Musical Muse: Connections

The Exchange:  A 600 plus page semi-romantic Victorian-era tale of how the Pākehā settled the South Island of the Land of the Long White Cloud for 3 bottles of Gallic juices from Burgundy, Beaujolais and Languedoc. 

 

Languedoc: The land of troubadours (male) and the trobairitz (female) during the High Middle Ages (1100 - 1350 CE) in Occitania (present day Southern France & part of Spain).

 

Occitania:  It is not a country, but a medieval term used to group a language, culture and cuisine together of people that lived all along the Mediterranean Sea in the south of France as far east as Nico (modern day Nice) to Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast, north to Limousin and into Spain to the mouth of the Ebro River south of Barsino (Barcelona) and modern day Catalunya.



 

Barcelona: The Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra (BGKO) was a musical project of international, modern day troubadours and trobairitz. The group were:

Sandra Sangiao (Vocals - Catalunya)

Robindro Nikolic (Clarinet - Serbia/India)

Mattia Schirosa (Accordeon - Italy)

Julien Chanal (Guitar - France)

Stelios Togias (Percussion - Greece)

Ivan Kovacevic (Double Bass - Serbia)

and sometimes, Vroni Schnattinger (Violin - Germany)

 

Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania: The area where the Roma, a people without a country, came from. This song, Djelem Djelem, is a tribute to one of the greatest Romani songs and was adopted as the Romani national anthem in 1971.