Dobri Hristov’s Birth

Dobri Hristov is a Bulgarian composer, one of the past masters of the First composers’ generation. He was born on December 14, 1875, in Varna. While Western Europe and Russia were experiencing their efflorescence in music, Bulgaria was still overcoming the consequences of the Ottoman yoke. As a result, the Bulgarian music kept on being closely connected with the struggles for national liberation. Not until the mid-1880s did other genres begin to make their way, when Dobri Hristov had the chance to see his star rising. The self-educated genius composed in the 1890s the two choral medleys “Lilyana moma hubava” and “Pusti momi jeravnenki”, with which he took part in a scholarship competition for music education abroad, but failed. The public opinion in Varna regarded this as in insult. Funds were raised and Dobri Hristov was sent to study at the Prague conservatory. Dobri Hristov’s works built the foundations of the Bulgarian music culture. He left a vast number of choral and solo songs; there is no big Bulgarian choir, whose repertoire does not include “Rachenitsa”, “Lele mome”, “Ergen dyado”, “Ganinata mayka” or “Dafino vino”. The repertoire of the Bulgarian soloists almost invariably comprises “Sivlyana”, “Devoyche”, “Ya razturay” or “Lele, Bojke”. Dobri Hristov died on January 23, 1941, in Sofia.