“Elenko, mome mori ubavo” is a true gem from the North Macedonian tradition. It unfolds in a dreamy ⅞ rhythmic pattern with a poignant stop at the end of the first iteration of the B section. The arrangement was created in collaboration with the incredibly gifted Shira Kammen, who helped me remake this song.
Elena, a young woman, is weeping, and a speaker asks why. While the speaker initially assumes that she mourns her family members, Elena responds that her sorrow comes from longing for her beloved, who now lives in a foreign land. She begs the speaker to let her be, as there is no cure for her wounded heart.
One can imagine that Elena’s beloved is either gone abroad for seasonal work (pečalba) and perhaps settled in the host country, or that he left after the failed uprising of 1903, when many young men fled to the other parts of Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, Russia, the United States and Canada.
Elenko was recorded by Rafi Sofer and Joel Edinberg, mixed and mastered by Joel Edinberg. It's available for purchase on Bandcamp, and streaming on Deezer, Apple, Tidal, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, Qobuz, and all the other streaming platforms.
Multi-instrumentalist and occasional vocalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. Raised by a violinist mom and a scientist dad who was a serious amateur singer, Kammen studied music at the University of California at Berkeley. Across her career she has performed and recorded with countless early-music ensembles and coached countless players in workshops around the country. She is particularly renowned for her skill as an improviser, something she first contemplated as a young player when she realized that not every recording of the same piece sounded the same. She gives credit to her mentor, vielle player Margriet Tindemans, for encouraging her to develop her improvisatory skills.
A Star in the Medieval Firmament
Elenko
Elenko, mome mori, ubavo,
zošto solzi roniš mome, em plačeš?
Dal, majka žališ, mome, il’ tatko,
Il’ za tvojte braќa, sestro, komiti?
Nemoj, bre, ludo, ne me jadosuj,
i na srce rana ne mi zadevaj,
oti za mojta rana lek nema.
Nit’ majka žalam, ludo, nit’ tatko,
tuku si go žalam, ludo, libeto.
Libeto mi e, ludo, v’ tugjina.
Elenko
Elenko, pretty maiden,
Why are tears rolling down your face, why are you weeping?
Are you grieving, maiden, for your mother, or for your father,
or for your brothers, the resistance fighters?
Do not make me more miserable, you crazy lad
do not jab at my wounded heart,
as there is no cure for my wounded heart.
Neither am I grieving for my mother, you crazy lad, nor for my father,,
but I am grieving for my beloved.
My beloved is, you crazy lad, in a foreign land.