is one that uses scenes of families fleeing the conflict with their children.

I can’t do a better job at telling the story, but I can set the stage as to one other piece of the background. From a musicological perspective, the composition of the tune reflects a thousand years of history of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Here are two examples.

Miserere Mei Deus

A renaissance-era classic lament with a famous backstory involving Mozart (as in, Wolfgang Amadeus. that guy) and his 1770 visit to see the Roman Catholic Pope in the Sistine Chapel.

Miserere Mei Deus features the great Josephine Stevenson hitting the high notes, though in 1770 that part would have been covered by a boy. This is psalm #51 from the Bible – one of the “penitential psalms. “Have Mercy On me, O God.” It is a psalm expressing deep anguish, shame and grief.

Russian Orthodox Church/ Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Here is one from the eastern church. In this case, it is a small a capella choir of priests and nuns in Saint Petersburg. They are not singing Plivye Cacha, but rather “The Lord’s Prayer.” The lead guy is evidently singing in Aramaic, the actual language of Jesus.

A church service usually includes a psalm or two, from among the 150 presented in the Book of Psalms. It’s easy to find many examples of this style on YouTube, especially if you use search words in Cyrillic. This format for psalms is familiar in the order of Mass of the Roman Catholic church as well, where the psalm-singing is always presented in a predictable way so that the congregation might follow along with prompts from the choir.

To me, the inspiration for Pliyve Cacha comes directly from this other tradition. What makes it so powerful is that it is a secular (i.e., non-religious) song presented in this way. Can you hear what it is that I am talking about?

Choral Arrangements?

There are many choral arrangements of the tune you can find on the internet, and the song seems to be in the public domain. Click here to find the sheet music version used by the Maine Balkan Choir. I should add, when we decided to learn this song, we distributed copies to the Choir members. It is unlike most of the tunes we sing inasmuch as it has many wordless notes which are central to the feeling. Somewhat intimidating to think we would sing it and do it justice. There has been quiet satisfaction with our ability to perform this piece. I still approach it with reverence.

At the site of Top 10 Ukrainian Folk songs, it says:

“It is a farewell song. The song has become popular after the requiem for Euromaidan heroes in 2014. A duck crossing waters is a symbol of death and going to the other side.  It is a beautiful lament that speaks to the dangers and price of war.

“The language is an example of the Transcarpathian dialect, so it may be a bit hard for Ukrainian learners. That said, if there is ever a case when you don’t have to understand the lyrics to get the meaning, this may be it.

Singing a choral tune involves the mechanical learning of lyrics, melody and harmony but at the highest level, also calls out for the singer to feel it in their heart. Then, so will the audience. If you believe in the power of music, you are sending a message of love and support to Ukraine. We are not a professional ensemble, but even in the quick intro from last week’s rehearsal in Belfast I thought we could pull it off. We will refine it further.

See you in Belfast Tuesday (or Pownal Wednesday) !

Change in Meeting venue for next rehearsal of #MaineBalkanChoir Portland-area subgroup for January 18th at 6:30 PM

A group of Maine musicians and singers have gathered to prepare for a benefit concert for a Ukraine children’s charity. We believe that lifting our voices in music is a beautiful way to express the deep feelings of peace and harmony we fervently wish for Ukraine. Ukraine is a slavic country with a long tradition of folk music that expresses universal themes of family togetherness and life’s lessons. Somehow most of the longest-enduring Ukrainian tunes are love songs. Many songs celebrate the recurring seasons of the agricultural calendar. Ukraine is a leading wheat exporter and the flag of Ukraine symbolizes a wheatfield (or maybe sunflowers, they export sunflower oil too).

You too, can grow sunflowers in your own garden as a sign of solidarity.

The group originally planned to rehearse weekly in Belfast (there they meet every Tuesday at 6 PM). Singers in Southern Maine expressed the desire to also join this exciting project, but have been reluctant to commute to Belfast. A quick internet announcement attracted interest including Sarah Hipkens, a qualified choral director who had been a member of the Yale Slavic Chorus.

The song is about selling your vegetables at a public open-air market and enjoying a chat with your customers. Slavic music uses polyphonal harmonic techniques.

We held our first rehearsal in Portland. The group was enthusiastic and focused. It was apparent that singers were attracted to the fun of Slavic choral music. We realized we needed a bigger space with a lot more parking. more parking (this is a good thing!) so we have changed the location to Pownal.

