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...
... middle of paper ...
...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.
An idea emerging here, one expressed by many, is that Yugoslavia may have been alright, or at least far better off and not torn apart if it were not for Milosevic’s means of gaining political power. While these factions did have their differences, they had coexisted for thousands of years before WWI and Tito, the former leader, was able to keep them together. This idea of “ethno-kitsch” began around 1987, and involved a sort of new taste for an almost vulgar fascination with Serbian nationalism. According to Udovicki and Ridgweway, it, “was everywhere in Serbia.” At the root of this “ethno-kitsch” in the late 1980s was a progressively growing perception that Serbian people had been wronged and were hated – completely undeservedly – by other ethnic groups in Yugoslavia.
“How Musical is Man?” was published in 1974. This book was written by John Blacking, a musician turned social anthropologist. His goal in writing this ethnography, and several other papers during this same time period, was to compare the experience of music-making that takes place within different cultures and societies throughout the world. In this book, he discusses and describes the musicology of the Venda people in South Africa. Though he does go to Africa to research and learn about the Venda people and their music, he specifically states that his book is “not a scholarly study of human musicality” (ix), but rather it is a summary (written from his point of view), which is both expressive and entertaining, of several different issues and ideas that he has seemingly been contemplating for some time.
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.
During the course of this semester, the several musical styles that have been discussed and analyzed have displayed various similarities and differences. These differences in certain musical elements have accounted for the distinctiveness and uniqueness of each style of music. The culture behind these countries’ music adds even more to their individualism. Cultural aspects such as religion play a huge role in the music of each country as well. Styles of music in Africa might be more upbeat than certain styles in India, for example. Some cultures use music in religion, while others may not. Aspects such as dance are important factors in all three types of music. Despite the differences and similarities, however, without music, these cultures would perhaps not be as fascinating and unique as they are now.
Bulgaria has a population of 7.4 million people and occupied around 42,800 square meter. Back to 1218, it was one of the largest country in Europe under Ivan Asen II which named the second Bulgarian Empire. However, the decline of the Empire result in the loss of independent of Bulgaria and became a state of the Ottoman Empire. By the help of the Soviet Union, it became independent again at 1908. Until 1989, it gave up communism and applied parliamentary democracy. Bulgaria folk music is a significant part of Bulgarian culture. There are six folklore regions – Dobrudja, Thrace, Pirin, Sofia Region- Shopluk, the Rhodopes and North Bulgaria- Moesia.
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
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.
With the music being the highly profitable, capitalist enterprise that it is today, it is no wonder that it is controlled and regulated by a few large conglomerates that exist is today’s world. It is important to make clear that although evidence is being presented of the positive aspects of globalization through music that there is overwhelming evidence that cultural imperialism is more than it seems on the outside. One must keep in mind that cultural imperialism, globalization and the creation of a global village is a business. People are profiting at other people’s loss of cultural identity, they are sold a culture and heritage. With the every growing N’Sync fan clubs and Britney clones, the world is turning into a stage for pop culture and its glamorous unattainable standards.
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...
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.
According to the Serbian view in competing claims concerning Kosovo’s historical significance, the national and religious factors are the central of the Serbian identity. (Miranda Vickers, 1988:6). Kosovo Albanians and Serbs both claim in this area dates back centuries, regardless of who arrived first the Albanian and Slavic people have cohabitated the territory of Kosovo for hundreds of years. Albanians on the other hand claim the first possession of Kosovo, they claim that they wer...