THE IMPACT OF FRENCH MUSIC ON WORKS BY LYUBOMIR PIPKOV AND MARIN GOLEMINOV

Abstract

Unlike the large number of studies on the personality and cultural heritage of Lyubomir Pipkov and Marin Goleminov, the current paper focuses on an aspect of their personal and professional biographies that traditionally remains outside, or at least in the periphery of, musicology. It concerns an important period of the two composers’ life, related to their student residence in Paris, which is of fundamental significance not only for their personality formation, but also for the emergence of the Bulgarian national music style. It is now possible to study in retrospect the works by L. Pipkov and M. Goleminov and, through the prism of the historical perspective, to appreciate their place in the circumstances of their creation. In this context, the current paper addresses the issue of how the Bulgarian music style emerged and, in particular, it deals with the two composers’ pursuit of incorporating the knowledge, approaches, methods and techniques from the West European (mainly French) music.