Bulagarian Songs

 

Traditional Bulgarian songs are our national heritage. In recent years we have seen veritable boom of Bulgaria’s folklore on the international scene too. Famous artists from all over the word are exited to include fragments of Bulgarian songs in their albums, movie sound tracks, and even commercials. One of them is Kate Bush. In her song Rocket's Tail, from the album The Sensual World, she includes as a background the music of Trio Bulgarka - Stoyanka Boneva, Yanka Rupkina, and Eva Georgieva. I'm happy to offer to your attention one of their songs “Tree Nightingales are Singing."

“Bulgarian mystical sounds will change the way Western musician think.”   Kate Bush

 

I’m tempted to offer you another authentic Bulgarian song -“Izlel e Delyu Haydutin” performed by the famous Bulgarian singer from Rhodope region - Valia Balkanska.

 

There is an interesting fact about this song. Along with music from many cultures, this song is recorded on a golden CD and is on the spacecraft Voyager, launched in 1977 by NASA, as a message of the human nation to other civilizations.

I’m happy to see the young people of Bulgaria sing the traditional Bulgarian songs with the same feelings and passion as their grandmothers did. Here is the Bulgarian girl Novena Tzoneva performing “Izlel e Delyu Haydutin” and won the first Music Idol Bulgaria.

Bulgarians are very fond of their traditional Bulgarian songs, which hold an important place in their lives. Bulgarian songs are sung when one is working or having well-deserved rest, on work days and holidays, all year around. In ancient times songs used to be as important as a book, a newspaper, a school, since it preserved the experience and the knowledge of the people and helped the circulation of news, events and the formation of aesthetic taste.

Bulgarian songs were performed mostly by Bulgarian women. They often sang in full voice and the sound would spread out unforgettable and purifying. The Bulgarian women sang songs dedicated to their work, to national holidays, to dance and celebrations. After finishing her chores, the women embroiders in the peace of her home and sings, devoting her feelings, pouring her song pass from generation to generation.

Bulgarian songs have been created by thousands of unknown women and girls on many sad and happy days, when working at their loom, in the fields, at the horo (a traditional Bulgarian national dance) and sedenki (a gathering of women where they knit and sew). In these songs the people pored out its soul. They were the people’s consolation in times of need trouble, a source of faith in the future, and expression of its hopes.

The Bulgarian songs would often be sad, since the life of their creators was not an easy one. They reflect the history of the people and are the evidence that the five century long Turkish slavery never succeeded in crushing the spirit of the Bulgarians.


Lyrics of the song "Zaydi, zaydi yasno Slance"
Performed by young Bulgarian singer Iva Davidova

Go down, go down, bright sunshine.
And you, bright moonlight,
Go down, drown yourself in darkness.

Weep, forest, weep, my sister,
Let`s weep together - me and you,
You - for your leaves, me - for my youth.

Your leaves, forest, my sister,
Will come back to you.
My youth, forest, my sister,
Will never return to me.

How were these folklore masterpieces created? Bulgarian songs are always based on a real fact. The song is created after the news of an exceptional and existing event is communicated. This would either be natural phenomenon or an unheard of scandal to provoke the creation of the song. Its origin is usually in the village where the event has taken place. The new song is created at the sedenki and in the fields. The lyrics are coined after the voice has been chosen. The voice could be linked to a mold that defines the form of the lyric. After it has been created at the sedenki, the new song is sung at the horo, the whole village hears it and afterwards it quickly becomes popular in the neighboring villages.

Some of the oldest national Bulgarian songs are the rural songs. Sung at respective rituals, they reflect the pre-Christian pagan beliefs, and most of them bear a close connection to the toil of the people, and life close to nature. These songs have a strict place in the ritual – they plead for rain, they drive drought of the evil spirits away, they make young brides sad when they leave their homes.

There are songs dedicated to certain customs – Christmas, Easter. Others have noting to do with calendar holidays and are dedicated to weddings or prayers for rain.

 

Text Courtesy Maria Zaharieva