Introduction from liner notes, in English

"There are No Finer People in the World":
Field recordings of folk songs from the Upper Savinja Valley

* Upper Savinja Valley is an area in Northern Slovenia, south of Carinthia and east of Upper Carniola, covering about 500 km2.*

The scholarly collecting of Slovene folk songs dates back to the 1770s. In 1839, Emil Korytko and Stanko Vraz published the first two collections of Slovene folk songs, but places and songs in the Upper Savinja Valley remained very poorly researched, and featured in publications until the end of the 19th century. At that time, folk songs from the Upper Savinja Valley were presented more extensively for the first time in a comprehensive collection Slovenske narodne pesmi (Slovene Folk Songs), edited by Karel Štrekelj, which was published in four installments between 1895 and 1923. Among 8,000 Slovene songs, some 69 were from various places in the Upper Savinja valley. About the same time, the Austrian education ministry endorsed the project Folk Songs in Austria and established the Committee for Collecting Slovene Folk Songs (Odbor za nabiranje slovenskih narodnih pesmi – OSNP), which operated between 1904 and 1927. During that time some 12,000 Slovene songs, including 170 (mostly with melodies) from the villages of Bočna, Ljubno and Luče in the Upper Savinja Valley, were collected by OSNP members Franc Kramar and Josip Korban.
From 1934 onwards, Slovene folk songs have been systematically collected, researched, studied and published by the Institute of Ethnomusicology SRC SASA, Ljubljana (Glasbenonarodopisni inštitut ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana – GNI). Villages in the Upper Savinja Valley were first visited by its member Tončka Marolt, who collected and made notes on 52 folk songs during her field study of dances in Luče. GNI acquired their first recording device in 1954 and soon after, in 1958, recorded 270 songs from Luče and the surrounding villages (Podveža and Podvolovljek), which to my knowledge are the first recordings of folk music from the Upper Savinja Valley. Since then, members of GNI have recorded extensively across the Upper Savinja Valley (Luče, Podveža and Podvolovljek, Solčava, Nova Štifta, Ljubno, Šmihel, Radegunda, Mozirje, Žekovec and Brezje), gathering 566 songs and 180 instrumental pieces. Some of the material (31 songs) was recorded in Luče in 1993 by the musicologist from Luče, Simona Moličnik. In addition to the mentioned material, GNI keeps in its archives various written records and smaller collections of folk songs from the Upper Savinja valley which were reported by singers themselves or by occasional amateur collectors.
This rich folk song tradition was also extensively recorded for the national radio show Slovenska zemlja v pesmi in besedi (Slovene Land in Song and Word) by Jasna Vidakovič. Since 1979, she has recorded about 97 songs and 55 instrumentals on her working visits to the Upper Savinja Valley, in the villages of Luče, Solčava, Ljubno, Konjski vrh near Luče and Šmihel. In addition, Jasna Vidakovič and the national radio participated in the production and publication of three cassettes and a CD with folk music from the valley: the cassettes Pevci iz Luč: Snočkaj sem v enem kraju biu / Singers from Luče: Last Night I Was in a Place (self-published, 1991), Visoka je gora: Solčavski godci in pevci / High Is the Mountain: Solčava folk musicians and singers (self-published, 1997), Ljudski godci z Ljubnega / Folk musicians from Ljubno (self-published, year unknown), and a double CD “Takšne ljubezni na svetu ni, kot sva jo imela jaz in ti”: glasbeno izročilo Luč ob Savinji, Slovenija / “There is no love on earth like you and me had”: musical tradition from Luče, Slovenija (published by the Municipality of Luče, 2002). With regard to this subject I must also mention a local researcher, historiographer, ethnographer and collector of folk material, Aleksander Videčnik, who, among his numerous publications, also published two books on folk music from the Upper Savinja Valley: Iz roda v rod: domači godci v Gornji Savinjski dolini / From generation to generation: local folk musicians in the Upper Savinja Valley (Nazarje: Mercator, Zgornjesavinjska kmetijska zadruga, 1991) and Zgornjesavinjčani od rojstva do smrti / People from the Upper Savinja Valley from birth to death (Mozirje : Zavod za kulturo, 1999). Both books include many folk songs (collected from many various sources), the latter also with some transcribed melodies.
The author of this text and CD has recorded folk music extensively in towns and villages across all seven municipalities of the region. I did most of the field work in 2000, 2001, 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the homes of folk singers and their relatives and friends. I recorded over one hundred folk singers and around 1,200 folk songs and tunes on MiniDisk, including 240 alpine dance quatrains (locally called zdravičke) and about 50 instrumentals (when producing and publishing this CD, I handed over the original recordings to the Institute of Ethnomusicology SRC SASA, Ljubljana for preservation and research). From the assembled material, I selected 108 examples of folk songs (including narrations) for this edition entitled Gorših ljudi na svetu ni / There are No Finer People in the World, which seek to present the folk song tradition of the Upper Savinja valley integrally, learnedly, and meaningfully. These field recordings were made outside of the primary functional context of folk songs performances, mostly because of the rare occasions for such situations and also because of the not ideal sound quality which is the result of such recording process. The songs were recorded during special recording sessions of from one to five hours of recording, singing and talking.
The title of the CD Gorših ljudi na svetu ni / There are No Finer People in the World is borrowed from the beginning of a song, the so-called “Luče anthem”, about the town of Luče and its inhabitants (see B/31). Otherwise, the words are not only about Luče people and their local pride, which says that there is no finer people in the world, but also about the inhabitants of all the towns and villages of the Upper Savinja valley, for which such local loyalty and confidence is common. This is reflected in various aspects of the social and cultural life of the people, and also through their folk music, which is more or less evident in the examples on this CD. The title also illustrates my respect, sympathy and inclination toward the people, especially toward all folk singers on the CD and to their virtue of singing and knowing so many folk songs.
