Music of Bulgaria

Songs have accompanied the Bulgarians always; in their work and play, during times of historical upsurge and in times of trial, in joy and sorrow. This great longing for melody has helped to create songs everywhere, for any occasion.

The traditional Bulgarian folk song is homophonic; it sounds single-voiced. Its rhythm and wealth range "from states fantastic from the point of view of a foreigner, to primitive monotony". Bulgarians prefer the recitative; declamation is melodious, and the verse conforms with the melody.

Bulgaria's musical instruments are also many and diverse. They are within three groups: single and two-voice wind instruments (pipe, shepherd's pipe, bagpipe, wooden pipe), string instruments (rebec, pandore), and percussion instruments (drum).

Bulgarian voices are almost a mystery. There seems to be no explanation of the incredible range of the Bulgarian voice. Its unique sound was universally acknowledged when the popular Rhodopean song "Izlel e Delyu Haidutin", sung by the talented singer Valya Balkanska, was recorded on a gold record then sent as a message to outer space on the American space station Voyager in 1977.

The All Bulgaria Virtual Guide Bulgarian E-Shop contains Bulgarian music CD's.

Bulgaria is experiencing a boom in popular music with several local names, and consists of various regional styles or style mixtures surfacing during the last two or three years and is usually called "folkpop". It can refer either to the popular music of ethnic minorities like gypsies or the regional folk music. Quite often a new hit song is influenced by some feature which may come typically from Gypsy tradition or Turkish folkpop called arabesk. But purists insist that "folkpop" is really a symbol of cultural decay and bad taste, However "folkpop" is marking an important change in cultural dynamics in Bulgaria and seems to be an important part of aesthetic thinking. Seeing the influence of this in lyrics and rhythms of Bulgarian "folkpop", there appears a direct connotation to the East, to Turkish and pan-Arabian dance music in the Balkans' local folk cultures and such has existed in some degree for hundreds of years. But still, when speaking about recorded music and when comparing Bulgarian music to that of former Yugoslavia or Greece, the public representation of modern oriental pop-music was postponed in Bulgaria for at least 10 years or even more for political reasons. There were two big orchestras in Bulgaria up to 1946-47. There was "Jazz Ovcharov", conducted by Assen Ovcharov, a brilliant musician capable of making an overnight arrangement of music he had just heard. Many talented musicians played in his band. The other was "Optimists", led by Bojidar Sakelarov. Sasho Sladura ("Sweetie") was among its members (see the photo, right).

The fate of these popular bands was unenviable. Led by the axiom: "Now you are playing jazz and tomorrow you will betray your fatherland," the regime gradually limited their repertoire. Assen Ovcharov was interned to Tutrakan and Sasho Sladura was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Belene where he died. This was a sad period for Bulgarian popular and jazz music.

Then in the mid-1980s, authorities banned the performance and consumption of ethnic and foreign music with oriental features. Gypsy, Turkish, Greek, and Serbian musics were publicly declared musica non grata in Bulgaria. Today's Bulgarian music is linked not so much to other Slavic musics as to the east. Until the end of the Communist regime in 1989, those found listening to Turkish radio or music cassettes were subject to fines or imprisonment as well as confiscation of the radio or cassette players. Musicians who violated these orders frequently were arrested and charged with hooliganism. Such a heavy sanction system against music was not at all usual in the Communist world. These measures finally led to the mass exodus of ethnic Turks to Turkey in 1989.

However, music is a rather insidious and peculiar ideological opponent, which can circumvent even the most effective sanction systems. Thus during the old regime, the officially banned foreign features already spread to the Bulgarian popular music scene. This all happened quite unnoticed and indirectly. This roundabout way of change was due to popular music from the western and southern Balkans. Likely the most influential factor, from the perspective of the music media, was Yugoslav popular music based on local folk traditions. This music is called "pop-narodna", and due to effective pirate production, pop-narodna cassettes were soon circulated to Bulgaria. According to some piracy business insiders, during the last years of the Communist order, Serbian pop-narodna sold many tens of times better than western rock music. This fact cannot be underestimated, when finding the reasons of the present folkpop boom in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian music increased in Western polularity in the late 80s with some CD's that were released under the title Le mystere des voix bulgares. These were choirs of women with an unusual voice quality produced in the throat, yet very different from bel canto singing. It was striking! Very loud, powerful and resonant, an interesting mix of the slightly exotic and the slightly familiar. This became part of the new awareness of "world music" which started in the late 80s in the United States and other countries. The traditional Bulgarian musicians are very pessimistic about the importance of their own music to the vast majority of other Bulgarians. But probably they think about the urban Bulgarians, those living in Sofia and the larger cities where traditional music is somewhat tainted.

Due to abundant use of electronic instruments, the sound of Bulgarian folkpop differs from that of older dance bands, where the accordion, the clarinet, other winds and even the gaida bagpipe dominated. Yugoslav pop-narodna most likely served as a model for this change towards a 'synthi-pop' sound.
New Bulgarian folkpop without Gypsy connotations began in the village and town folklore. In this decade, Bulgarian folkpop has been increasingly influenced by local popular styles of all the neighbouring countries and, of course, by western pop. During the last several years, the "synthi-pop" sound has also found its way to this music. Sashka Vaseva, famous for her Pirin-Macedonian popsongs, has released some new recordings with a mild "synthi-pop" flavor.

Abundant, even irritatingly excessive use of electronic instruments in Bulgarian folkpop is no doubt a mark of modernization. There are certainly some economic reasons for the synthesizer boom. When asking Bulgarian musicians about this, a typical answer is that today, because of bad economic conditions, dance musicians have no money to buy original instruments needed for producing oriental sound. There is another economic reason that is even more important: with the aid of synthesisers one or two musicians can manage to produce a whole orchestral sound. As a result, several one-man or two-man bands can be found in Bulgarian folkpop at any moment.