Михаил Луканов: „Музиката на арената на българския цирк. Исторически и теоретични аспекти“
Mihail Lukanov: “Music on the Bulgarian Circus Arena. Historical and Theoretical Aspects“

Summary/Abstract: Mihail Lukanov’s book is dedicated to the music performed on circus arenas in Bulgaria. Within Bulgarian musicology this topic has so far been viewed as a specific form of popular culture which involves the participation of performers and artists representing various musical genres. For the first time, it gets now formulated as an independent object of scientific interpretation. The historical framework of the research spans from the end of the 19th century (when the interest in circus art arose in our country and the first Bulgarian circuses appeared, the first one being “Bulgarian Flag” founded in 1897) all the way up to the end of the 1980s (when live music was replaced by pre-recorded music). Key figures and ensembles have been outlined and certain specifics of their art have been brought out. The research is based on a rich theoretical literature as well as historical and historiographical research. The text is structured in seven main chapters. The first chapter advances arguments for the concept of music within the circus and its semantic difference from circus music. The next three chapters trace the history of music on circus arenas in Bulgaria and the most important tours abroad of Bulgarian circus troupes in the 1950s and 1960s. Central to the study are the two “portrait” chapters (namely the fifth and sixth ones). The musical art of prominent circus arena names in the field of musical clowning (buffoonery and musical eccentricity) gets analyzed, e.g. Kosta Kertikov (Kertika), Caesar Imbrosh (Lolo), Penka Ivanova-Silagi, Todor Kozarov and Hristo Yanakiev, Kiril Dimitrov (Koko), the Buffosynchronists, the Harizanovs family, as well as performances of the most famous versifiers – Stoyan Milenkov, Jakob Goldstein and Assen Bogdanov (Uncle Asso). The last chapter is concerned with the concept of musical virtuosity in circus performances considering its semantic ambivalence in that context. There are appendages containing conversations with musicians related to the topic of circus music. Combining various research approaches, Mihail Lukanov’s book is a contribution to the Bulgarian music science.

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