Zgübleni -
Vito Žuraj
As an artistic reply to the work Folksongs by the late Luciano Berio, Zgübleni ttingly represents the fruits of my own immersion in the folk music of my native Slovenia. I took an especial ethnomusicological interest in the music of the Prlekija region in the northeast of the country, noting that many seemingly simple melodic strains required a highly complex rhythmic notation, since the singers would interpret them according to an innate feeling, rather than the strictures of a systematic musical discipline.
For the basis of my own composition, I restricted myself to three songs, which I then had recorded by the Mongolian throatsinger Enkhjargal Dandarvaanchig. ese recorded samples are to be found within the composition, in both unadulterated and heavily processed forms. The Slovenian language contains a wealth of tongue-twisting consonant blends, which to my astonishment seemed to present no real difficulty to the Mongolian singer, who read the entirety almost awlessly at first sight, despite being unable to understand a blessed thing. The text sung by the mezzosoprano is a fusion of two separate song texts.
Sometimes, artists find themselves in search of a universally understandable mode of speech. In the work Zgübleni, my own mother tongue is transformed with the aid of heavy electronic manipulation into an almost abstract collection of phonemes, a mode of speech that nobody can understand. The work's title is in part a reference to this, meaning "the lost" in the dialect of the Prlekija region.
Vito Žuraj
Zgübleni
Text based on a Slovenian folk song from the Prlekija region
Ta smrt ne straši se,
bo šlo f te mrzli grob.
Gdaj bo polela mrtvaška nas rosa,
tedaj bo življenje odrezala kosa.
Tedaj nam, Marija, daj večno luč v roke,
svetla nam bodo nebesa visoke!
Si stari ali mlad -
Gdaj te peljale ve k maši otroke,
lepo nedolžno naj dvignejo roke!
Kažte jim angelce ino Marijo,
kažte jim sveče, kak lepo gorijo,
- tè ne boš zgübleni.
Štirideset dni od božiča preteče,
tedaj postava od Mojzesa reče,
naj se v Jeruzalem templ približa,
se pred gospodom praf lepo poniža.
Toto luč vidijo stari in mladi,
fsak dan se svejti tam gori na oltari.
Nihče ne more si nebesa odprejti,
kteri si s toto svetlobo ne svejti!
Ta smrt se ide ta,
di so mala dečica,
no jih odzeme proč,
ne zbrani jih staršof joč.
Svečenska ljuba Marija in mati,
ti si nas htejla sem v hišo pozvati,
naj bi zapejle, kak f tempel potuješ,
svojega otroka Gospodu daruješ.
Svečenska ljuba Marija in mati!
So tak kak rožice nedolžnega srca,
morejo it z menoj, prhneti pod zemljoj.
Fse more it z menoj,
in f prah se spremenit,
veliki, mladi, fsi,
visoki, nisoki, cesari, krali fsi,
papeži, mešniki, device cartane,
s soboj zamen fse.
Bodi pripravleni,
te ne boš zgübleni!
tè bo ti lehka smrt
in sveti sveti raj odprt!
Fse naj se žalosti,
stari in mladi fsi,
če praf premislimo
to smrt nesmiselno.
Si stari ali mlad,
bogat al siromak,
fürst, grof ali soldat,
ta smrt te pride klat.