Music in Bulgaria: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (Global Music Series)
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Music in Bulgaria: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (Global Music Series) Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
A short but fairly detailed introduction for non-ethnographers
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Timothy Rice's MUSIC IN BULGARIA, part of Oxford University Press' "Global Music" series, is a concise introduction to the world of Bulgarian musical life from peasant traditions of centuries past to the pop-folk ("chalga") combination enjoyed by modern urban listeners. Unlike Rice's earlier work on the subject, MAY IT FILL YOUR SOUL: Experiencing Bulgarian Music, this volume assumes no prior study of enthography, but a knowledge of basic music theory is vital to making the most out of it.
Rice begins with the wedding music scene, the only survival of village communal music that exists in the lives of average urban Bulgarians. Describing a wedding in Sofia, he gives a portrait of Maria Stoyanova, a player of the gaida (bagpipe) brought with a well-known band for this lavish event. He next describes a Roma wedding in a village, the next place Stoyanova was invited to perform. After this fairly substantial dive into Bulgarian music, Rice gives a more systematic tour, such as the distinctive characteristics of each region's music. The reader will learn how to tell a Shop song from Pirin singing, recognise the several most common traditional instruments, and understand the origin of various kinds of music in the agricultural calendar.
The next portion of the book deals with the impact of politics on music, explaining how folk music was sanatized by the Communist government and then exported abroad as world music. "Les Mystere des Voix Bulgares" is the most well-known example. Many American musicians and listeners have been fascinated with the sound of this state-crafted music, whether because of its interesting rhythms, its otherworldly harmonies, or (for a subset of choral fans) because its female voices can be taken as a feminist statement. However, Rice is critical of those who take some aspects of Bulgaria's music without wanting to truly understand the social and cultural background of this rich heritage. Finally, Rice describes the most recent redaction of folk music in Bulgaria, the combination of folk inspiration with modern instruments that creates the genre known as popfolk or chalga.
Throughout the book Rice gives us some neat details about the music described, including instructions for the pravo horo danced at weddings, the lyrics of famous songs, and the scores of some tunes. I must say I was frustrated by the simple level of the writing. The "Global Music" series is meant for college readers but here it seems like a high-school audience is held in mind here. Nonetheless, this is a fun and informative book, sure to entertain and enlighten English-speaking fans of Bulgarian music. |
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