Jovano Jovanke

Traditional tune from Macedonia arranged for Many Hands diverse ensemble.

Recorded live at the Titirangi Festival, 5th April 2005

Category:

Music

Tags:

• macedonian
• folk
• rock
• tune
• world
• music
• erhu
• live

[missmarocc1]

what's this song about and is it from Macedonia?

[DerekTearne]

@missmarocc1 it is a love song involving young lovers, bigotry and a river. the outcome is sad. similar to romeo and juliet. It i also sad to see all these comments arguing over the origins of the song. it disturbs me to see all these negative divisive comments which appear not only here, but in response to every posting of every version of this truly remarkable song. There seem to be two divided factions who both claim that this tune is there's. Jovane and Jovanke would surely weep.

[derven3]

@DerekTearne Derek,, in the song in itself (the lyrics) there is no bigotry shown whatsoever. Nevertheless, it would be very remiss of me, though, if I didn't say congratulations for the beautiful iterpretation of this beautiful Macedonian folk song. Where is the Titirangi festival held? I suspect its somewhere in New Zealand. :-) Btw, the name of the girl is Jovana. It becomes "Jovano" or "Jovanke" when someone calls (talks) to Jovana.

[DerekTearne]

@derven3 my understanding is that the father of one of the lovers disapproved of the other lover because they were from the wrong 'family' or perhaps ethnicity. This is where the bigotry/prejudice comes in. However, I may have misunderstood the translation. It is interesting that Jovano and Jovanke are both forms of Jovana - I had always thought it was the names of the two lovers.

[Dalibor81]

Well Done guys i realy love what you have done with the song its great!! all the best from Dali !!

[DerekTearne]

Hey there! I'm glad you like it, we've tried to keep with the spirit. We miss having a good darabuka player though.

[Magdeste]

BRAVO!!prekrasna interpretacija na prekrasna makedonska pesna vo titirangi!

proud macedonian in auckland!

[TheRu5H]

He is singing in Macedonian Language, he has some mistakes but it is perfect anyway...

[derven3]

@DerekTearne First of all I apologise for the lateness of tmy reply. Regarding the song, in the olden times (Jovano, Jovanke is a very old song) the parents were very strict with their daughters, thus Jovana's mother forbade her daughter to go and meet with her lover. There is no social or ethnic bigotry alluded to in the song, whatsoever. Purely the rules of those olden times, when society was a lot less morally degenarate than it is today. :-) Have you performed any other Macedonian songs?

[lisadp]

There's more information about the song on Wikipedia at under entry Jovano_Jovanke. The origins of the song are contentious but as far as I can see the song predates our modern conceptions of divisions in the south Slavic languages and Balkans states anyway so who really cares! It's a beautiful song mourning division. Let's not perpetuate division.

[kotarak1]

FYROM is not a country. It is a ZOO... A place for hybrid creatures..... antichki monkeys.. scary.....

[APMUMBP]

Macedonian

[APMUMBP]

Pirin is the only province that links the 2 countries. You know pirin the part you took from us in 1913. But, what does that have to do with the song.

[kotarak1]

Macedonia is a Bulgarian province:))