Folk song - "Ej Lučka, Lučka"

Discussion in 'Culture' started by parmaem, Jan 15, 2006.

  1. parmaem

    parmaem Member

    I'm a member of a choir that is planning to perform in Prague in the summer of 2007. When I was a boy, I learned "Ej Lučka, Lučka" through my association with the American Sokols. My choir director would like to put this song on our program. I am curious to know if modern Czechs are familiar with this song and if it has any special meaning within Czech culture. It had a special meaning to my father because of the description of the Czech country side in the first verse.

    Thanks in advance for any comments.

    Ed Parma
    Houston, Texas
     
  2. gementricxs

    gementricxs Well-Known Member

    I'm not familiar with this song, can you post lyrics of it here? maybe I'll remember.
     
  3. parmaem

    parmaem Member

    gementricxs

    Thanks for your response. Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. Here are the lyrics.

    Verse 1
    Ej, lúčka, lúčka zelená
    roste na ní tráva
    roste na ní tráva
    Ej, lúčka, lúčka zelená
    roste na ní tráva
    vysoká

    Chorus (repeat twice)
    Teče voda shora
    čistá je jako já
    točí se dokola
    okolo javora

    I can show you the music as well, if you can tell me how to insert an image. I'm new to message boards.

    Since no one else has responded to my post, I suspect that this is not a song that would be well known to a Czech audience. Are there any traditional songs you would recommend for our performance?

    Ed Parma
     
  4. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

  5. gementricxs

    gementricxs Well-Known Member

    It's not common Czech folk song anymore, the immigrants bring this to US, but it just dissappeared in Czech.
    You try google Jarmila Šuláková, she sing Czech folk song and she's great.
     
  6. parmaem

    parmaem Member

    Thank you both for your comments. I'll follow your suggestion.

    Ed Parma
     
  7. l'oiseaujaune

    l'oiseaujaune New Member

    Rummy sang this song to a Czech delegation?! :shock: I never heard about that one. It must have been just as bad or even worse than John Ashcroft's "Let the eagle soar" :lol: Such musical torture!
     
  8. Zeisig

    Zeisig Well-Known Member

    Rumsfeld was born in Chicago. Czechoslovakia is like home for those who lived in Chicago, he said. Maybe he was a good singer when he was young. We cannot know it.
     
  9. John Rihacek

    John Rihacek Active Member

    My Czech Uncle used to sing a Czech Poem which I now know referred to
    thedefenstration of the Catholics in Prague Town Hall by the Protestants.
    My grandmother Bohmuilla aka Emily in USA used to become quite angry with his recital of the poem as the words were on the profane side. Has
    this poen also disappeared from common reference.
     
  10. Zeisig

    Zeisig Well-Known Member

    There were no Protestants in Europe at the beginning of the 15th century. You meant the Hussites or Utraquists.
    Or maybe you meant the second Prague defenestration from windows of the Prague Castle.

    Another nice profane poem about the Roman Catholics:

    Hranice vzplála!

    Hranice vzplála tam na břehu Rýna,
    na ní umírá dálné vlasti syn,
    a vůkol něho mnichů rota líná
    rouhavým smíchem velebí svůj čin.
    A vy se ptáte, kdo v těch plamenech?
    Toť Mistr Jan - toť nejslavnější Čech!

    Však ještě žije k pomstě národ český,
    ve hněvu svatém zvedá rameno:
    do té tmy bludů metá žhavé blesky,
    ať tříští zpupné Říma temeno!

    A v těchto jasných pravdy plamenech
    žije nám Hus - ku věčné slávě Čech.
    Zlomena hrůza popské nadvlády,
    mrakové mizí - zoře vzplanula,
    na místě hranic pnou se barikády,
    tyranstva zmije couvá ztrnula. . . .

    Hoj, ne nadarmo zhynul´s v plamenech
    náš Jene velký - chloubo Čechů všech!
     
  11. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    ...which in fact is the third Prague defenestration. :D

    First Prague defenestration ... 6/30 1419, New-Town Hall
    Second Prague defenestration ... 9/24 1483, town halls in New-Town, Old-Town and Malá Strana
    Third Prague defenestration ... 5/23 1618, Prague Castle
     
  12. Zeisig

    Zeisig Well-Known Member

    OK, I'll request for refund of a schoolfee.
     
  13. John Rihacek

    John Rihacek Active Member

    It definitely referred to someone who smelled bad. My understanding was
    that the Catholics who were defenstered landed on manure piles and
    survived. My father always recalled that "Jan" Masaryk's death was not
    suicide but by way of defenster. My father had visited in his Czech first
    cousins while he was in the US Army in Germany, in the Fall of 1947.

    Can you write back with the words from the poem that my uncle used to
    recite? Thanks.
     
  14. John Rihacek

    John Rihacek Active Member

    Also, I will pass your recent poem on to my brother who speaks flunet
    Czech after studying the same at UCLA.
     
  15. MK

    MK Well-Known Member

    Hey wer,

    you are trying to fool us :shock:

    There was 1st Prague Defenestration - 1419 and 2nd Prague Defenestration - 1618. Between these two happened at least one another defenestration (e.g. 1483) but it has no impact on the name of the defenestration which occurred on May 23, 1618.

    I do not know this poem but it is without doubt about 2nd Prague Defenestration.

    It is sometime called 3rd Prague Defenestration. According to last investigation ( completed 2003 or 2004) it was not suicide but murder.
     
  16. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    Yes, that's why I wrote "in fact". I didn't correct name used by Zeisig. I remarked only that this name doesn't correspond to factual order.

    Manure piles - Yes, that's without doubt about proconsuls Slavata and Martinic (and scribe Fabricius) who were thrown from the windows of Prague Castle (1618) because of not respecting religious freedom guaranted by Rudolf II’s Letter of Majesty.
     
  17. John Rihacek

    John Rihacek Active Member

    I will have to look for the tape of my uncle's poem and see if my brother
    can write out the words in Czech. Before he passed away I was able to
    get that poem on audiotape that he enjoyed reciting. Finding it is another
    problem.

    Thanks for the history tutorial. I will be in touch.
     
  18. MK

    MK Well-Known Member

    Wer,

    I hope no offence taken. It was meant jokingly.

    To extend information from Wer's post: We had been tought that proconsuls Slavata and Martinic were defenestrated. But their real names were Jaroslav Bořita z Martinic and Vilém Slavata z Chlumu a Košumberka.

    Why not Bořita and Martinic? I find this interesting.
     
  19. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    That's because "Martinic" and "Slavata" are family names (their families were called "Martinicové" and "Slavatové") and also names related to their title "hrabě" (= Count). See their full Czech names in the time of defenestration:

    Jaroslav Bořita hrabě z Martinic
    Vilém hrabě Slavata z Chlumu
     
  20. Tend

    Tend New Member

    We do know it but you won't find it under that name, as it has most likely been simplified in th us, the first verse in fact goes "Čie je to louka široka" also try googling Horácká kola, it is the very last song in the sequence of the dance.
     

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