In class this season we sing “Kad Ja Podjoh” a “sevdalinka” from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The song tells the tale of a young man who, carrying a small white lamb, travels to the section of Sarajevo known as Bentbaša to seek the girl he loves. Sevdalinkas, also known as “sevdahs,” are slow, rich, harmonious Bosnian songs that often tell melancholic songs of love. Traditionally, sevdalinkas were performed by women, and most often a capella. In this version I do neither.
Tag Archives | Bosnia
In Bosnia We Focus on Folk
Let’s enjoy this video of some Bosnian folk singing some Bosnian folk.
The Balkan nation now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina had been home to primarily peaceful populations of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats for centuries before the 1992 question of whether the land would become independent, which a majority of Bosniaks and Croats desired, or remain part of Yugoslavia, a move favored by most Serbs, caused it to shatter. The country is still healing, and today two essentially autonomous entities compose it — the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All Around This World celebrates music as a way of uniting people even when almost everything else tears them apart. Can’t we all enjoy this Balkan folk song from Bosnia and find some way to get along…?
A Superior Sevdah
The most beautiful Bosnian sevdah…
In class this season we sing the lovely song “Kad Ja Podjoh,” a Bosnian sevdah (sevdalinka). My version can’t hold a candle to the one in this video. Like many sevdahs, “Kad Ja Podjoh” is ancient and of unclear origin, though, also like many sevdahs in this historically multi-ethnic part of the world, it shares a melody with a song by Sephardic Jews.
