Songs

Songs are listed alphabetically. Click on any name for more information, remixes, and lyrics.

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Ako umram il' zaginam ("If I Should Die or Perish")

This is a remake of a Macedonian folk song, in which the singer urges his comrades to celebrate his possible death non-traditionally and joyfully, so that a monument may stand to his wild youth. [download]

Emina

This is an adaptation of a well known poem by the Bosnian poet Aleksa Šantic that has been put to music by many Yugoslav groups (Himza Polovina, etc.). This poem is associated with the rich Bosnian musical tradition of sevdah. [download]

Madhushala ("The House of Wine")

These are some excerpts from a larger cycle of poetry published by the Hindi poet H. Bachchan in 1935. In this cycle, the author treats drunkenness almost spiritual phenomenon, making seemingly paradoxical, Zen-like statements about "the house of wine." [download]

Opomena ("Warning")

This is a musical adaptation of an extremely well-known poem by the famous Serbian poet Desanka Maksimovic. [download]

U Stambolu na Bosforu ("In Istanbul on the Bosphorus")

This is a traditional Bosnian song about a dying Ottoman sultan who disperses his harem to his loyal servants at the moment of his death and whose wife immediately falls dead upon hearing the tragic news of the sultan's death. In addition to its inherent interest, the song is also interesting for the light it sheds on how Bosnian Muslims related to the Ottoman Turkish empire and Ottoman identity in general. [download]

Vorkuta Prison Blues

This is a remake of a traditional Russian criminal song about making a break from the prison camps and then eventually being caught by the prison guards. I readapted the song musically, though, to try to bring out the similarities between songs like this and the American folk/country/blues tradition of prison songs. The Russian criminal culture that this song comes out of is a deep, fascinating subculture in Russia, and so I hope that melding these lyrics with the equally rich American tradition will result in an interesting fusion. [download]