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The music of Bulgaria refers to all forms of music associated with Bulgaria like classical, folk, popular music, etc. Bulgarian music is part of the Balkan tradition, which stretches across Southeastern Europe, and has its own distinctive sound. Traditional Bulgarian music has had more international success, due to the breakout international success of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, a woman's choir that has topped world music charts across Europe and even farther abroad.[1]
Bulgarian vocals are said to be "open-throated", though this is somewhat of a misnomer. Singers actually focus their voices in a way that gives the sound a distinctive "edge", and makes the voice carry over long distances.
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Bulgarian music uses a wide range of instruments. Some folk instruments are variants of traditional Asian instruments such as the "Saz" (Bulgarian tambura), or the kemençe (Bulgarian gadulka). More modern style instruments are often used in the more modern dance music that was an offshoot of traditional village music.
Bulgarian bands use instruments that commonly include:
The new professional musicians of traditional Bulgarian instruments soon reached new heights of innovation, expanding the capacities of the gaida (Kostadin Varimezov and Nikola Atanasov), gadulka (Mihail Marinov, Atanas Vulchev) and kaval (Stoyan Chobanov, Nikola Ganchev, Stoyan Velichkov). Other, factory-made instruments had arrived in Bulgaria in the 19th century, including the accordion. Bulgarian accordion music was defined by Boris Karlov and later Gypsy musicians including Kosta Kolev and Ibro Lolov. In 1965, the Ministry of Culture founded the Koprivshtitsa National Music Festival, which has become an important event, held once every five years, showcasing Bulgarian music, singing and dance. The last festival was in August 2010.
Instruments used in wedding music include violin, accordion, clarinet, saxophone, drum set, electric bass, electric guitar, synthesizer
Regional styles abound in Bulgaria. Dobrudzha, Sofia, Rodopi, Macedonia, Thrace and the Danube shore all have distinctive sounds.
Folk music revolved around holidays like Christmas, New Year's Day, midsummer, and the Feast of St. Lazarus, as well as the Strandzha region's unusual Nestinarstvo rites, in which villagers fell into a trance and danced on hot coals as part of the joint feast of Sts Konstantin and Elena on May 21. Music was also a part of more personal celebrations such as weddings. Singing has always been a tradition for both men and women. Songs were often sung by women at work parties such as the sedenka (often attended by young men and women in search of partners to court), betrothal ceremonies, and just for fun. Women had an extensive repertoire of songs that they sang while working in the fields. Young women eligible for marriage played a particularly important role at the dancing in the village square (which not too long ago was the major form of "entertainment" in the village and was a very important social scene). The dancing — every Sunday and for three days on major holidays like Easter — began not with instrumental music, but with two groups of young women singing, one leading each end of the dance line. Later on, instrumental musicians might arrive and the singers would no longer be the dance leaders. A special form of song, the lament, was sung not only at funerals but also upon the departure of young men for military service.
The Bulgarian folk music is unique in Europe for its "asymmetrical" rhythms ( defined by the famous Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist Bela Bartok as "Bulgarian rhythms" ), where the musical time is not split in even beats, but in longer and shorter.
The most important state-supported orchestra of this era was the Sofia-based State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances, led by Philip Koutev. Koutev has become perhaps the most influential musician of 20th century Bulgaria, and updated rural music with more accessible harmonies to great domestic acclaim. In 1951, Koutev founded the group known today as the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, which became famous worldwide after the release of a series of recordings entitled Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares.
The distinctive sounds of women's choirs in Bulgarian folk music come partly from their unique rhythms, harmony and polyphony, such as the use of close intervals like the major second and the singing of a drone accompaniment underneath the melody, especially common in songs from the Shope region around the Bulgarian capital Sofia and the Pirin region. In addition to Koutev, who pioneered many of the harmonies, and composed several songs that were covered by other groups, (especially Tudora), various women's vocal groups gained popularity, including Trio Bulgarka, consisting of Yanka Roupkina, Eva Georgieva, and Stoyanka Boneva, some of whom were included in the "Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices" tours.
During the Communist era, some musicians lived outside the state-supported music scene. Without official support, wedding bands were also without official limitations on their music, leading to fusions with foreign styles and instruments. Thrace was an important center of this music, which was entirely underground until 1986, when a festival of this music, which became a biennial event, was inaugurated in the town of Stambolovo, and artists like Sever, Trakiîski Solisti, Shoumen and Juzhni Vetar became popular, especially clarinetist Ivo Papasov.
One of the most distinctive features of Balkan folk dance music is the complexity of its rhythms in comparison to Western music. Although it uses Western meters such as 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4, Balkan music also includes meters with 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 beats per measure, sometimes referred to as "asymmetric meters". These can often be understood as combinations of groups of "quick" and "slow" beats. For example, the dance lesnoto ("the light/easy one") has a meter of 7 beats with emphasis on the first, fourth, and sixth beats. This can be divided into three groups, a "slow" unit of 3 beats and two "quick" units of 2 beats, often written 3-2-2.
Each basic folk dance type use a distinct combination of these rhythmic "units". Some examples are rachenitsa (7 beats divided: 2-2-3), paidushko horo (5 beats: 2-3), eleno mome (7 beats: 2-2-1-2), kopanitsa (11 beats: 2-2-3-2-2), and Bucimis (15 beats: 2-2-2-2-3-2-2), and pravo horo, which can either be standard 4/4 or 6/8. Some rhythms with the same number of beats can be divided in different ways: for example, 8-beat rhythms can be divided 2-3-3, 3-2-3, 3-3-2, 2-2-2-2, 2-2-4, 2-4-2, 4-2-2, or even 4-4. This terminology is a crude simplification and is not used by Balkan musicians; it does not capture the full subtlety of the Balkan rhythms.
The tradition of church singing in Bulgaria is more than a thousand years old, and can be traced back to the early Middle Ages. One of the earliest known musical figure (composer, singer and musical reformer) of Medieval Europe Yoan Kukuzel (1280–1360), known as The Angel-voiced for his singing abilities, has Bulgarian origin. In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church there are two traditions of church singing - Eastern monodic (one-voice) singing and choral (Polyphonic). The Eastern monodic singing observes the tradition of Greek and Byzantine music, the requirements of the eight-tones canon of the Eastern Orthodox chanting. The second tradition is the choral church music, established during the 19th century, when in Bulgaria enters the influence of Russian choral church music. During XIX and 20th century many Bulgarian composers create their works in the spirit of Russian polyphony. Today Orthodox music is alive and is performed both during church worship services and at concerts by secular choirs and soloists. Contemporary Bulgarian worldwide recognized choirs and singers in whose repertoire permanently takes place the orthodox music are:
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Some of the most popular artists include:
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Chalga (Pop-folk) is a contemporary music style that combines sexually oriented Bulgarian lyrics with popular Eastern European and Arabic music. It is the Bulgarian version of the corresponding variations in neighboring countries such as Greece (Laika) and Serbia (Turbo folk).
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Some of the most popular artists include:
Some of the most popular artists include:
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Some of the most popular artists include: Root Souljah - roots reggae pioneers in Bulgaria, Jahmmi Youth, NRG D, Ragga one, Samity - Dub Master.
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