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Bulgarian Musicology - online
Issue 4/2001
1. Table of Contents (Bulgarian Version)
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“A Hundred Years Raina Katsarova” – Elena Stoin
Raina Katsarova was born on the 7th of May 1901. She
was a daughter of General Dimitar Katsarov, an amateur naturalist and scholar,
a son of priest Ilia Katsarov from Koprivshtitsa, a participant in the April
Uprising. Her mother, Stefania Konstantinova, was a housewife, but by self-education
she reached a high level of learning and erudition. The enlightened family
background and the childhood spent in Berkovitsa, Vratsa and Koprivshtitsa
cultivated in her love and respect for the hard-working Bulgarian people,
for its holidays and workdays, its customs and songs.
She graduated from the Theoretical Department of the
State Music Academy (1922-25). Her interest in the musical folklore made Prof.
Dobri Hristov and the commission present at her state examination, particularly
Prof. Vassil Stoin, direct her to work in the sphere of folk music. By that
time she had already taken down on her own initiative several scores of songs.
After successful trial work on location (sent by the Ethnographical Museum)
to collect folk songs in the region of Teteven and the Rhodopes, at the end
of 1928 Raina Katsarova was appointed assistant and later curator in the
section for folk music at the National Ethnographical Museum. Here under
the guidance of Vassil Stoin and with the friendly assistance of the museum
workers, especially the ethnographer Hristo Vakarelski and the museum director
Stefan L. Kostov, Katsarova developed as an excellent musical student of
folklore and museum worker. Trips for collecting musical folklore materials
all over Bulgaria followed. During the period of printing the collections
of folk songs she actively collaborated with V.Stoin.
At the end of 1930 Katsarova travelled at her own expense
to Czechoslovakia and Germany. In Berlin she got acquainted with the best
specialists in the area of folk music – the professors Hornbostel, Kurt
Sachs, Wolf, Schunemann and Dr. Lachmann. In Prague, in Berlin and in Dresden
she won a lot of friends for the Bulgarian musical folklore.
Following V. Stoin Raina Katsarova became curator of
the section for folk music at the Ethnographical Museum. Thanks to her initiative
and personal relations abroad she managed to supply the section with a phonograph
apparatus “Presto” together with metalophone records for it. Hers was the
initiative a collection of folk musical instruments to be created as well
as the instruments from the first Plovdiv Fair in 1898 housed in the museum
to be arranged and included in an inventory. Simultaneously she collected
new instruments and studied some of them. Taking the risk of getting in
conflict with the management of the museum, in 1944 Katsarova evacuated
the property of the section for folk music to Koprivshtitsa and thus she
rescued it from the fire in Sofia on the 30th of March 1944.
In 1950 the section for folk music was transferred from
the Ethnographical Museum to the Institute of Music (established in 1948)
at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (today Department “Music” at the Institute
for Art Studies – BAS). As a senior research associate she headed the folklore
section to the end of 1964 when she retired.
As a musical folklore specialist R. Katsarova manifested
all-round interests. During all her creative activity her interest in work
on location did not diminish. She was the author of a great number of monographs,
studies and papers, devoted to various aspects of the musical folklore practice.
Among them are: “Three Generations of Folk Women Singers”, “Today’s State
of the Epic Recitative in Bulgaria”, “Two Distinctive Features of the Pomak
Tunes in the Rhodopes”, “Ugarchin Pentatonic” and “Mourning of the Dead”,
“The Bagpipes of a Master from Shumen” and “Koprivshtitsa’s Bagpipes and
Bagpipe-Players”; “Lazaritsa” (London, 1935), “Folk Dances and Games from
the Village of Hlevene, Lovetch District”, “Bulgarian Dance Folklore” (translated
into Russian and English with an attachment of 12 folk dances, arranged for
the stage by choreographer Kiril Djenev) and “Distribution and Variants of
one Bulgarian Dance”; “Padarevski Kukeri “ (Mummers from Padarevo), “Sourvakari”,
“Winter Carnival Games From the Regions of Pernik, Breznik and Radomir”,
“Dervishes From the Village of Lesichevo, the Region of Pazardjik” and “Mummers
From the Village of Vresovo, the Region of Aitos and the Village of Asparouhovo,
the Region of Provadia”; “Folk Puppet Theatre. Puppets Made of Napkins” and
“Puppets Made of Plants”; “Variations and Permutations of a Spring Melody”,
“Balkan Variants of Two Turkish Songs”, “Distribution and Variants of One
Bulgarian Dance”, “Hadji Dambo Is Building a Tower” etc.
