Bulgarian musical instruments

(by Brian Sutin)

The traditional musical instruments of Bulgaria are:

THE KAVAL

The kaval is a wooden flute which is played by blowing across the end.It has a very interesting woody sound. The name kaval is found forsimilar musical instruments from Rumania all the way to India, but theBulgarian kaval is probably the most beautiful sounding version. The kavalwas the chosen instrument of shepherds, who needed some way to entertainthemselves while grazing sheep on the high pastures. Unfortunately thenumber of Bulgarians who play the kaval well has dropped due to the fewernumber of shepherds.

THE GADULKA

The gadulka is a bowed instrument similar to a violin, but only threestrings are bowed, while the rest are sympathetic; ie, these stringsvibrate on a harmonic, giving a very rich texture, but are not fingered.The gadulka held by a sling around the neck, much like a saxaphone, andthe fingerboard is up by the players neck. Of all the traditionalBulgarian instruments, the gadulka has declined in popularity the most,and is rarely heard, even on folk music recordings.

THE GAIDA

The gaida is a bagpipe with one drone. The bag is usually made out ofgoat hide, although the very large Macedonian kaba gaida is often madefrom sheep hide. The gaida sounds quite different from the more commonScottish bagpipe.

THE TUPAN

The tupan is a large drum which is played with a big drumstick on oneside and a very thin drumstick on the other. Any person who has everlearned to play any kind of drum for "western" music (ie, R&R), pleasespare all of us and do not try to pick up Bulgarian tupan. Bulgarianrhythms consist of short beats of two counts and long beats of threecounts, and westerners invariably split the long beats incorrectly.

Other instruments which are common are the dumbek, a small lap drum,the zurna, an incredibly loud reed instrument, and the tamburitsa,a plucked string instrument similar to a bouzouki, but these are alsocommon in Turkey, Greece, and other countries are are not solely Bulgarian.

Originally these instruments were used mostly for village dancing, andonly one or occasionally two instruments would be played at a time.People would dance to one of the melody instruments, sometimes accompanied by a tupan. The zurna and tupan is still a popular combination in Macedonia. In this century, bands became popular which had one or more of each instrument, say, for instance, a kaval, a gadulka, a gaida, atamburitsa, and a tupan. Later, instruments such as the accordeon andclarinet became popular. Nowadays, the "traditional" Bulgarian weddingband might have clarinets, electric guitars, and so on.