Late Bogomil Gudev wrote the lyrics of dozens of popular Bulgarian songs – Byala Tishina /White Silence/, Dvama /Two/ from the Goat Horn movie, Veche Svarshi Hubavoto Vreme /The Good Times Are Now Over/ and many, many more. The musicians of the BNR’s Big Band have made a small, but representative selection of those, conducted by Antoni Donchev at Studio 1 of the media. Famous Bulgarian pop singers are soloist at their concert on May 20 – Kiril Marichkov, Mimi Ivanova and Razvigor Popov, as well as Nevena Tsoneva, Preslava Krasteva and Kalin Veliov. We listen now to Netarpenie /Impatience/, composed by Atanas Boyadzhiev and in the rendition of Tumbaito and Nina Nikolina.

Born in 1935, Bogomil Gudev passed away early – at the age of 58, leaving behind 1,200 lyrics of different songs, two books, hundreds of radio shows and a huge gap inside the souls of his friends and relatives. His daughter Irina-Kalina Gudeva is today one of the initiators of the concert, devoted to his memory and she is also among the singers. Irina-Kalina plays the contrabass - she has graduated the National School of Music and the National Academy of Music in Sofia. She continued her education with numerous master classes with great pedagogues and graduated the program for virtuoso soloists with the Geneva Conservatory. She gradually found her desire to participate in experimental projects, combining different art forms. The lady is also an actress and a writer. As of 2003 she began to stage her own shows with music composed by her. At the moment she is working on her 9^th show. Irina-Kalina lives in Switzerland, but she doesn’t refer to herself as to an emigrant. Her late father also tried the contrabass over a short period of time.

“He used to be a violinist,” Kalina says. “He was a student at high school with great violinist Nedyalka Simeonova. He was a unique musician and a very intelligent person. Upon his gold medal high school graduation he got the right to enter a university of his choice. He opted for chemistry, but the violin always took a major spot in his life. Dad used to play at jazz clubs together with Razvigor Popov – the two had a 50-year-long friendship. Once they had to look for a contrabass player and they proposed the position to my father. He loved challenges of any type and in two weeks’ time he managed to replace the previous musician. I used to think of that story as a family joke, but when I started playing the contrabass I had a tough play one day. All of a sudden he appeared in the room and easily played what I had tortured for hours before. I found out my mistake, although his rendition was not professional, but thoughtful, full of feeling and diverse…”

Lyrics mean talent – and Gudev could even create those over a music form, ready in advance.

“I have facsimiles that show how my dad used to create a rhythmic structure of music, in order to find out the precise poetic steps. Even more – while looking for synonyms he selected the “musical” word, the one which would sound with certain energy. I think this is one of the secrets of his success. A jazz orchestra unveiled his talent, where he played the violin. He would always come up with a new version of foreign evergreens which would enter the show. Thus his fame came to Atanas Boyadzhiev. The famous composer didn’t have lyrics for the music he had just composed for a Bulgarian movie. Great poets had already failed and the man went for a drink and some band music at the restaurant where my dad played. One of the musicians sat next to him, heard of the problem and next my father was presented to the man. The composer wrote the melody on a napkin. My father brought the lyrics on the next day. That was the beginning of a beautiful cooperation. Bogomil abandoned his scientific career and aimed all of his passion at the new job that meant freedom of spirit and the feeling of flying high above in the sky…”

Some of the lyrics have their folklore influence – for instance Ludo Mlado /Young and Spirited/. No doubt that love for folklore came from my favorite grandfather Gudi Gudev, one of the first singers who ever recorded with the BNR. Both my father and I were raised with his folklore songs. My father played the accordion and was host of folklore shows at the BNR for long years, gathering their content across Bulgaria, Irina-Kalina Gudeva recalls in conclusion.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev