Aspects of Bulgarian Musical Thought

Author(s): Timothy Rice

Source: Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, Vol. 12 (1980), pp. 43-66
Published by: International Council for Traditional Music
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/767653 .
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 ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT

by Timothy Rice
Folk musicians are generally assumed to make music but not to think
very much about it. Yet recent studies by Zemp (1978, 1979) and others
demonstrate the existence of elaborate conceptual systems related to
music in cultures without a written tradition. If the comparison between
Western and a particular non-Western music theory seems invidious, it is
partly because the West has a tradition of discourse about music (musica
theoretica) that has existed for over 2000 years quite apart from practical
music making (musica practica).
Were it not for this humanistic tradition of music theory as an aspect
of general philosophy and science, the musicians of the West might not
be very successful verbalizers about music. Even today when most of the
West's trained musicians are squeezed reluctantly through a conserva-
tory program of music history and theory, they often emerge virtually
untouched by the influence of this verbal tradition. In a culture where
music per se has never been the proper object of lengthy speech
discourse, it should not be surprising to find less music theory than in the
West. The comparison seems invidious only because it involves the pro-
verbial apples and oranges: another culture's musicians with the West's
philosopher-scientist. Seen in this light, comparison, especially value-
laden comparison, is clearly fruitless and culture-serving.
My purpose, then, is to delineate the folk taxonomies, terms, and
behaviors relevant to a study of Bulgarian musical thought, gathered in
the last few years from Bulgarian folk singers and instrumentalists.
Specifically the report deals with how they talked and behaved with
respect to musical sound per se. Material can be collected from them on
the origins of music, on how the songs are passed on and learned, on the
meaning of the texts, and on the uses and importance of music in
everyday life. But this discussion focuses on musical sounds and their
structures and the way Bulgarian villagers think about them.
Three kinds of behavioral evidence advance the argument: verbal,
physical, and musical. By assuming that the way people talk about some-
thing reflects how they think about it, a verbal expression can be linked
to an idea. Epistemologically this is extremely tricky, however, because
knowledge of a label does not imply knowledge of the folk category or
domain to which it refers (Conklin 1969: 96). To overcome problems of
translating labels and categories from one language and culture to an-
other, cognitive anthropologists have developed formal semantic pro-
cedures that help to uncover the extent and structure of these domains
(Black 1969).
In this study less formal, and hence presumably less replicable, pro-
cedures were used which combined more or less simultaneous obser-
44 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

vation of verbal, physical, and musical behavior. These observations

were then informally cross-correlated in an attempt to understand
Bulgarian cognition with respect to music. For example, physical
behaviors such as the position of performers and musical behavior such
as pitch manipulation are occasionally used to infer the ideas that lie
behind them. Sometimes such behaviors are used to confirm or deny the
existence of categories already held by the investigator. However, their
best and most typical use here is to corroborate or validate verbal
evidence given by Bulgarian villagers.
The discussion begins with an examination of the range of Bulgarian
behaviors labelled "musical" in English, and it is demonstrated that the
structure of this domain in Bulgarian is different from the English do-
main. The segregate (Frake 1969: 31) labelled 'song' in Bulgarian is then
examined and a folk taxonomy of song textures is proposed. Finally, the
ideas that Bulgarians have about the musical structure of one sub-
category of song texture are examined in detail.
Music and Non-music
The boundary between music and non-music, "one of the most impor-
tant . . . concepts" according to Merriam (1964: 63), is extremely diffi-
cult to determine with precision in any culture. For an outsider beginning
a period of ethnomusicological field work, the problem often seems to in-
volve finding labels that correspond to 'musical' behaviors. There are
cultures, for example, without a label for the range of behaviors called
'musical' in English, and other cultures with a label that seems to include
nearly the same range of behaviors as our word 'music.' The labels, how-
ever, are only the beginning of the problem; the ethnomusicologist must
also understand the extent and the structure of the domains in question
(see Kay 1969 for a summary of some basic structural types).
The problems of labelling and categorization are usually encountered
early in any field-work experience. In Bulgarian-Englishdictionaries, for
example, the words muzika and muzikant are glossed simply, but some-
what misleadingly, as 'music' and 'musician,' respectively. Using these
words in conversations with villagers, however, led to unexpected
behavior on their part-a sure sign that the investigator's categories do
not match those of the culture. Expressing an interest in these two labels
invariably led to players of Western instruments such as clarinet and
trumpet. There may have been players of indigenous instruments
around, but questions about 'musicians' was not getting me to them.
Finally the adjective 'traditional' (bitov) was added to 'music' and this led
to players of kaval, gudulka, tambura, and gajda.1
Singers turned up only by accident and my interest in them was
greeted with, "we didn't know you were interested in singers." How
could they not understand that someone interested in musicians would
also be interested in singers? The misunderstanding was finally resolved
through another line of questioning. When describing rituals or customs
no longer performed or that occurred at a different time of year, people
would frequently say, "there is no music (muzika) for this ritual, only
RICE MUSICALTHOUGHT/ 45
ASPECTSOFBULGARIAN

songs (pesni)." Taken together, this statement, repeated by many people,

plus the previous misunderstanding demonstrates that, for Bulgarian
villagers, singer (pevitsa) and musician (musikant) must be contrasting
categories, whereas from a Western or at least ethnomusicological
perspective it is possible to include singers within the category of musi-
cian. The labels 'music' and 'musician' must map onto different concep-
tual categories in Bulgaria than they do in America. Until this was under-
stood, however, confusion reigned and field work covering the range of
behaviors defined as 'musical' in the West was considerably hampered.
'Music' in Bulgarian is not an overarching category that includes both
vocal and instrumental performances. Muzika in Bulgarian denotes
'instrumental music' in English, and additionally 'musical instrument'
and especially 'Western musical instrument.'
The word muzika remained a problem, however. In borrowing it from
the Greek, where it once referred to nine arts and sciences, the Bulgarians
had applied it even more narrowly than Westerners had to instrumental
performance alone. If this were a distinct category of Bulgarian musical
thought, then a Slavic word must mean or have meant the same thing.
Conversations with instrumentalists eventually confirmed this hypo-
thesis. Svirnya is the Slavic word they use to mean instrumental music or
instrumental tune and svirach means musician or instrumentalist. They
had equated the borrowed Greek word, muzika, to svirnya (instrumental
tune), not to some larger art of combining tones.
Eventually other words associated with the domain of 'musical'
behaviors emerged,2 and it became clear that Bulgarians use at least five
separate verbs to describe activities potentially related to the Western
concept of music: plays (sviri), sings (pee), laments (tuguva), beats
(tupa), and dances (igrae). (All the verbs are given in the present tense,
third-person singular since there are no infinitives in Bulgarian.) Each of
these verbs is transitive and linked uniquely with specific cognate sub-
jects and objects: a 'tuner' 'tunes' a tune or a musician plays music
(svirach sviri svirnya or muzikant sviri muzika), a singer sings a song
(pevitsa pee pesen), a lamenter laments a lament (tuguvashtiat tuguva
tuga), a drummer drums a drum (tupandzhiya tupa tapan), and a dancer
dances a dance (igrach igrae igra or horo). In this classification scheme,
'tune' (svirnya) is largely synonymous with 'music' (muzika) and both
directly contrast with song (pesen); 'song' is not included within muzika.
Although English usage possesses some similarities, there are some im-
portant differences. The Bulgarian categories are separate and cannot be
intermixed as they are in English. Where we might say, "He played a
waltz and then a love song," at least some Bulgarians would be careful to
say that he actually played the tune (svirnya, muzika) for a waltz and
then the tune for a love song. Ironically, record jacket notes and concert
programs produced today in Bulgaria reflect the relative imprecision of
modern Western usage. They write, 'he plays a wedding song and a
straight dance' (toj sviri svadbarska pesen i pravo horo). But, according
to Kostadin Varimezov, Bulgaria's leading bagpiper, it would be more
correct to write, 'he plays a wedding tune and a straight tune' (toj sviri
svadbarska svirnya i prava svirnja). Traditionally in other words, Bul-
garians danced dances and sang songs; they never played them.
46 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

