Богослужебната приложимост на българските акапелни композиции по православни текстове от края на ХХ и началото на ХХI век. Каноничната литургично-музикалнa конструкция

Author(s): Georgi Elenkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2015

The issue of the liturgical applicability of new a cappella pieces to Orthodox lyrics was addressed for the first time in Bulgaria’s original music during the 1970s (when in an atheistic period, interest in Old-Bulgarian musical legacy was revived) to become especially relevant to composers’ work following 1989, when with the ideological changes in the polity, a number of professionals turned to this area. An important indicator of this are the discrepancies between the ecclesiastical norm that has inherited the traditions of Christian religious rite and the intentions of contemporary Bulgarian composers trained in terms of the ‘aesthetical’ and ‘topical’ and not necessarily familiar with the specifics of Orthodox liturgics. Witting or unwitting disregard for the canon indicates in no uncertain terms a denial of a liturgical life for a piece. Consequently, compliance of the new works with the canonical liturgical musical construction could be deemed to be a major criterion for the liturgical applicability of the new choral compositions. The difference in regard to the liturgical structure is best discernible in the building of a bigger liturgical form (Divine Liturgy or Great Vespers), having a hypothetical potential for whittling it down to a cyclic music composition. A typical sign of this is the striving to incorporate a number of specific exclamations and acclamations of the liturgical form into larger music parts, assigning these a role of structural musical transitions, foreign to Orthodox liturgy. The article deals with pieces by Philip Koutev, Marin Goleminov, Alexander Raychev, Zdravko Manolov, Dimitar Tapkoff Stoyan Babekov, Velislav Zaimov, Tsenko Minkin, etc.

Новите мултимедийни представления

Author(s): Iosif Astrukov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2015

Multimedia projectors have become an established standard on each stage for quite a while now. Now actors use projections on their bodies, fragmenting representations in different areas of the space, switching them to other projectors, synchronizing a number of parallel projections, etc. This technology allows for interactivity too. Interactivity itself is implemented in two main directions: live interaction with a screen and/or audiences and interaction between different stages. A perfect synchronization of lightning, animation-multimedia and a consummate live performance creates an unparalleled illusion of reality. The Seventh Sense (2011) staging of anarchy Dance Theatre lends a new dimension to what I’d call a visual performance. They achieve real interactivity at several levels. Here we could not speak any longer of stage alone for what they build is an environment, where performers and audiences find themselves. With this technology becoming more accessible, actors feel freer to create in this hybrid field of visual performances. I believe this is the apt term as vision in such performances is as important and definitive as a living performance: the two are inextricably bound up with each other and can’t exist independently. Supposedly, observing recent trends, more and more stagings will be witnessed in this line, interactive to varying degrees, but definitely visual and technological.

Co nieco o publicystyce i społecznej aktywności Adolfa Dygacza

Author(s): Andrzej Wójcik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2015

Adolf Dygacz, since 1947 had collaborated with “The Workers’ Tribune” – the organ of the Polish United Workers’ Party, one of the largest regional newspapers in Poland, which used to come out in Katowice during the period of 1945 to 2004. He wrote for the newspaper over 2000 reviews, reports, interviews and articles addressing various issues. The journalistic work of Dygacz places him among the greatest Polish music critics and publicists of the first half of the 20th century. Also the amateur music activity fell within the scope of his interests – since 1949 for several years as a music instructor he had been involved in the social activity of The Union of Silesian Singers’ Associations (now The Silesian Union of Choirs and Orchestras). The journalistic activity of Dygacz, in the same way as the chronicles, diaries and other documents concerning choirs and orchestras, is a valuable source of knowledge about the history of the Silesian musical life. What testifies to this is the bibliographic compilation comprising the texts written between June 1947 and the end of July 1949. They reveal a wide scope of intellectual capabilities of this great author, his excellent observation skills, ability to raise questions, not lacking in criticism capability for interpreting the described reality, and his treating music journalism as a mission carried out with passion and always having in mind the welfare of the society.

