The Bulgarian GAIDA/BAGPIPE- MONOGRAPH of Bulgarian Folk Instrument Gaida, CD-format Gaida Studies
Author: Vergilij ATANASOV
Translation: Martha Forsyth
Issued: 2002
The present monograph addresses the history of the traditional Bulgarian folk instrument called Gaida (Bagpipe), its physical characteristics (how it is made, local names for each part), its repertoire, and its players. This valuable information, published for the first time in English, is presented in a highly readable style.
This work is intended both for readers with a special interest in this instrument, and for all lovers of music. The monograph includes text, sound, and images. The author is the Bulgarian scholar Vergilij ATANASOV, a prominent researcher of Bulgarian folk music and a specialist in the field of Bulgarian traditional instruments. The present monograph, a small portion of Atanasov's life work, is an important work that fills a serious bibliographic gap in the field of folk instruments in the Balkans. It is one of the few cases in which the work of a Bulgarian musicologist is translated into English, and in that way it is accessible to many lovers of Bulgarian folk music.
The CD consists of 130 pages of text in PDF format. The first 30 pages contain a detailed description of all the parts of the Gaida, including:
--> over 15 diagrams and tables showing sizes and measurements;
--> over 35 illustrations and photographs (some of them very old) picturing unique instruments.
A separate section entitled "Musical examples" contains 17 selections, presented both as sound files and as musical notation. The reader can listen to the music while reading the transcriptions.
The "Gallery of photographs and paintings" contains 21 images related to the Gaida.
Contents:
Names of the Gaida and their linguistic origins. The parts of the gaida and how they are made.
The gaida: Musical aspects (tonal series or scale, tonal range)
Gaida players
The repertoire and its social function
History and geographical distribution
Musical examples
Gallery of photographs and paintings
Software requirements: The text is presented as a searchable PDF file, readable by both Windows and Macintosh computers capable of running Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher. A copy of Windows version of the Reader is included. The audio files can be played while reading the text, or on any audio CD player.
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