A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style'.
Showing 1-4 of 117 pages in this dissertation.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Description

Bulgaria, though a fairly small Eastern European country, boasts an ancient history of folk traditions and music; however, very few notated works exist due to the people's primitive lifestyle throughout Bulgaria's history. Singing and dancing as well as creating instruments from wood and animal skin were considered an integral part of everyday life, equal to cooking, sewing, herding, or farming; in fact, one almost always accompanied the other. Thus, more than 1500 years of folklore was orally passed on and preserved generation after generation; however, nothing was notated until only very recently when Bulgarians realized the cultural and national value … continued below

Physical Description

v, 111 pages : illustrations, music

Creation Information

Vassileva, Veronika May 2016.

Context

This dissertation is part of the collection entitled: UNT Theses and Dissertations and was provided by the UNT Libraries to the UNT Digital Library, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It has been viewed 777 times, with 7 in the last month. More information about this dissertation can be viewed below.

Who

People and organizations associated with either the creation of this dissertation or its content.

Author

Chair

Committee Members

Publisher

Rights Holder

For guidance see Citations, Rights, Re-Use.

  • Vassileva, Veronika

Provided By

UNT Libraries

The UNT Libraries serve the university and community by providing access to physical and online collections, fostering information literacy, supporting academic research, and much, much more.

About | Browse this Partner

Contact Us

Corrections Questions

What

Descriptive information to help identify this dissertation. Follow the links below to find similar items on the Digital Library.

Degree Information

Description

Bulgaria, though a fairly small Eastern European country, boasts an ancient history of folk traditions and music; however, very few notated works exist due to the people's primitive lifestyle throughout Bulgaria's history. Singing and dancing as well as creating instruments from wood and animal skin were considered an integral part of everyday life, equal to cooking, sewing, herding, or farming; in fact, one almost always accompanied the other. Thus, more than 1500 years of folklore was orally passed on and preserved generation after generation; however, nothing was notated until only very recently when Bulgarians realized the cultural and national value of their history. After the liberation from Ottoman Rule (1453-1877) a nationalist movement spread throughout the Balkan countries, which resulted in the emergence of Bulgarian composers. Music and songs from the local folk traditions evolved, developed, and - with notation - became the foundation for the vocal and instrumental music of the so-called first generation of Bulgarian composers. Around the turn of the century, many Bulgarian artists and musicians traveled to Western Europe (mostly Austria, Germany, and Russia) and upon their return, their artistic output created an original mixture of Bulgarian national folk with influences from Western classical music. After World War II, Bulgaria became one of the countries governed by the Communist regime, which restricted all travel to and contact with the West, including cultural influences from the West. Gradually, as the Communist regime became less controlling until it dissolved completely in 1989, restrictions on music and culture started to lift.
Petar Christoskov (1917-2006), considered part of the second generation of Bulgarian composers, began his compositional career immediately after returning from Germany to a communist-ruled Bulgaria. His first opus was the set of 12 Caprices for Solo Violin (1953, formerly known as Concert Etudes in Folk Style); they have a fairly simple compositional style but are full of elements from the Bulgarian folk tradition. Some of these caprices, along with other works from the beginning of Christoskov's compositional career, were commissioned by the nationalist government and/or were required repertoire at national music competitions. Nearly thirty years after the first set of caprices, Christoskov composed another set: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 24 (1978-9). These later works also contain many Bulgarian folk characteristics, but their compositional style is much more abstract, atonal, and complex - more “mainstream Western.”
The goal of this document is to compare and contrast the two sets of Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1 and Op. 24, by investigating the development of Petar Christoskov's compositional style. I will argue that the constantly-changing political systems in twentieth-century Bulgaria had a direct impact on the composer's artistic output. After a historical overview of Bulgaria's music and political background, the two sets of caprices will be compared and contrasted by focusing on technical, musical, and sociological similarities and differences. In order to illustrate these similarities and differences, three caprices from each set will be selected and analyzed, as well as compared and contrasted with each other. The second part of the document will discuss the negative influence of the political climate on music and printing, with a focus on the difficulties of preserving Bulgarian culture itself.
This research has the additional purpose of serving as scholarly support for a future project: as a personal contribution to the circulation and preservation of Bulgarian music, I intend to produce a new violin edition of Petar Christoskov's caprices as well as complete the arrangements for viola.

Physical Description

v, 111 pages : illustrations, music

Language

Item Type

Identifier

Unique identifying numbers for this dissertation in the Digital Library or other systems.

Relationships

  • Recital: November 20, 2011, ark:/67531/metadc172043
  • Recital: April 11, 2011, <not yet digitized>
  • Recital: February 25, 2013, <not yet digitized>

Collections

This dissertation is part of the following collection of related materials.

UNT Theses and Dissertations

Theses and dissertations represent a wealth of scholarly and artistic content created by masters and doctoral students in the degree-seeking process. Some ETDs in this collection are restricted to use by the UNT community.

About | Browse this Collection

Related Items

Doctoral Recital: 2011-11-20 - Veronika Vassileva, viola (Sound)

Doctoral Recital: 2011-11-20 - Veronika Vassileva, viola

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

Relationship to this item: (Has Part)

Recital: November 20, 2011, ark:/67531/metadc172043

Has Part : Recital: April 11, 2011, <not yet digitized>
Has Part : Recital: February 25, 2013, <not yet digitized>

What responsibilities do I have when using this dissertation?

Digital Files

When

Dates and time periods associated with this dissertation.

Creation Date

  • May 2016

Coverage Date

Added to The UNT Digital Library

  • June 28, 2016, 4:28 p.m.

Description Last Updated

  • May 18, 2022, 1:14 a.m.

Usage Statistics

When was this dissertation last used?

Yesterday: 0
Past 30 days: 7
Total Uses: 777
More Statistics

Where

Geographical information about where this dissertation originated or about its content.

Place Name

Publication Place

Map Information

  • map marker Place Name coordinates. (May be approximate.)
  • Repositioning map may be required for optimal printing.

Mapped Locations

Interact With This Dissertation

Here are some suggestions for what to do next.

Start Reading

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style'.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Citations, Rights, Re-Use

International Image Interoperability Framework

IIF Logo

We support the IIIF Presentation API

Links for Robots

Helpful links in machine-readable formats.

Archival Resource Key (ARK)

International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)

Metadata Formats

Images

URLs

Stats

Vassileva, Veronika. A comparison of Petar Christoskov’s Op. 1 and Op. 24 Caprices for Solo Violin: The effect of the changing Bulgarian political climate on his compositional style, dissertation, May 2016; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc849741/: accessed May 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .

Back to Top of Screen