Don't You Just Love Men's Singing?

I absolutely adore the sound of men's choirs.  Not sure when I got addicted! Men have sung together throughout history, maybe it is in my genes!  I especially enjoy the sound of men singing in harmony, usually a cappella. Really, and why do you need another instrument when you have the glorious range of countertenors all the way to the basso profundo to sing everything from folk songs to musical comedy, choruses from opera, as well as unique and specialized arrangements by new and respected Ukrainian composers.  Just love, love, love!  

And the Ukrainian Male Chorus of Edmonton have the fellowship of music and culture to share. That's why you just have to mark Saturday, May 23, 2015 with a special star on your calendar.  

The Ukrainian Male Chorus of Edmonton presents a Spring Concert on Saturday, May 23, 2015 at 7:30 pm at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church (1121 14 Avenue SW) in Calgary with special guest: Calgary's own Stephania Romaniuk, mezzo-soprano  (Recently returned from an eventful and positively received musical/philanthropic tour to Ukraine!

The hour-long concert will feature Ukrainian sacred and secular choral works, as well as several songs sung in English.      Admission is by donation.

The choir's website is www.ukrainianmalechorus.ca.

Stephania's website is www.stephaniaromaniuk.com.

The choir will also be singing the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, May 24, 2015 at 9:30 AM at St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox Church at 404-Meredith Road NE Calgary.  For more information please call 403-264-3437.  

Taxing Ukrainian Folk Songs

Interesting news from Ukraine lately about their need to fill the government treasury is puzzling and perhaps troubling - not sure yet.  It seems that with the rising popularity of Ukrainian folk songs, their government is eyeing opportunities to cash in.

Ukrainian folk songs express the accumulated wisdom of a people.  The rhythms of folksongs accurately represent syllabic stress in the language, subtle inflections in phrase, and the syntax is clearly expressed.  Over the years, the melodies of Ukrainian folksongs have evolved from a small range, with many repeated simple motifs, to a grander use of diatonic and altered scales.  The more "native" the melody, the more authentic it may be.  And authentic folk songs travel through the generations with ease, taking on the transitions of language, and subtle melodic influences in its vicinity. When you "straighten out" a folk song, you are messing with antiquity. 

Ukraine's young people are beginning to recognize the powerful truths jam packed into the folk songs of their ancestral memory, and enjoying their ancestral identity.  With available technology for recording, manipulation and marketing of their native folk music, Ukrainian folk songs are taking their place in the modern culture.  Their government has recently opined their desire to cash in on this national treasure chest - and I am a bit concerned, if not bewildered. 

There are international laws protecting authorship, composers, performers, etc.  Music over 50 years old is generally considered "in the public domain".  Copywrited music requires licensing, and the list goes on.   Even composed songs with authored lyrics can fall into the public domain but this is more touchy, again I am not an expert.  But Ukrainian folk songs are way older than that!  They belong to the people, shared from generation to generation,  primarily through an oral tradition.  So very much of the Ukrainian language, spirit and lifestyle is revealed in its folksongs - there is a song for every moment of one's life. 

Conceptually, the Ukrainian government taxing Ukrainian folk songs concerns me.  In conversation with a person far more versed than I, the question was - is this an attempt to limit permission or to censor the folk culture of Ukraine?   One can only wonder whether this is a truly benevolent attempt to honor and protect the cultural identity and ancestral treasury wantonly usurped by manipulators of history! On the other hand, is this another way of preventing wide consumption and access to tradition, culture and the place where authentic language has evolved as a descriptor of the people and her dreams?  Or, on the other hand is this a way to validate and champion, bringing recognition, legal support, and financial recompense to the keepers of the hearth, the keepers of ancestral culture?  The ancestral babas and didos who continue to live close to the land, authentically engaged in lifestyle practices foreign to city dwellers may be both a target and recipients of attention - gotta watch out for the tax man.

This is a bizarre attempt to fill the government treasury with the lifeblood of a nation in my eyes.  Can you imagine the government trying to license a community choir performance of Taras Shevchenko's The Last Testament?, and where do you draw the line between folk songs and communal singing at a liturgy?  Really?! Wouldn't it be better for Ukraine to tax real estate? or use some muscle to collect income tax first, especially from those who have hidden their billions in off shore banks? 

 

By the Campfire

Help us raise funds for "При Ватрі," a commemorative CD for Plast's 100th anniversary, with the objective of giving each UMPZ participant a CD.

In August 2012, over 2,500  Plastuny will meet from around the world in Ukraine to celebrate the organization’s 100th anniversary. Over the years, life in Plast has been marked by songs that describe the life and activities of Plastuny.

The Lviv stanytsia of Plast, founded in 1995 and boasting some 2,000 members, has produced a commemorative recording in honor of the 100 Anniversary of Plast, called "При Ватрі," with the objective of giving each UMPZ participant a free copy of a CD that they may bring home and listen to with friends and family in all corners of the world. For many, this will be the first recording of Plast songs that they will own. The proceeds from this project will benefit the Lviv stanytsia.

*** Donate Today! ***

The organizers of this recording need your financial support in making this project a reality. Since Plast kurini from around the world have already spent considerable sums for the logistics of UMPZ, the Lviv stanytsia needs to raise an additional $6,000 in the next two weeks (before mid August) in order to pay for the manufacturing of 2,500 Plast 100th anniversary commemorative CDs.

