Старата българска музика – проблеми, предизвикателства и перспективи
The old Bulgarian music – Problems, challenges and Perspectives

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses some of the most significant contributions Bulgaria made in the field of music during the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance, and which are still not well known. They refer to the adopted and used liturgical books, neume systems, authors, chants, compositional techniques, etc. The contributions discussed are from different periods in the history of music – periods of crisis, but also of renewal, periods of intersection of different traditions and of the coexistence of diverse practices, all constituted, however, according to the Eastern cultural-Christian model, fitting into its rules and norms and preserving its meaning and forms. Such are the 9th – 11th centuries, when the first notated books appeared, the 14th – 16th centuries, when the new liturgical order was confirmed with both the new Jerusalem Typikon and the doctrine of hesychasm, the 16th – 17th centuries, when changes in the Russian and Ukrainian cultures are considered and song books with a year-round liturgical repertoire called “Bulgarian Rospev” appeared, and the 18th – 19th centuries, the period of the Balkan National revival with the new created and the process of secularization of culture began. The examples are primarily related to Bulgarian history, but they are far from having only a narrow local meaning: many issues that were created on Bulgarian lands or related to Bulgarian history, were spread outside and become an “ambassador” of the beauty of the created music, revealing its openness to other cultures during the Middle Ages.

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