Linden Lea at 655 Elmwood Rd in Pownal. Wednesday January 18th at 6:30 PM

Fortuitously, the owner of Linden Lea is a singer who promotes all kinds of traditional music in the intimate setting of a renovated barn. (it is heated). Janet Lynch is also a pretty good singer in her own right.

(The below consists of detailed directions from Janet Lynch)

“Directions to “Linden Lea”, 655 Elmwood Road, Pownal, 04069: 
“Linden Lea”, the name of my farm in Pownal and its eponymous music loft, is easy to find, at 655 Elmwood Rd. in Pownal 04069, very near Bradbury Mountain State Park. Somebody recently nicked two of the street numbers off my mailbox but I will try to fix that by next week. To make it my driveway easier to find, in any case i will put out a traffic cone with a reflective sign on top of it to help you to find it next Wednesday. 

“Detailed Directions:

“If you are driving north/ northwest from Freeport/ Yarmouth/ 295, It is exactly 9/10 of a mile north of the blinking red light and gas station at the intersection with Route 9 in Pownal Center, past the Pownal Elementary School on the right. Also there is a yellow diamond road sign right in front of my house (just past my driveway entrance) to indicate that there are curves in the road ahead. When you see this sign, put your right blinker on. If you pass that sign, you’ve passed my driveway.

“If you’re coming from the southwest (e.g. Gorham/ Windham/ Gray), take 115 to Depot Road down the dip and up the steep hill until you get to Pineland/ Route 231. Jog left on 231 and then take an IMMEDIATE right onto Allen Road. The signature white Pineland fencing will be on your right and a Pineland Garden will be on your left. Go down a hill and under a railroad bridge (CAUTION – the bridge underpass is single lane.) Continue up the hill past the Pownal Post Office and continue to a three-way STOP SIGN. That is Elmwood Rd. Take a RIGHT on Elmwood and go about a mile and a half. After you pass the intersection with Lawrence Road, go SLOWLY, as you will head down a dip over a brook. That brook is the western border of my farm, so put your left blinker on, as my driveway is at the top of the hill. 

“Parking:
“Elmwood Road is a busy road, so please don’t park on the road for your own safety. There is ample parking is in the field adjacent to the barn, but it’s dependent on weather conditions so please wear sensible shoes and bring a flashlight or use the flashlight on your phone. There is a good deal of parking in the driveway itself, but if you can carpool that would be helpful.

“Access/ toilet facilities: 
“Access to the music loft is up one standard (to code) set of stairs with a handrail. There is a composting toilet on the ground floor. If you use the composting toilet, PLEASE be sure to SIT DOWN, whatever your gender, and whatever your business. If you don’t sit down, it doesn’t work. Or you can also use the downstairs toilet in the house if you are more comfortable with that

Finally

And why not come sing with us? It’s for a good cause. You will learn a fascinating aspect of a unique world culture. You leave energized by the vibe of the group.

Report of second rehearsal of #Maine Balkan Choir in Belfast Maine, Jan 10th 2023. Portland group meets tonight, January 11th

Eighteen singers attended the second rehearsal of the Maine Balkan Choir in Belfast and got to work. As organizers of many musical events we know that the “membership” of such a choir will be fluid. It takes awhile to get the word out. People will bring their friends; others will decide its not for them. And events such as parent-teacher conferences or trips out of state during a long winter are destined to punctuate the next months as singers lead their lives.

In Belfast there was a buzz as people gathered. I was hopeful. Then Anne Tatgenhorst, the director, started the warmup and an aura of concentration hushed the room. The first exercise was for Anne to go section to section, sing the note of a chord, and activate the group. This is an ancient way to teach singing and I could imagine my Polish ancestors doing the same thing huddled around the hearthfire in their humble farmhouse in Poland a hundred years ago. Many Mainers heat their homes with cordwood to this day. Anne guided us methodically through each tune. The first chords came out and – it was beautiful from the git-go. It sounded angelic to me. I was surprised to find myself tearing up. I blinked back and tried to focus on the sounds around me. Two guys next to me were chuckling as they said “I haven’t sung in this kind of a choir since high school.”

Pork in Poland

If you are reading this but haven’t decided whether to take the next step and join us? be advised, it’s not too late. No experience necessary. People who share the gift of choral singing develop a strong bond with the people singing alongside. No, we aren’t huddling around a fire, and since is downtown Belfast, I don’t know of pigs in any nearby barn to be soothed by the music. My ancestors in Poland raised pigs on their farm, and I myself had the ludicrous thought that maybe the pigs back in Poland were soothed if they overheard the farm family singing inside. It’s one of those things we will never truly know. Where is Wilbur when we need him?