Since no overarching verbal category or label exists for all of these

behaviors, the question of the boundary between 'music' and 'non-music'
becomes meaningless. Other kinds of behavior are as distinct from these
five categories as they are from each other. For whistling, they say, 'he
plays with his lips' (toj sviri s usta). The intransitiveness of this expres-
sion, contrasted with 'he plays bagpipe' (toj sviri gajda), suggests that
whistling is close to playing but not quite the same. Similarly, humming
is referred to as 'he plays without music' (toj sviri bez muzika); in other
words, he 'plays' something, but it is not 'music.' The sounds of nature
and of animals are also linked verbally with human behavior, and yet no
Bulgarian would confuse them with that behavior. Birds, for example,
sing (pile pee), but they never sing a song. The wind blows (vyatar
duha), but it never blows a flute (duha kaval).
To assert that the question of the boundary between music and non-
music is moot in Bulgarian culture begs the question of how these five
categories are structured. Do they form a direct contrastive set at one
level in some larger taxonomy that includes other 'non-musical'
behavior? Or can some of them be grouped by inclusion within some
such larger taxonomy? Unfortunately, given a priori assumptions about
the nature and limits of the discipline, inherent in its name, this was not
investigated in any systematic way. However, a number of possibilities
can be suggested and others are certainly possible.
First, these categories could form part of a taxonomy of adult
behaviors grouped by sex: (1) 'playing' and 'drumming' typical of men;
(2) 'singing' and 'lamenting' typical of women; and (3) 'dancing' typical
of both sexes. In this taxonomy 'playing' and 'drumming'contrast direct-
ly with housebuilding, herding animals, riding horses and only indirectly
with 'singing' and 'lamenting' through the dominating taxon,
'appropriate behaviors for each sex.'
Another possibility is that the categories belong to a taxonomy of 'fun
behaviors' (veselba). In this taxonomy 'drumming,' 'singing,' 'playing,'
and 'dancing' would contrast directly with eating, talking, drinking, and
laughing, whereas 'lamenting' would probably, although not surely, be
eliminated altogether from the taxonomy.
Third, they could form part of a taxonomy based on a first-level
distinction between outsider and insider behavior. In this taxonomy
'drumming'might be included in outsider behavior more typical of Gyp-
sies, whereas the other behaviors would be typical of insiders, that is, the
villagers themselves. In this case drumming would contrast directly with
other Gypsy behaviors such as zurla (oboe) playing, belly-dancing,
tinkering, and begging, and only indirectly with the other Bulgarian
behaviors.
These behaviors could be included in a domain labelled 'art'
(izkustvo), but the problems with this are comparable to the problems
with 'music.' No serious attempt has yet been made to establish its validi-
ty as a folk domain apart from the literary tradition and its language.
In Bulgaria a new 'non-folk,' state-created domain has recently emerg-
ed, namely, 'amateurism' (samodejnosta). When 'singers,' 'drummers,'
'players,' 'dancers,' and possibly even 'lamenters,' along with story-
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 47

tellers, ritual re-enactors, piano players, and choral and drama

'collectives' appear on stage in state-sponsored festivals and competi-
tions, the performers are called 'amateurs' (samodejtsi). In this taxonomy
the five categories probably contrast directly with other kinds of
non-musical,' folk and non-folk performances.
Finally, perhaps they could be included in a taxonomy of
'communications.' But there is no evidence that this would be meaningful
in Bulgarian culture. 'Communications' would seem to have the same etic
status in folklore studies as 'music' has in musicology.
Thus it is likely that these five behaviors exist within multiple tax-
onomies in Bulgarian culture. None of these taxonomies is isomorphic
with the Western category, 'music.' Each is structured uniquely and thus
the taxa contrast in different ways depending on the taxonomy. If,
because of the preoccupations of the discipline used to study these
behaviors, they are crammed into the Western domain labelled 'music,'
they all contrast directly with no possibilities for inclusion of, say,
'drumming' within 'playing' or 'lamenting' within 'singing.' The
behavioral validity of this formulation is examined in the next section.

Music and Song

Music/tune, song, lament, drumming and dance are not just separate
verbal categories in Bulgaria; they are distinct behavioral or functional
categories as well. Dance, for example, is a communal occasion and
possibly a place where bodily movement and physical contact are the
means for social interaction. It may be accompanied by either music or
song. Lament, as Sachs (1976) points out, is strongly contrasted to music
and song because its primary function is a personal, cathartic communi-
cation between the living and the dead, whereas song involves com-
munal sharing of emotion among the living. Drumming seems to have
been largely a peripheral, professional, musical activity brought into the
village by Gypsies, whereas playing was a crucial, amateur or semi-pro-
fessional activity performed by local villagers.
The distinction between music/tune and song in Bulgaria is perhaps
the most interesting for Westerners because they are so thoroughly link-
ed in our own thought. Even in the West, however, some verbal evidence
suggests that they may be latently separate categories. Zemp (1978: 63)
gives a few French examples, and there is plenty of English anecdotal
evidence. A music teacher once told me, for example, "All musicians can
sing, but not all singers are musicians." While any attempt to separate
song from music in the West would have to be based on fragmentary,
humorous, or vestigial references, their separation in Bulgarian thinking
is vivid and behaviorally valid. Realizing that they may be separate cate-
gories in Bulgarian thought leads naturally to a re-examination of
behaviors from a new perspective. In fact, much verbal, physical and
'musical' behavior confirms the reality of this division.
Part of the reason for the division resides in the nature of the sound
events themselves: song is word-bearing, while music/tune is not. Song
is capable of making direct and unambiguous statements in a way that
48 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

