{"id":1029,"date":"2011-09-01T13:27:29","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T21:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/?p=1029"},"modified":"2025-08-25T19:26:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T23:26:02","slug":"balkan-music-re-thinking-dissonance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/balkan-music-re-thinking-dissonance\/","title":{"rendered":"Balkan Music: Re-Thinking Dissonance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In her book, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy<\/em><\/a>, author and cultural historian Barbara Ehrenreich contrasts the \u201cepidemic of melancholia\u201d that pervades much of the modern world with the \u201cphenomenon of communal, shared ecstatic ritual\u201d that existed in our own culture even until the 17th<\/sup>\u00a0century.<\/p>\n

I touched into this phenomenon during last winter\u2019s ever-rains when I began exploring Vancouver\u2019s burgeoning Balkan music scene. There, I found a lively and musically nourishing community of musicians, dancers, and singers. At an\u00a0Balkan brass band concert<\/a>\u00a0at the Russian Hall, I found a brochure for a music camp put on by\u00a0The East European Folklife Center<\/a>\u00a0and I knew I wanted more.<\/p>\n

So with the stench of burning police cars still hanging in the air (and local hockey riot pundits insisting that \u2018we\u2019re not like that\u2019), I decided to leave Vancouver and follow a niggling intuition that a week of village life was just what I needed. My destination: The Balkan Music and Dance Workshops deep in the Redwood forests near Mendocino, California.<\/p>\n

Dissonance + Consonance = Harmony<\/h2>\n

\"\"I soon found that the camp is an ideal artistic environment for anyone with a propensity for\u00a0musical intelligence<\/a>, and also it\u2019s a rare chance to return to a rustic existence of woodsy cabins, merry village folk, and a healthy sense of belonging\u2014even if just temporarily. Each day was punctuated with music, dancing, singing classes, and mealtime feasts. Evenings were given over to story telling, group dancing and intoxicating late-night music warmed by the huge stone hearth in the kafana (Balkan coffee house).<\/p>\n

Rachel MacFarlane, general manager, cautioned me about the picture of the camp as a perfect village; although, in the next breath she praised the \u201ccollective spirit of goodwill\u201d that stirred fellow campers to give up their cabins to accommodate a rained out\u00a0gudulka<\/a>\u00a0class.<\/p>\n

The Desire for Dissonance and Instability<\/h2>\n

\u201cWestern tonal music is based on the dichotomy of\u00a0dissonance<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0consonance\u00a0<\/em>where unstable dissonances seek their resolutions to consonant sonorities\u201d, states Kalin Kirilov, the camp\u2019s expert on Bulgarian harmony. \u201cIf you compare music to energy\u201d, he continues, \u201cthe dissonances carry a more powerful charge in comparison to the consonances\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Kalin Kirilov met a guitarist from Detroit who asked him if he could teach him to play Bulgarian music. At the time Kalin said it couldn\u2019t be taught in a formal way, but the idea persisted with him and over the next few years he did figure out how to crack the\u00a0Rosetto Stone<\/em>\u00a0of Bulgarian music. In 2007, he defended his dissertation,\u00a0Harmony in Bulgarian Music<\/em><\/a>. He now teaches music theory at\u00a0Towson University in Maryland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In my music education, I\u2019d understood that complex metres (time signatures) in Balkan music were somehow the needlessly convoluted work of a people who were, well,\u00a0Byzantine<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Kalin provided the necessary context: \u201cAsymmetrical metres exist in a huge variety starting from 5\/8 to 15\/8. Pushing the concept of asymmetry further, Bulgarians combine different asymmetrical metres forming complex metric groups (for example: 7\/8 + 11\/8) or juxtapose different asymmetrical metres one against the other\u201d. Then Kalin startled me, \u201cmixed metres push the extremes of what it is to be human\u201d.<\/p>\n

Balkan music is rendered simple as soon as one steps onto the dance floor. Its loping, elegant rhythms soon reveal themselves\u2014it\u2019s how a body of conjoined dancers\u00a0naturally\u00a0<\/em>moves.<\/p>\n

Continuous Learning<\/h2>\n

When some adults might be dreaming of marble counter tops in the suburbs or slowly burning out to channel-changer stagnation, Rachel (who originally joined the camp as a singer), took up the tenor horn (central European euphonium) and was instrumental in forming\u00a0Brass Menazeri<\/a>, San Francisco\u2019s pre-eminent Balkan brass band.<\/p>\n

