Re: Bulgarian originality

[lorch <@JHMAIL.HCF.JHU.EDU:lorch@JHUNIX.BITNET>]

In article <8911111436.AA07740@clutx.clarkson.edu> woiccare@CLUTX.CLARKSON.EDU (
     
Ok, I'm pulling this from some dark corner of my memory, so if I'm wrong and
someone else knows the right answer, please feel free to blast away at me.
But please be sure that I'm really wrong first, ok?
     
>To the guy who complained that Ivo didn't get just recognition for
>introducing the voices of Bulgaria first to the WEstern scene:
     
>Well, I have two responses to that:
     
>1) He did. The album was given critical acclaim for the shear fact that
>   the music was incredible and that it had never been done before.
     
     
>2) What KaTe did was to integrate Bulgarian culture into the West
>   through her music. While Ivo's production (whose name escapes me
>   at the time) introduced the sound, KaTe made it part of her music.
     
     
I seem to recall that Ivo merely released the album on his label, that
it had in fact been previously released even in western Europe before
its 4AD release.  (I think it was on a French label, but I can't recall
the name of it).  He certainly didn't produce the album.  And I wouldn't
be so sure about the music never having been done before.  While some of
the pieces are modern compositions, some of them are traditional, and
all of them are at least based on traditional Bulgarian music.  I've heard
some other Bulgarian records that were even on Bulgarian labels, and they
sound pretty much the same way.  Ivo deserves credit for re-releasing the
album and getting it wider attention, and Kate deserves credit for using
it as an element in her music (and rather well, I might add), but let's
not get carried away.
     
--
John Lorch                      UUCP:   mimsy!aplcen!jhunix!lorch
Johns Hopkins University        ARPA:   lorch@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
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