# Le Mystère des voix Bulgares - Bulgarian Choir Music



## Wienstein (Nov 5, 2012)

Hello,

I am completely obsessed with Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgare and other Bulgarian choir music (Cosmic Voices, others). I am having trouble finding similar choir music that create the same mood. I understand that it's very unique music but perhaps there are a few out there who can recommend a few choir or choral works (be they from the East or West) that are equally as stunning, eerie, and beautiful. 

Any Recommendations? Thanks!


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I'm not aware if this piece, but I've heard that Bulgarian basses are especially deep and low. With that in mind, why don't you try Rachmaninov's _Vespers_, recorded by Alexander Sveshnikov and the USSR state choir in the sixties? That one fills all my East European church music needs.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

i have listened years ago Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgare and i was going to reccomend exactly Rachmaninov's Vespers.










and i don't know if this is what you are looking for , but another piece i've thought of is Missa pro defunctis of Roland de Lassus


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I remember when Bulgarian choir music was an unlikely fad. I think it even won a Grammy. Then it dropped off the face of the earth. Weird.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

The choral songs (female voices) by both Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály might more than satisfy you. The composers were friends and when young made extensive musicological field trips gathering and documenting their national folk song heritage.

This link is from an older LP (Angel / Seraphim; that catalogue now owned by EMI).

I don't know, but hope, this recording is somewhere available in a re-issued CD.

Zoltán Kodály ~ In the Mountains


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Isecond Rachmaninov´s Vespers too in particular.

Try Gorecki´s works for choir also.

Examples:













Grechaninov, Stefan Mokranjac, Bortnyansky and Artemy Vedel are some of the other Russian/Balkan composers writing for choir. 




 (Vedel)


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## Faville (Sep 15, 2012)

Gyorgi Ligeti--Ligeti Edition 2 has a bunch of similar work.





Eri Sugai





Cocteau Twins--not really similar, but I used to have this album on the flip side of a Mystere des Voix Bulgares cassette and they complimented each other nicely.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Interesting topic, but doesn't this belong somewhere else here ?


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I ran into a Bulgarian-singing "purist" who said that the Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgare, since the group was under Soviet control, was not "authentic" enough, and he went so far as to say they were formed for propaganda purposes only. Of course, I disagreed with this, and I have all the Nonesuch recordings.

They did a tour of the US. Jeff Beck raved about them in some magazine, and I heard somebody else say that when they attended a performance that contact with the public, backstage, was not allowed, and there were KGB agents everywhere around them. I guess they were afraid they would defect.


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