Guests

Congress.

"We have eye and hart for the common humanity in all of the songs and we see in that the possibility to create a bridge to other nations and cultures."

This are words from Sepp Gregor.

My nationality is Dutch. Born close to Amsterdam. I moved to Belgium in 1976 with my husband and two sons. Spend nearly 5 years in Moscow between 1996 and 2000 and 4 years in Sarajevo. Since Januari 2005 I am back in my house in Belgium.

I am here now because the organizer of this congress has asked me to tell you about a choir:

The singing Bridge, this is a translation from the original name Die Klingende Brucke.

After the Second World War Sepp Gregor (1903-1987) a filoloque from Wienna was in Germany in a warprison with people from different countries. He was surprised that in the awful circumstances the men still song there folksongs.

Sepp brought the singers together and they started to learn each others songs.

After he was released he wanted to go on and founded " Die Klingende Brucke" in 1949 in Essen in Germany.

Sepp started to collect songs from all over Europe and he categorized them so they could easily be recognized: All the songs from the Roman languages are red, the Slavonic green etc.

And the songs are numbered.

Family and friends of people who were singing in this Klingende Brucke liked this idea so much so they started another group and another one... and so on.

They even went outside Germany.

One day, Veerle Deleyn, a Belgian lady was thrilled by the performance of one of these German groups. That's why she and her husband, who is an opera singer, together with other family members started their own group in Kortenberg, in Belgium.

One year later I joined that group. Ones a month we came together in the house of her parents with around 20 members. Now adays there are 4 groups, together more then 100 members.

There are two important rules for joining one of the groups;

1 You like to sing, being a professional is absolutely not necessary

2 You listen to the explanation of the song, the contents and of course the historical background.... And now we get the most important rule. History can hardly be seen without a political view... But politics never will be discussed. We all accept the borders of the European countries as they are now and not as they were before.

For instance; there is a Slovakian song also written in Hungarian, from a historic point of view very logic while Slovakia was in earlier times a part of the large Hungarian Empire. But the Slovakian member of our Belgian group has different feelings about this than I have. So we have to understand and accept each other.

Nowadays there are choirs in Germany, Belgium and France.

Once a year the choirs come together for a weekend, for example in Bonn or Vaalbeek

(Belgium). Besides these weekends a one week together will be organized every year.

Our Belgium groups ( 4 ) gather once months to sing the folksongs. We learn about 5 new songs a night and are accompanied by our conductor Mister Mik DeBoes, who plays either the guitar or the piano.

Veerle Deleyn does all the research about the songs; time of origin, composer, poet, from with region, meaning and pronunciation of the words. If possible she brings a cd with the song or alone with the text spoken by somebody of that region, or country.

The choice of the songs for one evening is based upon the time of the year, like spring gives flowers, or upon a common theme in songs from different regions/countries.

A common theme could be the use of a cloth; handkerchief, veil, fichu, shawl, or apron:

• My first song was: "Il Mendili" ( Turkish no 387): A white apron without a spot or grease, snow white, stands for purity and virginity.
• In " Mar Minalunk"( Hungarian no 1261). the girls are not picking the cerise's and put them in their baskets..., NO WAY! The boys do clime into the cherry- tree and shake the branches and the girls are standing under the tress and catching the cerise's in their aprons. This song shows the role of the boy, strong and the girl waiting.
• In " Louceni"( Tjech no 464) sings about a farewell between a girl ( panenka= virgin girl) and a boy:" When we say good bye to each other, we dries our tears with a white handkerchief.
• In 'Ej skoda t'a sohajku"( Moravie no 998) a boy, who didn't want to go to his girlfriend sings "When I come, you will dry your tears with a red handkerchief"

Later they found a variant and the handkerchief is white.

Every choir exists of different nationalities, like myself. Dutch member of a Belgium group. In this case there are little differences. We are neighbors and our languages are quite alike. Up till the Middle Ages it was the same. It starts to become more interesting when you have, like we do, a member from Latvia. She organized a tour in Latvia set up meetings with local choirs and people who listened to us and than started to sing their own songs.

Trips to Hung aria, Romania, Ecuador followed and in April 2003 we went to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Where I lived since December 2000.

Just two month before this trip. I was able to start an international choir in Sarajevo consisting of some Bosnian friends and members of the international women's club Sarajevo. Our first Conductor Maho came from Tiblisi, now they have a conductor from Sarajevo. The members are from Bosnian and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, England, Vietnam, The Netherlands (not me), Belgium.

So, when the Singing Bridge came to Bosnia I Herzegovina the two groups met and we all had a wonderful time singing, eating Bosnian food and drinks.

We had a guided tour through Sarajevo and a meeting with Pontanima. There ideas are the same. Make a bridge between the groups with different religion background.

They are professional and I already knew them from their performance in Dom Armije.

We had a performance in Gorazde and Ustikolina together with culture groups from that area, we sang and folk-danced. Dance and music unites; this was quite clear also when we played in a home for elderly people.

They listened to our songs from different countries, but once we started to sing "Kad ja podoh, or Sinoc ja I moja kona" they became very enthusiastic.

For me a very rewarding moment was when I spoke to one of the elderly ladies, she is 100 years old: when I asked her if she liked singing, she said yes and started to sing some songs of the Koran, the only thing she remembers nowadays.

By singing at different restaurants where we had diner we were surprised by the spontaneous reactions of people; they started to sing too.

We had in the synagogue a performance together with a ladies-choir from Dobrinja and the Bascarsija KUD.

Our group was very pleased by meeting so many people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, young and old ", who know their own folksongs and Sevdalinka's so well.

By visiting the bridge in Gorazde and its " underbridge, the tunnel in Sarajevo, the bridge in Visegrad and also the one in Mostar, we realized so well the meaning of the word BRIDGE.

They truly unite.