music cannot. The major functions of song in Bulgaria are: (1) to

describe the activity it accompanies, implicitly stating that this is the cor-
rect way to do things, (2) to record events that have important implica-
tions for the culture, (3) to state publically and communally the values of
the society, and (4) to entertain through verbal humor and choice
description. With the exception of entertainment, these functions do not
reside in instrumental music in Bulgarian culture. Music, on the con-
trary, has fewer and different functions: primarily personal diversion as
when a shepherd plays flute while watching his flock, and public recrea-
tion as an accompaniment to eating and dancing. Finally, music in Bul-
garian culture carries no specific verbal or even general referential mean-
ing, although in certain contexts it has a signalling function. It brings sen-
sual pleasure without ethical, historical, or descriptive implications.
The functional and verbal division between music and song is rein-
forced by a behavioral division of labor based on sex. Men are almost
exclusively the instrumentalists (svirachi) and women are the main
bearers of the song (pesen) tradition. The exceptions are the type that
ultimately confirm the rule. Only a handful of female instrumentalists
were reported in the literature before the recent advent of state-spon-
sored schools of folk music. The strangeness of women players is
reflected in the unflattering names such as masculine Maria (mushka
Maria) that people called them (Katsarova 1952: 44). Similarly, while
women sing on every important ritual occasion and to accompany field
and house work, men typically sing only in taverns or when celebrating
and drinking in someone's home or at a wedding or religious holiday. In
these cases they are more commonly called drunks (pianitsi) than singers
(pevtsi). While women sing when perfectly sober as a natural and
necessary adjunct to ritual and work, men sing mostly under the in-
fluence of alcohol. Song is expected of women, induced in men.
The koleda ritual is the other exception to the rule that women are the
singers. During koleda, a mid-winter ritual now held on December 24th
in Bulgaria, the adolescent boys of the village go from house to house in
groups of six to ten wishing each family health, happiness and fertility.
That men, rather than women, perform this ritual would seem to be one
of those characteristic reversals of form that students of ritual behavior
have taught us to expect (Turner 1969). At all other times of the year and
in all other contexts the women of the village take primary responsibility
for nurturing both symbolically and physically the health and well-being
of the village, its people, animals, and crops. But on this one occasion,
koleda, the men assume a role more characteristic of the women and sing
songs of luck and fertility. (The question of why the reversal occurs dur-
ing koleda must be left to another study.)
Another reason for believing that music and song are conceptually,
verbally, functionally and behaviorally distinct categories is that they
rarely co-occur. A male instrumentalist accompanying a female vocalist
is an exception rather than the rule in Bulgarian traditional musical life.
Instrumentally accompanied song is so taken for granted in the West that
we hardly think of it as evidence that instrumental and vocal music are
thought of as sister arts, different sides of a single coin. Yet in Bulgaria
the absence of instrumentally accompanied songs and the problems Bul-
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 49

garians have with them provide important clues to their thinking. During
a wedding procession, for example, a bagpiper will play a dance tune for
dancers while singers follow behind the bride and groom singing them a
song with a tune and set of pitches unrelated to the bagpiper's. Although
playing and singing occur simultaneously, there is no sense in which one
accompanies the other. At Sunday and holiday dances in the past, the
women began the dancing after church in the village square and created
their own accompaniment by singing dance songs. When a bagpiper led
the men out of the tavern later in the afternoon, he often took up the tune
of the women's song. They then stopped singing immediately and instru-
mental music continued throughout the rest of the day.
The instrumentalist who accompanies his own singing is the one tradi-
tional exception to this rule. The bowed-lute player who sings and plays
Krali Marko ballads in the Shop region of Western Bulgaria is ubi-
quitous, and plucked-lute players and occasionally even bagpipers also
accompany their own singing. All of these examples occur primarily,
however, in the context of male tavern or home entertainment singing
and perhaps fit best into that already exceptional category. Male musi-
cians accompanying female singers remained, until recently, a rare or, in
some areas of the country, non-existent occurrence.
In recent years, however, radios, phonographs, and now television
have penetrated even the most remote Bulgarian villages, exposing the
people to all kinds of popular, classical, and folk music. Given the ubi-
quity of instrumentally accompanied song in most of these traditions, the
idea that accompanied song is preferable to unaccompanied song has
firmly entered the performance practice tradition in most parts of
Bulgaria. Today at music festivals, competitions, and radio and tele-
vision stations, individual singers and choirs are accompanied by a single
traditional instrument, by a small ensemble of these or Western instru-
ments, or by the large orchestras of folk instruments at Radio Sofia or in
the National Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance.
In the Shop region of Western Bulgaria, however, musical behavior
suggests that the idea of accompanied song is still not yet well-estab-
lished. The main evidence for this is musical behavior. At music festivals
and competitions in the Shop region, women who know Krali Marko
epic songs are occasionally asked by the organizers to sing them accom-
panied by gajda or gudulka. In these cases, the singer often sings at a
pitch totally unrelated to the instrument's pitch. Elena Stoin (personal
communication), a noted Bulgarian ethnomusicologist, explained this as
a function of the unfamiliarity of the singer with the instrumentalist. The
singer had a comfortable pitch at which she sang her songs and could not
adjust to his pitch. Subsequent field work, however, showed that un-
familiarity is not the only problem at work here. These musicians and
singers do not completely share the Western concept of accompaniment.
Accompanied song in the Shop region also occurs with similar results
on less highly-structured occasions between men and women well known
to each other. In one case a brother accompanied his sister on clarinet, in
another a husband accompanied his wife on the gajda, and in the third a
gajda player accompanied a group of women from his village. In none of
these situations was unfamiliarity a problem. In the first two cases the
50 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

couples enjoyed performing in this fashion and indicated that they did it
quite often. In both cases, however, the instrument and the voice per-
formed at completely unrelated pitch levels. The bagpiper even had two
instruments about a fourth apart, and one would probably have been
close to the range of his wife. In neither case, however, did she attempt to
sing the same pitches that her husband played. Other villagers responded
favorably to recordings of this pair, suggesting that they were attractive
performances. This was not out of mere politeness, for they criticized the
recording technique, feeling that the gajda was too prominent compared
to the singer. In the third case a bagpiper was present at a table (na
trapeza) of women and began to play a Krali Marlo tune (svirnja). In the
midst of one of his phrases, a woman began to sing a Krali Marko song
(pesen) but at an unrelated pitch and not in rhythmic unison with the
bagpipe. After she finished her verse of the song, a second women took
up the song at yet a new pitch and so it continued, the song passing from
woman to woman with each verse. The bagpipe continued to play, but
neither the rhythm nor the pitch was synchronized with the singers. The
result was not accompanied song in the Western sense, but simultaneous
music and song, the former apparently suggesting, reinforcing, and in-
spiring the latter.
These three examples suggest that only part of the idea of accompanied
song has made its way into Shop musical thought and practice-the part
that suggests that song and instrumental tune can be performed simul-
taneously. The other part of the idea, that rhythmic and pitch unison is a
desirable goal, is neither widely recognized nor practiced. Although such
performances sound bizarre and humorous to the Western listener and to
Bulgarian listeners from other regions, they clearly are appropriate and
satisfactory performances in the Shop region, where they reflect concrete
but different ideas about the possible relationship between music and
song. In fact, they seem rather closely related to the traditional wedding
practice, where the bagpipe played for dancers at the same time as
singers sang songs for the wedding party. Simultaneity of music and song
was possible traditionally and is now practiced occasionally in homes or
on stage. But the idea of instrumentally accompanied song, with all of its
attendant concepts, has not been adopted fully in this region.
In sum, these verbal, physical, and musical behaviors, taken together,
suggest that Bulgarian villagers traditionally conceived of song (pesen)
and instrumental music (muzika, svirnya) as quite separate categories.
Each category had its distinct functions, its appropriate sex, and was
musically immiscible with the other. The ways of thinking and talking
about each category may have been distinct as well.

