Verbum

Old tunes played on long-forgotten instruments, and ancient words of languages that haven’t been spoken for ages, take you into Belarusian mediaeval towns and castles, where you can hear peoples’ voices at the town square, court balls hubbub, sad ballads, and sublime poems.

The CD presents excerpts from avital chefs-d’oeuvre of Belarusian written records, such as the Lay of Igor’s Warfare (in Old Slavonic; gusli; 12th c.; anonymous author), the Song of the Wisent (in Latin; lute; 1522; Mikalaj Husoŭski), the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in Old Belarusian; bagpipe; 1588; Astafij Valovič, Lieŭ Sapieha), and Pan Tadeusz (in Polish; hurdy-gurdy; 1834; Adam Mickiewicz), along with the 16th c. Belarusian music – works by Wojciech Długoraj and the Krakow Royal Library Holography. Part of the album consists of mediaeval dances concert versions with the unwonted combinations of ancient instruments such as lute and bagpipe, gusli and monochord, jew’s-harp and mandolin, bagpipe and gusli, gusli and lute, and many others.