Chalga

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Chalga (Чалга) is a form of Bulgarian music a mixture of Balkan folk, incorporating a blend of Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and Roma (Gypsy) influences, as well as motifs from Balkan traditional music, even flamenco and klezmer music. It is known for repeating musical themes and dance rhythms and its style of dancing called kyuchek in Bulgarian. Many chalga hits were Greek or Turkish, covered by Bulgarian singers, often in more complex musical arrangements.

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[edit] History

The word chalga originates in the Turkish word çalgı (pronounced "chal-guh"), which means "musical instrument". Indeed, the movement is derived from the art of the chalgadzhia (derived from the Turkish çalgıcı meaning "musician"), a type of musician who could play virtually any type of music, but added his own distinctive beat or rhythm to the song. Often a chalgadzhia would not be able to read music, but instead played from memory on his caval, (an end-blown flute). Playing in groups at festivals or weddings, these performers initiated the popularization of chalga.

[edit] Behind the Iron Curtain

In the socialist period, this genre was held in disfavor by the establishment for many reasons. Such simple peasant music had no place in a forward-looking, modern socialist state[citation needed], and when Todor Zhivkov (the last communist leader of Bulgaria) decided to steer a more nationalistic tack in the 1980s, such oriental traditions were regarded as inferior to those with more purely Slavic roots. Chalga also came with a provocative hip-shaking dance and at times lewd lyrics, and thus its morality as well as its origins were considered dubious. It is also possible that, as an art form predominantly practiced and developed by the Roma, racial and ethnic discrimination played a part.

While discouraged in Bulgaria, chalga-like music met less restriction in neighbouring SFR Yugoslavia, which operated a much more flexible form of socialism. Many Bulgarians listened to "turbo-folk" on Serbian radio stations.

Throughout the Balkans, folk traditions have been modernized. In Greece, pop music incorporated the traditions of laïkó ("popular"), a genre based mainly on the melos of Asia Minor Greeks. Many of its tunes were later borrowed by pop-folk musicians in Bulgaria. Laïkó's relative known as "Skiladiko" is close to early Bulgarian chalga, as exemplified by the Kristal Orchestra and others. In Turkey, arabesque music, a mixture of local and Middle Eastern influences, has gained ground since the 1960s.

[edit] Post-Communist renewal

In 1989, when the Zhivkov regime fell, restrictions were lifted and a new culture emerged. The "new" and "forbidden" were released from the underground. Chalga tunes swept the nation, now played openly and available on mass media. A new generation of musicians grabbed the public spotlight, performing songs that might have led to official sanctions only a year before.

Some critics believe that the movement reached its peak around 1998-1999, and has been replaced by Bulgarian pop-folk. However, it remains a popular genre. Earlier folk divas like Toni Dacheva, the singer of Kristal Orchestra, were followed by stars such as the "Mother of Chalga", Rousse-born Gloriya, (Rousse is a Bulgarian city on the Danube) onto the scene; pop-folk legends Desi Slava, Ivana, Aneliya, and others all became household names. Several recording studios, headed by Payner and Planeta, pump out a steady stream of tracks every week on dedicated, hugely popular TV channels.

[edit] Chalga in the new century

By the 2000s, chalga's popularity increased, overtaking such genres as Serb and Greek pop music in popularity[citation needed]..

At the same time more traditional Bulgarian music and close to traditional folk singing artists emerged like Elitsa and Stoyan, who represented Bulgaria in Eurovision 2007.[1]

Among the other styles competing (and in some cases merging) with chalga (Ustata, rapper, and Sofi Marinova, ethnic Roma singer of chalga, made a duet) are most notably rap and hip hop music, represented by artists and groups like Dope Reach Squad, Upsurt, Misho Shamara and Spens. Rap has also gained commercial success in Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) and Varna, as well as in many televised videos.

Today chalga record companies collaborate and work with partners mainly from the other Balkan countries, making this type of Bulgarian music popular both in its home - Bulgaria, and abroad in the Balkans.

[edit] Popular biases about chalga and the phenomenon of chalga

With its most mild forms (which appeared only lately) chalga is, at times and to an extent, almost indistinguishable[citation needed] from Bulgarian pop music, when not referred to the often called loudly offensive (even by chalga listeners) Bulgarian chalga kyuchek.

Chalga is popular in so-called "chalga dance clubs" and national type pubs, called krychma (кръчма). Although it is widely acclaimed by the masses (and by ungrounded foreigners[2]) as an interesting modern approach to folklore and a great way for entertainment, there is a significant intellectual and to some extent public dislike of the genre. It is often criticized by intellectuals and generally admirers of the "good old (pop) ways in music", and mostly by lovers of rock, as tawdry,[3] having rather loose morals,[4] shocking outlook of singers[5] and having too much, for the traditional Bulgarian European tastes, Eastern, Arabic roots, and for its ranging from trivial to sometimes ridiculous lyrics. Example of chalga kyuchek lyrics:

“ Doko, Doko, Doko,[6] again you came home after dawn.

Doko, Doko, Doko, you are left with no money again.
Doko, Doko, Doko, you drank them all up.
Doko, Doko, Doko, you wasted them on women.[7]

 „

Another example:

“

Pyramids, pharaohs, and stupid people for millions
Dog drags a bus; there is no trace left.[8][...]
He took the money, said "Wait a second," then took the plane.
Catch him if you can![9]

 „

Chalga texts vary in language, most often they are sang in Bulgarian, but sometimes it is a mix of languages - Bulgarian and Turkish, Bulgarian and Roma, even Bulgarian and Serbian. Some song are sang in Roma.

The controversy about chalga has led to some musical and linguistic research, and to a great number of public discussions.[10]

Chalga proponents often say it is the new Bulgarian folk, while chalga haters say that it has nothing to do with the real national folk music.

[edit] Video Examples

[edit] Bibliography

  • Седемте гряха на чалгата. Към антропология на етнопопмузиката, Розмари Стателова, ISBN 9540115361 (in Bulgarian) (translation of the title: The seven deadly sins of chalga. Toward an anthropology of ethnomusic, Rozmary Statelova)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ AOL video of Eurovision performance
  2. ^ Beethoven, Schiller and chalga, Boyko Penchev (bg)
  3. ^ Is chalga innocent? (bg)
  4. ^ Moral panic during transition (bg)
  5. ^ Politically incorrect 'chalga', Marlene Smits (en)
  6. ^ Doko is extremely unusual Bulgarian name[citation needed](Could it be a Gipsy name?)
  7. ^ "Doko, Doko" sang by Kondyo
  8. ^ a modification of a Bulgarian saying: "Dog drags [in the transitive verb sense]; there is no trace left"
  9. ^ "Pyramids, pharaohs" ("Пирамиди, фараони") - from the hit album Pyramids, pharaohs /1996/ of Volodya Stoyanov (Volodya Stoyanov's Biography (bg)). Refers to the financial pyramids from the dawn of democracy in Bulgaria during the 90's.
  10. ^ New Folk: The phenomenon of chalga in modern Bulgarian folk, Milena Droumeva (en)

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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