Lazar’s Curse - Epic Slavic Music of Serbia

Music & vocals by Farya Faraji. This is a composition based the Kosovo Curse, or Prince’s Curse, attributed in legend to Lazar Hrebeljanović, a medieval Serbian ruler who went to war against the Ottomans in the now legendary Battle of Kosovo in 1389. In the legend, Lazar curses all those of Serbian blood who do not come to the Battle of Kosovo to a curse that will affect their lineage hence. The current version of the curse is from a 1845 collection of Serbian folk songs collected by Vuk Karadžić, a Serbian anthropologist and philologist. The music is written in a typical Serbian form which is itself characterised by the broader characteristics of Balkan music: an odd time signature in seven time, drone harmony that emphasises seconds, something very harsh and dissonant in Western European music theory but enjoyed in Serbia, and a 17th to 19th century instrumentation based on the usage of saz instruments, the kaval, a Balkan bagpipe and frame drums. The instrument that begins and closes the song is the gusle, a bowed instrument which is central to the recitation of Serbian epic poetry. Lyrics in Serbian: Ко је Србин и српскога рода, и од српске крви и колена а не дош’о на бој на Косово Од руке му ништа не родило English translation: Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth, And of Serb blood and heritage, And comes not to fight at Kosovo, May nothing grow that his hand sows!