Songs of joy for St. Lazarus Day, Palm Sunday and Easter

Musicbox Bulgaria - April folk chart

published on 4/13/17 1:19 PM | updated on 4/18/17 12:12 PM

Photo: BGNES

Every month Radio Bulgaria invites you to vote in our music chart, Musicbox Bulgaria. After drawing of lots CDs are sent to three of you who selected the award-winning song in the respective music genre. To vote, you can send us your choice of song or tune at English@bnr.bg. Results are announced on the 16th of each month. This month results will be announced on April 18 due to the Easter weekend.

Lazarovden (Lazarus Saturday), Tsvetnitsa (Palm Sunday) and Easter are three of the most important spring feasts in Bulgaria. Bulgarians mark all three of them with special customs. On Lazarovden young girls called Lazarki dance and sing for good health and good luck. Tsvetnitsa (Palm Sunday) is the feast of flowers and spring. On that day Christians go to church and take sanctified willow twigs home to clean their souls and purify their homes.

On Easter people paint red eggs and all family members gather together around a large festive table to mark the resurrection of our Savior and wish one another prosperity and well-being.

The feasts are always accompanied with a lot of music. There are songs about every moment of our lives, including those three feasts.

Lazaritsa- to the rendition of Eva Quartet and Hector Zazou

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The first song in our monthly chart Lazaritsa is to the rendition of Eva Quartet. It was based on song motifs from the Pirin folklore region and songs performed on Lazarovden. Its spectacular sounding is due to the French composer and producer Hector Zazou who released in 2012 the Arch album together with Eva quartet. Lazaritsa is part of that music album. Eva quartet has been conquering the international music stages for over ten years now. Those musicians are some of the brightest representatives of the modern vocal art. The wonderful Bulgarian female singers who have been popularizing the colorful Bulgarian folklore worldwide have also dealt with film music. They also made various ethno projects and cooperated with world celebrated musicians.

Pozaspa Li, Yagodo by Trio Bulgarka

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Another masterpiece that became part of the music repertoire of a series of choirs and vocal formations is Pozaspa Li, Yagodo. It is a joyful and enchanting story of the “everyday lives” of flowers and plant species. It was performed for the first time by the world-popular Trio Bulgarka which was founded back in 1975. Yanka Rupkina, Eva Georgieva and Stoyanka Boneva are some of the members of that music formation. The three celebrated Bulgarian folk singers sang over the years pieces written by some of the most-acclaimed Bulgarian composers. They also worked with world-celebrated musicians such as Kate Bush, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, etc. Pozaspa Li, Yagodo song was arranged by composer Petar Krumov. The Bulgarian National Radio Golden Archives keep a version of that piece where Trio Bulgarka sings in accompaniment of rebec-player Mihail Marinov.

Velikden Ide, to the rendition of Dragostin Folk National

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Velikden Ide (Easter is Near) is a song from the music repertoire of Dragostin Folk National. The arrangement of that piece was made by Stefan Dragostinov himself. Composer Stefan Dragostinov is one of the innovators in choral music. Dragostin Folk National has released 11 CDs with over 700 minutes of music of the large-scale project Anthology of the Bulgarian Folklore, Sonic Icons of Bulgaria, Rofinka, Sarakina, Galunka, Danube Music, Love Story, Christmas Star, Prituri se Planinata, Miloyka, Sun's Wedding, Grozdanka and Shinka music albums. That music formation has held many world tours and won music awards at various music forums.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov

Congratulations!

The pop song Yavorov Spring has topped the chart for the past month. CDs with production of the Bulgarian National Radio will go to Jan Umlauff from Germany, Radhakrishna Pillai N. from India and to Alexander Ustinovich from Russia.

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Songs of joy for St. Lazarus Day, Palm Sunday and Easter

Musicbox Bulgaria - April folk chart

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