Bulgarian culture has deep roots in the traditions of the indigenous Thracian heritage and the Slavic peoples who settled the Balkans in the early Middle Ages. It consolidated during the First Bulgarian Empire with influence from the Byzantine civilisation and Eastern Christianity followed by a cultural and technological exchange with the Ottoman Empire during a long period of political subjugation starting in the Late Medieval period.
Material culture predates the Thracians. For example, the oldest known worked gold in the world, dating back to the 5th millennium BCE, was discovered at the Varna Necropolis.New perspectives on the Varna cemetery (Bulgaria) , By: Higham, Tom; Chapman, John; Slavchev, Vladimir; Gaydarska, Bisserka; Honch, Noah; Yordanov, Yordan; Dimitrova, Branimira; September 1, 2007
Thracian heritage in Bulgaria includes numerous temples, tombs, treasures, and ancient ritual traditions. Some pre-Christian customs, such as Kukeri, Martenitsa, and rites connected with seasonal fertility, remain part of modern Bulgarian culture.
Bulgaria functioned as a cultural hub of Slavic Europe during much of the Middle Ages, exerting considerable literary influence over the Eastern Orthodox world through the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools. Bulgaria also gave the world the Cyrillic script, the second most widely used alphabet and sixth most-used writing system in the world, which originated in these two schools in the tenth century.
Bulgaria's cultural contribution continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in literature, music, theatre, visual arts, and science. Internationally recognised people with Bulgarian roots include Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Elias Canetti, the pianist Alexis Weissenberg, opera singer Boris Christoff, John Atanasoff, one of the pioneers of the digital computer, and visual artists Christo, Pascin, and Vladimir Dimitrov.
Music
Bulgaria has a long-standing musical tradition dating to the early Middle Ages. One of the earliest known composers of Medieval Europe, Yoan Kukuzel (ca. 1280–1360), became famous for his work Polieleion of the Bulgarian Woman. About 90 of his works have survived. Kukuzel also reformed the Byzantine musical writing system, and became known as The Angel-voiced for his singing abilities.
The tradition of church singing in Bulgaria is more than thousand years old. In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church there are two traditions of church singing - Eastern monodic (one-voice) singing and choral (polyphonic). The Eastern monodic singing observes the tradition of Greek and Byzantine music as well as the requirements of the eight-voices polyphonic canon of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The second tradition is the choral church music, established during the nineteenth century, when in Bulgaria enters the influence of Russian polyphonic choral church music. Many Bulgarian composers (Dobri Hristov, Petar Dinev, etc.) create their works in the spirit of Russian polyphony. Today Orthodox music is alive and is performed both during church worship services and at concerts by secular choirs and soloists. Contemporary Bulgarian choirs whose repertoire includes Orthodox music include the Yoan Kukuzel Choir, Plovdiv Boys' Choir 'Stefka Blagoeva', Sofia Boys' Choir, Madrigal Sofia Choir, Sofia Orthodox Choir and Sofia Priest Choir. Bulgaria has also produced internationally recognised opera singers, including Boris Christoff, Nicola Ghiuselev, Nicolai Ghiaurov, regarded as one of the major basses of the post-World War II era; Ghena Dimitrova, an internationally acclaimed dramatic soprano associated with major Verdi and Puccini roles; Elena Nicolai, a Bulgarian mezzo-soprano associated with the Italian operatic tradition; and Raina Kabaivanska, whose international career included a long association with Italian opera and La Scala.
Bulgarian classical music has also been represented by internationally active conductors. Important figures in the Bulgarian conducting tradition include Sasha Popov, founder of the Academic Symphony Orchestra, the predecessor of the Sofia Philharmonic, whose first concert he conducted in 1929; Ruslan Raychev, who worked with leading Bulgarian opera and symphonic institutions and appeared internationally in Europe, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Japan; Emil Tchakarov, a laureate of the Herbert von Karajan conducting competition who later worked as Karajan's assistant; Emil Tabakov, former music director of the Sofia Philharmonic and Belgrade Philharmonic and a prize-winner at the Nikolai Malko International Competition for Young Conductors; Nayden Todorov, artistic director of the Sofia Philharmonic since 2017; and Rossen Milanov, music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Princeton Symphony Orchestra.
The distinctive sound of Bulgarian folk music comes partly from the asymmetric rhythms, harmony and polyphony, such as the use of close intervals like the major second and the singing of a drone accompaniment underneath the melody, especially common in songs from the Shopluk region in Western Bulgaria and the Pirin region.
Bulgarian folk music is unique in its complex harmonies and highly irregular rhythms. These kinds of rhythms, also called uneven beats or asymmetric measures, were introduced to musicologists only in 1886 when music teacher Anastas Stoyan published Bulgarian folk melodies for the first time. Examples of such beats are , , , and , or composite ones like , and . Each area of Bulgaria has a characteristic music and dance style. Bulgarian folk music inspired and was used by musicians like Kate Bush and George Harrison.
