Културно-религиозната идентичност на банатските българи, отразена в църковно-песенния им литургичен репертоар
Cultural-Religious Identity of the Banat Bulgarians, Reflected in Their Church-Song Liturgical Repertory

Summary/Abstract: It is possible to speak about Catholicism in Orthodox Bulgaria from the XVII c. onward. Before being converted to the catholic religion, the Bulgarian Catholics professed Pavlikyanstvo. After the Chiprovtsi uprising (the end of XVII c.) the Bulgarian Catholics emigrated to Banat (in the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and later, with the division of Banat, the Diaspora was divided in Rumania, Hungary and Serbia. Nowadays it is comparatively best preserved in Rumania. In North Bulgaria there are also Banat villages inhabited by Bulgarians who re-emigrated. They are all called banatchani or palkene. The song material for the study has been collected in Rumanian Banat and in North Bulgaria. The Christmas songs have been considered, some of which evince melody-intonation features of the Bulgarian musical folklore. The author divides the Christmas songs into 3 groups -lullabies, shepherd-Bethlehem and theocentric. One example is given from each of the groups of songs about St. Forty Days, the holiday Christ’s Body, songs about saints and deceased people. A part of these songs present a synthesis between choir melodies of West European type and Bulgarian irregular meter (mainly nine time). A song for deceased people is of special interest - it is a farewell song in a monologue in the first person singular addressed to the relatives of the deceased. The biggest part of the repertory shows definite West European melody­ intonation influences, in the major-minor system, but there are also songs in church modes. It is argued that with the Banat Bulgarians the confessionym Catholics has turned into ethnonym.

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