Review of Song of the Crooked Dance: Early Bulgarian Traditional Music, 1927-42, produced by Lauren Brody (Yazoo Records, 1998) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Idea of South Slavic Unity among Bulgarian Musicians and Intellectuals in the Interwar Period
Stefanka Georgieva The Idea of South Slavic Unity among Bulgarian Musicians and Intellectuals in the Interwar Period In: Kosta P. Manojlović (1890 – 1949) and the Idea of Slavic and Balkan Cultural Unification, a collective monograph edited by Vesna Peno, Ivana Vesić, Ivan Vasić, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, 2017, pp. 37 – 57, ISBN 978-86-80639-34-5 The attempt to interpret the topic about the South Slavic cultural unity in Bulgarian musical culture makes the researcher face a paradox: on the one hand a large number of historiographical documents are known, and on the other – there is no interest in their complete and systematic study. The relatively limited number of publications, dating back to the past century, concerned mostly choir activities – the main sphere of cooperation between the Bulgarian and the Slavic singers associations. But behind this creative contacts remained unknown the personal relation between the champions of the idea: composers, conductors, musicologists, and intellectuals who were actually “the driving force” for its propaganda and realization. And despite the fact that a part of the personal archive stock of these Bulgarian musicians has already been irretrievably lost, in some of the preserved sources partially can be “restored” the connections with their contemporaries from the South Slavic countries – among them those of Kosta P. Manojlović. In the paper was followed the role of Bulgarian music press as a bearer of the idea of the South Slavic cultural unity and its interpretation in the publicism of A.P. Bersenev, editor-in-chief of “Music review” newspaper (1923 – 1929) and his contacts with similar Yugoslavian editions. The initiative of K. Manojlović to join the Bulgarian Choir Union with the Belgrade Singing Society (1928), as well as his connections (according to epistolary sources) with Dobri Hristov were emphasized. Boris Gaidarov's active music publishing work was also presented, he created through his contacts with the most famous Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian composers a real small South Slavic union. His partially preserved correspondence with K. Manojlović, J. Slavenski, Y. Gotovac, B. Papandopulo, E. Adamić, gives an idea of the long exchange of choir repertoire, which existed between them, information about choir performances and others. The musical collection “Junošeski drugar” (1924 – 1948), which he edited, included their choral pieces, it was distributed through the whole South Slavic region.
Bulgarian Chalga: Forming a Post-Communist Identity through Music
2012
that I have acquired while exposed to the insights of my many wonderful professors at Butler University. For their dedication and enthusiasm, I am very grateful, and my completion of this project is as much of a sign of their success as it is of my own. Several people have been of specific importance in my completion of this thesis, and I would like to thank each of them individually. Most importantly, I would like to thank Dr. Briscoe, my thesis advisor. Dr. Briscoe has been a wonderful source of guidance and wisdom for me as I have attempted to sort through the diverse sources, viewpoints, and historical concepts involved in my thesis research. I have been inspired by his many wonderful courses over the past four years, and without his encouragement, I would likely not have pursued a major in music history or have come to appreciate the field as I do today. I would also like to thank Dr. Eyerly for serving as a reader on my thesis committee. Concepts I learned as a student in her "World Music" class have been quite useful and have informed my approach to this thesis, which incorporates ethnomusicological research techniques I learned from her. Much thanks also goes to Dr. Felice, who is a reader on my thesis committee and has been a composition and electronic music professor of mine during my time at Butler. His support and enthusiasm for all of my musical endeavors is greatly appreciated. Finally, I would like to thank all of my friends and family members from Bulgaria who have been very much in my thoughts as I have tackled this complex topic. From them I have gained cultural insights about their country and my own country that have had a profound effect on my analysis of chalga. Specifically, I would like to thank my husband Nikolay for his efforts in translating lyrics, searching for information in Bulgarian, explaining cultural nuances, and supplying me with an emic viewpoint of the chalga phenomenon.
Българско музикознание, 2018
Considering Bulgaria's avant-garde in the first decades of the second half of the 20th-century, one of the least fruitful sources to turn to are publications by Bulgarian musicologists at the same time. To make matters worse, there is an apparent lack of self-theorization on behalf of Bulgarian avant-garde composers, too. Yet, a closer look at source materials like correspondences and auto-biographical reveals that this lack is owing to an absence of public podia. Instead of dismissing this lack with a nod to classical accounts of totalitarianism as prohibiting free expression, this contribution ties in with current research to overcome monolithic and binary models to understand music culture in socialist countries during the Cold War.
Musical practice of the Banat Bulgarians: a brief geopolitical mapping
The Banat Bulgarians or Palćeni are a distinct ethnic minority group which settled in the Banat in the eighteenth century from the territory of north and northeastern Bulgaria. Unlike most other Bulgarians, Palćend are Roman Catholics. They speak the so-called Banat-Bulgarian or East Bulgarian dialect of Bulgarian. This codified Bulgarian dialect, which has standardized spelling, has been shaped under the lexical influences of German, Hungarian, Romanian and Serbian languages. Considering the fact that the musical practice of the Palćeni has not been subject to ethnomusicological research in Serbia, the main aim of this paper is to present its specifics for the first time. The focus of the paper is directed toward a brief geopolitical mapping of the musical practice of the Palćeni in relation to their "country of origin", but also the multi-ethnic and multicultural environment of the Banat.