Spotkania kultur w krajach Maghrebu

Author(s): Anna Barska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2015

The paper presents Maghreb with its Mediterranean countries as a meeting place facilitating contacts with great civilisations and religions. Culture encounters have been taking place in different dimensions and contexts since medieval times. The text outlines relations at the language level (Berberic/Arabic/French); it also touches upon the influence of Andalusian and Ottoman music on local rhythms, and the specificity of Tunisian, Algerian and Moroccan cuisine tastes. Another special dimension of culture discussed hereby is the one presented by the people born in Algeria with French or European roots, described as Pied-noirs (Black Foot). Their traces prove the crossbreeding of specific Mediterranean cultures.

Around the Bloc: Prague in the Rhythm of Roma Music

Author(s): TOL TOL / Language(s): English Issue: 05/31/2016

The world’s biggest Roma cultural festival opens in the Czech capital.

Around the Bloc: Ukraine Eurovision Pick Laments Purge of Crimean Tatars

Author(s): TOL TOL / Language(s): English Issue: 03/01/2016

The song ‘1944’ decries Stalin’s deportation of ethnic Tatars from the peninsula that Russia annexed two years ago.

Фридрих Церха на 90 години

Author(s): Albena Naydenova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

Albena Naydenova interviewed renownedAustriancomposer,conductor and violinist Friedrich Cerha (b. 26 February 1926) and his wife, Gertraud Cerha, a harpsichordist, composer and musicologist. His oeuvre and his freedom of choice of musical languages associated with admixture of techniques in his pieces of different periods are commented on. Cerha’s latest opera Onkel Präsident was staged in Munich in 2013 and had its Austrian premiere on 11 October 2014 at Volksoper Wien. The conversation broaches also composers from East Europe and particularly, Bulgarian music. The composer along with György Ligeti showed interest in Bulgarian folk music, he had acquired information about the diaphony of the Shops, living in the region of Sofia. In the 1960s, he came to know pieces by Bulgarian composer Bojidar Dimov (1935–2003), who lived in Cologne at the time and conducted his works.

Романтичните клавирно-оркестрови творби в репертоара на пианиста Антон Диков

Author(s): Elena Dikova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2015

The paper deals with the interpretational achievements of renowned pianist Anton Dikov (1938-2004) in the genre of piano concertos, with the scale and uniqueness of his performative concerts. The pianist’s personal professional development is treated focusing on some important biographical data. The article underscores his earliest artistic performances and the following key moments in his brilliant international career, conducting to his becoming a prominent figure in pianism in the national and international music life of the second half of the twentieth century. The paper draws attention to the strong presence of piano concertos in Anton Dikov’s repertoire, shaped by his artistic disposition, interpretational skills, and affinity for grand-scale forms in piano literature. The performer’s specific sources are cited. Style, as well as the distinctive features and various aspects of his pianism, are considered. Integral performances of Bartók and Beethoven’s piano concertos and a number of concertos by Bulgarian composers are commented. Following an overview of the major romantic pieces for piano and orchestra, included in Dikov’s performing and recording activities, special attention is devoted to Brahms’s two piano concertos. The timeline​ of their performances by Dikov is provided. On this basis, the pianist’s concept of the pieces is analysed along with his views and knowledge of the Brahmsian style. Not only his rich structural hearing and formal skills but also his sound-instrumental achievements within the whole integral of the two grand piano concertos are highlighted. A number of interesting reviews along with other written sources are cited.

Павел Григориевич Чесноков и неговата духовна музика

Author(s): Rositsa Nikolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2015

Over the last decades, a notable revival of interest among performers and hence among researchers in the sacred compositions and the perennial oeuvre of remarkable Russian composer Pavel Grigorievich Tschesnokoff has been witnessed. Renowned Bulgarian bass singers such as Boris Christoff, Nicola Ghiuselev and young Orlin Anastasov have interpreted his pieces in this country. Both church and secular choirs, led by prominent Bulgarian conductors, include choral pieces by Tschesnokoff in their repertoires. This paper pre​sents the composer as a leading figure in the so-called New School in Russian Sacred Music of the turn of the twentieth century, considering the topical issue of the extent to which his work is known and performed in Bulgaria and Russia nowadays.

