The Land of Roses – Bulgarian Folk Songs

In 2001, the six vocalists of the Vocal Society GLAS came together by a shared love and admiration for the vocal music of Bulgaria and the diversity of unique vocal timbres of the country’s different regions. Since then, they have performed hundreds of concerts in Denmark and Europe, enthralling audiences and critics alike.

This concert is a collection of the most popular Bulgarian traditional songs by the country’s greatest composers, combined with folkloric stories from Bulgaria, narrated during the concert by the members of the Vocal Society GLAS.

It is in the so-called Rose Valley in the south of Bulgaria, the rare ‘Rosa Damascena’ grows which is the essence of Bulgarian rose oil that is considered to be the finest in the world. Through the imagery of the legendary rose, a mountainrange, and a young woman in love, a depiction of a romantic, yet tough past takes shape

Two songs, one love

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After many years of working with Bulgarian folk music, the singers of GLAS Vocal Ensemble had a wish to adapt some of their own Nordic repertoire to this specific vocal expression, which they consider their second native language. Five well-known Nordic composers, Henrik Ødegaard, Mats Edén, Emmi Kujanpäa, Arne Dich and Pauli Í Sandager∂i, were thus invited to be inspired by the sound and harmonious structures of Bulgarian folk music. The result is a series of brand new arrangements of Northern European folk songs with a Bulgarian twist. The program “Two songs, one love” is a fusion of innovative Nordic vocal music and the traditional tones of Bulgaria, which has inspired these new compositions: Two musical traditions merge in the Vocal Ensemble’s great love for both of them. Like any collection of folk songs, the vocal music from Northern Europe and Bulgaria shares a number of common themes: love and war, life and death, daily chores, and celebration of holidays. It is these big and small stories that are at the center of this program.

Nordic Folk Songs

This program combines some of the new compositions from “Two songs, one love” with more traditional Nordic folk songs. Songs originating from the homelands of GLAS’ members, sung in the traditional way.

Reaching back to all their homelands in the Nordic Region, the singers of Vokalselskabet GLAS take the listener on a journey through Nordic vocal traditions with folk songs for dance, worship, joy and grief, from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands.

Humanity and folk singing

This programme is a collection of Psalms and folk songs which describe a life’s journey from cradle to grave. From the first song “The sun rises from the Oceans womb” to the final psalm “Now, when the sun sets” the singers navigate the bigger questions of life from birth to love, parenthood, struggle, peace and finally death.
For as long as we can recount, songs have been written to make peace with and understand the existential terms of life.

The love GLAS Vocal Ensemble feel for Bulgarian songs and music, has spred to a warm and firm love for folk music in general. In this concert lecture you are invited on a journey back in time and out in the world. Differences and similarities between music cultures, in words and tones, paint a picture of what folk music is, and not least why they still exist today. A musical lecture that provides both insight and goosebumps.

The Countries that Disappeared

Nowherelands is a song cycle by Peter Danstrup written for the
vocal ensemble GLAS. Inspired by Bjorn Berge’s book ‘Nowherelands: An Atlas of Vanished Countries’, the 12 movements are jazz musician Peter Danstrup’s first a cappella work. Stylistically comprehensive
with rich harmonies and challenging rhythms this work perfectly applies to the unique style of GLAS, spiced up with indignation, enthusiasm, sarcasm and empathy.

Read more about the project at: http://peterdanstrup.com/index.php/glas/