Song
The rest of this paper focuses, as promised, on just one category of
Bulgarian 'musical' behavior: the ideas and taxonomies they have in the
domain labelled 'song.' The discussion centers on the Shop region as
before, an area notable for its unique style of multi-part singing that
emphasizes almost continuously sounding simultaneous seconds. Mono-
phonic songs also exist, sung in unison or by soloists.
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 51

To classify song types, Shop villagers, like all Bulgarians and most
Europeans, use a dual, overlapping system-ibased on usage and content.
Not surprisingly for an agricultural society, a large number of songs are
associated with field work: songs for going to the field, at the sunrise, at
mid-morning when the sun gets hot, at noon when the sun casts no
shadow, at the afternoon rest, when the afternoon breezes begin to cool,
at sunset, and for returning to the village. There are also indoor work
songs, wedding songs, dance songs, saints' day songs, and songs for the
major calendar rituals: koleda (mid-winter), St. Lazar's Day (spring),
and peperuda (summer drought). In addition some songs are sung
'anytime,' 'whenever guests gather together,' or 'at table.' Simultane-
ously, Bulgarians describe these songs according to their subject matter:
love, history, humor, luck, fertility, and religion.
How Bulgarian villagers talk about and presumably think about the
musical dimensions of song is the focus here, based on conversations
with about thirty female singers in this region. It is an attempt to present
an emic analysis of the songs, one that illustrates the extent to which
these singers are capable of verbalizing the details of their singing style.

Two-Voiced Song
Bulgarian musicologists, led by Nikolaj Kaufman (1968), follow the
Russian practice in the classification of song textures, shunning the
Greek-derived monofonia/polifonia in favor of words based on Slavic
roots: ednoglasie/mnogoglasie, 'onevoicedness/twovoicedness.' Since
three or more parts are the exception in Bulgaria, the most important
distinction is between one-part and two-part textures: ednoglasno peene
(one-part singing), dvuglasni pesni (two-part songs), dvuglasna oblast
(two-part region, that is, Southwestern Bulgaria). It is ironic, then, that
their decision to use Slavic words results in confusion when those words
are used in conversations with the singers themselves.
The singers do not typically understand dvuglasna pesen to mean two-
part song, as do the Bulgarian musicologists. The singers seem to inter-
pret glas in this case to mean quite literally 'voice' and understand dvu-
glasna pesen to mean that two women with two voices sing the song.
There is no implication that two different musical parts are present, but
simply that choral and specifically duet singing is occurring rather than
solo singing. Thus, from the point of view of the bearers of this tradition,
the word constructed by musicologists to mean polyphony actually
refers to the timbral contrast between solo and choral singing. Perhaps it
is here, in fact, that the borderline between monophony and polyphony
should be drawn for this culture.
Observations during a brief study of the mid-winter caroling ritual
(koleda) provide an independent confirmation of this view. Men perform
koleda songs in antiphonal choral unison-an etic description of their
performance style. But the men distinguish between the role or function
of each singer in the duet with words. To achieve the precise and effec-
tive unison the men seek, one singer stands slightly behind and to the
right of the other. The man who stands behind is said to trail or follow
(vlachi) and sings relatively quietly and with indistinct pronunciation in-
52 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

to the ear of his partner. This man, who stands in front (po napred), is
said to cry out (izvikva) and sings louder and pronounces the words
more distinctly than his partner, while taking responsibility for blending
as closely as possible with this mate's voice.
The female singers of two-part songs use exactly the same terminology
to distinguish the differences between their voices. In their case, how-
ever, the differences between the two parts extend beyond loudness, care
in pronunciation, and the relative position of the singers to a difference
in the pitch content of the two parts. Thus, Bulgarian villagers use iden-
tical terminology for songs that are etically distinguishable as polyphonic
and monophonic. This suggests that emically, and at one level in the Bul-
garian taxonomy of song textures, all choral songs belong to one
category. They call the category 'two-voiced songs,' referring to the
number of singers, not to the number of different musical lines.
The desire to distinguish vocal function in an etically unison singing
tradition such as koleda songs suggests that these singers recognize the
impossibility of a true unison in choral performances. When two or more
singers attempt to sing the same musical line together, they must produce
some simultaneously contrasting sounds (polyphony) through rhythmic,
pitch or timbral differences. While Western theorists emphasize intent or
what linguists might call competence in choosing to call the style mono-
phonic, the Bulgarian singers seem to emphasize what both musicologists
and linguists call performance by employing a terminology that suggests
the polyphonic character of any choral, even unison, performance.
The implications of this view for the structure of taxonomies of
musical texture are summarized in Figure 1.

Figure 1
Taxonomies of Musical Texture

a) Proposed Western Taxonomy

vocal music

monophonic polyphonic

solo unison octaves parallel oblique contrary

motion motion motion

b) Proposed Bulgarian Taxonomy

song
solo 'two-voiced' (choral)

with without
'bellowing' 'bellowing'
(see below)
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 53

One of the striking differences between these two taxonomies is the

relative emphasis on musical versus social factors. In the proposed
Western taxonomy, admittedly that of an educated layman or profes-
sional, the primary emphasis is on a musical feature-the number of dif-
ferent musical lines present and their relationship. In the Bulgarian
village taxonomy the primary emphasis is social-the number of singers
present.
This difference directly reflects the different functions in Bulgarian
culture of unison and choral singing. Solo singing either occurs when the
individual is by himself, or when the singer is cast in the role of enter-
tainer, usually performing in a tavern or for guests at a social gathering.
Choral singing, on the other hand, occurs in communal situations where
the performer-audience distinction is less important. Not only do more
people participate in the actual process of making music, but the setting
for group singing usually involves everyone present in other aspects of
the situation such as dancing, participating in ritual observances, or
waiting their turn to sing while chatting or working. Thus, the social and
timbral polyphony of supposedly unison choral singing represents a
culturally meaningful extension of the Western category of polyphony. If
the categories of monophony and polyphony are to be retained, they
must be applied in this slightly different sense to be meaningful in the
Bulgarian context.

