KITKA: D-oi roagă
Kitka’s Daily Wintersongs Offering for December 17, 2020
A Transylvanian Winter Carol
Recorded on the album EVENING STAR, available from http://www.kitka.org/shop
Digital downloads available from: https://kitka.bandcamp.com/
D-OI ROAGĂ
Transylvania, Romania, arranged by Peter Simcich
This colindă (carol), is one of many collected by Béla Bártok in Transylvania around 1909. Bártok set it for piano in his 1915 collection, Romanian Christmas Carols. Kitka’s dear friend Peter Simcich created a sparkling choral arrangement of the original melody and invented a laudatory refrain to complement it.
Learn more about Peter at http://smnpress.com/about-us/.
“The young bridegroom prays on the mountain, hoping to stir the quiet wind up.
The wind blows over the mountaintop, through the sheltered spots, through the stony valley.
At the mossy boulder, it stirs the green-leaved bramble and flushes out the sorrel stag.
The stag, turns to the youth and says:
‘Hold on, hold on, don’t be too hasty! Instead, come along with me.
I’ll take you down to the river Jordan, and there we’ll meet nine other ashen-hued stags.
You can kill all ten of us, and then use our antlers to put gables on our house,
make a fence with our ribs, roof your house with our hides,
and paint the house with our blood.’
Refrain: Praise the Lord God Almighty!”
Performed by Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble: Kelly Atkins, Caitlin Tabancay Austin, Natalie Bartlett, Barbara Byers, Shira Cion, Erin Lashnits Herman, Janet Kutulas, Michele Simon, and Corinne Sykes
Recorded by Dave Luke at Opus Studio, Berkeley, CA
Produced by Kelly Atkins, Janet Kutulas, and Kit Higginson
Mastered by Gary Hobish, A. Hammer Mastering
Heartfelt thanks to Jeffrey Beauchamp, for the enchanting illustration and animation featured in this video. Learn more about Jeffrey and his work at http://www.jeffreybeauchamp.com or on Instagram at jeffreybeauchampart
Jeffrey Beauchamp in his studio
Video edited by John Nilsen
Produced by Kelly Atkins
The production of this video was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works program.
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