Dumy, fado and salsa on the bill in Montreal (10/21/01)

Dumy, fado and salsa on the bill in Montreal

by Dr. Christine Sochocky

MONTREAL - The department of ethnomusicology at the Université de Montréal hosted a most unusual and captivating concert, featuring Victor Mishalow, Filipe Batista and Carlos Placeres in a concert program offering three distinct musical traditions: the bandura and dumy, the Portuguese guitar and fado, and the Cuban troubadour tradition and salsa.

The concert, which was held September 28 in the Salle Claude-Champagne, was organized by Department Director Dr. Monique Desroches. It was recorded by Radio Canada for future transmission.

The concert was preceded by an informative presentation by each of the performers on the particular instrument and musical genre featured in the concert program. Concurrently, an exhibit from the university's collection of rare ethnic instruments was presented in the foyer of the auditorium.

Maestro Mishalow, a native of Sydney, Australia, was introduced to the audience by Dr. Claudette Berthiaume-Zavada, a French-Canadian scholar at the department's Research Laboratory of Music of the World, who also acted as translator into French of the dumy that were performed.

Maestro Mishalow established himself as a bandurist of note in the West through concert tours in North America in the 1980s, as well as solo appearances with the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus. He graduated from the University of Sydney and furthered his studies at the Kyiv Conservatory. He has several recordings to his credit featuring traditional, classical and original works, and is author of numerous articles on the history of the bandura.

During the concert Maestro Mishalow performed "Duma of the Poor Widow and Her Three Sons," which belongs to the older cycle of dumas, characterized by a lyrical quality, mournful tone and profound moral insight; "Marusia Bohuslavka," which belongs to the cycle of dumas that deal with the struggle with the Tatars and Turks, in this instance, with Turkish captivity; and "The Captives: the Market in Kaffa" by composer and modernist writer Hnat Khotkevych (1877-1938), who throughout his life worked at perfecting the art of bandura-playing. Maestro Mishalow's selections were chosen to indicate the various possibilities of the bandura as a solo instrument.

For his part, Mr. Batista spoke of the Portuguese fado, the haunting songs of destiny, love and death which, having evolved from a type of popular song initially associated with the element of dance, interweaves verbal dialogue with the guitar.

The fados were performed by Mr. Batista and two other singers, dressed in the long black capes traditionally worn by the students of the University of Coimbra - a major center of fado since the end of the 19th century - who are among its most enthusiastic propagators.

Mr. Placeres spoke of salsa, a popular form of Latin-American dance music, characterized by Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Cuban big-band dance melodies, and elements of jazz and rock. In focusing on Cuban salsa in the general context of modern troubadourism, Mr. Placeres brought to light the surprising links and influences with Senegalese music which it reveals.

The Cuban salsa, featured in the second part of the program, signaled a distinct change of atmosphere marked by a dynamics and vibrancy that directly engages the listener in its rhythms.

Mr. Placeres was joined in performance by the Senegalese artist Youssou Seck.

* * *

At the concert the bandura was introduced to the audience as an instrument of wandering bards, very often blind men, known as kobzars, who originally composed and performed their own lyric-epic historical songs (dumy) in the recitative style and later added songs of various other genres to their repertoires, which were passed on to others.

Bandurists were the keepers of the collective memory and the national consciousness of the people. They were persecuted by the Soviet regime, as they had been in the tsarist period, and the art began to wane. In the 1930s many renowned bandurists were repressed and deported, and some were executed. In the early 20th century bandura playing revived and was actively persued on both the amateur and professional levels.

The Ukrainian contribution to the concert may be credited to Dr. Berthiaume-Zavada. Her doctoral thesis dealt with this general theme, focusing on the study of music as an important factor in forging and maintaining the collective identity of the Ukrainian people.

This French-Canadian scholar chose to write about Ukrainian music. Perhaps she was influenced by her husband, Juriy. Perhaps this was a gift to her two sons, Ivan and Roman.

Whatever her reasons, the concert was another gesture she has made to make Ukrainian music known and appreciated.

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