We sang Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Bosnian, Hungarian, and Russian songs. Once upon a time, some of these countries were bound together in a sham unification called Yugoslavia. We folkdancers knew that Serbia was Serbia, Croatia was Croatia, Bosnia was Bosnia, etc. Different cultures. Different costumes. Different dances. Different rhythms and tones. Sad that it took a war to sort it all out.
Recently some of Avaz' performances were put up on You Tube. Apparently no one had video cameras when I was singing, but the singers and songs didn't change much over the years, so I'm posting one Bulgarian song that's a pretty good likeness to what we looked like (somber elderly farm women) and how we sounded (ethereal).
The rhythm and harmonies are not familiar ones to Western ears. We like our rhythms in 3's and 4's, or multiples thereof. This song is in 11's. Not something that's easy to clap to. Also, we like our harmonies in spreads of 3 or 5. This song sometimes goes into tones that are so close to each other as to sound out of tune. It feels tense. But it eventually gets resolved into something beautiful. At least beautiful to me (and to the Bulgarians).
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