This last minute appeal is a result of insufficient funding from donors in Ukraine, and the organizers are turning to Plastuny around the world to step in and help out, to make the CD a reality. Donations are also accepted on the Yevshan site.

As a thank-you gift for your donation, The Lviv Stanytsia (via Yevshan) will send you:

1 Commemorative “Pry Vatri” CD for a $25 donation - http://www.yevshan.com/main.asp?cid=450&pid=27724
5 Commemorative “Pry Vatri” CDs for a $100 donation $100 - http://www.yevshan.com/main.asp?pid=27725
20 Commemorative “Pry Vatri” CDs for a $250 donation $250 - http://www.yevshan.com/main.asp?pid=27726

The Lviv stanytsia has given Yevshan Communications Inc. from Canada the responsibility of distributing the recordings to donors from around the world.
Please take a moment to "like" this project on Facebook, and Tweet this information to your Plast friends and family. Information on how to donate funds will be up shortly.

*** To contact the organizers in Ukraine regarding this project, please email Oksana Mukha at zhabenia@gmail.com

The Lviv stanytsia's contact info:
address: м. Львів, вул. Шептицьких 16, 79016
telephone/fax: (032) 23-888-26    
Email: lviv@plast.org.ua
www.plast.org.ua

More info about Plast
UMPZ: http://www.plast.org.ua/100/umpz/inforegistration
Canada: http://www.plast.ca/
USA: http://www.plastusa.org/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plast

Please LIKE us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/umpz2012cd

Listen to a montage from the CD here:
http://www.yevshan.com/musicmp3/plastcdmontage.mp3

"При Ватрі"

CD track listing:
1          Табір  (відкриття табору)
2          Цвіт України і краса
3          Гей пластуни, гей юнаки
4          Горить Ватра
5          Гей там у горах високих
6          Марш 23 куреня, загону Червоної калини
7          Вставай Сонце
8          Лицарський Хрест
9          Гей Скобе!
10        Гей - гу , гей – га, таке то в нас життя
11        Найкращі дівчата
12        Казав мені в лісі
13        Чи знаєш ти, найкращу в світі пісню
14        Гав – гу , вовки!
15        Гей мандрують пластуни
16        Зірки мигтять
17        При ватрі
18        Ніч вже йде, за верхи
Total run time: 50 minutes

Виконавці : 2 , 3 – Солісти академічної чоловічої хорової капели «Дударик» та Оксана Муха,  5 – “Samplе Rate” & ”RIZUPS”,  6  -“Screamers”,  7 - «Нічлава», 8 – «Тартак»- Олександр Положинський, 9 – «От Вінта», 10 - Тарас Чубай, 11, 12 -  Назар Омельчук,  13, 14, 15, 16 – Оксана Муха, 17 – Квітка Цісик,18 – Андрій Наконечний

Kalyna - High Bush Cranberry

Lamont Travelogue by Darby 2

Our home has been graced with the company of special friends lately, forever friends really.  Travelling to Calgary from their homes far away, these are true friends, and we have deep abiding love and understanding for each other. Like the best friendships, between the laughter and tears, are layers and layers of common understandings.  Stuff we do, food we eat, art we display, our celebrations, our sorrows, songs we sing....

Metaphors and similes are encased in almost all Ukrainian songs.  One of the special botanical symbols is the kalyna – Viburnum-Caprifoliaceae L. (the high bush cranberry).  Kalyna is part of Ukraine’s wealth of life sustaining, rural, agricultural riches.  It has been known and used over millennia as part of ancient rites, rituals, magic and medicine.

In Ukrainian, nouns have gender, so the word “kalyna” is a feminine noun.  Kalyna grows in wet woods, along streams and wooded hillsides, and requires moist but well drained sites for best development. Kalyna blossoms are snow white, lace-cap flowers that form a ball-shape.  Ancestral Ukrainian folk songs of courtship, engagement and marriage anticipate the ripening of the kalyna berries, referring in hopeful terms to the whole concept of maidenhood, virginity, the nuptial bed, happy, fruitful wedded life.  The cycle of ritual songs and ritual embroideries celebrate the blood-red, the love, and life ahead.  Medicinally, the bark yields a powerful antispasmodic, a water soluble preparation containing a bitter compound called viburnine, which is used for the relief of menstrual and stomach cramps.  At the same time, however it is interesting that in the fall, the ripened berries weigh down the kalyna and the branches bend gracefully to support the tree - clearly imagery to do with birth, and the future, with all its complexity and sorrows. The fruit is best gathered when slightly under-ripe and sour.  If it is gathered after a heavy frost, the fruit is sweeter, and has a musty odor during cooking.  Wildlife waits until there have been several frost/thaw cycles before indulging in the dried fruit.   

In his amazing collection and analysis of Ukrainian traditional folk songs, Filiaret Kolessa refers to “parallelism”, where nature comes to represent all of life. Decoding becomes even more complex, the deeper one gets into literary symbolism. The Great Kobzar Taras Shevchenko was one, from among Ukraine's literary giants to have employed this imagery, and now ancestral images stand beside contemporary art works and seem to reflect not only individual love, but love for one’s people, for one’s country.  Many symbols are universally loved in Ukraine, probably none more than the kalyna.

Here are some favorite Kalyna songs to enjoy – consider the symbolism in the lyrics and think “to life!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kepx3vYsAD4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0_O4wGjsn0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZzlKzI4HiU&feature=related