Email and contact information

We collect everyone’s info so we can inform the group electronically. I normally hide the headers of emails but I am leaving these visible so that members can communicate with each other, and trying not to accidentally omit the communication. Hey, use the delete key. you can see the names of other people who have indicated the willingness to attend. I send out helpful tips on the music, and if the tips are good, I memorialize them with a concurrent blog entry.

Portland group meets tonight, January 11th at 6 PM 

I am happy to report that the offshoot in Portland has a Director who was a member of the legendary Yale Slavic Chorus back along. She offered her living room for the first rehearsal, which is why the location is not exactly “public.” As in Belfast we will welcome walk-ins and new members in the coming weeks, but people will need to phone me so I can disclose the street address. This is for for privacy concerns. If you are thinking of joining, phone me at (808) 352 1714 and I will whisper the location to you over the phone.

The general location is in the neighborhood of Waynefleet School where there is ample parking. I will join the Portland offshoot this evening, and so will Anne Tatgenhorst. My number is (808) 352 1714 in case you are lost or confused as the time approaches. 

The Rehearsal plan

In Portland we will work on three specific tunes, and will bring sheet music etc. We are using YouTube as a vehicle to share videos of these songs being performed. Something that was not available back when I was learning how to sing in a Slavic language. Imagine what they could have done in the old days of rural Poland using YouTube.

Here are the three tunes so you can get fired up. 

Oi I Luzi Chervona Kalyna is at:  https://youtu.be/LIUoFuSuvTM

This song has an interesting history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oi_u_luzi_chervona_kalyna

O Kodyt son ( The lullaby) is at: https://youtu.be/pDs9FuW8gs4

This is a lullaby with a message of peace and hope. (“may all the babies have a warm house, a full belly, and a kitten sleeping nearby”) and showcases a style of three part harmony closely associated with Slavic village singing. More info about the tune is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oi_Khodyt_Son_Kolo_Vikon

Mnohaje Lita is at several locations. the first short version we used as a warmup is at https://youtu.be/HT_xjzm2OH0 and there is another version to be found at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wgs-30L8I0Efp6VdwykUjZQiUNcNl8Sk/view?usp=sharing

Mnohaje Lita is a phrase used in certain social situations to impart group praise to person who are being recognized, such as at a birthday, wedding or anniversary. Here is a Wikipedia link describing this tune: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnohaya_lita

As we develop each tune, it will be added to a playlist of all tunes to be performed at the spring concert. If you are curious and wish to peek ahead, go to: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSXynKNP9Lj8YpRcZMJHaqxojj1sgzNQi This playlist will be updated as tunes are added. It’s created so that singers can listen to it in their car. We do not advise any driver to read along the lyrics when they should be keeping their eyes on the road, but we will also supply transliterated lyrics.

Mnohaje Lita to the singers meeting this evening, and to Sarah Hipkens for her willing ness to lead this.

see you soon!

Feb 2023: Maine Balkan Choir is inviting singers to join and sing Ukrainian folk songs for spring concert, in Southern Maine (around Portland)

Clarification: Been getting hits on this lately, but this announcement is from 2023, not 2024. At present, the Huddled Masses Orchestra and Maine Balkan Choir still support Ukraine, but we are doing other musical projects.

No audition is needed and you don’t have to have prior choral experience.

A Portland sub-group will rehearse every Wednesday in Pownal, Maine (north of Portland near Freeport). They start at 6:30. SEE BELOW FOR DIRECTIONS

The Maine Balkan Choir (MBC) has returned from pandemic hibernation, and had the first rehearsal in Belfast Maine with twentythree singers in attendance. The Belfast group sings every Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:30 PM at 17 Court St, and all singers are welcome.

We are preparing folk songs of Ukraine, and we will perform a concert in spring, with proceeds to benefit a Ukraine children’s charity. We will provide the sheet music along with lyrics transliterated from Cyrillic to the American alphabet. All singers are invited.

Music is a window into culture. We can use our collective voices to support those suffering through wartime in winter. Many Ukrainian folk songs express family values of peace and unity. We will sing from a variety of genres including love songs and lullabies.

Portland subgroup forming

Singers in Southern Maine expressed the desire to also join this exciting project, but have been reluctant to commute to Belfast. Wd held our first rehearsal in Portland and decided we need a bigger space with more parking (this is a good thing!) so we have changed the location to Pownal.

Linden Lea at 655 Elmwood Rd in Pownal.

