Countries Archives: Bulgaria

Bulgaria–A Bulgarian Wedding

Bulgaria is proud of many centuries of consistent cultural celebrations, including time-tested traditions of marriage. True, the practical reason for some ancient Bulgarian wedding traditions is not so clear — for example, the bride throws a dish over her head that’s filled with wheat, coins and a raw egg, hoping it will smash to many pieces to somehow grant them luck — but some do have meaning. Even in ancient times Bulgarian weddings required consent of the bride, which was not true in all cultures. Tradition dictates that a prospective groom would not ask his intended father-in-law’s permission to marry his daughter directly, but would send his closest friend to ask instead. If the father agreed he would ask his daughter three times if she agreed. If so, the engagement would move forward.

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Bulgaria–Music

Internationally, Bulgarian music is best known for its unique and emotionally stirring female vocal tradition of so-called (though somewhat inaccurate) “open-throated” singing. In 1980 and album called “Le Mystères des Voixs Bulgares,” a compilation of a number of Bulgarian singing groups, introduced the global music community to these “other-worldly” songs.

But there’s a lot more to Bulgarian music than choruses of enthusiastic, polyphonic women. In Bulgaria, music is part of most every public and private celebration. Traditional
Bulgarians sang while they work in fields, upon the departure of young men for military service, or, in the case of young women, in the village square as a way to attract prospective husbands. There is a thousand year old tradition of Orthodox church music, which coexists in the Bulgarian music community with rock, rap, reggae, and even a unique, sometimes racy genre called Chalga, which is a contemporary style that merges traditional Bulgarian folk with Eastern European and Asian music.

Bulgarian folk music is unique in Europe for its “asymmetrical” rhythms, which Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist Bela Bartók called “Bulgarian rhythms,” in which the music isn’t split into even measures but instead into beats that are longer and shorter. The original rhythm for the Bulgarian song we sing, “Dilmano Dilbero,” is asymmetrical, though we make it a bit more symmetrical for class.

More information:
National Geographic on Bulgarian Music | More about “Le Mystères des Voixs Bulgares” | An impressive list of Bulgarian dances and more about their asymmetrical rhythms | Wikipedia on Chalga | A BBC video report about Chalga

In class we listen to “Neizpeti Pesni, Bulgarian All Stars Formation” (Unsung Songs) by “Stefan Dimitrov” from “42 Golden Hits of Bulgarian Pop Music.”

Bulgaria–Language

Bulgarian is a Slavic language that differs substantially from all others except its close cousin, Macedonian. Bulgarian developed in stages over the last twelve hundred years or so and appeared in its modern form in about the 16th century. Most in Bulgaria speak it, but because the legacy of Ottoman rule remains, many Bulgarians speak or at least understand Turkish.

Bulgaria–When you go there

While most European tourists know Bulgaria for the beautiful beaches on its Black Sea Coast, Lonely Planet.com’s Bulgaria page emphasizes that there is much more to the country than sand. Of particular note are Bulgaria’s miles of hiking and horse-riding trails that allow you to explore its interior forests and mountains, where you’ll encounter wildlife that is increasingly rare in Europe such as brown bears, gray wolves and wild boar. (Okay, you may not want to actually encounter any of those. So how about Bulgarian “cats n kittens?”) Bulgaria has a reliable and inexpensive transportation infrastructure that can take you to rural villages where the pace of life is refreshingly slow. Despite a frantic building boom, Bulgaria is still a place where you can find a bit of history, a bit of nature, a bit of of nightlife and, if you’re lucky, maybe even get invited to a Bulgarian wedding.

Bulgaria–Overview

Bulgaria has a millennium-long, cyclical history of ruling Southeastern Europe by force, eventually succumbing to stronger empires, struggling against those powers to achieve independence, then building up militarily to start the whole series of events again. Three dominant Bulgarian states have risen and fallen since the 9th century. Today’s Bulgaria lacks the military force of its predecessors, but maybe breaking this kind of cycle isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Bulgarians unified into a cohesive ethnicity about thirteen hundred years ago when Bulgars, Slavs and Thracians came together to form the First Bulgarian Empire. During the Empire, strong rulers halted a full Arab invasion of Eastern Europe and replaced pagan observances such as Tengriism with Eastern Orthodox Christianity. In 1018 the Byzantine Empire conquered the Bulgarians, but in 1185 the Bulgarians revolted, thus beginning the Second Bulgarian Empire…which fell in the late 14th century to the Ottoman Turks. During the next five centuries of Ottoman rule the Bulgarians rebelled often, but to no avail. Then, in 1878, some avail! The Russians beat back the Ottomans eventually Bulgaria became independent. Hence, the Third Bulgarian State…which almost collapsed in 1919 after fighting with the losing Central Powers in World War I. Between World Wars I and II, Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislas Xaver, also known as Boris III (or, when his publicity team really got into gear, Boris the Unifier), became king. He defeated Communist and Agrarian Union challenges to the monarchy but couldn’t defeat the Nazis, though he did refuse to allow them to exterminate the Jewish population of much of Bulgaria.

In 1944, a year after the death of Boris III, Bulgarian Communists overthrew the monarchy, developed strong ties with the USSR and established single party rule. Todor Zhivko became leader of the “People’s Republic of Bulgaria” in 1954 and reigned until 1989, most often stepping alongside the Kremlin but occasionally asserting a bit of Bulgarian nationalism. When the Soviets left in 1989, Bulgaria transitioned to a multiparty, parliamentary democracy and a free market economy, which since grown–at least until the 2008-2010 recession–though so has economic inequality. Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 with many high hopes, and also, according to this 2007 BBC-TV series, realistic fears.

More information:
Wikipedia on Bulgaria | Boris the Baptist: paving the way for Christianity in Bulgaria by paving over paganism | The fascinating story of Tsar Boris III: he fought leftists to keep his monarchy, stalled the Nazis to save Bulgarian Jews (though not all), died a suspicious death and ended up with his entire body gone, except for his heart | Todor Zhivko: love him or hate him, he ruled Bulgaria for a long time | Can you name the nine UNESCO World Heritage sites in Bulgaria? (First guess…the Ancient City of Nessebar!!)

Dilmano Dilbero

COUNTRY: Bulgaria
LANGUAGE: Bulgarian

Bulgarian music is known for its complicated additive rhythms In one traditional version of Dilmano Dilbero, the first line is in 8/16, then the “kajui mi kak se sadi” part is 11/18, then it goes to 5/16, then back to 8/16…wow. We’ve tamed the rhythms a bit for the purpose of singing it in music class, though we still give it a kick. “Dilmano Dilbero” is important both in Bulgarian weddings and as a labor/work song, tying together the importance of both life-cycle events like marriages and the regular coming of the harvests.

Lyrics of All Around This World version:

Paprika! Paprika!! Paprika!!! PAPRIKA!!!!
Dilmano, dilbero
Kaji mi kak se sadi pipero

Dilmano, dilbero

Now we pick the pipero

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Countries Archives: Bulgaria