46TH INTERNATIONAL FOLKLORE FESTIVAL IN ZAGREB, CROATIA

Concert: Singers of the Church of Our Lady of Good Health, Jezera, the island of Murter
St. Catherine’s Church, Katarinski trg, Sunday, July 22, 2012 at 19.30

The concert held by the singers of the Church of Our Lady of Good Health from Jezera on the island of Murter includes a selection of songs that are sung in that parish church throughout the year.

Most of their repertoire could be classified as Glagolitic singing. Glagolitic singing includes traditional (folk) songs of Roman Catholic liturgy, paraliturgical singing and other sacral singing, which is primarily present in the Adriatic part of Croatia. The singing stemmed from the benefit given by the Holy See to Croatian dioceses in the early Middle Ages – to use the Glagolitic script and the indigenous language in liturgy. Glagolitic singing was based on Gregorian and other musical traditions, but also included local secular music elements. Accounts and records from the island of Murter speak of centuries of Glagolitic singing, i.e. singing in the Croatian form of Old Slavic, the archaic Croatian – šćavet, and of singing in the living Croatian language.