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Bulgarian music is part of the Balkan tradition, which stretches across Southeastern Europe, and has its own distinctive sound. Traditional Bulgarian music has had more international success than its neighbors due to the breakout international success of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, a woman's choir that has topped world music charts across Europe and even farther abroad.

NOTE: Bulgarian is written using the Cyrillic alphabet, so transliterations into the Roman alphabet will result in minor variations of spelling (e.g., paidushko and padushka, gadulka and g'dulka).

Bulgarian vocals are said to be "open-throated", though this is actually a misnomer. Singers actually constrict their throats to amplify the voice's focus and strength, giving it a distinctive sound.

Folk music

Regional styles abound in Bulgaria. Dobrudzha, Sofia, Rodopi, Bulgarian Macedonia (the Pirin region), Thrace and the Danube shore all have distinctive sounds. Folk music revolved around holidays like Christmas, New Year's Day, midsummer, and the Feast of St. Lazarus, as well as the Strandzha region's unusual Nestinarstvo rites, in which villagers fell into a trance and danced on hot coals as part of the joint feast of Sts Konstantin and Elena on May 21. Music was also a part of more personal celebrations such as weddings. Singing has always been a tradition for both men and women. Songs were often sung by women at work parties such as the sedenka (often attended by young men and women in search of partners to court), betrothal ceremonies, and just for fun. A special form of song, the lament, was sung not only at funerals but also upon the departure of young men for military service.

The most important state-supported orchestra of this era was the Sofia-based State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances, led by Philip Koutev. Koutev has become perhaps the most influential musician of 20th century Bulgaria, and updated rural music with more accessible harmonies to great domestic acclaim.

The distinctive sounds of women's choirs in Bulgarian folk music come partly from their unique 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 Shope region around the Bulgarian capital Sofia and the Pirin region. In addition to Koutev, who pioneered many of the harmonies, and composed several songs that were covered by other groups, (especially Tedora), various women's vocal groups gained popularity, including Trio Bulgarka, consisting of Yanka Roupkina, Eva Georgieva, and Stoyanka Boneva, some of whom were included in the "Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices" tours.

During the Communist era, some musicians lived outside the state-supported music scene. Without official support, wedding bands were also without official limitations on their music, leading to fusions with foreign styles and instruments. Thrace was an important center of this music, which was entirely underground until 1986, when a festival of this music, which became a biennial event, was inaugurated in the town of Stambolovo, and artists like Sever, Trakiîski Solisti, Shoumen and Juzhni Vetar became popular, especially clarinetist Ivo Papasov.

An orchestra in a Bulgarian mehana, with, from left to right, musicians playing the tapan, accordion, kaval and gadulka

Instruments Used in Bulgarian music

Bulgarian music uses a wide range of instruments. Many folk instruments are variants of traditional Turkish instruments such as the "Saz". More modern style instruments are often used in the more modern dance music that was an offshoot of traditional village music.

Folk instruments

Bulgarian bands use instruments that commonly include:

The gaida, a traditional goat-skin bagpipe. There are two common types of gaida. The Thracian gaida is tuned either in D or in A. The Rhodopi gaida, called the kaba gaida, is larger, has a much deeper sound and is tuned in F.
The kaval, an end-blown flute that is very close to the Turkish kaval, as well as the Arabic "Ney."
The gadulka, a bowed string instrument perhaps descended from the rebec, held vertically, with melody and sympathetic strings
The tǔpan, a large frame drum worn over the shoulder by the player and hit with a beater ("kiyak") on one side and a thin stick ("osier") on the other
The tambura, a long-necked metal-strung lute used for rhythmic accompaniment as well as melodic solos
The tarabuka or dumbek, an hourglass-shaped finger-drum. It is very similar to the Turkish and North African "darbooka" and the Greek "doumbeleki"

Dance instruments (modern "Bulgarian Wedding Music")

Accordion
Clarinet
Saxophone
Drum set
Electric bass
Electric guitar

The new professional musicians of traditional Bulgarian instruments soon reached new heights of innovation, expanding the capacities of the gaida (Kostadin Varimezov and Nikola Atanasov), gadulka (Mihail Marinov, Atanas Vulchev) and kaval (Nikola Ganchev, Stoyan Velichkov). Other, factory-made instruments had arrived in Bulgaria in the 19th century, and included the accordion. Bulgarian accordion music was defined by Boris Karlov and later Gypsy musicians including Kosta Kolev and Ibro Lolov. In 1965, the Ministry of Culture founded the Koprivshtitsa National Music Festival, which has become an important event, held once every five years, showcasing Bulgarian music, singing and dance. The last festival was in August of 2005.

Folk Dances

Main article: Bulgarian dances.

The most distinctive feature of Balkan folk dance music is its complex rhythms (compared to Western music), which are built using combinations of groups of 2 ("quick") and 3 ("slow") beats. All of the basic folk dances use a distinct combination of these rhythmic "units". Some examples are lesnoto, "the slow one,"(7 beats divided 3-2-2), kopanitsa (11 beats divided 2-2-3-2-2), rachenitsa (2-2-3), paidushko (a skipping beat of 2-3) and "pravo horo", which can either be standard 4/4 or 6/8. Some rhythms with the same number of beats can be divided in different ways: for example, 8-beat rhythms can be divided 2-3-3, 3-2-3, 3-3-2, 2-2-2-2, 2-2-4, 2-4-2, 4-2-2, or even 4-4.

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