Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The only mystery is why more have not heard these voices, October 20, 2000
My first encounter with this CD was in 1989. The public radio station at the Univesity of Texas in Austin had a radio show in the mornings that play a wide variety of music (It was on this station that I first heard the ditty "Don't Worry Be Happy"). One morning they played the final cut on this cd, Polegnala E Todora. I was transfixed. I promise you as I sit here now I can hear the richness of the voices and harmony that moved me in a way that was undescribable. For weeks he would play this one cut on this cd and I had to find it. This was pre-internet so finding it was not easy. Finally came across it in a record shop in Indiana of all places. I soon discovered that the experience was only enhanced by the rest of the songs on the CD. I was priviledge to hear these women at the famed Wolf Trap a few years ago. This cd is a must to own, however I'm of the opinion that it is something that doesn't necessarily connect with everyone (my family cringes everytime I make visitors listen to Polegnala E Todora) I call them my Bulgarian Women and although I already own the other 2 cd I see they come in a box set now and I intend to buy it and keep them in a safe place. This music is truly a wonderful experience. I do not understand a word of Bulgarian (although I have visited there) but this music really shows off the universality of the language of music. I cannot recommend this music too much.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely dissonance and, in spite of its modernism, a bearer of endangered heritage, November 24, 2005
Released in 1988 after Marcel Cellier brought never-before-heard recordings to the West, LE MYSTERE DES VOIX BULGARES was an explosive suprise for music lovers. Thirteen songs performed by the Bulgarian State Television Female vocal choir, the disc displayed a highly exotic method of singing where each singer has limited vocal range but piercing projection and resonance, and polyphony using intervals never heard in traditional Western art music.
One thing should be said from the start: this is not authentic Bulgarian folk music, but rather sophisticated arrangements made by composers during the Communist era. Many of the lyrics here are from old folk songs, and the method of singing each singer displays is truly old, but you're crazy if you think any folk music has four-part counterpoint. Still, folk cultures are dying across Europe, and these arrangements are becoming all we have left of a precious tradition snuffed out by Western decadence.
The disc opens with the droning "Pilentze Pee" which immediately gives the listener a full blast of this exotic tradition. With parallel seconds in the harmonic writing, pitches fluctuate strikingly yet under perfect control. Ditto for the eerie diaphonic chant of "Schopska Pesen". The mournful "Kalimankou Denkou" and "Pritouritze Planinata" are simplest in their harmony, and most nearly approach village singing. "Erghen Diado", where the choir is accompanied by drum, shows the humour stereotypically attributed to the people of the Shopsko region.
While the music is phenomenal, I'm unhappy with Nonesuch's packaging. No lyrics or translations are provided for the songs--although since most are about death and unrequited love, this may be to spare some sense of magic for the listener who doesn't speak Bulgarian. The transliteration used is meant for speakers of French, and is filled with typos to boot, which makes it hard for one to reconstruct the original Cyrillic title of each song. Still, this is the best introduction to a fascinating choral tradition, and heavily recommended for open-minded music fans, lovers of Bulgarian culture, and students of the Bulgarian language. The four-star rating is given only because there's some dead wood, and to get thirteen songs that truly represent the best of this choral writing, you'd have to buy several CDs.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Once hidden away in the misty hills of Bulgaria, October 9, 2005
Every country in the world has its choir, and it takes an enthusiastic ear to distinguish one from another. But this choir is unmistakable from any other nation's. They do not sing in key, by the standards most people are used to. Infact, they deliberately sing slightly off-key, and they throw their voices around in what usually would seem an unprofessional manner. Alot of the vocal play in this music would be frowned upon in a church of any Western European country. But in the villages of Bulgaria, it is well at home, and the singers convince me they know exactly what they're doing.
Despite the fact that these singers are competent and probably well practiced, it all feels so natural. I can hear the spontaneity that once would have created many of the vocal tricks here that have become well entrenched in these pieces. Nothing else but simple play and improvisation could have produced some moments in these songs. It's like a child has discovered her voice for the first time and is testing what it can do. The only difference being- they left in only the experiments that worked.
The word 'mystery' in the title is not an empty call. It's hard to say what their surrounding look like without actually knowing Bulgaria, but the music paints a picture of far away villages in green fields, swallowed by drizzly weather, hiding them from the outside world. "They don't seem to be from around here". Other-worldy is their collective persona. There is so little to relate to on a logical level, as their expressions don't recall anything familiar in most people's lives in Western society. But emotion is obviously universal, which is why this music succeeds at reaching the world despite its unfamiliarity.
Before finding this cd, I never liked a cappela music. I always felt a need for other instruments. But this cd crossed that boundary for me, and found its way to the top of my cd collection favourites. I always appreciate when something, or someone, can reach into a person's comfort zone and call them to come out and explore. This music called me away from my comfort zone at the time, and judging by its success, the same can be said by other people. You don't need to be an avid world music listener to like this music, just as I didn't need to like a cappela. Infact, I was often quite averse to it. But sometimes things are unique, and passionately so, enough to draw out a different facet of a person's tastes and feelings. This music is certainly one that does this. It is eerie and beautiful.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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by Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir 
