Established in A.D.681, and having lived through periods of unprecedented might and territorial expansion when bordering with three seas, Bulgaria continues to be unique also with its extraordinarily abundant and diverse wealth of song works. The Bulgarian folk songs reflect and preserve the wisdom, joys, sufferings and hopes of the Bulgarians, gathered through the ages. It is probably no accident that the Rhodope Mountains in Southern Bulgaria were the motherland of the mythical Orpheus, or that the celebrated medieval singer and songwriter Ioan Kukuzel was of Bulgarian origin. The establishment of the Bulgarian state brought together Slavic, proto-Bulgarian and Thracian tribes; their different musical cultures have been interacting throughout its history.
The Christianization of Bulgaria in A.D. 865 gave an impetus for a vigorous development of the political and religious activities. The historical period saw the rise of the Slavic enlighteners, the Saint Brothers Cyril and Methodius, who created the Slavic alphabet and translated the most important religious books. Their followers, led by St. Kliment Ohridski adapted the liturgical singing to the Slavic speech and melodies. The age-old tradition of religious and folk song that maintained the Bulgarian self-consciousness, language and customs in the harsh years of foreign rule slowly developed into choral musicalization – single-voiced in the beginning, polyphonic later on. It appeared around the middle of the 19-th century, continued its progress through the Bulgarian Revival and blossomed after Bulgaria’s Liberation from Ottoman rule in 1878.

Choirs were organized in many towns across the country – initially mainly school and church choirs, but soon afterwards lay choirs, which became the continuators of the tradition of the first Bulgarian choirs: school students choirs – of Sava Dobroplodni (1840) and Dobri Voinikov (1859) in Shumen; the first Bulgarian lay choir of Yanko Mustakov in Svishtov (1868); the first Bulgarian choral society of Todor Hadjistanchev in Ruse (1870); the choirs of Petar Ivanov (Stara Zagora – 1870), of Yosif Kolomati (Sliven – 1881); the first mixed choir of Rusi Kodjamanov (Vidin – 1894), and many others. The greatest contribution, both to the choral performing art and to the budding choral creative work, was made by the music teachers, many of them among the first Bulgarian composers: Georgi Baydanov, Anastas Stoyanov, Emanuil Manolov, Angel Bukoreshtliev, Atanas Badev, Aleksander Krastev, Dimo Boichev, Panayot Pipkov, etc. They began to compose songs for two, three and four voices, at the beginning harmonization of folk songs, but later on authored choral works. A large number of lay, school and military choirs appeared, which participated in festivities, concerts, celebrations, dancing parties, etc. Both the musical and patriotic upsurge among the Bulgarians was remarkable.

The organized activities of the choirs began in 1905 with the establishment of the Bulgarian Musical Union, which included choirs from Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Ruse, Stara Zagora, Pleven, Asenovgrad, Tutrakan. Following the period wars 1912 – 1918, it was the choral songs which became the vehicle and bearer of strong patriotism and love of the motherland. They evolved into a unifying force – choir singers and audience felt as being one united whole. Choir singing attracted thousands of people to active and collective musicalization, allied the souls of the singers, conductors and audience.

The professional composers, educated in Germany, Russia, Czechoslovakia, France, wrote songs with high esthetic qualities, which even today still find their place in the repertory of the Bulgarian choirs. The classic of the Bulgarian choir music, Acad. Dobri Hristov (1875 – 1941), conductor, composer, pedagogue, and theoretician of Bulgarian music, laid the foundations for the contemporary Bulgarian musical art. He wrote magnificent church and choir compositions and was among the initiators of the establishment in 1926 of the Union of Folk Choirs in Bulgaria. One of the outstanding personalities in the Bulgarian musical culture was the great composer and administrator, Acad. Petko Staynov (1896 – 1977). He created a whole new genre in Bulgarian music – the choral ballade as a major form of the a cappella singing. At the same time, his public activities as Chairman of the Union of Folk Choirs in Bulgaria and of the Bulgarian Choral Union (1933 – 1945) were invaluable. Other prominent composers and conductors with substantial contribution to the development of the choral art in the first half of the 20-th century were Asen Dimitrov, Hristo Manolov, Lyubomir Pipkov, Stoyan Brashovanov, Georgi Dimitrov, Krum Boyadjiev, Lazar Maksimov, Boyan Sokolov, Lyudmila Prokopova, Svetoslav Obretenov, Boncho Bochev, …

The second half of the 20-th century saw the onset of another uplift in the development of the Bulgarian choral art. Professional state choir were established. In 1951, the composer and conductor Prof. Georgi Dimitrov established the Choir Conducting Chair at the State Musical Academy; most of the best Bulgarian conductors were among its graduates. In 1952, the composer Filip Kutev founded the first State Folk Songs Ensemble, which was later followed by many similar collectives. A new style was created of the folk songs harmonization, springing from the artistic interaction between the choirs of schooled and of authentic folk singing. During the 1960’s, a large number of new choirs were established, covering all choral genres. This period was characterized by a quantitative leap in the artistic performance mastership. The Bulgarian choirs began winning the highest awards at numerous international competitions and festivals on all five continents, including the title “Choir of the World”. The Bulgarian choirs gained worldwide recognition thanks both to high quality of their performance and to their interesting, controversial, contemporary national repertory. The new generation of choir composers – Todor Popov (1921 – 2000), Aleksander Tanev (1928 – 1996), Ivan Spasov (1934 – 1996), Zdravko Manolov (1921 – 1961), Konstantin Iliev (1924 – 1988), Nikolay Kaufman (1925 - ), Krasimir Kyurkchiyski (1936 - ) among many others, played a paramount role in developing and establishing the prestige of the Bulgarian choral performing art in creative interaction with the outstanding conductors of the second half of the 20-th century, who sadly are not among us any longer: Atanas Margaritov, Angel Manolov, Georgi Robev, Vasil Arnaudov, Hristo Arishtirov, Samuil Vidas, Vasil Stefanov, Mesru Mehmedov, Mihail Milkov, …

The significant role should be pointed out here in the organizational and artistic progress of the choirs played by the Choir Division of the Center for Amateur Artistic Activities, which existed until the end of 1989. On February 23, 1990, the choir organization was re-established under its present name of Bulgarian Choir Union (BCU), who became the natural rightful successor and continuator of the tradition created by the Union of Folk Choirs in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Choral Union. The BCU became member of the European Federation of Youth Choirs EUROPA CANTAT, and of UNESCO’s World Federation for Choir Music.

Even today, in 2003, at the beginning of the 3-rd millennium, a multitude of regional, national, and international competitions, festivals, concerts, fairs, etc., are being held, whose unfailing engines and permanent participants are Bulgarian choirs and their conductors and leaders. More than 200 choirs and individual members are now united behind the ideals and goals of the BCU under the motto RODNA PESEN NAS NAVEK NI SVARZVA (“A Native Song Links Us Forever”). Today’s choral art in Bulgaria is invigorated by the living saps of the Bulgarian songs – chef d’oeuvres for which there exist no borders and language barriers – and is developed and augmented by a pleiad of outstanding Bulgarian conductors, composers and choir singers – ambassadors of beauty and harmony who enrich the world’s musical horizon with an original, modern, highly artistic and vivid musical presence.

Lada Brashovanova–Stancheva