Songs with 'Bellowing'

Having established in the previous section that the phrase, two-voiced
songs, refers to choral performance and not to the number of musical
lines, the discussion moves to the next level of discrimination of texture
and specifically to choral songs performed with two or more musical
lines. The generic term these singers use to label two-part songs is pesni
na buchene (songs with bellowing) or pesni na vlachene (songs with trail-
ing). No phrase distinguishes choral one-part songs. They belong to a
largely unnamed category, although if pressed the singers might call
them pesni bez buchene (songs without bellowing).
Within the category of songs with bellowing-in Western termi-
nology, polyphonic songs-the singers are able to describe with some ac-
curacy the differences between the two musical lines. Vasil Stoin (1925:
25) first mentioned that Bulgarian singers of two-part songs distinguish
verbally between the musical functions of the two voices. Discussing
songs from near the town of Razlog in the Pirin region, he pointed out
that the higher, melodic voice 'leads' while the accompanying singers
'walk.' Since that first observation, other collectors have assiduously
reported how the singers describe the two parts of their songs. Some of
the most common words for the behavior of the higher-pitched part-in
Western terms, the melody-are izvikva (cries out), trese (shakes, referr-
ing to the plethora of ornaments in the style), otiva po napred (goes in
front, referring both to leading the singing and to a position slightly in
front of the accompanying singers). The singers of the lower-pitched,
accompanying part are said to vlachat (trail or follow), buchat (bellow),
54 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

tresat (shake, referring to glottal stops) and otivat po nazad (go behind,
referring both to musical function and position).
This ability to distinguish and talk about the different voices in the tex-
ture actually facilitated a more accurate musical analysis of some of these
songs than had heretofore been achieved by Bulgarian musicologists. In
four villages around Sofia, the capitol of Bulgaria and the center of the
Shop region, the extraordinary harmonic power of the singing is im-
pressive, perhaps resulting from some narrow, especially dissonant, har-
monic interval; perhaps the singers from other villages were less stuc-
cessful in producing this effect.
Conversation with the singers revealed that this supposition was total-
ly wrong. The cause of the powerful harmonic effects was the presence of
a three-part texture, not just two parts as experience and all previous
reports of the style had suggested (Ex. 1). According to the singers, the
lead singer 'cries out' as usual, but the accompanying singers split into
two parts. This was expressed in different ways in each village. In one
village, for example, one accompanist was said to 'bellow crookedly'
(krivo buchi) while the other was said to 'bellow straight' (pravo buchi).
Analysis confirmed that the former sang a two-note part alternating be-
tween tonic and subtonic, while the latter sang a drone. The pravo buchi
part had never been described in the Bulgarian literature on this tradi-
tion. Harmonically this practice produced powerful three-tone clusters
that were not used in most other Shop villages.
Other ways of expressing the three-part texture were also effective:
"We [three singers] all begin together and then we split apart," and accor-
ding to the leader of one group, "I listen especially to one of the women
who bellows. Without her I could not sing." She was referring to the
krivo buchi part, which in this village also functioned to mark phrase en-
dings in free rhythmic songs. Thus, the singers of this tradition are con-
scious of the differences between and character of the individual parts
they sing, and they can become true collaborators in any attempt to
reach accurate analytical statements about musical style.

Pitch
Pitch is distinguished along a continuum labeled fat (debel) and thin
(tunak), where thin corresponds to high-pitched and fat equals low-
pitched. The singers used this continuum to compare vocal ranges, as in
"she has a lower voice (po-debel glas) than I have," or to complain about
the tessitura of a particular performance, as in "we sang that song too
high (mnogo tunak) for me."
These singers do not make finer distinctions in pitch such as the nam-
ing of scale degrees or different modes. Musical behavior with respect to
pitch, however, suggests that the singers have a different conception of
pitch from the West's. Perhaps the most striking feature of Bulgarian
pitch behavior in the two- and three-part songs is its instability. Al-
though Harwood (1976: 526) claims that 'chunking' is a cognitive univer-
sal leading to the repetition of a small set of pitches during the perfor-
mance of a song, Bulgarian singers consistently employ a variety of pit-
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 55

J= 92
A J I. r Z'fr **1 i . .
- -
C --
<)
\, _P7\
I I
L
r-p
-J
-
--
1
L-Bl
7 ,
-i-J
E MO - RI MA.J-KYA Y( - RO MOR RI TAN-KO PLE - LO

EXAMPLE

17A. .i}n\ ^n7- 17

rtt J ^-L
(f1 YA'T-NO) CGf'T. CGf1'I, ) -S( (1:1, (;: - Nl' ('.-DAN G, - N

& J ZrJ J1-w-^ n 77

1 J =E7 1 l

TO SOMNA PI-RIN ZA VO-DO 0 I

Ir, J_ j. JJ. i .J -I -
X n X n nN ; `.. 7 1 ;-` 7 1 J J j j i
ches for apparently the same scale degree. Messner (1976: 222) measured
this phenomenon with a sonogram and concluded that one group per-
formed only the subtonic consistently: about 165 cents below the tonic.
All other pitches above the tonic varied considerably in pitch.
Apparently the mode of a song, in the Western sense, can be altered
without destroying or changing the essence of a song. The clearest and
most striking example of this occurs when the two groups singing anti-
phonally do so in different modes (Ex. 2). This is musical evidence of the
relative unimportance of the Western concept of mode in this style.
Specifically, distinctions which are meaningful in Western culture be-
tween whole steps and half-steps are apparently meaningless in Shop
culture. 'Meaningless' here means that pitches transcribed, for example,
as bP and b' are used interchangeably without affecting the integrity
and identity of the song, its emotional content, or the aesthetic response
56 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

of either singers or listeners. These two versons of b, plus all their

variants notated with arrows pointing up or down over the note, have
equivalent musical functions or meanings in Shop multi-part songs. Shop
singers behave as if there were only scale degrees in these songs: sub-
tonic, tonic, second, third, and fourth degrees of the scale. Their precise
pitch in Western terms is meaningless. Although a pitch can be given a
certain descriptive, etic precision by calling it b4 , slightly flat, this preci-
sion is functionally, emically meaningless in Shop songs.

J =180
3
r I I

O -N - DO -- DOJN. MI MO- MEDJ - N

l PR - BL- S )) - N[' DOJ-NI MI MO - Mli DOJ - NE

EXAMPLE 2

i.

