| Beth and Jane of Mappamundi began singing together in the a cappella women's Balkan ensemble "Laduvane" in 1976. Laduvane made two LPs and performed through New England, eventually landing at the Winnipeg and Vancouver Folk Festivals (where they acquired a delighted fan -- Ken Bloom -- he was a solo performer there that year). Ken, for his part, has studied Turkish classical music and has an extensive background in Greek music, having performed for years in rowdy Greek bars in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Ken, Robbie, and Jim have added the instrumental engine. With acoustic bass, bouzouki, dumbek, clarinet, accordian, gadulka, fiddle, guitar, trombone, and more, Mappamundi can now put a lot of power behind instrumentals and songs of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Russia, Ukraine, Poland... this is the stuff of the next Mappamundi recording.
The songs can be funny, sad, or wry. Here are sound samples:
- From Serbia: "Okrug Selo" (.ra). (A girl is complaining that she is too young and pretty to have to dig potatoes - she can go to the big city and get married instead.)
- From Croatia: "Savo Vodo" (.ra). Jane learned this song in 1972 when she was performing with the Yale Slavic Chorus: a girl tells the Sava River to go to her lover and tell him not to cut the grass by its banks, or he will be cutting her hair - and not to drink from its waters, for he will be drinking her blue eyes.
- From Macedonia: "Karamfilo" (.wav). "Funny, your name is Carnation but you don't smell like one... I'm going to keep beating on the doors and smashing the windows until your father lets you come with me."
- MORE SAMPLES COMING SOON!
(Jane transcribed and arranged Slavic songs and sang with the Yale Slavic Chorus and Laduvane in the 1970s. Here is a picture of her and Beth and cronies:)
 Members of Laduvane singing a cappella Balkan music at NEFFA, circa 1977: Anabel Graetz; Jane Peppler; Dee Brown; Harriet Joplin; Jana Bucholz; Beth Holmgren. Not shown: Jan Downey and Lauren Jennings.
Sound clips of Mappamundi's
music.
Mappamundi: More-or-less traditional music home page.
Contact us by email
or:
Jane Peppler
5301 Cedronella Drive
Chapel Hill NC 27514
(919)-383-8952 FAX: (919)-382-8601
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