We had a nice small tour this summer - a concert in Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs (Riga, Latvia), and several concerts in Finland: two-days festival Verlan Aika and incredible event in Raseborg castle - "Night of the Myths".
Some concert videos we want to share with you :
Also we recorded this video while living in the finnish forest :)
Friends!
Friends!
Finally we have a lot of news after long time-out!
Also we have plenty of plans and new ideas as well. :)
And we will start with our nearest concerts:
- 4th of August - concert in Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs club, Riga, Latvia.
- 6th and 7th of August - Verlan Aika keskiaikatapahtuma festival, Finland.
- 13th of August – we take part in Myyttikestit (The Night of the Myths) in Raasepori castle in Finland.
- Second part of august (TBD) – concert in ¥åíåçà/Geneza art-cafe Kolomyya, Ukraine
- 17 of September – we take part in ball in Svirzh castle, Ukraine.
Our beloved listeners!
With the great joy we want to inform you that our new album "Rota Fortunae" - songs on vagants lyrics from the XIII ct. "Carmina Burana" is allready out! You could buy it in digital form on
Bandcamp. In approximatelly three weeks where would be posibility to buy physical CD, in form of 3 panel digipack with colourful booklet.
We hope you will enjoy our new work!
We want to invite you into medieval times!
Presentation of our new album «Rota Fortunae» will be accompanied by fantastic show extravaganza from the Historical Dance Theatre "Al'entrada"! Songs from the collection of vagant lyrics "Codex Buranus" (XIII ct.), dances,
colorfull costumes and spirit of past times in the new project «Rota Fortunae» (Wheel Of Fortune). All of this you could see during our new incredible event:
17th of May in Lviv! (you can buy tickets here gastroli.ua 21st of May in Kiev! (you can buy tickets on entrance)
Brave knights, dames in love, hardworking peasants, which will gather on spring celebration, heroes of favorite legends, mytchical creatures and normal citizents of medieval town are waiting for you.
Fortune will smille to some of them, and Death with sharp scythe will come to others. Isn't it what we call life?
So we invite you to this fantastic event!
It’s time to tell about the event, we been working on for three years already and been intriguing our listeners with it recently!
From ancient times Wheel of Fortune holds not the last place in symbolism and is extremely relevant in our time. A turn of Wheels of Fortune knows no mercy, it symbolizes the great global rotation,
which has no payoff in advance for anybody - all men are equal. Anyone who is now at the top tomorrow will be humbled; one who is now at the bottom, tomorrow gets up to the top.
Wheel of Fortune, in its cosmic aspects represents the idea of cyclical time, as opposed to linear time; it is the embodiment of eternal cycle of life, a symbol of world order. In the architecture
it was represent as gothic rose.In Rome fate was called Fortune and had the same meaning. Later, in Christian times, Fortune was perceived as happiness and unhappiness as two forces that affect a person:
light - angel behind the right shoulder, and dark - devil, looking out of the left shoulder.
In the early centuries of the Middle Ages image of Fortune in popular culture became more close with Germanic notions of destiny, which included "happiness" and "unhappiness", "success" and "failure", "fate" and "luck."
This convergence is reflected in the heroic epic and skalds poetry. Winged Fortune served as a prototype of Christian angels.
Fortune took a special place in the culture of the West European High Middle Ages. We find her figure in medieval manuscripts in verses of troubadours and vagants; even medieval jurists applied interpretation of Fortune
in legal incidents, not to mention the fact that Fortune - one of the favorite themes of medieval philosophy.
Symbol of Wheel of Fortune was reflected in many medieval treatises, «Carmina Burana» among them also known as the «Codex Buranus» - an illustrated manuscript of the XIII century, a handwritten poetry collection
(currently located at the National Library of Munich).
Name of the manuscript in Latin means "Songs of Boyern" (the manuscript was found in 1803 in medieval monastery Beuern, now in Benediktbeuern, Bavaria). This is the largest known collection of vagants poetry made
in southern Germany in the XIII century; it has 315 texts of various sizes.
Early music ensemble “Kings & Beggars” is proud to present to the public the new album «Rota Fortunae» (Wheel of Fortune) based on lyrics from this manuscript in May. Kyiv historical dance theater
Al'entrada will decorate the album presentation with fantastic action extravaganza performance with extremely bright costumes and interesting stories.
This medieval musical theater performance and album presentation will take place in Lviv (May 17) and Kyiv (May 21)
P.S . The author of cover art - artist Juliana Romaniv.
Our beloved friends!
We sincerely wish you a Happy New Year!