N ._ _ _ _________ -

_z24P4
- - _ -- j

I_ _ (_-N I F DO. - N1. DO,I_-- MI -- MI - - - NI

- - -1

X
--?-- ^ __ ^
_^^: __ _ __ - _ _ _ _ _-

One way this situation is often expressed is that the people under
discussion have a higher tolerance for deviation from pitch norms than
we do. But it seems rather that the same kind of norms simply do not ex-
ist. The first statement implies a certain carelessness about pitch which is,
in fact, not the case. Shop singers manipulate pitch, but according to
principles different from the major/minor, whole-step/half-step dicho-
tomy of Western music. That the second degree of the scale may be
notated variously as bb', b, and b4 in a single strophe is not indicative of
lack of standards or of poor performance. Nor is it indicative of a Middle
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 57

Eastern tonal system with more than twelve sub-divisions of the octave.
Rather, pitch is manipulated subtly along a continuum to achieve a par-
ticular harmonic effect.

Harmony: Consonance and Dissonance

Instead of trying to sing natural seconds as opposed to flat seconds to
create modal unity, Shop singers try to generate harmonic intervals be-
tween the two (or three) parts that, in their words, 'ring like a bell'
(zvunat kato zvuntsi) (see Katsarova 1954: 209). Seconds, thirds, and
fourths can do this, but they are especially effective when sung slightly
flat of the Western norm. On shorter tones this kind of manipulation for
interval quality is not practical, since the results are fleeting and hardly
worthwhile. A b~ might result. On longer tones the pitch will typically
slide slightly until the desired "ringing"is achieved, resulting in a notated
b , or even bb . Thus the manipulation of pitch to enhance the effect of
the harmony causes the apparent variations in notated pitch, not a care-
lessness born of a greater tolerance for pitch deviation.
While the evidence for this line of reasoning about the meaning of
pitch variation rests on musical behavior, verbal behavior suggests that
the singers are quite conscious of the harmonic dimension of their 'songs
with bellowing.' When they say they want their singing to 'ring like a
bell,' they are apparently referring to the clash of overtones and funda-
mentals, similar to the sheep or cow or goat bells in a flock or herd. The
resulting sound is described as dissonant by those Westerners impressed
with the large number of major and minor seconds. But clearly there is
no reason to believe that this application of Western ideas across cultural
boundaries is appropriate. Katsarova (ibid.: 209), in trying to rectify this
view, argues that seconds are consonant in Bulgarian part-singing
because they are so ubiquitous, and the singers acknowledge verbally
that they seek these 'ringing' intervals.
Carrying the argument one step further, it is likely that the concepts of
harmonic consonance and dissonance, so important to Western theorists
when discussing polyphonic music, are not present in the minds of these
singers and are not useful categories for understanding how these songs
work. The distinction between consonance and dissonance is not recog-
nized in the verbalizations of the singers themselves.
Every attempt to elicit responses that would differentiate among the
harmonic intervals in this style failed. There were no verbal descriptions
of the sounds of different intervals, despite the use of every possible
method to focus the singers' attention on particular intervals. Nor could
they relate to possible oppositions between different intervals that might
be relevant to our concept of consonance and dissonance such as
tense/relaxed, harsh/smooth, rings-like-a-bell/doesn't-ring-like-a-bell,
pretty/ugly, finished/unfinished. This line of questioning elicited little
more than uncomprehending stares. Apparently all the intervals
(unisons, seconds, thirds, and fourths) are the same in their aesthetic im-
pact. "They are the same." "They all sound fine (hubavo)." "We like
them." "They ring like a bell." Messner (1976: 19) reports the word
58 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

smooth.' Even the various thirds and fourths can be made to ring like a
bell, although Westerners tend to perceive the seconds as most 'ringing.'
On the basis of this inability to distinguish between harmonic intervals
verbally and assuming that consonance and dissonance are intertwined,
complementary concepts within a single musical system rather than etic
categories that can be applied cross-culturally, it seems reasonable to
conclude that they do not exist as meaningful, emic categories of thought
for the singers in this tradition.

Ornamentation
For Westerners Bulgarian folk music and song are strikingly rich in
ornamentation. Rapid trills, turns, mordents, plus dramatic glottal stops
with or without a momentary high-pitched 'yodel' add immeasurably to
the aesthetic pleasure we feel in hearing Bulgarian music and song. Shop
villagers use the word tresene (shaking) to refer to all these manifesta-
tions and do not distinguish among the various Western types listed
above. Although tresene can be roughly glossed in English as ornamenta-
tion, conversations about tresene revealed that it may not have quite the
same function as ornamentation in Western music and musical thought.
Two notions seem to be central to the Western concept of ornamenta-
tion. One is that it is peripheral and inessential, especially when com-
pared to the main structural importance of the melody or harmony. The
other is that its main function is to beautify, to vary, or to bring to life
this same stolid melodic outline. In Shop song, however, neither of these
notions is inherent in the concept of tresene.
Tresene is mentioned by these singers whenever it is structurally im-
portant, not peripheral to the style. Its structural importance varies from
region to region and from genre to genre within a region. There are at
least four different uses in which tresene is mentioned. First, in areas
where ornamentation is etically very rich, the higher-pitched part is said
to shake (trese), expressing the crucial, structural role of tresene in gener-
ating and maintaining this part (Ex. 3). Second, in villages around the
town of Samokov and Ihtiman, southeast of Sofia, the lower part shakes
(trese) with rapid glottal stops as a crucial element in generating more
harmonic ringing between the voices (Ex. 4). Third, in Shop songs sung
during noon rest periods in the fields, the songs conclude with a typical
cadential pattern called tresene in which the upper voice descends below
the tonic and shakes (trese) before the end of each strophe (Ex. 3). Final-
ly, near the town of Pazardzhik, also southeast of Sofia, an ornamental
heterophonic style exists that is totally dependent for its ringing effects
on the difference between two simultaneous performances of a single
melodic line, one with shaking and one without shaking (Ex. 5). Three of
these cases involve regional styles in which tresene is crucial, and in one
case tresene figures prominently in part of a strophe of a particular genre.
In all these cases tresene, while it sounds to Western ears like ornamenta-
tion, is not a peripheral, optional, or casual addition; it is structurally
and often harmonically integral to the performance of the songs. The
singers express this by labelling the appropriate higher or lower line or
melodic section as tresene.
 2 ;

RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 59

EXAMPLE3
J 72

( ,$s h I _I I x _ k
'ret -1
f i-; _r-;i--m -1r-t i;r-1
A IIO- I,AT MO- MA I I PO- LAT MO- MA

_ :; j >
_ t_ _ +__ > _< t;! __ _
> _

- - _
- - - - - - f - -- - ---__

WJ

a- n --- 1- Wjv r.a- r - -

I ts . I R

RU-SI KO - SI I'L - . - LA I

__3-, j j .2 . _
. -.-. I

J oM - 4
= 152 E PJ

EXA PLE NF I
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NF V1 VRA-TA Mil DE-VE RO

