The Songs on the
"Dream Keepers" CD

This series of fifteen old Serbian folksongs begins, as is the custom with every popular celebration, with a toast, which, along with a glass of good wine, wishes everyone well in whatever they undertake.

1. Koj u zdravlje pije ladno vino!

download sample (mp3, 38 seconds, 264 kb)

This toast wishes everyone a rich harvest – overflowing barns, fertile cattle, full pens and folds. The toast ends with a desire for a good grape harvest, bringing filled wine cellars and full vats of good wine. The tune and words to this ancient toast were written near the town of Topola – birthplace of the founder of the new Serbian state Ðordija Petrovic, called by the Turks – Black George, or in Turkish -Karadorde. Instead of wine, the Teofilovic brothers toast their listeners with this song.

2. Oj, goro, goro!

download sample (mp3, 29 seconds, 200 kb)

This old folksong from Central Serbia recalls the times which immediately preceded the great fight of the Serbian people for freedom from the Turkish yoke (1804-1815).
In this melancholy song the singers’ voices address the high-forested mountain with the question: Do you hide Serbian warriors as Sherwood Forest sheltered Robin Hood? The mountain sadly answers that it is doing all within its power, but that the Turks are managing to capture them and lead them away. The unfulfilled wish of the mountain to protect the nation’s defenders within its forested heights is given particularly dramatic expression in the last verse of the song which simultaneously reflects the longing to offer sanctuary: “Ja ih cuvam...”(I shelter them) and the powerlessness to actually do so. The last line of the song:“Ja ih cuvam, tugo!” (I shelter them, oh grief!) reveals the bitter awareness of the mountain that it has failed in its task. This last word, this call – "Oh grief!" – continues to echo like the wail of a distraught mother who has failed to protect her children.

3. Duni mi, duni, ladane!

download sample (mp3, 18 seconds, 129 kb)

This is a wedding song among the Serbs of Kosovo. The girl calls to the fresh breeze to cool the summer heat. At the same time, she calls her beloved, her future husband, to come into her garden and seek her under the rose-tree they both know so well. There she sits embroidering gifts to give the wedding guests. Impatiently awaiting the moment when she will be joined in marriage to the man she loves, she summons him to her aid beneath the rose-tree so that, together, they may gather the tiny seed pearls which she has carelessly spilt upon the ground to decorate their gifts.The final line of the song: "A ja cu tebe ljubiti, ej, ljubiti” (And I shall kiss you, and kiss you again) shows that this was a mere pretext to get him there so that she can show him how much she loves him!

4. Gusta mi magla padnala!

download sample (mp3, 29 seconds, 228 kb)

This song was sung on Kosovo as the bride was dressed for her wedding. It begins with striking imagery: "Gusta mi magla padnala Na toj mi ramno Kosovo" (Thick fog fell on Kosovo/ On that plain of Kosovo).
In Serbian culture and political history, Kosovo occupies an important, complex and symbolic place. From the mid-12^th century and the Battle of Pantino up to the present day, Kosovo was the place where the fate of Serbia was decided and changed. For this reason, every mention of Kosovo in Serbian folklore evokes numerous memories, warnings, joys and sorrows. Aware of this, the creator of this Serbian folksong often calls upon "thick fog" to cover the great historical canvas of Kosovo, while focussing the listeners’ senses on the simple, intimate scene he is describing. Thus, in this song, in the thick fog which has fallen upon Kosovo there stands out a tall tree, set in the centre of the poet’s visual imagination. The height of the tree draws the eyes upwards but then they lower again onto a tailor sewing a jewelled wedding bodice for the bride. This bodice is so beautiful and richly embroidered (as if showered by stardust) that the beholder’s eyes are rapt in admiration.

5. Marijo, bela kumrijo!

download sample (mp3, 35 seconds, 243 kb)

This is an old Serbian song dedicated to those who have travelled to distant parts seeking work. Since Mary’s loved one is far away, it is difficult to be happy and cheerful. Her lovelorn state makes her step slow and leaden; her voice loses its brightness and strength. And so this song describes her mood of deep longing.
The local Aga is a curious and careful onlooker. He sees how the girl’s step has become "soft" and her speech "quiet". He supposes this to be the result of her carrying heavy water pitchers (stomno, stomnite) or wearing weighty encrusted necklaces (derdana). The girl , full of youth and strength, roundly rejects the idea that work or wearing the necklaces by which she is known to her beloved could be called a burden. The only heavy and almost unbearable burden she carries, given her youth, is separation from the man she loves!

