Sudbina

I met the amazing Anna Breger several years back, just before the Covid 19 pandemic. We were sitting near each other at a concert and started chatting. We stayed in touch and when Anna was back in town in early 2024, we met again and worked on a couple of traditional Serbian songs together. Anna is both a superb musician and a superb scientist. I was in awe of Anna’s mastery of the nyckelharpa and fell in love with her beautiful tone and her exquisite playing. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with her.

One of the songs we recorded is Sudbina (Fate), our take on a traditional Serbian song, Life Doesn't Last Long. I discovered it in the second volume of Franjo Ksaver Kuhač’s collection of South Slavic folk songs (“Južno-slovjenske narodne popievke”), where it is found as a song with a piano accompaniment. Franjo Kuhač quotes “Zabavna pesmarica" by Jeremija Obradović Karadžić as a source for this song. We lifted the melody, and Anna created her own accompaniment on nyckelharpa. Anna’s inspired and hauntingly beautiful playing brings so much life into this poignant song. The poem consists of 9 verses, of which we selected six.

We recorded it at Q Division Studios in January 2024. It was engineered, mixed and mastered by Joel Edinberg. Cover photo is by Kira Johnson. It's available for streaming on Amazon, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all the other platforms.

Originally from Austria, Anna Breger is a multi-instrumentalist, creating music with nyckelharpa and (baroque) violin based on her expertise in Folk, early music and improvisational music. She conducts projects that are specializing in traditional or early music, or going a step further and arranging it with modern elements, as well as creating and writing completely new music and tonal experiments. She has been conducting many interdisciplinary art projects, with dance of various kinds as well as music and literature. She collaborates with many musicians on both sides of the Atlantic.

Život ne traje dugo
Koliko je od zore do crnoga mraka,
Toliko je do groba od prvoga zraka.

Čim se čovek obazre sunce je već selo,
Već je vreme večnoga spavanja prispelo.

Danas dete igralo po proletnom cveću,
Sutra vidiš goreću samrtnu mu sveću.

Rano venac devojka ljubezniku vije,
Pri večernoj rosi je crna zemlja krije.

Šalimo se vesel'mo oko čaše vina,
Život ovaj ne traje hiljadu godina.

Bridge, brate, zbacimo, žalosti se man'mo,
Omrknimo s svirkama, s pesmama osvan’mo.

Life doesn't last long
As far it is from dawn to black darkness,
it is as far to the grave from the first ray.

As soon as one looks back, the sun has already set,
And the time of eternal sleep has already arrived.

Today a child plays among the spring flowers,
Tomorrow you see his death candle burning.

At first light a maiden makes a flower wreath for her lover,
In the evening dew black dirt covers her.

Let’s have fun and rejoice around a glass of wine,
This life doesn’t last a thousand years.

Cast away your worries my brother, avoid your sorrows,
Let us end our days with music, and rise up with songs.