Uploaded October 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
PSAPPHA ENSEMBLE
Jessica Gillingwater - mezzo soprano
Mark Heron - conductor
Conrad Marshall - flute
Matthew Dunn - clarinet
Jenny Cox - French horn
Tim Williams - percussion
Benedict Holland & Sophie Rosa - violins
Susie Meszaros - viola
Jennifer Langridge - cello
James Manson - double bass
Learn more about Psappha: psappha.com
!Please use headphone for the best audio quality!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The war in Bosnia ended nearly a quarter of a century ago, with the tragedy of Srebrenica and worst bloodshed in Europe since the Second World War. Bosnian Voices is a cycle of songs written by normal Bosnian people, children, adults and young professionals, mostly from Srebrenica and its region, about their lives then and now. There are seven songs:
1. ANGELS was composed by a group of children from Srebrenica as part of a music theatre show created during a summer camp in Istria in July 2014. The piece begins with an evocation of Srebrenica, and the sounds of its folksongs, the call to prayer and the church bells, and then moves on to a song about the hope and joy of a new day by the seaside.
2. I DON’T KNOW was composed by the Srebrenica band Zadnji Popis (the Last Census). It is the story of how, at the beginning of the war, a group of peace-loving young rockers are listening to an LP of The Doors, and see men in uniform approaching the house. They are afraid the men have come to take them to war. In those days, refusal to join paramilitary forces meant the press-gang or a bullet in the head. The song asks what should they do? And what would YOU do?
3. TIME, LIFE AND I was written by a group of women from the Srebrenica region who were raped, and in many cases gang raped by paramilitaries during the war. None of them have received justice, acknowledgement, compensation or support. Some of them see that those who raped them are living as if nothing happened and have active profiles on social media. The song is an affirmation of the women’s dignity and resilience and their continuing search, after over 20 years, for justice.
4. THE GOLDEN SHIP was written by a group of Bosnian and Bosnian Roma children as part of a Roma musical composed at a summer camp in Rakovica in 2011. It is the story of a Roma prince who falls in love with a girl he sees in a picture brought from a distant shore. He builds a golden ship with 30 Roma musicians aboard and sets sail across the Black Sea to find her and charm her into being his bride.
5. I FEEL FREE WHEN I RIDE MY BICYCLE was written by a group of children from Srebrenica and its surrounding villages at a summer camp in Istria in August 2015. It is a song about a girl - from a returnee refugee family - who likes to ride her bicycle through the mysterious countryside around her village, through the forests, lakes and rivers, and through the landscapes of her imagination.
6. SPRINGTIME was written by the Srebrenica band Afera (The Affair). The members are from a mixture of Muslim and Serb Orthodox families. It is a kind of love song to old Yugoslavia. The musicians remember the harmony among people, the children playing in the street, the scent of lime tress in June, the old songs and a life well lived.
7. SREBRENICA was created by a group of children from the Srebrenica region who attend a children’s centre in Potocari. Before the war and the catastrophe that followed, Srebrenica was a happy town, with an Orthodox church and a Mosque a few metres apart, and a population who saw themselves first and foremost as fellow citizens and Bosnians, and thought of religion - if they were religious at all - as a private thing. After a love song to Yugoslavia, this short love song to the lovely town of Srebrenica from its children, shows that the members of a new generation, in spite of everything, have not forgotten who they are.
© Nigel Osborne
ABOUT THE COMPOSER: Nigel Osborne
Nigel Osborne studied composition at Oxford with Egon Wellesz and Kenneth Leighton, and in Warsaw with Witold Rudzinski. While in Poland, he co-founded one of the first live-electronic performing groups in Eastern Europe, and worked at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, the beginning of a special relationship with electroacoustic music which continued with residencies at IRCAM in the 1980s and many works in the live electronic medium. The core of his output, however, is ensemble music, which issued from a number of long-term collaborations: for example with the Ensemble 20jh of Vienna, with the London Sinfonietta, the Nash Ensemble, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia. Larger orchestral pieces include Sinfonia 1 for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and for the Philharmonia Orchestra The Sun of Venice.