6. Neven vene, neven vene!

download sample (mp3, 33 seconds, 227 kb)

Yearning for love is also the subject of this folksong from Kosovo. The marigold got its Latin name - Calendula officinalis – from the fact that in some climatically favourable regions it blooms every month and so marks each month like a calendar.
In popular plant mythology the marigold occupies an important place. In Serbian folksongs, particularly those connected with weddings, the marigold (neven in Serbian) is favoured because of the possibilities for wordplay because neven means "that which does not wither, unfading"– in other words, eternally young. Accordingly, the syntagma "neven vene" (The unfading (marigold) fades) has a complex and attractive semantic and symbolic significance. The marigold which the girl is to pick in the meadow to give to her sweetheart has faded. From the melancholy words the girl sings to the marigold:

"I ja bi te mlada brala
Svom draganu kitu dala
I ja bi te mlada brala!"

(Oh, I would pluck thee young/And give to him I love/Oh, I would pluck thee young)

we can conclude that this girl, unfortunately, has no sweetheart and for this reason does not pick the marigolds. And as time passes, so the marigolds are fading.

7. Oj, javore, javore!

download sample (mp3, 42 seconds, 290 kb)

This love song from Central Serbia belongs to the group of so-called "obada" – songs in which lovers wish for the night to last forever and for the dawn, signifying a new day and inevitable – however short – separation, to be delayed as long as possible. In this song, the lovers appeal to the maple - " beautiful majestic tree" - to use its size and branches to prevent dawn from breaking. The maple is not only beautiful,but its wood also serves in the making of many musical instruments and on both counts enjoys a special place in popular belief and mythology.

8. Koj ce ti kupi al kanarice!

download sample (mp3, 27 seconds, 186 kb)

This former wedding song from Kosovo is now sung outside the marriage celebration as a lovesong. With this song the future bridegroom addresses his sweetheart, posing two rhetorical questions: “Koj ce ti kupi al kanarice? and “Ko ce ti kupi taj burnus pojas?” Al kanarice in local Kosovo-Resava dialect means the red scarf tied round the head of a married woman, and burnus pojas, or more correctly burmus pojas is the belt a married women ties round her waist. So the questions are: "Who will buy you a red scarf?" and "Who will buy you an embroidered belt?" After these rhetorical questions comes the expected single answer: "Ja tebe Magdo, ja tebe džandžigeru, ja tebe!" The compound noun džandžigeru means "dear heart". Hence the answer is "I, Magda, I will buy them for you, dear heart".

9. Jeleno, Solun-devojko!

download sample (mp3, 36 seconds, 251 kb)

This song from Kosovo is sung on the Great Day, that is, at Easter. It is sung while performing the kolo (the traditional round dance of Serbia). The beauty of Jelena is worthy of the city of Solun (Thessalonika) – a city with an almost mythical quality for the inhabitants of Kosovo. This beautiful girl is viewed, somewhat unusually, from below. And the shadow she casts is extended to supernatural proportions, and with it her height.

10. Varaj Leno, Magdaleno!

download sample (mp3, 37 seconds, 254 kb)

Bewitched by the beauty of Magdalena – affectionately nicknamed Lena – the poet is especially struck by her dark eyes. Realising that hers is a beauty beside which any man would wish to spend the rest of his life, the poet bemoans the fact that she is not iz dobre kuce (from a good family), barem da si od koleno (of good issue). The girl herself is aware of this drawback, yet remains equally aware and proud of her own loveliness. She feels that her humble origins should not detract from the beauty of her hair, her face, and, above all, the intoxicating attraction of her dark eyes…

11. Tri devojke zbor zborile, stoj Drino!

download sample (mp3, 30 seconds, 210 kb)

The former wedding song is sung today in Western Serbia on various occasions, at village spinning bees and outside parties, now rendered as a love song. Three girls discuss among themselves what each would like most in life. The oldest says she would like gold (i.e. wealth). The middle one opts for pretty dresses (silk), while the youngest rejects riches and fancy clothes in favour of the love of her sweetheart. This meeting is held against the stormy background of the troubled and fast-flowing River Drina, which is periodically asked to stop its noisy torrent so that the wishes of the three girls can be heard.

12. Preleteše tice lastavice!

download sample (mp3, 32 seconds, 222 kb)

Another former wedding song from Kosovo about a girl who makes long and detailed preparations of a gift for her future intended. Every day for three years, often going without herself, she embroiders linen for her future husband on a frame. As time passes, she inserts into the embroidered motifs her own girlish wishes, dreams and desires…The tired swallows interrupt their long journey and alight on the girl’s embroidery frame. Terrified that they will tear the linen, the girl shoos them off and complains bitterly!

