Grannies in Bulgaria keep ancient singing tradition alive

(16 Apr 2016) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4031514 LEAD IN: A group of women from Bulgaria are keeping folklore melodies alive with a special type of singing. The "Bistritsa Grannies" mix together three different voices to create an unusual harmony in what's thought to be a musical style dating back thousands of years. STORY-LINE These women from the picturesque village of Bistrica in Bulgaria are performing a special ritual for newborn babies, to grant them health and vitality. This annual Midwife Day is called Babin Den in Bulgarian from the word 'baba' which means old woman or grandmother. This is because in the past old women were the village midwives and helped the younger ones to give birth. But aside from breaking bread and burning incense these women hold a special skill that makes this ceremony particularly magical. They are part of an all female choir called Birtrishki Babi, or Bistritsa Grannies, and they've helped preserve the authentic sound of folklore melodies with a peculiar polyphonic singing style. Experts define it as unique three-part polyphony, which is a type of archaic singing with a particular melodic character preserved over the course of time. This multi-voiceness is quite different from music traditions in the rest of Europe. It is more primitive and very often neighbouring tones are united simultaneously to create an unusual harmony. The choir was founded more than half a century ago and the polyphonic singing, dancing and specific ritual practices have been passed down over the generations. The songs of the Bistritsa Grannies accompany ritual feasts. There are songs for each rite, for each labour activity, as well as just for entertaining. 82 year old Krema is the oldest of the Bistritsa Grannies, and she explains how they blend their voices in this special way: "We sing the same song, some do the first voice, others – the second and the third one. We sing in three voices, be it in the morning when we go out on the field, or in the evening, on our way home. Some walk and sing coming from the one side of the village, others walk singing from the opposite side, and the air above the village is filled with our songs." Their special singing was recognised a decade ago by the UN cultural agency UNESCO, when it inscribed the Bistritshki Babi as part of the "intangible cultural heritage of humanity." UNESCO gave the grannies a particularly long title to describe what they do: "The Bistritsa Babi/Grannies: Archaic Polyphony, Dances and Ritual Practices from the Shoplouk Region." Mila Santova an Ethnologyst at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies at Bulgaria's Academy of Sciences says the title needed to be long to cover all the things the grannies do: "In other words here in Bistritsa we are witnessing a phenomenon of traditional culture demonstrated in a syncretism that makes us scholars believe that it has existed for thousands of years,"she says. For the last 20 years or so the Bistritsa Grannies have been training younger singers to continue the musical heritage. The old singers and a group of young women perform as the "Bistritsa Grannies and Their Granddaughters". With a repertoire of over 300 traditional songs this formation is a unique example of the transmission of folk culture from generation to generation. The "granddaughters" master the singing in a natural manner without using notation or recordings. Just by listening closely to the Grannies, they re-create the complex harmonies. And it seems their special music will continue to ring out from the foothills of the VItosha Mountain for many more years to come. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/4e804df1b723cb4e33e52326cb5ebb18

Added 6 Sept 2026