Vasiliki’s post on the reading is really interesting and more or less covers what I wanted to say, albeit in a more eloquent manner. To contribute further, I’d like to consider how the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir fits into the context of late- (and post-) Communist Bulgarian cultural identity. I find the choir’s popularity in the UK and USA particularly interesting. In the marketing of their music, what do we make of the decision to use the Gallic name Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares over the decidedly less aureate “Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir”? And how do we read the decisions by western record labels Nonesuch and 4AD to use visually ambiguous illustrations (an example of which is pictured below) rather than, say, a photograph of the choir? What are the cultural signs in these depictions of the music?
Furthermore, I find intriguing the position that the choir takes on a label roster such as that of 4AD’s. The marketing of the choir acts to assimilate it formally. To me, their music is aesthetically not dissimilar to that of label-mates Cocteau Twins, whose singer Elizabeth Fraser often referred to traditional Scottish song and even glossolalia in her vocal performances. Like the choir, Fraser’s vocal lines often deemphasized lyrics, instead employing melisma and trill (examples of Fraser’s vocals are here and here). The choir is thus not far removed from the label’s aesthetic branding but, simultaneously, is a “mysterious” Other in the French wording of its name and the traditional Shopi(?) presentation of the choir on American television.
To what extent does the marketing of the choir decontexualize the music and elide its ‘Bulgarian-ness’ (thus adding further to the negation of Ottoman or ‘eastern’ cultural influence)? In their success outside of Bulgaria do we see the choir as essentially Bulgarian, and if so what Bulgaria do they represent?