PSAPPHA ENSEMBLE
Jessica Gillingwater - mezzo soprano
Mark Heron - conductor
Conrad Marshall - flute
Matthew Dunn - clarinet
Jenny Cox - French horn
Tim Williams - percussion
Benedict Holland & Sophie Rosa - violins
Susie Meszaros - viola
Jennifer Langridge - cello
James Manson - double bass
Learn more about Psappha: psappha.com
!Please use headphone for the best audio quality!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The war in Bosnia ended nearly a quarter of a century ago, with the tragedy of Srebrenica and worst bloodshed in Europe since the Second World War. Bosnian Voices is a cycle of songs written by normal Bosnian people, children, adults and young professionals, mostly from Srebrenica and its region, about their lives then and now. There are seven songs:
1. ANGELS was composed by a group of children from Srebrenica as part of a music theatre show created during a summer camp in Istria in July 2014. The piece begins with an evocation of Srebrenica, and the sounds of its folksongs, the call to prayer and the church bells, and then moves on to a song about the hope and joy of a new day by the seaside.
2. I DON’T KNOW was composed by the Srebrenica band Zadnji Popis (the Last Census). It is the story of how, at the beginning of the war, a group of peace-loving young rockers are listening to an LP of The Doors, and see men in uniform approaching the house. They are afraid the men have come to take them to war. In those days, refusal to join paramilitary forces meant the press-gang or a bullet in the head. The song asks what should they do? And what would YOU do?
3. TIME, LIFE AND I was written by a group of women from the Srebrenica region who were raped, and in many cases gang raped by paramilitaries during the war. None of them have received justice, acknowledgement, compensation or support. Some of them see that those who raped them are living as if nothing happened and have active profiles on social media. The song is an affirmation of the women’s dignity and resilience and their continuing search, after over 20 years, for justice.
4. THE GOLDEN SHIP was written by a group of Bosnian and Bosnian Roma children as part of a Roma musical composed at a summer camp in Rakovica in 2011. It is the story of a Roma prince who falls in love with a girl he sees in a picture brought from a distant shore. He builds a golden ship with 30 Roma musicians aboard and sets sail across the Black Sea to find her and charm her into being his bride.
5. I FEEL FREE WHEN I RIDE MY BICYCLE was written by a group of children from Srebrenica and its surrounding villages at a summer camp in Istria in August 2015. It is a song about a girl - from a returnee refugee family - who likes to ride her bicycle through the mysterious countryside around her village, through the forests, lakes and rivers, and through the landscapes of her imagination.
6. SPRINGTIME was written by the Srebrenica band Afera (The Affair). The members are from a mixture of Muslim and Serb Orthodox families. It is a kind of love song to old Yugoslavia. The musicians remember the harmony among people, the children playing in the street, the scent of lime tress in June, the old songs and a life well lived.
7. SREBRENICA was created by a group of children from the Srebrenica region who attend a children’s centre in Potocari. Before the war and the catastrophe that followed, Srebrenica was a happy town, with an Orthodox church and a Mosque a few metres apart, and a population who saw themselves first and foremost as fellow citizens and Bosnians, and thought of religion - if they were religious at all - as a private thing. After a love song to Yugoslavia, this short love song to the lovely town of Srebrenica from its children, shows that the members of a new generation, in spite of everything, have not forgotten who they are.
© Nigel Osborne
ABOUT THE COMPOSER: Nigel Osborne
Nigel Osborne studied composition at Oxford with Egon Wellesz and Kenneth Leighton, and in Warsaw with Witold Rudzinski. While in Poland, he co-founded one of the first live-electronic performing groups in Eastern Europe, and worked at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, the beginning of a special relationship with electroacoustic music which continued with residencies at IRCAM in the 1980s and many works in the live electronic medium. The core of his output, however, is ensemble music, which issued from a number of long-term collaborations: for example with the Ensemble 20jh of Vienna, with the London Sinfonietta, the Nash Ensemble, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia. Larger orchestral pieces include Sinfonia 1 for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and for the Philharmonia Orchestra The Sun of Venice.