R. Katsarova was the first to broadcast lectures and
folk songs live on Radio Sofia. She dedicated a lot of time to amateur folklore
activities. She popularized Bulgarian musical and dance folklore and Bulgarian
folkloristic musical science abroad.
It cannot be said that R. Katsarova is a representative
of a definite generation of musical folklorists. She made her first steps
together with her teachers Dobri Hrisov and Vassil Stoin and walked along
the long and uneven road of the musical folklore together with the next
generations. Everything accomplished by Raina Katsarova in the sphere of
Bulgarian musical and dance folklore is worthy of respect and appreciation.
Raina Katsarova had a nice family – a husband and two
sons, but in her personal life she survived several serious ordeals. In
1944 an American bomb hit her house at 12 Veliko Tirnovo Street. With a
lot of effort and privation the house was partly restored. The governing
red aristocrats forced her to leave her native house in the centre of Sofia,
and to move to the suburban housing estate “Droujba” where she lived to the
end of her life. Unfortunately she lost her elder son. All this affected
her health, she suffered a stroke and after a while she passed away on 14th
of August 1984.
Raina Katsarova left a deep track in Bulgarian music
folklore science and unforgettable memories in those who had the opportunity
to work and communicate with her.
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“Oration about Raina Katsarova”
– Nickolai Kauffmann
With deep conviction and clear conscience I rank Raina
Katsarova among the emanation of the Bulgarian people, among those great
Bulgarians whose names will remain forever. When the Institute of Music at
the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was established (1948), Raina Katsarova
was put in charge of the music folklore section. Having been a collaborator
of Vassil Stoin, she took from him and introduced into all of us the flame
of the collectors of the great golden treasure. This eminent trio – Raina
Katsarova, Ivan Kachulev, Elena Stoin – brought with themselves a great tradition
from the Ethnographical Institute, where they worked before coming to the
Institute of Music. That was the great science of Ivan Sishmanov, Mihail
Arnaudov, Hristo Vakarelski. She worked hard to create a centre for collecting
and studying Bulgarian folk music, which can be compared with the most prestigious
ones. She headed the passionate work of collecting and studying the music
folklore from all regions of Bulgaria, she gathered a nucleus of folklorists,
who shared her love for and devotion to the national music folk art.
I will not enumerate the merits of the collective and
research activities of our teacher in everything connected with ethnomusicology
– the first solid stones of paving the way in ethnochoreology, in studying
folk rituals and customs accompanied with music, in studying folk songs
from all over the country, in comparative studies, folk polyphony, town
folklore etc. During the years when relations with the Western world were
undesirable, Raina Katsarova was the only ethnomusicologist who was not
afraid. She was the restless courier of our folklore musical art who connected
us with Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodai, Mod Karpeles, Barbara Crader, Albert
Lloyd.
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“The Place of Raina Katsarova in Bulgarian Music Folklore
Science” – Lidia Littova – Nickolova
Raina Katsarova – Kukudova was a real phenomenon in
the sphere of Bulgarian music folklore science. She started her research
activity in the initial period of Bulgarian musical folklore studies. In
the 20s of XX century, as a collaborator of Vassil Stoin, Raina Katsarova
got interested in work on location as a necessary prerequisite for getting
to know in detail the musical folklore values and an opportunity of creating
a rich music folklore archive, which became the foundation of developing
our musical folklore science. Her participation in collecting melodies and
publishing the first capital collections with folk songs – “Folk Songs From
Timok to Vita” and “Folk Songs From Middle North Bulgaria” excited her interest
in the problem of classification of musical folklore materials, a problem
in which she evinced her interest during her specialization in Czechoslovakia
and Germany and which was subject to her publications. In reply to Zoltan
Kodai’s interest in Raina Katsarova’s opinion, she published her paper “Classification
of Folk Melodies in Bulgaria”. Taking the systematization of the songs in
the collections of Vassil Stoin as a basis, she emphasized upon her preference
for classification according to function and offered analytical methods
of presenting the folk melodies depending on metrum, rhythm, form, ambitus,
mode as necessary components of the synchratic complex.