Let many pleasant and vivid events and good music accompany you in the New Year!
As a little gift we wish to present to you one of many new recordings which will be part of our new album. We are working hard on it and hope to present to you this spring.
We are visiting more and more countries with concerts. After two concerts in Slovakia we once againg going to participate in festival of historical re-enactment of old craftsmanship,
early music and medieval battles "Jotvos Vartai" in Alitus, Lithuania.
Wish us luck!
Our beloved listeners!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We wish light, harmony and love for you and your families! As a present we have prepared a video for the old ukrainian carrol "A v gori, gori".
Many thanks to the artist Anton Lubiy for his work,and to Vjacheslav Anisimov for the editing.
Friends!
Finally our work has seen the light of day! Hoorray!!! :) So please watch the video and share your thoughts abour it. And don't forget to spread a word abour it! :)
Our dear audience!We have absolutely incredible news!
At the last hours of campaign our collected sum of money for the music video postproduction (including cash) was 430$, but the miracle have happened, and there appeared a man, who’ll become the main Maecenas in this campaign!
This is Ivan Shuliak from Lviv that has supported our fundraising with the sum as much as 350$!!!
Great thanks to Diana Yavorska, that helped us in spreading the information about our campaign, due to her help much more people have learned about our fundraising!
Also we’re sincerely grateful to Anton Zavidov for his strong finishing contribution to our campaign!
We’ve gathered the whole sum of money (including cash and transfers to PrivatBank card) as much as 840$!
Thus, follow the news and wait for the official release of our music video in the last days of October!
HURRRRAAAAAAAAAAAY! :))
Greetings! Less than 10 days has remained until the end of the campaign , and the counter of the funds raised stood at around $ 265.
If you are interested in our project - it's about time to make a contribution!
You can make your contribution at campaign page Indiegogo
Greetings! We passed half of our company and raised 260$ as for now.
Artist Uliana Romaniv has finished work on the last painting for the video :
Our hero reads poems to his beloved one.
You can make your contribution at campaign page Indiegogo
The first 10 days of the fund-raising campaign for our music video have passed, and for now it is collected only 200$ of 800$ required. That’s why we need assistant of all our friends and audience.
Please, make a contribution if you haven’t done it yet and spread the information about our campaign in the social media. We do believe that due to your assistance we can achieve our goal!
Our painter has completed the second picture for the video:
The picture shows 15th century Krakow.
And that’s how it is shown on the real 15th century picture:
Thank you, those who have already supported us!
Our fund-raising campaign for the music video “Breve Regnum” is still in progress and in our first update we are eager to share one of the pictures that will be used in the video.
Our young and eager for knowledge hero arrives to Krakow for study.
We have started fund rising company on Indiegogo to finish work on videoclip for the Breve Regnum song! Join us and make your contribution into the early music!
We would be very glad to any of your help and repost! It’s very important for us! Every dollar counts.
Long time ago, in XV century our beloved city Lviv was a part of Poland and not so far from it city of Krakow is situated, the polish capital at the moment, so we share the same history and culture.
That’s why we decided to peek the oldest known song of Krakow students “Breve regnum” from the XV century. It is fun, energetic and known very little in the world.
Our video is at stage of editing and post-production right now, everything has been shot last autumn and now the finishing touches are made, video is being edited, XV century style pictures been drawn, etc.
In general we’ve been trying to accomplish this by our means and with help of our friends. But the professional video demands professional hands and so it’s You who can help us finish first videoclip on medieval song in Ukraine!
With your help we could pay for the postproduction in time and the clip will see the light of day! Thanks you in advance! Please share a word about it!
New song in Kings & Beggars interpretation - Al'entrada Del Temps Clar!
Despite the hymnal refrain of eya this 12 century troubadour song is strongly pagan in origin, suggesting Roman or Celtic rites of May or Beltane, and also showing the power of youth, joy, and the feminine earth force.
The entire ballad with its celebration of the Queen of April reveals the mytheme which is integral to the seasonal rituals that mark the beginning of Summer, a l'entrada del temps clar, the entrance of the Season of Shining.
29 of June Kings & Beggars will visit Lithuania and will play on Jotvos Vartai festival!
We present to your attention our new record! Breve Regnum anon. – the oldest known song of Krakow students from XV ct., which was sung during the election of their "King" and his court (15 - 22 of October).
It is about the life of students and how seven days they having parties, skip lectures and then, later their "King" will be the one to blame for all of students deeds and will be punished.
Such custom is also known in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, as a continuation of the Roman Saturnalia. Manuscript was first mentioned in 1973, and the original is kept in the National Library of Warsaw.