13. Atidžice, belo, crveno!

download sample (mp3, 26 seconds, 183 kb)

A wedding song of the Kosovo highlanders. This song is quite difficult to understand because of the specific highland dialect. The singer invites a girl who has always been inclined to impetuous love affairs (atidžice) to put on a long red jacket (džupce), as below the village, angrily awaiting her stands her ex-sweetheart Idriz! In his left hand is an axe, and in his right a revolver. At hearing this the girl recalls the first fondling of the first boy she ever fell in love with – Skender! She calles upon Skender to bath Their child (vocrak in Albanian means "little one") to give her time to prepare heady perfumes with which to spray herself and to dress herself up in her best clothes and tassels (idem kitlarka) and, thus bedecked, to go off to an assignation in the village of Ogosta, further up the mountain.

14. Šanko si Bonka zalibi!

download sample (mp3, 51 seconds, 351 kb)

This ballad from Eastern Serbia tells of the tragic love between Šanko and Bonka. This great passion lasted for a year and a half, after which Bonka changed her mind, lied to Šanko and left him. She soon found a new object of her affections! She proposed to her new love, who lived ten villages away! This headstrong girl then asked her old love Šanko to play at her wedding, and, thus bowed down with grief at losing her, to crown the moment of her new-found happiness. Šanko comes to the wedding and strikes up the wedding kolo. As the bride, Bonka leads the circular dance! The lovelorn and rejected Šanko suddenly whips out a knife and plunges it into the cruel heart of his beloved Bonka!

15. Oj Moravo, mutno vodo!

download sample (mp3, 25 seconds, 178 kb)

This song is dedicated to Serbia’s greatest river, which has for centuries witnessed and participated in the rise and fall of the Serbian nation. The poet tells how the Morava has grown muddy with the tears shed over Serbia’s fate. And that water remains clouded even though the river flows on.

This series of folksongs is characterised by sounds both simple and complex. The Teofilovic brothers have tried to let the songs follow on naturally one from another, to ensure that the sounds are smoothly harmonised, and that the listener’s musical attention is engaged unswervingly from the first song to the last.

From the toast sung at the very beginning, this series of old Serbian folk airs re-arranged to offer a newly-created magical sound ends just as naturally with a song heavy with centuries of sadness and suffering. After listening to this cycle, we remain spellbound, excited, and disturbed by the complex musical message. For a moment it seems as if the entire path of history’s duration and all the gifts and misfortunes of the Serbian people have been compressed into the sound of these fifteen songs….

Professor Nenad Ljubinkovic
Annunciation Day, Belgrade 1998

Teofilovic Twins - Keeping a dream alive

The Teofilovic brothers! Where do they get those voices?
From the land or the heart? At both addresses in Serbia – this is the dream.
Ratko and Radiša stand guard there with song.
These guardians of the dream symbolise a trace of a world of deep and intimate conviction; they are like eternal prisoners of monastic wakefulness and chroniclers of angelic sleeplessness.
They are spiritual beings who, through their mission of passionately rendered song, recall, educate, and save these airs from oblivion.
The Teofilovic brothers are completely oriented towards tradition - that great storehouse of popular experience, from which different people take different things.
These two brothers choose what others, it seems, do not need.
When they start singing, you realise that they are voices crying in the wilderness.
For them there is only one way of singing.
With closed eyes, tight fists, heads lifted upward towards heaven, and with open hearts where intense emotion eclipses the reason for the song itself.
Those for whom there are thousands of ways of singing do not dare to enter this domain.
For this reason, Ratko and Radiša are not only guardians of the national dream but also a unique testament to the wonder of song itself.
If Serbia is, indeed, a great Secret, then the Teofilovic brothers offer one of the best keys to understanding It.
Traditional music is the archeology of memory.
Of the many layers of history, not one can faithfully portray the complexity of the sonic being of this nation. And so the melodic meanderings, the weaving of the voice, and the power of the feelings, scattered down through the centuries and different regions and so near to the Slav soul, as performed by the Teofilovic brothers seem to represent a great fire bearing down on all sides. And in this process a space we scarcely knew existed suddenly opens up.
With their masterly command of the oldest instrument in human history and their talent for listening to the past, Ratko and Radiša represent the silence of things, the sound of shadows, the shiver of eternity and the timeless humming of this untameable land of God.
Every song that Ratko and Radiša Teofilovic sing is older than the newest world empire!

Petar Popovic
preface to the CD "Dream Keepers"