Hajduks of Moesia - Epic Slavic Music of Bulgaria

Music & vocals by Farya Faraji. Continuing in the Balkan freedom-fighter series of songs is this one centred on a Bulgarian sound. The lyrics are from a poem by Hristo Botev, a hajduk and poet of the 19th century who fought Ottoman occupation. The poek is from 1868 and adressed to his mother. He is regarded as a national hero of Bulgaria and as one of its greatest poets. The image is a portrait of Indzhe Voyvoda, another hajduk who operated a century before Botev. I modeled the music after the Râčenica, an asymmetrical rythmic pattern very common in Bulgarian music, which is a form of 7/8 felt as a series 2 2 3 beats. The melody wanders between the minor and double harmonic minor as Bulgarian folk songs often do, and uses saz instruments, the kaval flute, drums, gadulkas, and the gaida bagpipe. I incorporated the typical form of Balkan polyphony where voices accompany the main vocals by singing drones; one keeping to the tonic and switching to the subtonic during moments of cadence, the other singing the fifth and harmonising the subtonic with the fourth. Lyrics in Bulgarian: Не плачи, майко, не тъжи, че станах азе хайдутин, хайдутин, майко, бунтовник, та тебе клета оставих за първо чедо да жалиш! Don’t cry, mother, don’t grieve that I became an outlaw, an outlaw, mother, a rebel, and abandoned you to your sorrow, mourning your first-born son.