Excursions into Non-Western Music
Bulgarian Folk Music
I. Bulgaria is located on the west coast of the Black Sea and in the southeastern corner of Europe. To the north of Bulgaria lies Romania, Greece and Turkey lie to the south and Yugoslavia to the west. In whole, the total size of Bulgaria is roughly equal to the size of Tennessee, making it one of the smaller countries in the world. Being such a small country, Bulgaria has a vast range of topographic features such as plateaus, plains, hills, mountains, basins, gorges, and deep river valleys. The capital of Bulgaria is Sophia, which was named in 1879 after Bulgaria gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. Sophia is located on the western border of Bulgaria and sits on a higher basin. Sophia is a prime trade route between the Aegean Sea and the Danube River, as well as between Turkey and central Europe.
Historical tensions have drastically changed Bulgaria’s national borders several times since its first century of existence. Since 1944, Bulgaria has been defined by its natural terrain as borders of the country. In 1991 the country’s borders were disputed. Bulgarians claimed that they should have received a larger portion of Macedonia because of the ethnic connections between the Macedonians and the Bulgarians. However, Yugoslavia and Greece, did not agree to this claim and the borders stayed as they were.
Currently, Bulgaria has a border of 1406 miles. Of this, rivers account for 422 miles and the Black Sea claims 248 miles of borders. While on the Black Sea is responsible for the entire eastern border, the western and southern borders are defined predominantly by the ridges and the high terrains. The Romanian border is outlined by the Danube River, which has bluf...
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...ia in Transition: Musical Perspectives." Current Anthropology 49.3 (2008): 533-34. Student Research Center. EBSCOhost. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. . Anthropological look at the Bulgarian people
Silverman, Carol. "The Politics of Folklore in Bulgaria." Anthropological Quarterly 56.2 (1983): 55-61. Www.jstor.org. JSTOR. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. . Anthropological Bulgaria
Whiteley, Sheila. "The Balkans: Local Ethnic Music and Identity." Music, Space and Place Popular Music and Cultural Identity. Aldershot [u.a.: Ashgate, 2009. Print.
Over the course of history, music has developed from a personal, academic pursuit to an extension of a global marketplace and an attribute of this global community. In order to better address this conversation and the surrounding idea, Feld utilizes the platform he has developed to pose the argument that music has long been cultivated as a means of communication and interaction. This relationship is developed and analyzed as a case study in this article, which happens to be in discussing a traditional lullaby first developed in the Solomon Islands, which was in turn recorded by a European pop group that sold millions of copies of a rendition of the song. Furthermore, the article goes to show the trend of music to be redistributed and developed in the sense that it is later reused by a popular jazz musician in Europe. Feld then begs the question about the nature of the redistribution of music and whether this facilitates a hybridization of music or an alienation and artistic degradation of the original work for the indigenous artists.
Szabolcsi, Bence, Gyorgy Kroo. A Concise History of Hungarian Music. Budapest: Barrie and Rockliff, 1964.
“Together the matrices of race and music occupied similar position and shared the same spaces in the works of some of the most lasting texts of Enlightenment thought..., by the end of the eighteenth century, music could embody differences and exhibit race…. Just as nature gave birth and form to race, so music exhibited remarkable affinities to nature” (Radano and Bohlman 2000: 14). Radano and Bohlman pointed out that nature is a source of differences that give rise to the different racial identities. As music embodies the physical differences of human, racial differences are not only confined to the differences in physical appearances, but also the differences in many musical features, including language, tonality and vocal expression. Nonetheless, music is the common ground of different racial identities. “In the racial imagination, music also occupies a position that bridges or overlaps with racial differences. Music fills in the spaces between racial distinctiveness….” (Radano and Bohlman 2000:8) Even though music serves as a medium through which different racial identities are voiced and celebrated individually, it establishes the common ground and glues the differences
The history of Bulgaria is primarily influenced by one major factor: its location. The crossroad location of Bulgaria between Asia and Europe led to several clashes between the native tribes and tribes crossing over the region. This led to the eventual settling down of some the tribes like Slavs and Bulgars in the region which led to the development of classical history of Bulgaria. Tribes
Georgia’s prospects for future membership were further postponed in August of 2008 when they entered an armed conflict with the Russian Federation over the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The five day conflict between the Russian Federation and Georgia ceased after an outcry from the international community. Although the S...
Larsen, Susan. "National Identity, Cultural Authority, and the Post-Soviet Blockbuster: Nikita Mikhalkov and." Slavic Revie (2003): 491-511.
The delimitation of the maritime border and the continental shelf is one of the most complicated and delicate issues of Albania. It is related to historical affairs, Albanian heritage, economic development, international relations and the exploitation of our maritime natural resources. This delimitation has a great influence on the security and international politics between the states that are included in this issue and most importantly in the security and the prosperity of the region.
