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
• 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.
The Highlands
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).
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.
“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.
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)
Tamburitza
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
Music of Bulgaria
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
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”
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.”
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
“Hristianova Kopanitsa”
• 2+2+3+2+2
• Begins with folk tune
• Followed by
improvised solos