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 o