KOLIADA: Winter Songs and Music from the Carpathians
CD from Yara Arts Group, 2012.

Koliada is a winter  ritual that now coincides with Christmas, but long pre-dates it in some parts of Eastern Europe. High in the Carpathian Mountains, in the Hutsul villages where the oldest songs are preserved, Koliada is considered to be the most important event of the year. Spring and the harvest will not come unless the songs are sung in every household. This recording also features brilliant instrumental music from the Carpathian Mountains.

1 Trembita
2 Winter Ritual Dance
3 “Is the Master Home?”
4 Greeting the Guests
5 “Bright Star,” koliada to the lady of the house
6 Tylynka
7 “Still the River Flows”
8 Jaw Harps
9 “Arkan,” men’s dance
10 “Shaker,” dance tune
11 “Polka,” tsymbaly
12 “Hutsulka,” dance tune
13 Ritual Round Dance for Bees
14 “Taking Leave”
15 Trembita

Instruments: The trembita (mountain horn) is made of a hollowed pine tree that has been struck by lightning and wrapped in birch bark. Fiddles for the Koliada are played in a special tuning. The musicians also play the duda (bagpipes made from a goat), tsymbaly (hammer dulcimer), drymby (jaw harps) and a variety of hand-made Carpathian flutes, including the tylynka.

Mykola Ilyuk - master fiddler
Olena Kostyuk - drum
Ostap Kostyuk - duda and flutes
Vasyl Tymchuk - tsymbaly
Ivan Zelenchuk - vocals

Produced by Koliada musicians and Yara Arts Group, with financial assistance from the Global Commitment Foundation. © Koliada musicians and Yara Arts Group, 2012. Recorded by Bohdan Stefura at Melos Studio, Lviv Graphic design by K.kava (Klyuzko KA & VA) www.brama.com/yara

Available on compact disk -- CD

To purchase CD: Make check out to: Yara Arts Group for $15, plus $5 shipping
Send to: Yara Arts Group, 306 E 11th St. #3B, New York, NY 10003 USA

for more information on CD or the Koliada write to us at yara@prodigy.net.