North Bulgaria region includes the lands between Danube river to the North and Balkan mountain to the South. These are ancient Mizia lands. The population in the western part is a local one, while in the middle and especially in the eastern part it is mixed with settlers from Eastern Thrace. They have settled here after the liberation from Turkish yoke /1878/. This mixture of Bulgarians from different regions reflects in the music as well. North Western Bulgaria has olden songs and instrumental folk music. Primitive ritual melodies - for wedding, at dry etc. are preserved here. They sound strange to the modern ear - they are built only of one or two tones, and have thrifty rhythmic. Labor’s songs - harvesters’, shepherds’ etc. also carry the primeval characteristics when the song had been a symbol - it had impact upon the Nature. These songs are attended by exclamations on high pitches and are performed mostly by two solo singers - one of them begins and the other one responds. In the near past hundred dance songs had been sung at the great square horo-dance in the village center or at small dances far from the central parts, in hamlets.
The North District
North Bulgaria region includes the lands between Danube river to the North and Balkan mountain to the South. These are ancient Mizia lands. The population in the western part is a local one, while in the middle and especially in the eastern part it is mixed with settlers from Eastern Thrace. They have settled here after the liberation from Turkish yoke /1878/. This mixture of Bulgarians from different regions reflects in the music as well. North Western Bulgaria has olden songs and instrumental folk music. Primitive ritual melodies - for wedding, at dry etc. are preserved here. They sound strange to the modern ear - they are built only of one or two tones, and have thrifty rhythmic. Labor’s songs - harvesters’, shepherds’ etc. also carry the primeval characteristics when the song had been a symbol - it had impact upon the Nature. These songs are attended by exclamations on high pitches and are performed mostly by two solo singers - one of them begins and the other one responds. In the near past hundred dance songs had been sung at the great square horo-dance in the village center or at small dances far from the central parts, in hamlets.