60 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

EXAMPLE53
= 120

;r I I1-v I I I

I-VA - N

3 3 _

E PRO- VI - D -

.--___ _3_ _ ..n'_ -__ ___

1,( SEV - )D\ CO-LE-

l ' n : -: -4X,_f-=l

Since shaking in the Shop region is more structural than optional, it is

not surprising that the second notion so closely associated with the
Western concept of ornamentation, that it somehow beautifies or or-
naments a melody or performance, is also not commonly spoken about.
The richness and clarity of tresene-an etic measure of virtuosity-was
rarely, if ever, used in evaluations of singers or of particular perfor-
mances. Instead of favoring singers with an abundance of clean, crisp or-
naments, the Shop women appreciated other qualities such as knowledge
of a large repertoire, a loud voice that blended with the other singers, an
ability to sing long phrases-including occasionally whole strophes-in a
single breath, and an ability to adjust harmonic intervals so they rang
like bells.
Tresene, no matter how crude, was always performed by every singer
at the structurally important points and thus satisfied the minimum
criteria of the style. The virtuosity of the tresene did not seem to affect
the listeners' judgment of a singer. As long as a performance worked in
terms of phrasing, harmony, loudness, and blend, it could apparently
not become more beautiful by the mere addition of more tresene.
Tresene, in other words, while often impressively virtuosic to the
Westerner, does not necessarily ornament or beautify a performance of a
song for these women.
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT 61

What does beautify or ornament (ukrasyava) a song according to these

singers are the long-held tones or harmonic intervals, especially in the so-
called free-rhythmic or pulseless songs. According to Shop singers, the
longer a tone is held, the more it beautifies the song-a fascinating rever-
sal of the Western idea of ornamentation, which emphasizes the short
tones that grace the melodic line. In the Shop region, on the contrary, the
long tones are the ornaments. They not only beautify the songs, but
they, rather than harmonic motion, are the source of tension in the songs
as well. Tension is generated, according to the singers, by holding any
pitch or harmonic interval for a long time, not by the choice of a specific
interval. Thus, tension and release are at work in these songs in the tem-
poral dimension of duration of pitches and intervals, not in the harmonic
dimension of chord or interval manipulation.

Melody
Bulgarians use the word glas to mean (1) voice in the physical sense,
(2) the melody of songs, and (3) the genre to which a melody belongs.
They do not use it to refer to functions in a polyphonic texture. They do
not say, for example, "she sings the melody (glas) while another sings the
drone." Rather glas is used to differentiate the genre appropriate for a
given melody, as in, a 'wedding melody' (svadbarski glas) or 'epic
melody' (Krali Markov glas). (Svirnya would be used for the instru-
mental version of the tune.) In the Shop region there seem to be relatively
few traditional melodies (glasove), compared either to other regions of
Bulgaria or to the number of texts. Each genre or category of usage
(wedding, harvest, going to the fields, working-bee) has one or a very
few melodies to which all of the songs of that genre are set. Ten to twenty
wedding songs in a given village are all set to one melody, for example.
In one Shop village four hundred songs (pesni) were sung to about 30
tunes (glasove). These tunes are recognized and named by their asso-
ciated usage.
It is also possible that Shop women have recognized another, rather
abstract feature of melody, namely, melodic contour. While recording in
the Shop region, women would occasionally try to end a recording ses-
sion after only a few songs by saying, "why do you want to record more?
All our songs are alike." Obviously, they had come to understand that
my interest was primarily in the musical aspects of song and less in the
meanings of the texts. So whereas all their songs are clearly different
when the texts are compared, they obviously perceived some funda-
mental similarity in the melodies. This claim was made quite a few times
in the Shop region, but never in the other areas of Bulgaria where multi-
part singing occurs. After returning from the field, musical analysis con-
firmed that there is one sense in which these Shop songs are all alike, and
it may have been this property of the songs that the women were referr-
ing to.
Etically, ornamental and rhythmic variety clearly separates one
melody or genre from another. But ignoring rhythm and ornamentation,
the melodic contour of virtually all part-songs in the Shop region is based
62 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

on a single model with two variations: an arc using stepwise motion and
an undulating arc also using stepwise motion (cf. Ex. 3). Admittedly arc-
shaped melodies and stepwise motion are common throughout the Bul-
garian folk song tradition, and the narrow range of Shop songs limits the
possibilities. But in the central area of the Shop region around Sofia, on-
ly these two possibilities are exploited. Farther away from the center of
the region, more types of melodic motion are used until no such easy pat-
tern of similarities in melodic contour can be found.
Thus the women may be correct when they say that all the songs are
alike; they may be referring to the almost identical melodic contour of all
their songs. Obviously this is a judgment of sameness in song style that
might be eschewed by the modern ethnomusicologist, wisely fearing that
etic analysis may be ethnocentric and inappropriate. But in this case the
analysis of sameness is supported and validated by the verbalizations of
the singers themselves, leaving the analyst with the feeling that, for once,
his musical analysis need not be ad hoc and culturally irrelevant, but
meaningful within a specific context.
Form
All of the multi-part songs are strophic, but there is no folk term for
strophe. Its existence as a concept, however, is recognized behaviorally
by the singers who always begin and end any incomplete performance at
strophic boundaries. Antiphony, which is the norm in this style, also is
based on alternation of strophes. The internal structure of strophes is
recognized and labelled only by the singers of one village (Kaufman
1968: 26). According to the singers of Gintsi village, they can sing the
same song in one of two ways: in two voices (na dva glasa) or in three
voices (na tri glasa). This refers neither to the number of singers nor to
the number of parts, but to the number of phrases in a strophe. When a
song is sung na dva glasa, the melodic structure is AB. When the same
song is sung na tri glasa, the first phrase is repeated so that a two-phrase
song becomes a three-phase song: AAB. So far, this, plus the above-
mentioned sub-strophic section labelled tresene, are the only reported
instances of singers in the Shop region verbalizing about sub-strophic
aspects of form.

Rhythm
Tempo is the only element of musical time discussed explicitly by Bul-
garian singers. They compare performances along a scale from slow
(bavno) to fast (burzo). They did not traditionally discuss their songs,
tunes, or dances in terms of the number of beats per measure. The asym-
metric or aksak meters so famous in the West and analyzed in detail by
Singer (1974) and Kremenliev (1952) were first recognized by a Bulgarian
school teacher in 1886 (Kaufman 1970: 35). Before his transcriptions in
7/8 and 5/8, transcriberscrammed Bulgarian tunes into the nearest com-
monly available Western meter: 2/4, 3/4, or 6/8. Today village musi-
cians and singers with any connection to the academic music world
through the local music teacher, an ensemble conductor, or a child with
some formal music training know the time-signatures for at least some of
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 63