Музикалноструктурен и художественообразен анализ на цикъла „Ко Пресвятей Владычице“, оп. 43 от Павел Чесноков

Author(s): Rositsa Nikolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2015

Pavel Tschesnokoff composed a cycle of sacred choral works Op. 43 in 1914, when the best part of emblematic of the so-called New School in Russian Sacred Music were written, including Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy (Op. 31), Grechaninov’s Passion Week (Op. 58), etc. The cycle evinces the characteristics of the composer’s already mature manner. The cycle has seven chants performed a cappella according to the tradition of Orthodox denomination. The canonical lyrics for Orthodox hymns and chants To the Most Holy Mother of God have not been borrowed from the same liturgical order of service: three of them are part of the Supplicatory Canon To the Most Holy Mother of God and the rest four are part of the order of service found in the Vespers, the First Hour, Sunday Matins and Our Lady of Kazan Feast Day Service (feast day: on 22 October or 4 November); still, all these are united by the general idea of praising the Holy Mother of God and prayerful hope in Her. Various music techniques, including polyphony, ​were used to compose the pieces.

Drogi i bezdroża muzyki kościelnej w Polsce po Soborze Watykańskim II

Author(s): Joachim Waloszek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 42/2013

The liturgical reform of Vaticanum II, started fifty years ago with the announcement of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), changed significantly also the musical dimension of the liturgy celebrated in Polish churches. There are two vectors of the conciliar reform which seem to determine the mainstream of those changes. Firstly, the participatio actuosa requirement, which in consequence led to both the extension of the conceptual range of musica sacra by adding the concepts of folk art and folk hymn, and the appreciation of the vernacular and native roots present in the church singing. Secondly, the requirement concerning the theological purification and intensification of the contents of ecclesiastical rites, so also the church singing involved in the liturgy. Throughout the recent fifty years, the Catholic Church in Poland has made much effort to promote new compositions and musical praxis in liturgy as well as to give it proper orientation and dynamics. As a result, not only has the repertoire been enriched with reference to quantity and content, but also the general quality of musical output in churches has risen. What is more, the number of qualified musicians and organizers of musical activities in parishes has increased, although still not satisfactorily. However, it does not mean that in the past as well as at present there have not been obstacles on the way to implement the conciliar ideals and postulates. The reform of church music is still conditioned by many tensions and seeks its adequate way placed somewhere between the validity of Church Law and the artistic autonomy, aesthetics and pastoral pragmatism, avant-garde and tradition, between sacrum and profanum. Reformative ideas, based on the inappropriately conceived criteria of modernity and pastoral pragmatism have happened to be misleading for church music directing it towards religious and musical kitsch, rubbish, primitive entertainment, banalization of art and, what follows, banalization of liturgy. The socio-political context of the Church reformative activities as well as the regrettable level of musical education in Polish society may only be partially blamed for such a state of things. To a great extent, it is also the result of the frequently inaccurately adjudged “conflict” which is somehow a part of the nature of the artistic activities undertaken by the Church. On the one hand, such art wants and even has to defend its aesthetic autonomy and artistic qualifications. On the other hand, its advocates want to remain submissive as servants of Christian prayer. Each generation is engaged anew in the challenge of undertaking and “easing” these natural tensions and conflicts in order to find the so-called “golden mean”. Only the incessant deepening of both the theological consciousness and the aesthetic sensitivity would assure the right course of action. As a consequence, it may be pointed out that what church music nowadays needs most is the just and patient liturgical and musical education of both priests and the people.