Raina Katsarova was a folklorist of variegated interests,
who managed to draw out basic laws in Bulgarian music folklore culture,
thus initiating their study.
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“Contribution of Raina Katsarova to Studying the Music
Folklore of Bulgarians in Macedonia” – Ilia Manolov
In 1939 Raina Katsarova recorded 21 songs, different
in theme and function, and one mourning, dedicated to a revolutionary, killed
by the Turks, which is most likely unique in Bulgarian folklore as well
as 33 songs and a description of folk musical instruments from settlers
from the region of Skopie /18 records in all/. In 1940 she recorded 16 songs
from the village of Belitsa – the region of Razlog and started her
first tour in the region of Pirin, where she recorded 56 songs and dances
from the region of Razlog: Yakoruda, Bansko, Dobrinishte, Pletena, Kochan
and Gotse Delchev. The horo songs are accompanied by kinetic signs. In 1941
she studied mainly Northwestern Macedonia – the regions of Skopie, Koumanovo,
Tetovo, Kichevo, Kroushevo etc. Later she visited the regions bordering on
Serbia and Albania. Over 125 songs and horo dances were decoded. Some of
the horo songs were accompanied by kinetic signs. Thematically and functionally
the songs are quite various. From 1950 (except 1955) Katsarova regularly
went on location in the region of Pirin. In 1960 a research expedition was
organized along the valley of the Mesta River – part of the regions of Blagoevgrad,
Razlog and Gotse Delchev, the results of which haven’t been published yet.
In Raina Katsarova’s publicistic activity the Pirin theme occupied a modest
place. These were about ten synopsis papers. Four of them were devoted to
the Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances “Yane Sandanski” in Gotse Delchev.
She was the first to publish an article on “Hadji Dambo is building a tower
from the village of Dolno Osenovo.
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“About Raina Katsarova with Love and Gratitude” – Anna
Ilieva
Raina Katsarova was the founder of the terrain dance
ethnology in Bulgaria. Hers was the idea and the merit of initiating the collection,
description, filming and theoretical studying of Bulgarian national dances,
thanks to which, now we possess rich film documentation of unique dance phenomena
and rituals. In her monograph “Folk Dances and Games From the Village of
Hlevene, the Region of Lovech” she studied the essence of Bulgarian folk
horo in the functional entity of artistic life in one village. In “On Ruchenitsa”
she examined the dance phenomenon called “ruchenitsa” in all its rich, synchronously
existing forms, regional variety, i.e. from the ritual dance to the most
developed, town or danced on the stage “ruchenitsa”. A considerable contribution
to our scarce choreological literature were the regional studies
of Katsarova: “Folk Dances and Games in Strandja”, “Today’s State Of Folk
Songs and Dance Folklore in Dobrudja” and “Dances and Games From Northwestern
Bulgaria”.
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“Raina Katsarova’s Contribution to the Bulgarian Collection
of Albert Lloyd” – Dimitrina Kauffmann
In 1954 the famous British folklorist Albert Lloyd came
to Bulgaria. His aim was to have a look at the territory and to choose interesting
material to be broadcast by BBC. I do not know exactly what is the connection
between the BBC – collection of Albert Lloyd and the collection of Alan
Lomax published the same year in the USA and how the songs and the instrumental
melodies were transferred from Britain to America. In the introduction to
his collection Lloyd wrote that he had visited some places in Bulgaria (their
names were not mentioned), accompanied by Raina Katsarova - head of section
“Musical folklore” at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, he had met Philip
Koutev – conductor of the Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances (today the
Ensemble is called Philp Koutev) and Georgi Boyadjiev – editor-in-chief
of section “Folk Music” at Radio Sofia. Althogh Lloyd was the author of
the text, the selection of the collection – of authors, performers, genres,
regions seemed to be prompted to a high extent by Raina Katsarova. This
is evident from the thorough look at the terrain, the best performers included
as well as performers who became stars about 15-20 years later..
