Concert of “World Music” bands

The Good Lord gave us five senses, and organised them so wisely that if we are deficient in one, the others are given greater power. The five senses are like five gifts that allow us to take in the beauty of this world. Of course, these gifts are also there to help us spot impending danger in good time – out of the corner of your eye, from a slight movement of the air in your ear, or even from a scent – so that you can realise something is wrong.

On Friday evening, in the courtyard of the SOKÓŁ Małopolska Culture Centre, there was faced with hardly any danger; even the sky, after Saturday’s rain, looked down on us with a dry eye. That is why we were able to fully open all our senses to the extraordinary circumstances there.

It was, of course, the sense of hearing that took - nomen omen - centre stage. Starting with the Lach prologue; through the exuberant Panama; Orawa and Spisz (once again side by side); the instrument-rich and all-singing Mexico; once more a Lach note so dear to the heart; but also the nearby Slovakian one; the ascetic (the accordion and the drum) Georgian note limited to these instruments; the steady, measured, string-heavy Podhale, the Spisz Śfabelki once more; Mexico again with the well-known melody of ‘Besame mucho’; followed by Panama, Slovakia and Georgia. 

When the sounds of the Georgian accordion and drum rang out from the balcony for the second time, the ensemble’s choreographer appeared on stage. And he danced! However, this was not the first impulse to trigger the highly precious sense of sight. First, in the fading glow of the day drawing to a close, and then in the light of the spotlights and other sources of illumination, we could see the musicians’ colourful folk costumes, but it seems that our eyes were most drawn to the images projected onto the big screen. Like sheep grazing on lush grass, we feasted our eyes – in perfect harmony with the band that was performing at the time – on views of the forests of Panama and Orawa, a vista of Lake Czorsztyn from the Spisz side, the castles of Croatia and Slovakia, the pyramids of Mexico, towns and villages…

It took a little imagination to stimulate the closely related senses of taste and smell. It seems, however, that getting our imagination up and running wasn’t difficult, especially as the images on the big screen included some rather appetising sights: Georgian khinkali, Panamanian coconuts, Orawa wheat, an apple on a tree somewhere in Jabłonka, as well as Spisz oscypek cheese. We could also imagine what the water in the azure rivers of Croatia or Mexico tastes like, or what the autumnal forest near Trybsz smells like, or the scent of the old timber in the historic buildings of the Sącz Ethnographic Park…

And what about the touch? That is actually quite simple: hand in hand, heart to heart, when you ask someone to dance, when you feel the closeness of another person, but also the hardness of the dance floor beneath your feet. There were moments on that Friday evening when the entire stage – where children’s ensembles performed their previews every day at 11.00 – was filled with dancers.

Let us return to the most important of the evening’s senses: hearing; and since there is a phenomenon – albeit a rather rare one – known as synaesthesia, I’ll put it this way: Just like the wedding guests at Cana in Galilee, we ended the evening by enjoying some music from the Lemko band Serencza. It was, above all, a treat for the ears. Rich instrumentation, highly intriguing arrangements by the band’s leader Mirek Bogonia, the singer’s voice – striking in both its power and beauty – and poetic lyrics… The hosts of the evening’s concert – Hanka Rybka, Joanna Łapka, Patryk Rutkowski and Sławomir Bryniak – also drew attention to the beauty of the band from Gorlice, so the sense of sight was given its due as well. I satisfied my need for touch by shaking hands with the Serencza musicians to thank them for the fantastic concert.