Музиката като молитва в дълбините на ума

Author(s): Kristina Yapova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2003

Дигимодернизъм и нови сценични хибриди

Author(s): Joanna Spassova-Dikova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2015

This paper is part of an extensive study of the dynamics in performing arts in an era of an explosive development of breakthrough technologies. Thе article deals with key terms such as ‘posthumanism’ (Steve Nichols, 1988; Donna Haraway, 1991; Robert Pepperell, 1995; Katherine Hayles, 1991; Manuel de Landa, 2003, etc.) in the sense of existing in a state beyond being human; ‘transhumanism’ (biotechnological development of human beings); ‘digimodernism’ (Alan Kirby, 2009); ‘cyborgism’ (David Krep, 2007); ‘hybridisation’ (Edward W. Said, 1978, Homi K. Bhabha, 1994, Philipp Stockhammer, 2012), etc. The critical discourses upon these newly coined terms are not homogenous, but are often, in fact, a series of contradictory ideas. Usually, issues of ethics and morality, language and communication between different types of social systems are also under consideration as well as of the intellectual efforts for interdisciplinarity. Some of the best examples are also considered towards creating new stage hybrids by using new technologies in Bulgaria and abroad.

Полицейската акция срещу „Окупирай“ в Кипър: автоетнография върху „За 1 грам“

Author(s): Mike Hajimichael / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

This chapter explores issues of inspiration and motivation on how a poem (in turn becoming a song) was created in connection with a specific situation of injustice, namely the Police Raid on the ‘Occupy’ protest in the Buffer Zone in Nicosia, Cyprus, on the 7th of April 2012. Taking into account a number of ethical considerations that embrace the role of art and free speech, expression and social critique (Islam, 2015), a set of ideas and discourses will be explored through an autoethnographic journey – from context to inspiration/motivation/creation and sharing as a form of alternative media via online social media platforms (Facebook and Soundcloud). Contextualization will also be discussed through the sub-genre of dub poetry as a practice of cultural resistance against oppression (Linton Kwesi Johnson) and a much wider set of debates on the presence/absence of songs with political content. Additionally, the chapter will focus on a detailed contextualization of ‘Occupy’ in Cyprus as a non-hierarchical grass roots protest moment and the manner in which this was destroyed by state police intervention. This will consider the specificity of ‘Occupy’ in Cyprus in the Buffer Zone as expression against militarism and occupation, as well as the more generic aspect of ‘Occupy’ worldwide as a counterhegemonic form of political activism.

Поезията в песенното творчество на Станѐслав Монюшко

Author(s): Elena Karaliyska-Trapkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2015

Stanisіaw Moniuszko (1819-1872) is one of the most important Polish music figures after Chopin. Acknowledged as the father of the Polish opera he is also a revered author of hundreds of songs with piano accompaniment. Combining the Romantic Idiom with Polish folk music, Moniuszko reproduced, in musical forms, the brilliant lyrics of Adam Mickiewicz and numerous other talented Polish poets.The thesis of Mrs. Karaliyska-Trapkova is centered on the Polish poetry in the songs of Moniuszko. The author is analyzing the most impactful songs of the composer, explaining their genesis, and investigating their characteristics, thus making them easier to understand and interpret by young Bulgarian opera singers.

РАЗВИТИЕ УКРАИНСКОЙ ФОРТЕПИАННОЙ ШКОЛЫ В ХХ СТ. МУЗЫКАЛЬНО-ПРОСВЕТИТЕЛЬСКИЕ ТРАДИЦИИ И МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ ОРИЕНТИРЫ

Author(s): Natalia Guralnik / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2013

Rapid development of Ukrainian piano school is an inseparable part of European pianoschool’s evolution in the 20th century. The article is aimed at describing pianists’ performance practice and its role in the development of national culture as well as at surveying the genesis of musical educational tradition and establishment of piano methodology. Ukrainian piano school is defined as a phenomenon of cultural and the 20th century 6 periods are singled out. Special attention in the structure of piano school is drawn to musical educative activities, its development having facilitated reconceptualization of the content of piano education and teaching methodology throughout different periods. The author emphasizes that piano schools leaders and their followers realized their intellectual and creative potential in various performing activities and original teaching techniques. Piano class is considered as a special musical and creative space at an arts educational establishment where traditions are kept and transformed, new ideas emerge, creative views of young music teachers, who are the followers of mother piano schools, come to life and develop.

