Bulgarian-Macedonian Folk Music by Boris A. KremenlievReview by: Barbara Lattimer KraderNotes, Second Series, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Jun., 1953), pp. 454-455Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/892181 .

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There is a two-page subject index, two- page list of component manufacturers' names and addresses, but no bibliography. A preface by Peter C. Goldmark and an introduction by Milton B. Sleeper ex- emplify the pointlessness of most conven- tional discussions of "high fidelity." The typography, format, cover design, and some fifty photographic illustrations are

straight sales catalog stuff. But there are over fifty diagrams, which are both well chosen and even more admirably inte- grated in the text. And the text itself is an exciting anticipation of the full revelation audio disciples crave so earn- estly nowadays from their too often sibylline high priests and prophets.

R. D. DARRELL

Bulgarian-Macedonian Folk Music. By Boris A. Kremenliev. Berke- ley and Lo,s Angeles: University of California Press [London: Cambridge University Pressl. 1952. [xii. (2). 165 D. illus. music. bibM.U 4to: $5.01

This is probably the first serious book on Bulgarian folk music to appear in English. The writer, born in Bulgaria, a composer trained at the Eastman School of Music, has sought in his book to analyse the meter, melodies, and melodic structure of Bulgarian and Macedonian folk songs and dances. In addition, be- cause the region and its folk music are so little known here, he has included a chapter of background information on Slavic and Bulgarian history. Another chapter discusses the texts of some songs, according to subject matter-"hero" songs, outlaw songs, wedding songs, etc. Here the texts and translations are given, with some brief poetic analysis as well. Finally there is a brief chapter on folk instruments, with two pages of photographs. Appended is a bibliography (pages 145-155), listing books and articles in Bulgarian and other languages on Bulgaria and on Macedonian and Bul- garian folk songs. All entries are tran- scribed into roman characters.

This bibliography would have been much more useful if it had been selective and critical, but it contains some valu- able references, especially those of Bul- garian periodical literature of the period between the world wars and the period of the last war. Many of the general books in English on Bulgaria, cited in this list, were published forty or fifty years ago and are out of date.

The most important part of Prof es- sor Kremenliev's book is the section devoted to metric and melodic analysis. The problem of the meter of Bulgarian and Macedonian folk music is very com- plex, and Westerners as well as Western-

trained Bulgarian musicologists have frequently misinterpreted or oversimpli- fied the metric patterns they treated. I think the writer's analysis is remarkably lucid and the terminology is handled well. He also criticizes aptly the man whose analysis in German has been most used by Western scholars, Peter Panoff. One controversial element of Professor Kremenliev's metric analysis which I might bring up is his very great use of the Stoin collections of Bulgarian folk songs. These are enormous volumes, con- taining thousands of songs, but the nota- tions are considered oversimplified by a significant number of Bulgarian and Macedonian specialists, and Stoin's meters have also been criticized. The author's metrical analysis and his statis- tical conclusions are basically dependent on the Stoin collections. His frequent reference to Dobri Hristov's analysis, on the other hand, is a positive feature.

The chapter on melody is very good, including a table of Oriental scales occurring in Bulgarian music, and another showing Arab and Persian scales for comparison. The writer also discusses the Eastern Orthodox Church modes as used in Bulgaria. This is an area often overlooked and highly relevant to melodic tradition in the Orthodox countries. It is regrettable that there was no use of the Ilmari Krohn or Bart6k melodic classification systems, which would have facilitated comparative studies. But this does not detract from the real merit of this part of the book.

The author and the University of Cali- fornia press are to be congratulated on a very fine publication. The unusually

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attractive format of the book, the maps of Bulgaria, and the large number of musical examples in addition to the sub- stance of the text will undoubtedly at- tract a number of readers who may not know much about Bulgaria. But the

book will be valued most by music spe- cialists, for it treats one of the richest and most imaginative flowerings of folk music left in Europe, not just in a popular manner but on a really scholarly level.

BARBARA L 1ArnmR KRADER

RRTEFLY NOTED

Music in the Southwest, 1825-1950. By Howard Swan. San Marino, Cali- fornia: Huntington Library, 1952. [x, 316 p., 8vo; $5.00]

This book, which is described in its author's preface as "a social rather than a musicological study," is essentially a history of the concert business in Los Angeles. Mr. Swan, who is chairman of the music department at Occidental Col- lege, has an excellent sense of the curious, diversified history of the South- ern California metropolis, and he places Los Angeles music in its historic context, starting with the picturesque small town of the early days and ending with the fabulous community of communities which we know at present. His picture is dense in detail, well written, and gen- erally successful in attaining its stated purpose. At times, however, this "social history" of music slides over into a mere chronicle of business deals. Furthermore, too much emphasis is placed upon the late L. E. Behymer, the impresario who peddled big names throughout the South- west for half a century, and far too little attention is given to the influence of the motion picture studios, which now and for many years past have been the central and distinctive fact, especially from the social point of view, in the musical life of Los Angeles.

Mr. Swan's definition of the word "Southwest" is, to say the least, some- what capricious. In addition to his chap- ters on Los Angeles (nine out of a total of fifteen), he provides four chapters on the music in the life of the Mormons in Utah and California, one on music in the mining camps of Virginia City, Nevada, and Tomcbstone, Arizona, and one on "The Music of Mission, Rancho and Pueblo," with special emphasis on Santa Barbara. Texas and New Mexico,

one gathers, are not in the Southwest, and nothing of musical importance has happened in Nevada and Arizona except in the two towns mentioned. (Tucson and Las Vegas papers please copy.) The chapters on the Mormons, their hymnody and folk song, are first-rate, but the others are rather skimpy.

ALFRED FRANKENSTEIN

The Study of Music as a Liberal Art. By George Sherman Dickinson. Pough- keepsie, N. Y.: Vassar College [Office of Public Relations], 1953. [33 p., 8vo; paper, privately distributed but a few copies available for 10? mailing charge]

At a time when the pressures for more and more specialization seem especially virulent, and when, in some quarters, trends in this direction are rampant, it is refreshing indeed to come across a mono- graph devoted to some fundamental think- ing on the implications of the study of music as a liberal art. The student who pursues his musical training in a pro- fessional school or conservatory admit- tedly gets little or nothing of an educa- tion in the liberal arts. Colleaes which try to adapt music to the liberal arts program by means of a program leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in music are faced with many diffi- culties. Not the least of these is the problem of making the education in music technically sound and at the same time properly oriented to the ideal of the liberal arts.

Beginning with the premise that the distinguishing mark of the liberal edu- cation in the arts is its intent to cultivate the esthetic experience, the author pre- sents concisely and forcefully his basic philosophy. From this he proceeds to a critique of the curriculum in which, fol- lowing the implications of his premises

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