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Bulgarian pronunciation help? | ||
Tags: Bulgarian | Pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| cokate08 Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5846 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 6 21 January 2010 at 10:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello all,
I'm getting ready to start a Slavic women's choir at my university, which will focus primarily on Bulgarian music. We'll be starting from scratch, in that we're in the middle of nowhere with no speakers of Bulgarian around, and the library will consist solely of my own transcriptions. Anyone out there that would be willing to help me from time-to-time with pronunciation via Skype, Gmail chat, or just by recording and critiquing my recordings of pronunciation on the forum? I'd really appreciate any help. If you're interested, I can exchange equal amounts of time in English/German assistance. Thanks! Kate 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5434 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes  Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 2 of 6 22 January 2010 at 2:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Bulgarian music is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. I'm a big fan of the "Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares" series. These women are incredible. They sing in parallel seconds as if this was the easiest thing you could do. They intonate in a non-tempered tonal system that sounds like from a different planet. They stack thirds up to seven voices, basically singing a scale as a chord. And the composers of contemporary pieces wrote one gem after another, with a taste for form and development that matches the best you can find in classical Western European tradition. I actually thought about learning Bulgarian myself just to understand the lyrics.
I find it hard to imagine that someone who didn't grow up in Bulgaria would be able to recreate the subtle characteristics of this music. Marcel Cellier, who released the Mystère series, wrote something along the lines of: "These Bulgarian women, who are musically illiterate, transcend the technical challenges of classical Western academic education with stupefying ease." I don't want to discourage you, but I think pronunciation is the least thing you have to care about. Non-tempered intonation and the odd meters of Balkan music are the real challenges. I'd recommend to get in touch with someone in Bulgaria directly who has enough background knowledge of the traditional music. Edit: typos Edited by OlafP on 22 January 2010 at 3:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cokate08 Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5846 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 6 22 January 2010 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Olaf, I would tend to agree with you. It's great to find someone that appreciates this music as much as I do, as it's certainly not like anything else on earth.
I have, in fact, shied away from singing Bulgarian music myself for the reasons you've given, but was recently inspired by the discovery of the Yale Slavic Women's Choir (http://www.youtube.com/yaleslavs). They certainly can't compare with the "Mystery Girls," as we call them, but they do an incredible job with the music, considering none of them grew up listening to it, much less singing it (in fact, no one affiliated with the group in its 40 years has ever been from Bulgaria or thereabouts). I have a friend in the choir that's offered to help me with the musical side of things, and of course I don't expect to get to the level of the Mystery girls, or even the Yale Slavs. I do expect to make some cool music, learn about a tradition about which I had never heard of 2 years ago, and to get a lot of new singing buddies along the way! Perhaps we'll never get the quarter tones and shakes right, but every step we take towards learning a new tune (even if it has to be somewhat westernized) will open myriads of opportunities and attune our ears to sounds we otherwise could never have dreamed of. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6033 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 4 of 6 22 January 2010 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I remember once there was some US choir invited on Bulgarian TV and they sang traditional music extremely well. I was impressed when they said they don't know the language but simply imitated the sound without understanding. It was absolutely indistinguishable from the original and very good.
This is just as a word of encouragement. I'm sure it's not easy to achieve that level of proficiency but it is certainly possible if others have done it. Unfortunately, I can't help you with the pronunciation - lack of time, sorry :(. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5434 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 5 of 6 23 January 2010 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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cokate, I'm not sure whether "transcriptions" in your first post refers to the music or the lyrics. So this site
http://www.christopherculver.com/en/translations/bulgares.ph p may still be helpful with a few lyrics. These are the only transcriptions and translations I've ever found on the web. As for the transcription of the music, this is tough because of the many second intervals which make the sound dissonant and sometimes impenetrable. When I just think of the chord that the choir sings in two places in "Stani Mi Maytcho" (the second time right before the coda) I would probably try a Fourier analysis with some audio software to find out what this is. I listened to the Yale choir and they do a good job, but the intonation is clearly not Bulgarian. Well, this is off-topic in this language forum anyway. Good luck with your project. You haven't chosen the easiest hobby. :-) Edit: Tried to fix the link, but it's the forum software that inserts the space. You have to remove it manually. Quite annoying. Edited by OlafP on 23 January 2010 at 7:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6033 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 6 of 6 26 January 2010 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Those I've listened to were probably not the Yale choir because their pronunciation was perfect ( I'm Bulgarian so trust me on this one ). It was even the more amazing when it turned out they only know a few basic words - I think one of the girls said "Здрасти" and something like "Ние обичаме България" with a heavy accent. In spite of this, their singing was perfect. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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