CREATIVE INITIATIVES OF BROTHERS CONSTANTINE AND METHODIUS IN SLAVIC LITURGY AND SLAVIC CHORAL IN GREAT MORAVIA

Author(s): Jarmila Honzíková,Marie Slavíková / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2015

The article deals with the musical culture of Great Moravia in the period of the Byzantine Mission that influenced greatly both liturgical texts and choral singing. The textsof this music were also influenced highly by the work of Constantine (who adopted the nameof Cyril later) and Methodius. The singing of Great Moravia thus combined the elementsof both the eastern and western traditions. The article also includes an example of a canon in honour of St. Cyril, the authorship of which is attributed to one of the pupils of this scholar.

Tango Margareta pentru flaut, clarinet și pian de C. Rusnac – aspecte caracteristice de limbaj, structură şi interpretare

Author(s): Radu Cazac / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2025

In this article, the author proposes to analyze the characteristic elements of language and structure of the creation Tango Margareta for flute, clarinet and piano by C. Rusnac. At the same time, the aim is also to elucidate the most important interpretative aspects in order to determine the degree of complexity but also to codify the essential musical idea. The importance of the works in music for clarinet from the Republic of Moldova: the compositional repertoire for clarinet is quite vast and diverse in terms of genre – fantasies, sonatas, trios, etc., but also instrumental composition – clarinet, violin and piano; clarinet, flute and piano; clarinet, tuba and piano, etc. Thus, Tango Margareta demonstrates that the tango genre can be adapted into a modern compositional language, with folkloric influences and modalism specific to Eastern European music. Although this dance is less frequently used, we still see that the stylistic specificity allows the composer’s imagination to explore various rhythmic formulas combined with folkloric intonations, or the timbre superimposed with folk harmonies and modes, etc. What is certain is that both the genre and the instrumental composition perfectly reproduce the typical image of Argentine dance through the prism of authentic folkloric nuances and influences.

The Connections between Music Culture and Film Culture

Author(s): Alicja Helman / Language(s): English Issue: 129/2025

The subject of reflection is the place and function of musicin film, considering the political factors that determinedthe situation in Polish culture after World War II. In her his-torical outline, the author distinguishes three periods. Thefirst is 1945-1949, when, after years of occupation, artistssought to regain contact with the broader audience, withtheatre and film playing a significant role in the process.This tendency was in line with the political postulate of artfor the masses, but relative formal freedom was preserved.The second period spans the years 1950-1954, when theimplementation of the doctrine of socialist realism began,announced at the Conference of Composers and MusicCritics in Łagów Lubuski in August 1949. In practice, thismeant a return to the musical traditions of the 19th centu-ry, with particular emphasis on folkloric inspirations, alsoreflected in film music. The last part of the article concernsthe period 1955-1964: a time of relative artistic freedom anda return to experimental and modern music, associated,among other things, with the development and improve-ment of recording techniques. (Non-reviewed material;originally published in Kwartalnik Filmowy 1964, no. 53--54, pp. 72-85).

Film and Music in the Process of Integration

Author(s): Teresa Rutkowska / Language(s): English Issue: 129/2025

The author describes the first stage of Alicja Helman’s aca-demic career, which took place in the 1960s and was devot-ed to reflection on film music. Her education in musicologyand film studies allowed her to take a unique and in-depthlook at what occurred on the border between these twofields. She was a student of professor Zofia Lissa, who dealtwith the aesthetics of film music. Helman, who was pri-marily a film enthusiast, although she valued the achieve-ments of her mentor, went her own way. She included herfirst thoughts on this subject in several texts written forthe first edition of Kwartalnik Filmowy. She then devel-oped these concepts in three books: Rola muzyki w filmie[The Role of Music in Film] (1964), Na ścieżce dźwiękowej [Onthe Soundtrack] (1968) and Dźwięczący ekran [The SoundingScreen] (1969). Her interests then broadened considerablyand she took up film theory, but the musical aspect wasalways close to her. (Non-reviewed material).