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“Raina Katsarova and Children’s Musical Folklore” –
Mihail Bukureshtliev
The collection “Du-li du-li, gaida” (1947) contained
22 folk songs, skilfully arranged with a pedagogical insight into “from the
easier to the more difficult”. It was the first time in Bulgarian literature
that children’s folk songs had been collected. In the collection “The Alphabet
in Songs – Cheerful and Easy” (1957) songs with texts from the alphabetical
order were included. The collection “A Source of Beauty and Patriotism”
(1969) contained tales, legends, riddles, sayings, calendar series of songs
from customs, in which children participate, e.g. Sourvakari, Koledari,
Lazarki etc. Katsarova did all this with the only aim to get these ancient
customs and games used today too because they possess everlasting artistic
value.
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“Raina Katsarova and the Overcoming of Ethnocentrism”
– Ventsislav Dimov & Lozanka Peicheva
Raina Katsarova remained part of the ethnocentric orientation
but spontaneously she began to destroy its pattern from inside. As a program
she defended the view of the unity, stability and authenticity of our folklore,
but as a conscientious researcher and European scholar, adherent to comparative
musicology, she did not let out of her sight the manifestations of
other music folklore traditions, she studied the mutual influences and loans,
she considered the musical traditions of hers and other peoples equally worthy
of attention. She was one of the first who paid attention to the role of
the Roma musicians (gypsies) in the town musical culture and the chalga tradition
from the period of the National Revival in her study “Features of
Music Life in Koprivshtitsa” (1938). Being ahead of the theoreticians and
practitioners of World Music Today, Raina Katsarova introduced into Bulgarian
scientific and public space some measurements of the interethnical, intercultural
dialogue.
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“Raina Katsarova and the Bulgarian Folklore Puppet Theatre”
– Elena Vladova
Raina Katsarova presented information about manifestations
of folklore puppet theatre – the so-called custom “Lazar” as early as 1936
in London. The relations between the Bulgarian folklore puppet theatre and
the folk culture of other ethnic groups were converted into a comparative
method that she later tried to apply in her further research work. The book
of the historian Max fon Boen was her principal source of information. She
was among the founders of the Puppet Theatre at Slavianska Beseda, whereas
before that she was an active participant in the first performance of the
Bulgarian puppet theatre, founded by Atanas Donkov in 1924.
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“In the Steps of Raina Katsarova” – Vesselka Toncheva
The study “Three Generations of Folk Women Singers”
presented the three generations of folk women singers from the village of
Dermantsi, the region of Lovech. Raina Katsarova not only examined the family
tradition and made important conclusions about the time, the background
and the style of performance, but she also made original analysis of the
music folklore dialect peculiarities of this village, and consequently of
the whole region, proving the unity of the music folklore in the region.
This is proved by comparing the mournings of the Islamic population,
recorded today and these songs of weeping quoted by Katsarova; from the typical,
according to Katsarova “bear-ward rhythm” in 9/16 with characteristic pause
on the first time of 1st and 3rd beat; from the tamboura (mandolin) and its
use as the main accompanying instrument of singing.
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“Folklore and Folklore Forms through the View of the
Carriers” – Elena R. Tomova
The surveys made in Sofia and Varna according to a prepared
in advance questionnaire revealed the attitude of the contemporary carriers
of folklore to what they consider to be folklore and not folklore, how they
perceive folklore and folk art. Almost all are unanimous that it is the
same, that the song cannot be the same in the different generations, that
there is a lot in common between the songs of the Balkan peoples, but they
are still different. In respect to concert forms like fairs and festivals,
two extremes have been notices towards the folklore ensembles and the folk
albums: unreserved adoption and absolute rejection.
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“Traditional Manifestations and Beliefs” – Galin
Georgiev
In science there are different points of view and opinions
on the problem of professionalism in man’s activities in the so-called traditional
society: in most cases it is contrasted as a type of the traditional; others
defend the opinion of the so- called traditional professional culture or
of “professional craftsman’s culture”; in respect to the problems of the
instrumental and singing tradition some researchers speak about professionalism,
others about semi-professionalism (or folk professionalism), specialization,
still others use the terms of low and high art, craft, etc.
From the problem of professionalism and specialization
in the activities of the village musician, a number of peculiarities of
the traditional instrumental music are derived as a specific cultural phenomenon.