This CD does not represent all forms of folk music found in the valley, but only vocal music, which is very rich and extensive. The songs on this CD originate either from the valley or they came there from other Slovenian regions and circulated and through local practices domesticated, modified and appropriated to the specific locality. They lived, and some still do, mostly in the wider social contexts of the Upper Savinja people, either in their rituals and annual customs or life cycle, or were part of their everyday life and were thus sung during and after work, at various social events and parties. Many rituals, customs and occasions here and elsewhere in Slovenia, with the advent of new and modern ways of life, either changed or died out, and with them, folk singing and songs. Only some of them are still sung at various social and entertainment occasions, or even live a “second life”, when local singers present them on stage. Other are not used any more, people have forgotten them or they have not been handed down to younger generations; but still a vast number of these “half-forgotten” songs live in the memories of many old people.
CD Gorših ljudi na svetu ni / There are No Finer People in the World includes plenty of still living and also half-forgotten folk songs, among which are some more and other less known, some very old and some younger, some very specific to the Upper Savinja Valley, and other variants of pieces known widely throughout Slovenia. The first CD contains songs exclusively related to the life cycle, while the second is more varied and moves through various thematic parts, types and genres. On both the songs range from the more jocular and bawdy to more serious, ritual, tragic and pious. Among them there are some carols and counting-based nursery rhymes, a toast, an old folk prayer and a folk tale, while all the songs are loosely connected with recordings of narrations of and conversations with some of the singers, which serve as illustrations and connections to the thematic parts of CD. Some of the recordings deliberately contain an introductory narration, an intermediary explanation of the singer or accompanying laughter, which should draw the listener closer to the atmosphere of the relaxed recording sessions and thus serve as valuable additional information.
The selection of songs was made with regard to content and formal criteria and also to the many ethnomusicological, textual and sociological characteristics and particularities of material, and considering a balance between male and female singers and local diversity. Although Slovenian folk singing is mostly multipart (except in the case of alpine dance quatrains, various folk musician’s songs, lullabies and other exceptions), the songs on the CD are often sung in one or two part harmony, mostly because the other singers did not know the song or simply because there were just one or two singers at the session. Folk singing was traditionally performed without instrumental accompaniment, while in the Upper Savinja Valley, mostly in the last few decades, folk singing has often been accompanied by accordion, which can also be heard on some examples on the CD.
Many songs on this CD have an interesting verse or musical structure, which often testifies to their relative old age. Four-tone (see A/41 in B/46) and five-tone (see A/2, A/23, A/39, A/40, B/7, B/8, B/26, B/29, B/38, B/41, B/49 and B/52) melodies of some songs are often used in children's or older songs. Older Slovenian folk songs are characterized by 5/4 or 5/8 rhythm (see A/13, A/16, A/18, A/23, A/26, A/47 and B/3) which can be made even more complex (see A/34, B/17, B/25 and B/30). The number of verses or lines in the strophe indicate the approximate age of the folk song, as non-strophic songs are the oldest, followed by one-line (see A/39, B/10 and B/52) and also two-line strophe songs (see A/3, A/16, A/23, A/47, A/50, A/51, B/7 and B/9; two line strophe songs with refrain: A/9, B/12 and B/22).
I would also like to emphasize a few seeming weaknesses of some songs and the technical nature of recordings. Some of the songs are not recorded in their complete form, either because the singer(s) forgot part of the lyrics or already learned them as such. There are also some instances of songs which are sung in not so clearly harmonious manner or there is a minor error or halt during the singing. The mainly older singers do not sing so much these days, so their voices or their memories are understandably a little weaker, but that should not diminish the value of their singing or recorded songs. Some, in spite of the small performance or technical insufficiencies, because of their other peculiarities and of their ethnomusicological value are nevertheless included in the selection. Moreover, field recording of folk songs rarely offers optimal conditions, so the microphone often registered other sounds and noises from the surroundings or there are some inevitable minor technical faults.
Finally, I would like to invite all the folk singers whom I could not record, or their relatives and friends, to contact me if they feel they could contribute to the preservation of folk music in the Upper Savinja Valley. I would come to record the songs in their homes. I am aware that there are many more people who sing well and know a lot of interesting, old and half-forgotten folk songs which would be worth recording and preserving for future generations to hear, if not to sing.
And finally, I would like to thank sincerely all those – still living or unfortunately some already dead singers – who were ready to accept me in their homes and to sing for me and thus help record and document numerous songs. With their important contribution, they helped preserve part of the valuable music tradition of the Upper Savinja Valley. This CD is dedicated to all of them!

David Verbuč