the music they play or sing. But even knowing the time-signatures, they
often can neither count the number of beats nor clap the accented
metrical groupings.
Traditionally the various meters, symmetrical or asymmetrical, of
Bulgarian music were identified only by the generic name of the dance
(horo) that a given tune (svirnya) or song (pesen) might accompany.
These generic dance names, however, did not refer uniquely to meter
(the number of pulses per measure) but to a set of rhythmic features in-
cluding number of pulses, grouping of pulses, accentuation, and tempo.
Tunes notated in 7/8 time, for example, are called ruchenitsa when
grouped 2+2+3, Makedonska when grouped 3+2+2, and Eleninata
when grouped 2+2+1+2. Fast tunes notated in 9/8 (2+2+2+3) are
called Dajchovata, whereas slow tunes in 9/8 (2+2+2++3) are called
Samokovskata. Tunes in 6/8 (3+3) are called pravata when evenly ac-
cented on the two main beats, kuklenskata when the accent falls heavily
on the first of the two beats. Bulgarian villagers distinguish and label
generically a constellation of rhythmic features that unify a subset of
their dance tunes and songs. In this process they give no particular em-
phasis to meter alone, nor do they count the number of beats in a
measure.
Thus, number of pulses (5, 7, 9, 11) is not an emic feature of Bulgarian
meters, whereas metrical groups, accentuation, and tempo (and perhaps
others) probably are. Unfortunately, so far there has been neither an ade-
quate folk taxonomy nor componential analysis (Goodenough 1956) of
the features of Bulgarian meter. Whereas Westerners tend to group the
versions of the 7-beat meters together, it is more likely that Bulgarians
group Dajchovata (9) and Eleninata (7) together based on identical
numbers of metrical groups, namely, four: 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 and 2 + 2 + 1 + 2,
respectively. It is also possible that the taxonomies and components of
meaning of meter differ in song (pesen), tune (svirnya), and dance
(horo). Thus, despite the etic precision of the analysis of Bulgarian
meter, it has yet to receive a convincing cognitive or emic analysis.

Timbre
Shop singers talk at some length about vocal quality. Voices fall into
one of two basic categories: the clean (chist), reedy (piskliv) group or the
muddy (muten), buttery (mazhen) group. The common English
metaphors for the timbre of the former group would be 'pure,' 'clear,'
'thin,' 'tense;' for the timbre of the latter group 'slightly raspy,'
'somewhat thicker,' 'fairly relaxed.' Generally a woman's voice goes
from 'reedy' and 'clean' as a young woman to 'muddy' and 'buttery' as an
older woman. But even among a single age group these distinctions app-
ly. In many cases where two groups of women sang antiphonally, there
was a 'reedy' group and a 'buttery' group. The women said that they
formed these groups on the basis of which voices blended or sounded
good together (uidishat). Although the women make this bipartite classi-
fication of vocal quality and possess a notion of blend, they do not seem
to prefer one voice type over the other.
64 / 1980 YEARBOOK OF THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC COUNCIL

One vocal quality which is prized, however, is the ability to sing loud-
ly (visoko). These singers contrast voices along a dimension labelled
visoko (loud, high)/nisko (soft, low). In other contexts this pair of words
means high and low, but when connected with music they have the
complementary meaning, familiar to students of Medieval and Renais-
sance music, of loud and soft. The lead (po napred) singer often spoke of
the value of having women with loud voices accompanying her. They
forced her to sing even more loudly in order to be heard above them, and
this resulted in a more satisfying performance. Many people fondly
reported their memories of hearing singers from so far away that they
were completely out of sight. Women from other regions often com-
mented on the loudness of Shop singing when comparing singing styles.
This ability to sing loudly is valued in the Shop region over any par-
ticular tone quality and over the ability to shake (trese) in a virtuosic
manner.

Conclusion
Although some aspects of Bulgarian musical thought have been listed
and described here, they have not yet been placed in the context of a
larger system of thought that would order and explain them. Christopher
Marshall (in press) has attempted to do this for another South Slavic
group-the Debarcani of Yugoslav Macedonia. Since it is likely that
similarities exist between Shop and Debarcan thought, his study can be
read profitably with this one. He develops a wide-ranging epistemology
for the Debarcani, with musical thought and aesthetics as one particular
manifestation. He argues (p. 17 of ms) that "each [musical] piece is seen
as a concept, a single entity apprehended by the akil ['mind'] as a total
Gestalt. The concept of structure is foreign to this epistemology ..."
This approach to a song as a totality helps to explain why sub-strophic
form, the size of intervals, the precise character of ornaments, and the
number of beats per measure are not analyzed; they cannot be analyzed
by a 'mind' that 'grasps' the song as a whole, unbreakable concept. On
the other hand qualities that pertain to the whole piece and remain cons-
tant throughout are analyzed and discussed: texture, timbre, tempo,
melodic contour, tessitura, the overall harmonic goal ('to ring like a
bell'), the need for ornamentation, and the names of dances which a song
accompanies. Thus, the data in this paper tend to confirm the correctness
and generality to other South Slavic cultures of Marshall's Debarcan
epistemology.
This discussion opens a tiny window on a vast and fascinating sub-
ject-how the Bulgarian people talk and think about music. The 'aspects'
of the title is not simply academic verbosity. It truly reflects the tentative
and partial nature of the inquiry. The issue of sampling, for example, has
not been addressed. Instead of working with a single individual in the
manner of Zemp's 1979 study, these verbalizations and behaviors were
elicited from and observed among a variety of individuals and synthe-
sized into a presentation that almost surely misrepresents the view of any
single individual in the culture and that does not adequately treat the
RICE ASPECTS OF BULGARIAN MUSICAL THOUGHT / 65

problems of change and acculturation. Also the process of gradually nar-

rowing down the scope of the study excluded many areas of Bulgarian
musical life. After distinguishing the separate categories of music, dance,
song, drumming, and lament, the discussion focussed solely on song and
beyond that on multi-part song in the Shop region.
Much work remains to be done on Bulgarian musical thought in the
other genres and regions. Experience suggests that substantial differences
exist among the regions not only in musical style, but in verbal behavior,
aesthetics, and thought as well. Perhaps this study, along with those by
Marshall and Sachs, will stimulate others to extend its range both geo-
graphically and conceptually.

NOTES

This paper is based on three periods of research: three months in 1969 supported by an
NDEA Title VI grant, fifteen months in 1972-73 supported by IREXand a Fulbright-Hays
Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, and nine months in 1978-79 working with
Kostadin and Todora Varimezov, artists-in-residence at the Faculty of Music, University of
Toronto.

1. End-blown fippleless flute, bowed lute, long-necked plucked lute and bagpipe, respec-
tively. The song styles and musical instruments mentioned in this paper can be heard
on a number of readily available commercial recordings, for example: Bulgaria. The
Columbia Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Vol. 17, KL 5378. Collected and
edited by A.L. Lloyd. In the Shadow of the Mountain: Bulgarian Folk Music.
Nonesuch H-72038. Collected and produced by Ethel Raim and Martin Koenig.
2. From now on I will use the adjective musical in the broad, Western sense rather than
the narrower Bulgarian sense in order to avoid confusing circumlocutions like 'sonic'
or 'tonal.'
3. In this example the strophe ends minus the final syllable, which is understood by vir-
tue of linguistic redundancy. 'Go-Le-' is the first two syllables of golema (large). The
last syllable in this and subsequent strophes is never pronounced.

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