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Not that learning a new instrument in mid-life doesn\u2019t come with its frustrations. \u201cI\u2019m 44 and I wanted to just throw this thing in the Bay\u201d, she says with mock despair. Rachel stated that the camp attracts a vast range of people year after year, many of whom \u201cwait all year\u201d, and then added, \u201cit\u2019s their nourishment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asymmetry and Autism<\/h2>\n

Sanna Rosengren is originally from Lund, Sweden, but now lives in San Diego where she works a is project scientist at UCSD in the department of Rheumatology. Sanna plays violin and grew up on symphonic rock bands, such as\u00a0Emerson Lake and Palmer<\/a>, but soon found that not only was Balkan music immensely satisfying, but it bridge the communication gap between her and her daughter, Ellinor, who has autism.<\/p>\n

Together, they learned the complex melodies and rhythms of Greek and Bulgarian music, including popular favourites\u00a0Yalo Yalo<\/a>. Although autism makes is difficult for Ellinor to dance, she has a keen sense for Balkan metres and even despairs at the dull simplicity of most modern popular music, which is invariably in 4\/4 time.<\/p>\n

Genetic and Musical Homecoming<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bruce Salmon\u2019s musical journey spans many genres. He played rock music with bands, such as\u00a0Alejandro Escovedo<\/a>, until at mid life he began to ponder what sort of future he had touring as a rock musician. He, too, was draw to the rhythmic complexity of Balkan music and through it chose to take a new path in life\u2014one that would take him to Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey, including the\u00a0Bulgarian Folk Music & Dance Seminar<\/a>\u00a0in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.<\/p>\n

Klezmer<\/a>\u00a0music was a natural bridge into Balkan music for him, one that elicited what \u201cfelt like ancestral memories\u201d. After a fellow musician mentioned his preternatural ease with playing Klezmer music, Bruce delved into his family roots and found a quashed memory of his own Jewish heritage.<\/p>\n

Ageism\u2014a thing of the past<\/h2>\n

Ken Blackwood, from Canmore, Alberta, is 77 and quipped that he may quit at 80. \u201cI\u2019m retired and active, rather than retired and dead\u201d he added. Having witnessed him cut his way across the dance floor night after night (even after a day of Bulgarian, Albanian, and Greek dance classes), I knew he was serious.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nA native of New Zealand and a regular at Balkan Camp since the early 90s, he maintained his father \u201cpracticed dying for years before he actually died for real\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Mystery of Bulgarian Music \u2013 Revealed!<\/h2>\n

Bulgarian music is at the centre of cultural crossroads. Like tectonic plates, three major musical systems have converged and overlapped the ancient pentatonic five-note scales (thought to be the oldest in the world\u00ad, as they can be found from Ireland to China). From Greece came the \u201cChurch\u201d modes<\/a>, which also form the basis of Western music (in the form Ionian mode (major scales) and the Aeolian mode (minor scales)).\u00a0Makams<\/em><\/a>, with their distinctive augmented second intervals and quarter tones, spread from the Middle East along with the conquering Ottoman Turks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But the real trouble in the mix was tempered tuning system from the West. Far from be\u00a0well tempered<\/em>, it is built on a series of increasing compromises designed to allow musicians (particularly those of keyboards, such as the accordion) to play equally in tune (or\u00a0out of tune<\/em>\u00a0as some argue) in all keys.<\/p>\n

Bulgarian music draws its fascination by how it reconciles these seemingly irreconcilable differences.\"\"<\/p>\n

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Balkan Music in Vancouver<\/h2>\n

This week-end (July 30), you can immerse yourself in the wild and compelling music of the Balkan region at the\u00a0Electric Owl<\/a>\u00a0on Main Street.\u00a0Orkestar Slivovica<\/a>,\u00a0The Tailor<\/a>\u00a0(gypsy\/folk punk), and from Seattle, the\u00a0Bucharest Drinking Team<\/a>\u00a0are the three bands that are playing under the banner, \u201cTransform a crowd of strangers into a circle of friends!!!\u201d If you\u2019re not familiar with the wild ride that is Balkan music, you\u2019re in for a treat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In her book, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, author and cultural historian Barbara Ehrenreich contrasts the \u201cepidemic of melancholia\u201d that pervades much of the modern world with the \u201cphenomenon of communal, shared ecstatic ritual\u201d that existed in our own culture even until the 17th\u00a0century. I touched into this phenomenon during last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16,17,18,19,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1029"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30406,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1029\/revisions\/30406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}