“Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares” is a registered trademark of Disques Cellier and is an exclusive title which is only to be used by the female folk choir “Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares” directed by DORA HRISTOVA.Authorization by Marcel Cellier to use the name “Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares”
“The human voice raised in song is far more eloquent that when it speaks.
From their knowledge of this profound verity the Bulgarian people place the art of song at the pinnacle of artistic expression. Their genius in this field – fruit of a thousand year- long story of tears and suffering- draws its nourishment from roots that go back to another world –Byzantium. And even further back, the furthest tips of these notes are lost in the obscure and ancient civilization of the Thracians famous at their time for their musical prowess. The thousand year long tradition of Bulgarian songs suffered from all the tribulations of a history marred in blood, to be followed by the nightmare of five centuries under Ottoman yoke. And so their vocal art, the only free expression open to Bulgarian people, has been coloured, layered down the ages. Monodic in its beginning, then strangely diaphonic, Bulgarian song developed its own polyphony which encountered Western harmony in the 20th  Century.
So it is that a wonderful synthesis is offered to today’s music lovers: elements of a fabulous archaism, of Byzantine liturgy, of popular song, of epic recitals, heroic sagas, laments…All fused into veritable jewels.
These jewels are placed harmoniously in their setting by men of great taste-Krassimir Kyurkchyiski, Philip Koutev, Georgi Minchev, Alexander Jossifov, Stefan Moutafchiev, Nikolai Kaufman. And yet in addition to previously unheard melodic, rhythmic and harmonic delights there is more-the timbre! The sonorous timbre is characteristic of the open, vibrato-free voices of young Bulgarian country girls. For it is from the villages, not from schools of music, that the choir masters from Sofia recruit the vocal cords needed for the A Capella choirs. For whether it be the mountainous regions of Macedonia, Rhodopes, Pirin mountains or the Thracian plain, Shopsko or Dobrudja on the shores of the Black sea, song is held everywhere to be a sacred tradition handed down from generation to generation. With staggering ease, these daughters of the earth achieve and surpass the habitual limits taught in our schools of music.
What they preserve they learned in their villages: melisma, grace-notes, trills, plus strong predilection for the second as a diaphonic interval.The beauty of perfection!The perfection of beauty!It is somewhere between these that you must seek……The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices.Marcel Cellier, producer AWARDS:
Volume II of LE MYSTERE DES VOIX BULGARES captured a 1990 Grammy Award. With material compiled over twenty years by the Swiss producer Marcel Cellier.In 1994 the CD named “Ritual” was nominated for Grammy award in class “Folklore”. The Crystal Harp ’99 – The highest award of the Bulgarian Composer Union for “great achievements in the field of music”