External historical events often changed Bulgaria's national boundaries in its first century of existence, natural terrain features defined most boundaries after 1944, and no significant group of people suffered serious economic hardship because of border delineation. Postwar Bulgaria contained a large percentage of the ethnic Bulgarian people, although numerous migrations into and out of Bulgaria occurred at various times. None of the country's borders was officially disputed in 1991, although nationalist Bulgarians continued to claim that Bulgaria's share of Macedonia--which it shared with both Yugoslavia and Greece--was less than just because of the ethnic connection between Macedonians and Bulgarians. In 1991 Bulgaria had a total border of about 2,264 kilometers. Rivers accounted for about 680 kilometers and the Black Seacoast for 400 kilometers. Ridges in mainly defined the southern and western borders high terrain. The western and northern boundaries were shared with Yugoslavia and Romania, respectively, and the Black Sea coastline constituted the entire eastern border. The Romanian border followed the Danube River for 464 kilometers from the northwestern corner of the country to the city of Silistra and then cut to the east-southeast for 136 kilometers across the northeastern province of Varna. The Danube, with steep bluffs on the Bulgarian side and a wide area of swamps and marshes on the Romanian side, was one of the most effective rivers boundaries in Europe. The line through Dobruja was arbitrary and was redrawn several times according to international treaties. In that process, most inhabitants with strong national preferences resettled in the country of their choice. Borders to the south were with Greece and Turkey. The border with Greece was 491 kilometers long, and the Turkish border was 240 kilometers long. Bulgaria covers approximately 110,550 square kilometers. Its topography is mostly hills combined with plateaus, with major flatlands to the north and the center of the country. Its main mountain ranges Balkan and Rhodope include two major ranges, Pirin and Rila. The climate is divided by mountains into continental and Mediterranean. The rainfall is very variable, with largest amounts in higher elevations.
Some may say music is just music; a song is just a song. However, music plays an enormous role in our psychology, because a single song has the ability to bring about many kinds of thoughts and emotions in the listener. Music is subtly one of the main factors in which people identify with certain groups and establish their belonging in society. It shapes people’s perspectives on how the world functions and the roles they play within it. Music can function the same way in a culture; it can reflect many of the culture’s values and ideologies. Music can have many effects on culture and the people’s idea of who they think they are within that culture. Music can serve in a way that promotes cultural identity and pride, yet it could also play a role in the separation of social and economical identities in within cultures.
After The Great October Revolution Bolsheviks gave (not returned) to the Ukraine territories of the south of Russia. All these territorial reforms were held without the consideration of the national population of these territories. Even in our Central Asian region there are a lot of misunderstandings that Bolsheviks and then Soviet nomenclature left us: tensions on the Kyrgyzstan – Tajikistan border in the south, tensions between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan about the status of historical city of Bukhara. Similar tensions were brought to the afterwards sovereign Republic of Ukraine and Russian Federation in far 1954 year by the General Secretary of the CPSU – Nikita Khrushchev, who handed the Crimean region and Sevastopol to the Ukrainian Republic. It was not the big deal or territorial problem, because these lands were transiting inside of one huge country. That’s why it was accepted as a trifle formality. The soviet population couldn’t imagine that Russia, Georgia or Kazakhstan separately from the USSR – it was one big united area. But fortunately or unfortunately it happened. ‘’ Millions of people went to bed in one country and awoke in different ones, overnight becoming ethnic minorities in former Union republics, while the Russian nation became one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders.’’ Problems that were launched decades before surfaced on the surface of political problems’ sea of Russia and Ukraine.But those problems were masked and lulled by the afterwards peaceful policy-making between two states, f.e. – delimitation of borders (by Kuchma’s initiative in 2000), maritime delineation of boundary in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch
Dolitsky, A. (1984). Soviet Studies of Northern Peoples. Current Anthropology, 25.4, p. 502-503. Retrieved on Feb. 26, 2014, from https://jstorproxy.tmcc.edu/stable/2742912
Folklore and history are in the current set apart as two disciplines separate to each other in approach to study and method. However both history and folklore originated from the same base subject; both are concerned with the recording of the human record. This Essay will discuss if folklore can be utilized by historians and if so what problems does it present in terms of reliability and usefulness in the context of evidence for historians. Before analysing this however it is important to define the difference between folklore and history to starting with their independent definitions. One definition of folklore given by the Oxford dictionary is “the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth. ” However this definition ignores non-verbal traditions such as Folk art and Folk Architecture. However the most important part of this definition is in the method of transcription through time by word of mouth. Comparatively one definition of the study of history is “The bodies of knowledge about the past produced by historians, together with everything that is involved in the production, communication of, and teaching about that knowledge. ” These definitions highlight a crucial difference between folklore and history; History is the study of the past by historians for deciphering and recording the past; comparatively to this Folklore is the passing down of: beliefs, traditions and practises, through the generations not out of academic intrigue but rather from tradition itself. In short it can be described as Elite History vs ‘common peoples history’. In an attempt to discuss the usefulness of folklore to historians this essay will first look to the relationship between Histo...
The Republic of Azerbaijan is a mountainous region. Sixty percent (Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan.az) of the country is complex terrain. Azerbaijan borders the Caspian Sea in the east. Iran borders to the south. Armenia and Georgia border to the west. Russia borders to the north (State). The region also has a lot flat plains. Azerbaijan has many beaches on the coast.
Bulgaria is a relatively small country but it contains a wide diversity of folk dance styles. I believe this is the main reason why Bulgarian dances are so popular among international folk dancers. Bulgaria is located in south-eastern Europe and surrounded by Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey. First, we will have a brief introduction of Bulgaria and its folklore regions, then will introduce some folk instruments and describe each folklore region one by one.
Music has played a role in society since the dawn of man. Said to be the beginning of communication in early civilization, music and dance have influenced how we think, act and treat members of our own society. Song and dance is used in rites of passage ceremonies such as births, weddings and funerals throughout the world. Jamaican and Yoruba cultures have made many contributions to our society. The uses of this music as a vehicle for political issues, values, and beliefs have been used by many musicians from different cultures. I intend to discuss the Contribution of these two contemporary cultures music and their effect on society.