11.06 - We are gladly presents our new track - spanish song of the begining of 16 ct. Falalan
Recorded at MAX220 studio. Mixed and mastered by Max Kerner.
11.06 - We are gladly presents our new track - Tempus Est Iocundum song form german codex "Cantus Buranus" XIII ct. (music - anon.)
Recorded at MAX220 studio. Mixed and mastered by Max Kerner.
30.04-3.05 Ensemble "Kings & Beggars" participated in international medieval fight world championship "Battle of Nations".
29.01.2012 - We gladly present our new record - A v gori, gori.
This is old ukrainian kolyadka (traditional christmas carol) with pagan roots. This performance is experimental - an attempt to recreate old ukrainian folk music in european medieval context thru our creative imagination.
Recorded at MAX220 studio. Mixed and mastered by Max Kerner.
29.01.2012 - Kings & Beggars have played at many festivals and solo concerts during last year. Here are some videos :
Kemp's Jig. England XVI cent.
Saltarello IV. Italy XIV cent.
Tempus Est Iocundum. Cantus Buranus. Germany XIII cent
13.02.2011 - 16 of March special album dedicated to St. Patrick's Day will be released by Kings & Beggars. It will consist of traditional irish tunes and songs.
Total running time of the album : 57 minutes. You can download three song : Cooley's, Katie Dear
and Drunken Sailor.
1. VITER and KINGS & BEGGARS - Diva Ruzha
2. KINGS & BEGGARS - Ai Vis Lo Lop
3. VITER and KINGS & BEGGARS - Vanner och frander
4. KINGS & BEGGARS and VITER - Migla, Migla, Rasa, Rasa
5. VITER - Chycheri
All songs on current CD have traditional roots but they will appear in completely different form. Songs were performed in four languages – Ukrainian, Swedish, Latvian and old French. Music for “Migla, Migla, Rasa, Rasa” was written by SKYFORGER, lyrics – traditional.
This album is quite experimental in many ways. The main conceptual point of the current work was an attempt to integrate such things as Carpathian folklore with a Swedish native song, to perform European traditional music by means of medieval instruments with appropriate arrangement; and at last to present an unexpected sounding of all these compositions.
The work over the album was performed in three recording studios during Autumn 2010 – Winter 2011. Pre-order
30.01.2010 - We want to share a good news with you - we entered studio to record special album for the St. Patrics Day!
It would contain famous irish songs and melodies.
08.01.2011 - It's allready tradition that just before the New Year Kings & Beggars plays on beautiful bal organized by the reenactors club
Panther. Photos from this event you could observe in our gallery
08.01.2011 - Kings & Beggars wish happiness and joy and a lot of the good music to you all in the New Year!
07.12.2010 - Ansamble is currently working on mini-album "Diva Ruzha". It's collabaration with lviv folk-metal band
VITER. CD will contains several new tracks recorded both together and by each band.
5.11.2010 - New percussionist Ostap Suhockiy have joined the band.
26.10.2010 - 24 of October Kings & Beggars have participied in charity concert for restavration of Mercury statue in Lviv.
Video from this concert could be seen in Video section
24.08.2010 - 29 of August Kings & Beggars will attend annual festival "Mukachevo convenes and joins friens" in Mukachevo castle Palanok.
From 11 till 19 where would be a lot of fun : knight tournament, medieval dances and master classes.
24.08.2010 - 4th,5th of September Kings & Beggars will be playing at "Tu stan'!" festival.
Festival is conducted to popularize ukrainian medieval culture and unique Tustan' castle rock. Usually it's gathering up to 400 participants and 15 000-20 000 spectators from all over Ukraine.
13.08.2010 - The first live mini-album "Íàæèâî ç ôåñòèâàëþ Òóñòàíü (2009)" ("Live from Tustan' festival") has been released .
If you are interested in purchaising of the CD please use the e-mail from the Contacts section. CD cost - 3 euro. (+ shipping cost)
20.07.2010 - Video section have been updated.
11.05.2010 - Music have been updated with record from the Tustan' festival.
21.03.10 - You can see photos from St. Patric's Day here : 1,
2, 3. Thanks to Orest Kalunyak, Darya Verignikova and Lviv Party Photos for the photos.
01.01.10 - We wish you a Happy New Year!!!
30.08.09 - This year our ensemble will take part in medieval festival of ukrainian culture "Tu Stan!-2009", which will take place
at 4,5,6 of september in village Urich, Lviv region.
05.07.09 - Photo and Video galleries have been updated.
12.04.09 - English version of our site has been opened.