Directions to “Linden Lea”, 655 Elmwood Road, Pownal, 04069: 
“Linden Lea”, the name of my farm in Pownal and its eponymous music loft, is easy to find, at 655 Elmwood Rd. in Pownal 04069, very near Bradbury Mountain State Park. Somebody recently nicked two of the street numbers off my mailbox but I will try to fix that by next week. To make it my driveway easier to find, in any case i will put out a traffic cone with a reflective sign on top of it to help you to find it next Wednesday. 

Detailed Directions:

If you are driving north/ northwest from Freeport/ Yarmouth/ 295, It is exactly 9/10 of a mile north of the blinking red light and gas station at the intersection with Route 9 in Pownal Center, past the Pownal Elementary School on the right. Also there is a yellow diamond road sign right in front of my house (just past my driveway entrance) to indicate that there are curves in the road ahead. When you see this sign, put your right blinker on. If you pass that sign, you’ve passed my driveway.

If you’re coming from the southwest (e.g. Gorham/ Windham/ Gray), take 115 to Depot Road down the dip and up the steep hill until you get to Pineland/ Route 231. Jog left on 231 and then take an IMMEDIATE right onto Allen Road. The signature white Pineland fencing will be on your right and a Pineland Garden will be on your left. Go down a hill and under a railroad bridge (CAUTION – the bridge underpass is single lane.) Continue up the hill past the Pownal Post Office and continue to a three-way STOP SIGN. That is Elmwood Rd. Take a RIGHT on Elmwood and go about a mile and a half. After you pass the intersection with Lawrence Road, go SLOWLY, as you will head down a dip over a brook. That brook is the western border of my farm, so put your left blinker on, as my driveway is at the top of the hill. 

Parking:
Elmwood Road is a busy road, so please don’t park on the road for your own safety. There is ample parking is in the field adjacent to the barn, but it’s dependent on weather conditions so please wear sensible shoes and bring a flashlight or use the flashlight on your phone. There is a good deal of parking in the driveway itself, but if you can carpool that would be helpful.

Access/ toilet facilities: 
Access to the music loft is up one standard (to code) set of stairs with a handrail. There is a composting toilet on the ground floor. If you use the composting toilet, PLEASE be sure to SIT DOWN, whatever your gender, and whatever your business. If you don’t sit down, it doesn’t work. Or you can also use the downstairs toilet in the house if you are more comfortable with that

The Portland-area group is led by Sarah Hipkins. She is experienced in the style of singing and has an engaging approach. Ms. Hipkins is a former Director of the legendary Yale Slavic Chorus now living in Portland. She has agreed to lead the Portland group. As the concert date approaches the two groups will join forces.

How to Join, who to contact

The meeting in Pownal starts at 6:30 PM, Wednesday January 18th, and goes until 8 PM. Walk-ons are welcome. It s more fun if you bring your friends.

YouTube playlist of Ukrainian vocal repertoire

A playlist to include the songs we are working on has been set up to help singers study. You can practice at home or in your car using this tool.

Please share this widely.

Maine Balkan Choir Rehearsal Schedule for Belfast, winter 2023

Executive summary:

Twenty-three intrepid singers came to the first meeting Jan 3rd,2023. The group was led by Anne Tatgenhorst, who has studied and performed the repertoire of Balkan music since 1998. Anne is an experienced choral director and leads in an enjoyable way with a good sense of humor. We are off to a good start!

with Elitsa Stoineva and Kim Reiss, Anne is in the middle. They performed as a trio during the choir events.

January Plans

We will continue to meet for rehearsal on the next five Tuesdays (at least) from 6:00 to 7:30 PM in the basement of Belfast Maskers building on 17 Court Street in Belfast. Also known as “The Underground Cafe” who have rented their space to us. (it is not open as a cafe during our rehearsals).

the dates are:

January 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st:

and February 14th, 21st and 28th. (The room is not available Feb 7th. We will most likely continue into February and beyond, but haven’t confirmed any March dates with the Cafe. When the Maskers calendar is set then we will know more).

It is not too late to join. You do not need prior choral experience. Bring your friends. We will supply sheet music.

The music

People ask what is the music like? Click here to see and listen to professionally performed samples of some of the tunes we are working on.

Transliteration?

We have people who can read Cyrillic, the alphabet of many Slavic languages. Most choir members, however, do not. We still sing in Ukrainian, using transliterated lyrics. Click here to read about transliteration.

Maine Balkan Choir on FaceBook

Click here to find their FaceBook Page