A review: A Choral Musician examines famed Bulgarian Choir

Allegra Martin is a choral musician who has been blogging since August 2004. In this post, Allegra talks about a recent concert of Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares in Boston. (see their website here)

I enjoy reading a choral musicians review of a choir concert. Here's some of what Allegra said:

First and foremost is their vocal production. It is totally different from anything I have learned, and it was fascinating to watch and listen to as someone coming from a different vocal tradition. It's a bright, nasal, cutting sound, but also very free, not at all tense, and very agile.

Then there's the compositions. Although they are deeply rooted in folk tradition, these arrangements are really complex, and don't sound like simple folk songs to me. The song that opened the second half, "Mehmetyo," was something that I wish all my composer friends could have heard - it used not just the whoops and other sounds from the folk tradition but also some really inventive compositional techniques.

Then, of course, there's the text - I don't speak Bulgarian, and while the program provided song titles, that was about it.

But none of these questions interfered with my very great enjoyment - rather, they enhanced it.

See the full post here.