Blessings Of Light

In this episode, our friend Jen Morris takes over the role of interviewer. She speaks with Briget Boyle, vocal coach and singer with Balkan Women's ensemble @kitka, bringing the west coast USA perspective to ‘Voices of the Ancestors’.

They chat about:-
working with powerful female teachers like Tamar Buadze, in Georgia and Svetlana Spajić in Serbia.
How to sing ‘folk music’ from a grounded, rooted place in your own landscape.
Briget’s insight into what ‘Voices of the Ancestors’ means for her, describing three types of ancestors - genetic, spiritual and ‘humanity’.

Briget shares experiences with Georgian songs in Temple of Light Choir directed by Kristine Barrett (a sort of Kitka community choir) and in True Life Trio. Jen shares experiences of her Georgian choir ‘onefourfive’ and Seattle's balkan women's ensemble @Dunava
 
Donate to help tell more women's stories:-
https://ko-fi.com/voicesoftheancestors
https://www.patreon.com/voicesoftheancestors

Join our community facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/516207299354485

Sign up for our email updates and never miss an episode: eepurl.com/hhgoOf
Searchable transcript, available here voicesoftheancestors.co.uk/transcripts.

Music:
Mother, Moon,/  It Will Never Again Be What it Was, / and Love from True Life Trio’s album “Like Never, Like Always”. 
Shen Khar Venakhi, from Kitka’s album “The Vine”,
Mokle Mravalzhamier from Ensemble Zedashe’s album “Our Earth and Water” 
Tamar Buadze and Teona Kutsia sing a mashup of a Spanish song and Laz song, simply titled Espanur-Laz, which is available on YouTube. 
Ukrainian folk song Vdova, sung by Ukrainian ensemble Drevo.
Serbian Medley, from Dunava’s album Behind the Veil. 
Bedinera from the CD: Teach Yourself Megrelian Songs, by Polikarpe in a trio. 
Žegar Polye, or Žegar Field Feeds My Lamb, from Svetlana Spajić.

Singing Landscapes, from Georgia to the Balkans with Briget Boyle

Gentle tune to calm the brain with, inspired by late night seed planting. Tuck yourself under a blanket of soil and water thoroughly with a cup of tea.

Ford Collier & Sarah Heneghan on percussion.

sprouting

This is a compilation of snippets of 8 songs from my new songbook - Songs of Courage and Grace. 

The songbook has 11 songs for unaccompanied voices in harmony. For choirs and fires, and protests, and life celebrations. 
Available from my website. www.emilysinging.com

Songs Of Courage And Grace - 8 song snippets

This tune is a reminder and a plea. Our current economic climate doesn't make it easy for all to step outside and breathe, take notice of the small things and reliece the pressures that exist in our individual worlds. How wild swimming and standing by trees can regulate our vagus nerve, grounding us in our nervous system allowing us to connect with each other, relax. So it's a reminder, that even if accesss is hard, and housing is hard, and everything is hard, get a bit of fresh air, fresh water, when you can, find a plant, even in the most concrete of landscapes there is always a bit of life.

Opening with a variation on the Georgian folk song 'ბინდისფერია სოფელი' Bindisperia Sopeli taught to me by @nino.naneishvili
Part of the lyrics translates as -
The color of the world is twilight, and is getting darker. In an age where it is easier to imagine dystopia than a hopeful future this song really touched on some of what I was feeling whilst writing 'staring at the grain'.


Lyrics -
Slate and grass and water running fast and o’er over hill,
Over hill and to the lake here there will find the freshest fill,

Undulating mountains pasture slowly beginning to fade,
Hoping that the life clings on here even in the summer’s shade,

Our trees are arteries and our trees are arteries

Twigs and leaf and bark are witness
To the drowning of the hill
Over copse and to the vale here
We won’t find the waters still, mmm...

Beckoning the forest shelters
Axed and planed and sawn in shape
Sweep away last cherry stones
Burn humble hope in fire place

Our trees are arteries and our trees are arteries

Cos nothing cures delirium like staring at the grain the tiny knotted faces help the trees to explain about their life before the plank, the twisted beech and straightened ash

staring at the grain

to give is an exploration of the inner reaches of the chronic people-pleaser; a passage into the vulnerabilities of giving and receiving through the lens of meditative and brooding piano. this was originally written as a christmas gift when refelcting on the inadequacy of materialism to communicate through the complexity of intimacy.

this piece is for gentlethems, soft bois, and lovers returning home from work and wondering whether to answer the call; to lay side by side and bare all; a soundtrack for the lifelong work of relating to one another.

to give

These are the parts for the Apple Wassail traditionally sung on 12th night to encourage a frutiful new year.  This year due to Covid we will be marking the celebration on zoom.  For more info visit: https://www.facebook.com/groups/432904136767441/

1 Apple Wassail Main Melody(middle)

Folk music podcast transporting you to the Republic of Georgia. Bringing songs and stories from women singers. Hosted by Holly Taylor-Zuntz and Susan Thompson.

Singing Landscapes, from Georgia to the Balkans with Briget Boyle

VoicesoftheAncestors

Related tracks