DIALOGOS ENSEMBLE – Heretical Angels: Rituals and popular beliefs of medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina | Mvsica Medievale

Here is a truly original repertoire that the world of medieval music lovers really needed! A selection of ancient music originating from Bosnia Herzegovina, curated by the illustrious Dialogos ensemble led by Katarina Livljanić who conducts musicians of the caliber of Albrecht Maurer and Norbert Rodenkirchen. Ensemble Dialogos in this work is supported by the ensemble Kantaduri directed by the Croatian ethnomusicologist, composer, music pedagogue and conductor Joško Ćaleta.

The idea for the creation of this program came as I was reading an inscription from an ancient Bosnian tombstone: Kadi htih biti, tgdi ne bih (When I wanted to be, I couldn’t). Reading the inscription, my thoughts wandered to the anonymous voices we read about, thirty years ago during the ex-Yugoslav war, voices belonging to people who wanted to exist, but couldn’t. I therefore decided to allow the voices captured in tombstones to speak again and create a new program based on their words. Research took me further to Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian manuscripts in which remnants of pagan beliefs are often infused in the Christian context.

One of the most valuable texts of the Bosnian Church is surely the Miscellany of Radosav, written in the 15th century in Cyrillic script (our program includes several passages from that source: part of the Book of Revelation, a prologue to the Gospel of John following a ritual of birth, The Lord’s Prayer, and finally a short epilogue in which the scribe reveals his name). I had to create a script by intertwining motifs, vows, exorcisms, tombstone inscriptions (which I positioned as short commentaries, like an Antique choir), refined meditations (Why did the Lord create this world, poetic vision of cosmogony derived from Bosnian Krstjani). While patiently putting together the pieces of a new mosaic based on ancient texts, a dominant theme started appearing: the program built around the rites of birth and death, with their reflections in visions of the world’s creation and its end.

1 Si Kamin 2 Glava Hr’stova 3 Iskoni Bje Slovo 4 Zašto Gospod Bog Satvori Sai Sviet? 5 A Se Leži Bratmio 6 Zaklinam Tebe, Prinecisti Dusce 7 Koli Že Krešten Ne Budet 8 Oče Naš 9 Kad Se Duša S Tilom Dili 10 O Gospojo Uzvišena 11 I Znamenie Velie 12 Braćo, Brata Sprovodimo 13 Glas Veliki Trublje Ove 14 Dan Od Gnjiva 15 Pisma Od Tašte Slave 16 Bože, Davno Ti Sam Legao 17 Stah, Boga Moleći 18 Si Knigi Piše Radosav Krstienin

Dialogos Katarina Livljanić – voice, direction Albrecht Maurer – fiddle, rebec Norbert Rodenkirchen – flutes

Kantaduri Joško Ćaleta – voice, direction Nikola Damjanović – voice Srećko Damjanović – voice Jure Miloš – voice, gusle, dvojnice Tonko Podrug – voice Milivoj Rilov – voice