Bulgarian vocal style has a unique throat quality, while the singers themselves are renowned for their range. Their voices are low and soprano and the children love singing as well as anything artistic. Diatonic scales predominate but in the Rhodope Mountains, for example, pentatonic scales occur, while in Thrace chromatic scales with augmented intervals (similar to the music of Classical Greece). Also, the intonation varies, and is quite different from the modern Western equal temperament. Depending on whether the melody moves up or down, an interval can augment or decrease by a quarter tone.
Musical instruments (also characteristic of the whole Balkan region) include gaida (bagpipe), kaval (rim-blown flute), zurna or zurla (another woodwind, similar to oboe typical among Roma), tambura (long-necked lute), gadulka (bowed instrument held upright).
The gaida of Bulgaria is worthy of its own subsection. In Bulgaria the gaida has been a long symbol of the country and its heritage, and is one of the more well-known instruments of the country. The gaida most widely used is the Thracian gaida. There is in the Rhodope Mountains the deep-sounding kaba gaida. In the north, common of Dobrudzha and the Vlachs there is the dzhura gaida. Also in the Strandzha region near the border with Turkey there is the Strandzha gaida. The bag itself is made of a goat skin turned inside out, and most often the rims of the different parts of the instrument - chanter and drone pipe - have a piece of horn on it.
Dances have complex steps matching the rhythms, and are often fast. Most are circle-dances or line dances called horo; but some are done singly or in pairs.
Although traditional music and dance are not popular among Bulgarian city youth, they are often performed at weddings, and generally in countryside festivals. They are also performed in Bulgaria and abroad by amateur and professional performing artists and choirs.
Regional folk musical styles abound in Bulgaria. Northern Bulgaria, Dobruja, Shopluk, Thrace, Strandzha, Macedonia and Rhodopes - all have distinctive sounds. Much of traditional folk music revolved around holidays like Christmas, New Year's Day, midsummer, and the Feast of St. Lazarus, as well as the Strandzha region's unusual Nestinarstvo rites on May 21.
Several world-renowned troupes perform Bulgarian folk music, including the State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances, founded by Philip Koutev (1903–1982), Trio Bulgarka and the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir, who are featured, among others, on the anthologies titled Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, volume 2 of which received a Grammy Award in 1989.
One internationally known artist, Valya Balkanska, sang the song Izlel e Delyu Haydutin, which was chosen to be part of the Voyager Golden Record selection of music sent into space in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir also known as Mystery of Bulgarian voices has also attained a considerable degree of fame.
Customs and rites
Bulgarians often give each other a martenitsa () — an adornment made of white and red yarn and worn on the wrist or pinned on the clothes — from March 1 until the end of the month. Alternatively, one can take off the martenitsa earlier if one sees a stork (considered a harbinger of spring). One can then tie the martenitsa to the blossoming branch of a tree. Family-members and friends in Bulgaria customarily exchange martenitsas, which they regard as symbols of health and longevity. The white thread represents peace and tranquility, while the red one stands for the cycles of life. Bulgarians may also refer to the holiday of 1 March as Baba Marta (), meaning Grandmother March. It preserves an ancient pagan tradition. Many legends exist regarding the birth of this custom, some of them dating back to the 7th century and the time of Khan Kubrat, the ruler of Old Great Bulgaria. Other tales relate the martenitsa to Thracian and Zoroastrian beliefs. Romania and some parts of Greece also have a similar custom. In 2017, UNESCO added the cultural practices centered around the martenitsa ritual in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.
The ancient Bulgarian ritual of kukeri (), performed by costumed men, seeks to scare away evil spirits and bring good harvest and health to the community. The costumes, made of animal furs and fleeces, cover the whole of the body. A mask, adorned with horns and decoration, covers the head of each kuker, who also have bells attached to his waist. The kukeri dance, jump and shout in an attempt to banish all evil from the village. Some of the performers impersonate royalty, field-workers and craftsmen. The adornments on the costumes vary from one region to another. In 2015, the ritual was entered in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists as part of the traditional Surva Folk Fest held annually in Pernik.
Another characteristic custom called Nestinarstvo (), or firedancing, is found in the Strandzha region. This ancient custom involves dancing into fire or over live embers. Women dance into the fire with their bare feet without suffering any injury or pain. In 2009, the ritual was entered in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Bulgaria has nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which are part of the national route tourist map of 100 national tourist sites of the Bulgarian Tourist Union:
The early medieval large rock relief Madara Rider Two Thracian tombs (one in Sveshtari and one in Kazanlak) Three monuments of medieval Bulgarian culture (the Boyana Church, the Rila Monastery and the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo) Two examples of natural beauty: the Fisherman Momerioland the Sreburna Nature Reserve The ancient city of Nessebur — a unique combination of European cultural interaction, as well as, historically, one of the most important centres of seaborne trade in the Black Sea