Zozulka
in Concert
Nadia
Gereliouk
----------------------
March
7, 2014 (Toronto)-The digital age has made it harder and harder for
people to be immediately drawn and subsequently impressed by music.
This however, was not the case on Friday, March 7th during
the Zozulka concert, when three remarkable women came together at the
University of Toronto to represent the lyrical ethnic songs of the
Ukrainian Poltava and Polissia regions. The diverse crowd vibrantly
experienced the musical passion these women brought to the North
American world from the deep rural steppes and woodland villages of
Ukraine.
The
Zozulka trio: Eva Salina-Primack, Willa Roberts, and the Petro Jacyk
Post-Doctoral Fellow Maria Sonevytsky brought forward the folklore
traditions collected by an ethnomusicologist professor Yevhen
Yefremov during the late 1970s, when Soviet censorship was still very
much alive. These songs were sung by old ‘babushky’ in rural
villages and were passed down orally from one generation to the next.
Dr. Maria Sonevytsky who in the past year has taught courses at the
University of Toronto’s Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of
Ukraine explained that a number of these songs were prohibited due to
Soviet folklore censorship since they resisted political
interference.
The
experienced, skilled and vibrant voices of Zozulka presented the
audience a year in songs. The seasonal songs were usually sung by old
women while sitting outside in groups lamenting about their daily
experiences. The performance began with spring. The short
introduction and the first song entitled “Oh please God, Let Spring
Begin” served somewhat of a plea and a light joke much appreciated
by the Canadian audience. The subsequent pieces illustrated both
Christian and pagan expressions, referring to Slavic mythology and
the god of spring, “Lel’.” The summer songs presented the
experiences of hard work in the fields and unfolded the sorrowful
stories of women and marriage. Throughout the performance there was a
clear thread of Slavic mythology and the image of rusalky – the
ghosts of young maidens, water nymphs that dwelled in rivers. Dr.
Maria Sonevytsky reiterated to the engaged crowd that even if a
village was relocated due to the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, most of the
songs travelled with the relocated population to the new villages.
Wedding
songs and laments of the young brides were the staples of autumn. As
these songs were mostly sung by women, they presented a women’s
perspective and portrayed marriage as a tragic transfer from mother
to mother-in-law. The truly rich ritual season of winter was the only
time of the year men would participate in singing. The ‘kolyada’,
as Dr. Sonevytsky explained was led by a fiddler and represented the
dead descending back to Earth.
Following
a brief intermission, Zozulka rejoiced the crowd with some lyrical
songs. The trio explained that there were various themes present in
the music. Young love, tragedy and betrayal were only a selection.
The main imagery in a number of the presented pieces was usually
associated with crying birds expressing sorrow as well as trees
bending in the wind signifying a tragic end.
In
the second half of the concert, the trio divided into three soloists,
each choosing a song they felt represented themselves the most. Dr.
Maria Sonevytsky who has lived in Crimea and conducted ethnographic
fieldwork on Crimean Tatars sang an emotional Crimean Tatar lullaby.
The simplicity and gentle beauty of the melody filled the Heart House
Music Room with a certain emotion that can only be conjured with the
current political turmoil in Ukraine. Willa Roberts moved across the
Black Sea by selecting a Turkish folk song about a heroic man leaving
his sweetheart. The soloist explained that the song’s hero is
killed in battle, but leaves his beloved with a warning to trust no
one in this cruel world. The conclusion to the tender low-key solos
without any instrumentation was sung by Eva Salina-Primack. Her
Bulgarian selection focused on natural imagery and the notion of free
movement in between worlds.
By
contrast to the distinctive a-capella singing, the evening closed off
with a captivating sound of the accordion. The last piece featured
the cuckoo bird that the trio’s band is named after – “Zozulka”.
The lyrics were projected on the screen and all the guests in
attendance joined in the singing. While performing their last piece
and playing the accordion, the Zozulka trio slowly walked through the
concert hall toward the back exit. Completely captivated by the
sound, the singing crowd followed the three talented women and
transformed from a listening audience into a large ethnic musical
group.
PHOTO
Left
to right: Dr. Maria Sonevytsky, Eva Salina-Primack, Willa Roberts