Bulgarian wedding music

Bulgarian wedding music is a genre of Svatbarska muzika (Bulgarian: сватбарска музика) or a "wedding music" style that evolved in the late 1960s in Bulgaria. Its popularity has spread in Europe and North America. This style of music is performed elaborately in weddings in a festive atmosphere, and also on other happy occasions. It was not given state privilege initially by the socialist regime of Bulgaria as it was considered folk music. The music is a fusion of "an eclectic array" of Bulgarian, Romani, Turkish and Macedonian music and is very popular in the southern Balkan region. Following the end of the People's Republic of Bulgaria in 1989, the popularity of wedding music has soared.

Ivo Papazov, a musician of Turkish and Romani origin, is the leading proponent of ensembled wedding music. A saxophonist, he introduced clarinet into the ensemble. However, his music generated controversy during the communist regime which continues even now among Bulgarians as there was perceptible influence of Turkish music and Romani music (Gipsy music). Yuri Yunakov also of Turkish Roma (Gipsy) origin was a member of Ivo Papazov's ensemble. Yunakov has popularized Bulgarian wedding music in the United States and his music band presents a "number of dances at breakneck speed, warbling their instruments all the way".

The international marketing of wedding music includes Klezmer, Scottish, and Rom(an) music of Bulgarian roots. Ivan Paparov, the clarinetist, is considered the creator of the genre of wedding music in Bulgaria. In 1974, he established two bands as orchestral ensemble in the town of Stara Zagora in Thrace. He improvised the stylistic and eclectic forms of Narodna muzika, a Bulgarian form which incorporated music styles of Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia, and Gypsies. This type of music is unlike concert music and involves participation by the dancers and the wedding party and hence it is "loose, spontaneous and dynamic" in structure. Solos are also part of the music which normally accentuates the final shape of the music. There is significant impact of American jazz (a feature noted in the music of Bulgaria since the 1950s) in the wedding music. Paparov termed this type of music also as of balkanski dzhaz (Balkan jazz).

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