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Magical Bulgarian voices transcend boundaries
By SUSAN L. PENA
The female vocal choir Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares brings its unique sound to Kutztown University Thursday in an a capella performance of authentic folk tunes, including songs for the Christmas season.
The Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir, billed as Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares (The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices), will perform Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Auditorium as part of the Kutztown University Performing Artists Series.
Founded in 1952 and based in Sofia, Bulgaria, as a way to preserve the heritage of Bulgarian folk singing, the group has gained attention all over the world, first through its recordings and later through its concert performances.
In the United States, the general public was introduced to the choir's unique sound through a 1988 recording on the Elektra Nonesuch Records label, "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, Volume I," which rose to Billboard's Top 200 chart
The group's first North American tour came after this, and the group returned in 1990 to widespread acclaim, with television appearances on ABC's "World News Tonight." NBC's "Nightly News" and the "Tonight" and "Today" shows.
The second volume of "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares" was released in 1990 and won a Grammy Award. The album "Rituals," also on the Nonesuch label, was nominated for a Grammy in 1994.
According to the choir's director, Dora Hristova, in a recent telephone interview from Sofia, the women in the choir come from ihe rural parts of Bulgaria, where "this is the vocal style of their parents and grandparents."
That vocal style is the "mystery" of the group's title — a unique, very clear sound with no vibrato — what composer Ingram Marshall, in his liner notes to the first Nonesuch album, calls "cutting clarity tempered by seductive loveliness, which ultimately enchants our ears."
The songs themselves are typical of Bulgarian folk music, with asymmetric meters, scales not based on the Westem major/minor diatonic scales with which we are familiar, and harmonies that would be considered dissonant in Westem music.
One of the hallmarks of this singing is the use of parallel seconds, sevenths and ninths instead of the predominant thirds and sixths used in traditional Western music.
As this style of singing began to die out in the 20th century, the Bulgarian arranger/composer Philip Koutev, who died in 1982 at age 79. founded the State Ensemble for Folk Music and Dance. He composed hundreds of songs for it based on the regional music of Bulgaria. Other composers joined him in creating the body of work performed by Le Mystere.
While many of the women in the chorus have received special training, all come from a tradition in which singing is valued. Hristova said she feels "it's their physiology; they are born with this ability to sing like that from the time they are children."
According to Marshall, "singing is revered there (as is most appropriate in a country including Thrace, esteemed by the ancient Greeks for its musicians. Orpheus himself was a Thracian minstrel.)"
While the group often performs with Bulgarian folk instrumentalists accompanying some of its songs, Hristova said that on this tour, which begins Tuesday, all the songs will be performed a cappella, and one man is included in the group of 23 women.
The program will consist of authentic folk songs and arrangements by contemporary Bulgarian composers. Songs for the Christmas season will be included, consisting of both religious folk songs and Eastem Orthodox Christmas songs.
If you go
Kutztown University Performing Artists Series presents Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares. Where and when: Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Auditorium.
Tickets: $28, $25 for students; call 610-683-4092. 11/27/06 >> go there
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