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Music of the Balkans: Bosnia and Bulgaria

Music of the Balkans: Bosnia and Bulgaria. Historical Overview. Bosnia was republic of Yugoslavia from 1945-1991. Declared independence: 1992. Ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks

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Music of the Balkans: Bosnia and Bulgaria

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  1. Music of the Balkans:Bosnia and Bulgaria

  2. Historical Overview • Bosnia was republic of Yugoslavia from 1945-1991. Declared independence: 1992. • Ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks • Religions include Orthodox Christianity (9th cent.), Catholicism, Judaism, Islam (under Ottoman Empire:1463-1878). • Region marked by ethnic violence. • Sarajevo=capital city of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

  3. The Highlands

  4. Music of the Highlanders • Songs tend to be polyphonic, vocal. • Songs used in local rite of passage festivals, with dance. • Girls sing with their own “singing groups” (only unmarried women sing).

  5. Ganga • Vocal genre of highland villagers, sung in male and female singing groups. • Alternation of solo (leader) and group. • Short phrases, emphasis on dissonance. • Narrow vocal range. • Aesthetic goal: contribute accompanying pattern through close dissonance described as “cutting”, “chopping”, or “sobbing.” • Topics are gender-specific.

  6. “Newly Composed Folk Music” • Songs composed in the style of folk songs. Regulated by and used to further the political aims of the state. • Style usually excludes rural aesthetics in favor of urban/Western standards. • Is NOT folk music, but a completely different genre. • Emerged 1960s-1980s in Yugoslavia, provided basis for young urban musicians looking for “national” style.

  7. Tamburitza Orchestra • Played by professionals. • Instrumentation is “folk orchestra” made up of folk string instruments. • Promoted by state-managed cultural system in Yugoslavia. • Performed rural genres as well as newly composed folk songs. • CD 2/13 (lowlands wedding song)

  8. Tamburitza

  9. Bosnian Musician: Mensur Hatic • Balance between “national” and “international” style. • Living in US. • CD 2/14: “Last Stop Brcko” – Inspired by living near train station

  10. Music of Bulgaria

  11. Overview • Demographics: most are ethnic Bulgarians. Turks and Rom (Gypsies) are minorities. • Language: Bulgarian (Slavic language) • Religions: Most are Eastern Orthodox • Under Ottoman Empire for 5 centuries • Like Yugoslavia, was under communist regime from 1940s to late 1980s

  12. Women’s Village Music • Women’s singing: • in western regions: antiphonal (2 choirs, alternating) and diaphonic (part singing, with an active part over a drone). Often end with aspiration or “yelp.” • Like in Bosnia, women tend to sing for courtship and rites of passages, as well as work. • Aesthetic goals of group singing similar to ganga: here, “to ring like a bell”

  13. State-Sponsored Folk Music:“The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voice” • 1950s: Filip Kutev, composer, director of National Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance • Presented “modernized” folk songs • 1987: “world music” becomes marketing term. French label releases “Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares.”

  14. Ivo Papasov • Clarinetist, of Turkish and Rom heritage • Founded group Trakiya in 1974 • Created new form of popular music based on traditional wedding music (“Balkan jazz”) • Style includes use of compound dance meters, improvisation, scales and ornamentation from folk music • Incorporation of drum set and electric instruments, as well as “polished” sound

  15. “Hristianova Kopanitsa” • 2+2+3+2+2 • Begins with folk tune • Followed by improvised solos

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