Marta Topferova Tickets

The idea of doing this recording came to me over time... I was born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, but having lived in the US since the 6th grade, I had not sung in my native language in all that time. Instead, I had formed strong relationships with other musics living here and traveling to different places. But my love for the folk music I grew up hearing re-appeared and I decided to do something with it. Our tradition is slowly vanishing as the majority of young people are no longer interested in folk music. The poetry in these songs is beautiful. The themes might be about love, courtship, heartbreak, nature, or wartime and loss... The history of the land and people's lives are preserved in this music. I collected different songs for this album - some were sung to me by my family when I was young, some of them I found on tapes I have at home, and I also composed two peices for it using folkloric texts. In arranging the songs, I decided to use only a capella vocal harmonies, hoping to achieve a pure, transparent and emotional recording.