Литературно-музикалната образност в късното камерно вокално творчество на Тодор Попов
Literary and Musical Imagery in the Late Chamber Vocal Work of Todor Popov

Summary/Abstract: In Bulgarian music, Todor Popov (1921 – 2000) occupies a significant place with his choral works; he established himself as a ‘composer-songwriter’ and ‘lyricist’. In his solo songs, he also remains faithful to the lyrical-romantic attitude toward themes and images. Todor Popov’s relationship with Bulgarian literature, and poetry in particular, is presented – of his 46 chamber vocal opuses, only one is based on a foreign text. The article is dedicated to his late chamber vocal works on texts by Peyo yavorov, Asen Raztsvetnikov, Elisaveta Bagryana, Atanas Dalchev, Stanka Pencheva, and Dimitar Metodiev. In the 1970s, significant changes occurred in the composer’s approach to musical means, corresponding to the psychology of the selected literary texts and resulting in a more contemplative, intimate sound. In his music, a complicated, exacerbated, and painful expression of individual human drama crystallised. Through his choice of poetic texts as central themes in his songs, the images of man and woman, their universe, nature, loneliness, death, and sleep are revealed. Placed within this literary context, his late chamber vocal works may be regarded as a space for existential contemplation and a symbolic reading of being.

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