From a social and cultural point of view, they come down to the differences
in the traditional women’s singing, whereas from an ideological point of
view, they are ideas connecting its origin with the sacred musical activity
of cultural heroes and ancestors whose instrument playing is accepted as
a mythical prototype of the specific talent of the man instrument player.
Raina Katsarova gave interesting information describing a woman – mandolin
performer. The belief that all musical instruments except the kaval (shepherd’s
pipe) originated from the devil still exists.
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“Raina Katsarova – Enthusiastic, Courageous, Unique”
– Lozanka Peicheva
In the memoirs of Assen Alexandrov – a friend of Raina
Katsarova and her family for many years, and of Geo Kukudov – the younger
of her two sons, Raina Katsarova was: “an enthusiastic person”, “always
above the average level of mood”, with “an air of lightness, gaiety, informality”,
“terrific physical agility”, “permanently enthusiastic”, “she made no bones
to anybody”, “she had a good word for everybody, understanding of all, she
was able to communicate with all people”, “an exceptional person with a
unique and forceful spirit… a Renaissance spirit … she was conscious … she
had a mission”, “a deeply religious person”, “she gave birth to my brother
and me with 20 years difference, which is also a heroic deed”, “she was a
great person in all respects”. The same warm feelings are visible from the
unpublished letter of Binka Vazova, an artist, a friend of hers, who accompanied
her on location many times, illustrator of her book “Koledarski pesni” (Sofia,
1934). The letter was written on 12th of October 1984, Sofia and was sent
later to Raina Katsarova’s son.
“Raina Katsarova and her Archive Fund through the Eyes of the Specialist”
– Margarita Popova
In the branch office of the Scientific Fund of the Institute
for Art Studies at the BAS, the share of Raina Katsarova’s personal fund
is considerable. Her terrain materials are arranged in 55 folders containing
collections of about 400 settlements. Usually each of these collections
has their own inventory number. Some inventory numbers, however, contain
musical folklore from more settlements, therefore the real number of the
settlement collections is bigger. The archive units in Katsarova’s fund
are over 10 000 and represent folklore from all over Bulgaria; from Macedonia,
Moldavia and the Ukraine; songs, hora and customs of settlers from Aegian
Thrace (the regions of Drama and Syar, recorded in the region of Nevrokop;
Odrin, Lozengrad and Malgar, recorded in North-eastern Bulgaria). In North-eastern
Bulgaria folklore of settlers from Macedonia (Vardar and Kostur), Asia Minor
and North Dobrudja (Kjustendja and Tulcha) was recorded.
Among the best-studied settlements by Raina Katsarova
were those in the region of Nevrokop (South-western Bulgaria); the region
of Karlovo and Kazanluk (Sredna Gora); Velingrad and Devin (the Rhodopes);
the regions of Varna, Provadia and Silistra (North-eastern Bulgaria); the
regions of Loukovit, Teteven, Vratsa and Montana (North-western Bulgaria);
the regions of Veliko Tirnovo, Sevlievo and Lovech (Middle North Bulgaria);
Pernik and Samokov (Middle Western Bulgaria); Bourgas and Yambol (South-Eastern
Bulgaria).
Most of the terrain materials was submitted to the Archive
by Raina Katsarova while she was still working as a research worker at the
Institute of Music of that time. Additionally her archive fund was enriched
in 1989 with the materials presented by her son Georgi Kukudov, kept in
the family archive until then.
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“About a Trip of Raina Katsarova to the Regions of Varna and Provadia”
– Radka Nickolova
The trip of Raina Katsarova to 37 villages in the regions
of Provadia and Varna resulted in 1350 songs written down in notes by her.
After a thorough examination it was established that the songs were recorded
in December 1929 and 1930. The songs were mostly of settlers from Asia Minor
(Kodjabunar, Valgartsi), from Macedonia (Kostur and Vardar) and from Aegian
Thrace (Odrin, Lozengrad, Malgar). The song melodies are authentic, with
little ambitus and without a well-developed melodic line. That shows that
the songs belong to a more ancient and less well-known layer of folklore.
Their publication will excite great scientific interest as they were not
presented in either of the two volumes of “Folk Songs of North-Eastern Bulgaria”.
(Translation by Violeta Velichkova)
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3. ARCHIVE
2002 Book 3
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