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Culture of Bulgaria
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Culture of Bulgaria
The culture of Bulgaria has deep roots in the traditions of the Slavic peoples who settled the Balkans in the early Middle Ages, with influence from Byzantine civilisation, Thracian heritage, medieval Bulgarian statehood, Eastern Christianity and the cultural interaction of the Ottoman period.
Thracian heritage in the Bulgarian lands includes numerous temples, tombs, golden treasures and ancient ritual traditions. Some customs with pre-Christian roots, such as Kukeri, Martenitsa and rites connected with seasonal fertility, remain part of modern Bulgarian culture. The oldest known treasure of worked gold in the world, dating back to the 5th millennium BC, comes from the site of the Varna Necropolis.
Bulgaria functioned as a cultural hub of Slavic Europe during much of the Middle Ages, exerting considerable literary and cultural influence over the Eastern Orthodox Slavic world through the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools. Bulgaria also gave the world the Cyrillic script, the second most widely used alphabet and sixth most-used writing system in the world, which originated in these two schools in the tenth century.
Bulgaria's cultural contribution continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in literature, music, theatre, visual arts and science. Internationally recognised Bulgarian figures include John Atanasoff, a United States citizen of Bulgarian and British descent regarded as one of the pioneers of the digital computer, the pianist Alexis Weissenberg, and visual artists such as Christo, Pascin and Vladimir Dimitrov.
Bulgaria has a long-standing musical tradition dating to the early Middle Ages. One of the earliest known composers of Medieval Europe, Yoan Kukuzel (ca. 1280–1360), became famous for his work Polieleion of the Bulgarian Woman. About 90 of his works have survived. Kukuzel also reformed the Byzantine musical writing system, and became known as The Angel-voiced for his singing abilities.
The tradition of church singing in Bulgaria is more than thousand years old. In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church there are two traditions of church singing - Eastern monodic (one-voice) singing and choral (polyphonic). The Eastern monodic singing observes the tradition of Greek and Byzantine music as well as the requirements of the eight-voices polyphonic canon of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The second tradition is the choral church music, established during the nineteenth century, when in Bulgaria enters the influence of Russian polyphonic choral church music. Many Bulgarian composers (Dobri Hristov, Petar Dinev, etc.) create their works in the spirit of Russian polyphony. Today Orthodox music is alive and is performed both during church worship services and at concerts by secular choirs and soloists. Contemporary Bulgarian choirs whose repertoire includes Orthodox music include the Yoan Kukuzel Choir, Plovdiv Boys' Choir 'Stefka Blagoeva', Sofia Boys' Choir, Madrigal Sofia Choir, Sofia Orthodox Choir and Sofia Priest Choir. Bulgaria has also produced internationally recognised opera singers, including Boris Christoff, Nicola Ghiuselev, Nicolai Ghiaurov, regarded as one of the major basses of the post-World War II era; Ghena Dimitrova, an internationally acclaimed dramatic soprano associated with major Verdi and Puccini roles; Elena Nicolai, a Bulgarian mezzo-soprano associated with the Italian operatic tradition; and Raina Kabaivanska, whose international career included a long association with Italian opera and La Scala.
Bulgarian classical music has also been represented by internationally active conductors. Important figures in the Bulgarian conducting tradition include Sasha Popov, founder of the Academic Symphony Orchestra, the predecessor of the Sofia Philharmonic, whose first concert he conducted in 1929; Ruslan Raychev, who worked with leading Bulgarian opera and symphonic institutions and appeared internationally in Europe, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Japan; Emil Tchakarov, a laureate of the Herbert von Karajan conducting competition who later worked as Karajan's assistant; Emil Tabakov, former music director of the Sofia Philharmonic and Belgrade Philharmonic and a prize-winner at the Nikolai Malko International Competition for Young Conductors; Nayden Todorov, artistic director of the Sofia Philharmonic since 2017; and Rossen Milanov, music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Princeton Symphony Orchestra.
The distinctive sound of Bulgarian folk music comes partly from the asymmetric rhythms, harmony and polyphony, such as the use of close intervals like the major second and the singing of a drone accompaniment underneath the melody, especially common in songs from the Shopluk region in Western Bulgaria and the Pirin region.
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Culture of Bulgaria
The culture of Bulgaria has deep roots in the traditions of the Slavic peoples who settled the Balkans in the early Middle Ages, with influence from Byzantine civilisation, Thracian heritage, medieval Bulgarian statehood, Eastern Christianity and the cultural interaction of the Ottoman period.
Thracian heritage in the Bulgarian lands includes numerous temples, tombs, golden treasures and ancient ritual traditions. Some customs with pre-Christian roots, such as Kukeri, Martenitsa and rites connected with seasonal fertility, remain part of modern Bulgarian culture. The oldest known treasure of worked gold in the world, dating back to the 5th millennium BC, comes from the site of the Varna Necropolis.
Bulgaria functioned as a cultural hub of Slavic Europe during much of the Middle Ages, exerting considerable literary and cultural influence over the Eastern Orthodox Slavic world through the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools. Bulgaria also gave the world the Cyrillic script, the second most widely used alphabet and sixth most-used writing system in the world, which originated in these two schools in the tenth century.
Bulgaria's cultural contribution continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in literature, music, theatre, visual arts and science. Internationally recognised Bulgarian figures include John Atanasoff, a United States citizen of Bulgarian and British descent regarded as one of the pioneers of the digital computer, the pianist Alexis Weissenberg, and visual artists such as Christo, Pascin and Vladimir Dimitrov.
Bulgaria has a long-standing musical tradition dating to the early Middle Ages. One of the earliest known composers of Medieval Europe, Yoan Kukuzel (ca. 1280–1360), became famous for his work Polieleion of the Bulgarian Woman. About 90 of his works have survived. Kukuzel also reformed the Byzantine musical writing system, and became known as The Angel-voiced for his singing abilities.
The tradition of church singing in Bulgaria is more than thousand years old. In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church there are two traditions of church singing - Eastern monodic (one-voice) singing and choral (polyphonic). The Eastern monodic singing observes the tradition of Greek and Byzantine music as well as the requirements of the eight-voices polyphonic canon of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The second tradition is the choral church music, established during the nineteenth century, when in Bulgaria enters the influence of Russian polyphonic choral church music. Many Bulgarian composers (Dobri Hristov, Petar Dinev, etc.) create their works in the spirit of Russian polyphony. Today Orthodox music is alive and is performed both during church worship services and at concerts by secular choirs and soloists. Contemporary Bulgarian choirs whose repertoire includes Orthodox music include the Yoan Kukuzel Choir, Plovdiv Boys' Choir 'Stefka Blagoeva', Sofia Boys' Choir, Madrigal Sofia Choir, Sofia Orthodox Choir and Sofia Priest Choir. Bulgaria has also produced internationally recognised opera singers, including Boris Christoff, Nicola Ghiuselev, Nicolai Ghiaurov, regarded as one of the major basses of the post-World War II era; Ghena Dimitrova, an internationally acclaimed dramatic soprano associated with major Verdi and Puccini roles; Elena Nicolai, a Bulgarian mezzo-soprano associated with the Italian operatic tradition; and Raina Kabaivanska, whose international career included a long association with Italian opera and La Scala.
Bulgarian classical music has also been represented by internationally active conductors. Important figures in the Bulgarian conducting tradition include Sasha Popov, founder of the Academic Symphony Orchestra, the predecessor of the Sofia Philharmonic, whose first concert he conducted in 1929; Ruslan Raychev, who worked with leading Bulgarian opera and symphonic institutions and appeared internationally in Europe, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Japan; Emil Tchakarov, a laureate of the Herbert von Karajan conducting competition who later worked as Karajan's assistant; Emil Tabakov, former music director of the Sofia Philharmonic and Belgrade Philharmonic and a prize-winner at the Nikolai Malko International Competition for Young Conductors; Nayden Todorov, artistic director of the Sofia Philharmonic since 2017; and Rossen Milanov, music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Princeton Symphony Orchestra.
The distinctive sound of Bulgarian folk music comes partly from the asymmetric rhythms, harmony and polyphony, such as the use of close intervals like the major second and the singing of a drone accompaniment underneath the melody, especially common in songs from the Shopluk region in Western Bulgaria and the Pirin region.
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