Search - Various Artists :: Thracian Rhapsody: New Wedding Music of Bulgaria, Vol. 1

Featured artists are Yîldîz Ibrahimova, voice; Ivo Papasov, clarinet; Alexander Raitchev, gaida; The Christo Yotsov Trio; Philip Simeonov, clarinet, with Ensemble Trîstenik; and Mladen Malakov, clarinet, with Ensemble Bisery. The new Bulgarian wedding music, a modern descendant of traditional Balkan folk, gypsy, and klezmer music, has taken Eastern Europe by storm; the excitement has spread to Western Europe and, now, the United States as well. These young musicians, riding on fiery, driving rhythms of extraordinary richness and complexity, have a stunning virtuosity, poignant expression, and ensemble excitement that is irresistible. The music, at once ancient and furiously contemporary, must be heard to be believed; it will take your breath away.
Originally performed at weddings, the new genre has found its place at all major festivals and rituals of life in Bulgaria. An instrumentation of voice, violin, clarinet, trumpet or flute, drums and accordion is often augmented by guitar and folk instruments like the kaval and gaida (Balkan flute and bagpipe). The majority of the players are gypsies.
The triumph of this music has been remarkably swift. Many of the current greats of Bulgarian wedding music (most of them are on this album) came to wide notice after 1985 at the annual village folk festivals in Stambolovo. These young musicians, steeped in traditional Balkan and gypsy music, have pioneered a new fusion using elements from Macedonian, Greek, Turkish, Romanian, Arabic and even Indian sources and are also influenced by contemporary classical music, pop and jazz. The whole, characterized by driving, asymmetrical meters and rhythms, and eastern melodic forms, is performed and improvised with emotional intensity, often at white heat. It is impossible not to respond to the breathtaking physicality of this music.
The great Bulgarian folk/jazz singer Yîldîz Ibrahimova and the clarinetists Ivo Papasov, Philip Simeonov and Mladen Malakov, all come out of the folk/gypsy tradition and most of the instrumentalists on the record are of Rom (gypsy) descent. All these performers possess levels of technique and improvisatory powers that extend instrumental possibilities into new realms of virtuosity and imagination. Papasov's expressive duets with Ibrahimova represent yet another, highly personal side to this art form.
Other instruments include the kaval, a flute that uses Eastern non-tempered scales, producing melodies and harmonies of bitter-sweet flavor. The gaida is played with extraordinary virtuosity and originality by Alexander Raitchev. Drums and percussion include the tîpan, carried with a shoulder strap and played with heavy and light beaters.
The new wedding music of Bulgaria has been described as a grass-roots phenomenon which has travelled from popular to high culture in a short time. It combines improvisation, exquisite melody, daring technical innovation, irreverence and change as well as dynamism, excitement and highly charged feeling. Criticized and suppressed under communism, it has literally exploded in recent years and its appeal now far transcends the region that gave it birth.