The songs that are inspired by the Liberation of Bulgaria come from the distant period of Ottoman oppression and national struggles for freedom. Most of them had been created a long time before March 3rd 1878, when the San Stefano Peace Treaty was signed. It ended up the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire and negotiated the creation of Bulgaria as a state. The Bulgarians could call themselves free again, after five centuries of Ottoman rule. They could also sing freely the songs that recreated the battles for national independence. We will listen now to one of the most popular songs: “Viatar echi, Balkan stene”, performed by the male chorus of the Bulgarian National Radio /BNR/.
The song that we heard was one of the hymns of the Bulgarian Liberation and was written by Dobri Chintulov. Some sources say that he also created the music, others say that it came from the people. Dobri Chintulov was forced to burn his writings several times through the years of slavery and severe prosecution of all intellectuals. That is why the origin of only a part of his poetry has been proven. Nevertheless, the name of the humble teacher has entered the brightest pages of the Bulgarian history. Listen now to one of his songs: “Stani, stani yunak balkanski”, again performed by the male chorus of the BNR.
It looks like the memory of the unsuccessful 1876 April uprising was the strongest one after the liberation of Bulgaria. Despite the failure of the hope that they could win their national freedom by themselves, the Bulgarians attracted the world’s attention. These are also the lyrics of “Topcheto poukna” – “the cannon shot, Europe was startled, Russia went to a battle.” Daniel Spasov sings the song:
We will meet the character of Rayna Knyaginya in many folklore songs. The music is different and the text recreates a historical moment. The young female teacher Rayna Popgeorgieva designed the flag of the Panagiurishte revolutionary region and swayed it when Georgi Benkovski announced the beginning of the April uprising. The teacher was imprisoned and tortured after the failure of the uprising. European diplomats succeeded to make the Turkish authorities set her free. She went to Russia afterwards, studied medicine, then returned to Bulgaria and worked as a midwife. She gave birth to five sons and also adopted a girl. Her sons became military officers and one of them – Ivan Dipchev became a general. The songs, dedicated to Rayna Knyaginya sounded at all national celebrations after the Liberation. Listen to one of them, that is still very popular today. It was performed by the great folk singer Kostadin Gougov.
The vocal ensemble of “Yulangelo” recorded an album with patriotic songs a few years ago. The musicians also included in it a church chant with an interesting story. The Orthodox lyrics of the “Vozbrannoi voevode” is dedicated to the Holy Mother and it ends like this: “Celebrate, Holy Mother!” The version of the song that was performed during liturgies around the Liberation, ended differently: “Celebrate, Bulgaria!”
Listen to another Orthodox chant that honors the March 3rd National Celebration, performed by “Yulangelo”. It is called “Sei den torzhestvenii”.
English translation: Zhivko Stanchev
