Serbian Slava
Mar 23, 07:25 PM
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"Slava is a Serbian family celebration which is unique to Serbian Orthodox Christians. For this project, I read documentation on this cultural practice, and it is a tradition that has very deep roots in the Serbian society, which are said to be pre-Christian. I am accustomed to European family celebrations like Christmas and St. Nicholas' Day (in the Netherlands), but Slava has a very different character, because it celebrates health and well-being of family members and close friend, and remembers the deceased in the family.
"There are many symbolic aspects of Slava that are hard to capture in music, like all ritual foods and the blessing and cutting of the "koljivo". However, the field recording of a Serbian Orthodox Slava service was very inspiring. Although I can't understand the words, the musical interplay between priest and choir is glorious, and from my point of view the melodies are also unique and instantly recognizable.
"As Slava is a family celebration, it is unlikely tourists can easily experience the tradition. However, the Sonic Heritage archive has the sound of a Slava celebration, which means people can somehow experience it. With some background knowledge, one can appreciate in the original recording the musical roots, the space of the church and the air moving in that space. With knowledge of the background of Slava, one can sense the feeling of community.
"In my composition, I nearly only used parts of the original recording. I apologize if it doesn't make sense anymore linguistically! The choir's responses sound glorious and melodic, and I wanted to highlight that aspect, in addition to the reverb of the church where the recording was taken. My goal was to focus on those deep chants and embellish them with adding soft chiming sounds from my synthesizer. In the piece, I used three different responses, which I also edited. The first two have a different character than the last one (to my ears), and could be interpreted as the two parts of Slava (celebrating health and remembering the deceased). The chanted responses could also be seen as a sonic interpretation of the "koljivo" that is broken into three pieces during Slava. I used parts of the chants to embellish the harmonies apparent in them, and to further highlight the rich sound of chanting in a big church. These snippets were stretched into ambient layers of harmony. In my opinion, I had to stay close to the original material, because for me, as an outsider, it is impossible to represent the celebration of Slave with material of my own."
Church interior ambience, Melenci reimagined by The Problem Belief.
———————
This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights.
Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage
"There are many symbolic aspects of Slava that are hard to capture in music, like all ritual foods and the blessing and cutting of the "koljivo". However, the field recording of a Serbian Orthodox Slava service was very inspiring. Although I can't understand the words, the musical interplay between priest and choir is glorious, and from my point of view the melodies are also unique and instantly recognizable.
"As Slava is a family celebration, it is unlikely tourists can easily experience the tradition. However, the Sonic Heritage archive has the sound of a Slava celebration, which means people can somehow experience it. With some background knowledge, one can appreciate in the original recording the musical roots, the space of the church and the air moving in that space. With knowledge of the background of Slava, one can sense the feeling of community.
"In my composition, I nearly only used parts of the original recording. I apologize if it doesn't make sense anymore linguistically! The choir's responses sound glorious and melodic, and I wanted to highlight that aspect, in addition to the reverb of the church where the recording was taken. My goal was to focus on those deep chants and embellish them with adding soft chiming sounds from my synthesizer. In the piece, I used three different responses, which I also edited. The first two have a different character than the last one (to my ears), and could be interpreted as the two parts of Slava (celebrating health and remembering the deceased). The chanted responses could also be seen as a sonic interpretation of the "koljivo" that is broken into three pieces during Slava. I used parts of the chants to embellish the harmonies apparent in them, and to further highlight the rich sound of chanting in a big church. These snippets were stretched into ambient layers of harmony. In my opinion, I had to stay close to the original material, because for me, as an outsider, it is impossible to represent the celebration of Slave with material of my own."
Church interior ambience, Melenci reimagined by The Problem Belief.
———————
This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights.
Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage