Bulgarian Folklore Research Articles

Nikolay Stoykov's Vision about the Composer and the Universe

I perceive it as an inward wave, a force leading me to a particular point. Starting my work sited by the grand piano, when everything else around disappears and only the electric bulb is glimmering hypothetically, I know and I am pretty sure that I am on the right path and something beautiful is going to beget! There is another crunch moment for me as a composer – constant meetings with numberless folklore untapped talents I have taught. They brought me their visceral natural perception and in a practical manner had shown me the real path every Bulgarian composer must follow. Happily this coincided with my first acquaintance with Bulgarian folklore with its universe vibes, uniqueness and direct link with the contemporary music flow, leaving academism and dry theories behind. I found there my true path my professional path should goes, because Bulgarian folklore is for me a versatile source of ideas and a strong base of my style. Man has high respect by the man-creator-people-link and the historic destiny of this nation. A folklore expedition comes back with about 120000 distinct songs and melodies here vs 50-60 in other European countries. The aesthetic value of this art is unique and it does not have even a single template.

Wine as a signifier of kinship in Bulgarian folklore epics

The article analyses the specific function that wine drinking has in Bulgarian epic songs as a step in the procedure of rediscovering a kinship relationship with a lost brother or sister. On the basis of various epic situations of competition in wine drinking and wine betting, the text outlines the meaning of wine as a signifier of (re)establishing a kinship relationship, which is among the representative ones for the system of kinship relationships in Bulgarian folklore epics.

Development of New Solutions in the Field of Digitization and Digital Presentation of the National Folklore Heritage

This article briefly reviews the software developments for digital presentation and preservation of Bulgarian folklore treasure created within the project “Knowledge Technologies for Creation of Digital Presentation and Significant Repositories of Folklore Heritage” by teams of the Institute of Math ematics and Informatics.

Medieval Sources and Present-Day Folklore Materials on Saints in an Electronic Encyclopedia

This paper discusses the variety of the digitized content of an electronic encyclopedia on the veneration of saints according to Bulgarian sources. The emphasis is on medieval Slavonic Church manuscripts and on present-day records of Bulgarian folklore narratives and songs. The combination of these sources provokes discussion of the so-called folklore Christianity and adds new dimensions to the understanding of the role of the cults of saints for culture and of the religiosity of the Bulgarians.

Business Modeling of the Application Architecture of the Bulgarian Folklore Artery

In an attempt to answer the need of wider accessibility and popularization of the treasury of Bulgarian folklore, a team from the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has planned to develop the Bulgarian folklore artery within the national project ―Knowledge Technologies for Creation of Digital Presentation and Significant Repositories of Folklore Heritage‖. This paper presents the process of business modeling of the application architecture of the Bulgarian folklore artery, which aids requirements analysis, application design and its software implementation. The folklore domain process model is made in the context of the target social applications — e-learning, virtual expositions of folklore artifacts, research, news, cultural/ethno-tourism, etc. The basic processes are analyzed and modeled and some inferences are made for the use cases and requirements specification of the Bulgarian folklore artery application. As a conclusion the application architecture of the Bulgarian folklore artery is presented.

Digital Libraries and Portals Saving National Cultural Heritage (IMI – BAS Experience)

The current research activities of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IMI — BAS) include the study and application of knowledge-based methods for the creation, integration and development of multimedia digital libraries with applications in cultural heritage. This report presents IMI- BAS’s developments at the digital library management systems and portals, i.e. the Bulgarian Iconographical Digital Library, the Bulgarian Folklore Digital Library and the Bulgarian Folklore Artery, etc. developed during the several national and international projects: - ―Digital Libraries with Multimedia Content and its Application in Bulgarian Cultural Heritage‖ (contract 8/21.07.2005 between the IMI– BAS, and the State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications; - FP6/IST/P-027451 PROJECT LOGOS "Knowledge-on-Demand for Ubiquitous Learning", EU FP6, IST, Priority 2.4.13 "Strengthening the Integration of the ICT research effort in an Enlarged Europe" - NSF project D-002- 189 SINUS ―S emantic Technologies for Web Services and Technology Enhanced Learning‖. - NSF project IO-03- 03/2006 ―Development of Digital Libraries and Information Portal with Virtual Exposition ―Bulgarian Folklore Heritage‖‖. The presented prototypes aims to provide flexible and effective access to the multimedia presentation of the cultural heritage artefacts and collections, maintaining different forms and format of the digitized information content and rich functionality for interaction. The developments are a result of longstanding interests and work in the technological developments in information systems, knowledge processing and content management systems. The current research activities aims at creating innovative solutions for assembling multimedia digital libraries for collaborative use in specific cultural heritage context, maintaining their semantic interoperability and creating new services for dynamic aggregation of their resources, access improvement, personification, intelligent curation of content, and content protection. The investigations are directed towards the development of distributed tools for aggregating heterogeneous content and ensuring semantic compatibility with the European digital library EUROPEANA, thus providing possibilities for pan- European access to rich digitalised collections of Bulgarian cultural heritage.

Development, Annotation and Protection of Digital Archive “Bulgarian Folklore Heritage”

The key to prosperity in today's world is access to digital content and skills to create new content. Investigations of folklore artifacts is the topic of this article, presenting research related to the national program „K nowledge Technologies for Creation of Digital Presentation and Significant Repositories of Folklore Heritage” (FolkKnow). FolkKnow aims to build a digital multimedia archive "Bulgarian Folklore Heritage” (BFH) and virtual information portal with folk medi a library of digitized multimedia objects from a selected collection of the fund of Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum (IEFSEM) of the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS). The realization of the project FolkKnow gives opportunity for wide social applications of the multimedia collections, for the purposes of Interactive distance learning/self-learning, research activities in the field of Bulgarian traditional culture and for the cultural and ethno-tourism. We study, analyze and implement techniques and methods for digitization of multimedia objects and their annotation. In the paper are discussed specifics approaches used to building and protect a digital archive with multimedia content. Tasks can be systematized in the following guidelines:  Digitization of the selected samples  Analysis of the objects in order to determine the metadata of selected artifacts from selected collections and problem areas  Digital multimedia archive  Socially-oriented applications and virtual exhibitions artery  Frequency dictionary tool for texts with folklore themes  A method of modern technologies of protecting intellectual property and copyrights on digital content developed for use in digital exposures

Bulgarian Folklore Studies and the Formation of National Identity and Culture. The Contribution of Georgi Sava Rakovski

This article presents the work of Georgi Sava Rakovski (1821–1867), one of the most outstanding, well-rounded, and interesting personalities of the Bulgarian Revival. It examines his ideas about the origin and specific character of the Bulgarian people and folklore as a resource for the beginnings of ethnic history. Special attention is dedicated to the role of this man of letters in the establishment of folklore studies in Bulgaria and his contribution to shaping standard Bulgarian and introducing comparative studies in Bulgaria. *** V clanku je predstavljeno delo Georgija Save Rakovskega (1821–1867), ki velja za najbolj izjemno, celovito in zanimivo osebnost bolgarskega narodnega prebujenja. V clanku so raziskane njegove zamisli o izviru in svojevrstnem znacaju Bolgarov, folklora je predstavljena kot temelj narodne zgodovine. Posebna pozornost je namenjena vlogi pisatelja in znanstvenika pri oblikovanju bolgarske folkloristike in ustvarjanju bolgarskega knjižnega jezika ter uvajanju primerjalnih raziskav v Bolgariji.

The Slavic Idea and the Origin of Bulgarian Folklore Studies

This paper presents various concepts of Slavic ethnic and cultural identity and their influence on the formation of knowledge about the Slavs in ethnography and folklore studies, including the impact on the Bulgarian lands. The origin and the development of Bulgarian ethnology is analyzed in this context. The findings indicate that Bulgarian ethnology focuses almost entirely on studying Bulgarian folk culture beyond the paradigms of Slavic. *** Avtor prestavlja različne koncepte slovanske etnične in kulturne identitete in njihov vpliv na oblikovanje znanja o Slovanih v etnografskih raziskavah; v tem kontekstu analizira tudi razvoj bolgarske etnologije. Analiza kaže, da so se bolgarski raziskovalci v 19. stoletju skoraj izključno posvečali le bolgarski ljudski kulturi, ne da bi se zgledovali po slovanski paradigmi.

Ethnological Ideas and Approaches in Bulgarian Folklore Studies

This paper presents the trend in Bulgarian folklore studies being developed at the Institute of Folklore at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, in ethnology, ethnological and anthropological approaches, and research problems. Special attention is paid to the role played by the institute’s scholars in institutionalizing ethnology in schools of higher education and training specialists (MA and PhD students) in ethnology in the last twenty years. *** Članek predstavlja usmeritev bolgarske folkloristike, kakor se je razvila na Inštitutu za folkloro Bolgarske akademije znanosti, v etnologiji, etnoloških in antropoloških pristopih ter raziskovalnih problemov. Posebna pozornost je namenjena vlogi inštitutskih raziskovalcev pri institucionalizaciji etnologije v visokem izobraževanju in usposabljanju specialistov (magistrskih in doktorskih študentov) v zadnjih dvajsetih letih.

Selected Bibliography of Recent Works on Bulgarian Folklore

Selected Bibliography of Recent Works on Bulgarian Folklore

Bulgarian Folklore: Folk Beliefs, Customs, Folksongs, Personal Names

Bulgarian Folklore: Folk Beliefs, Customs, Folksongs, Personal Names