2024-09-08 14:21:32
“Dear Homeland” has been the anthem of Bulgaria for 60 years. It was approved on September 8, 1964 by a decree of the Presidium of the National Assembly. It was created on the basis of the patriotic song “Gorda Stara Planina” by Tsvetan Radoslavov. Subsequently, the text was reworked into a hymn by Dimitar Metodiev and Georgi Jagarov, and additional harmonization was made by the composers Filip Kutev and Alexander Raychev.
Tsvetan Radoslavov wrote the text and composed the song in 1885, on the way to the battlefield of the Serbo-Bulgarian war, in which he participated as a volunteer. Then the 22-year-old student of history at the University of Vienna used the famous Svishtovsko Horo for the melody.
In 1905, the song was arranged by the composer Dobri Hristov, who was also the author of the original arrangement of the song for a single choir. After that, the composer Boris Trichkov turned it into a finished choral composition with the title “Dear Homeland”.
After November 10, 1989, during the debates on the new constitution, various proposals for a national anthem were made in the Seventh Great National Assembly, among them “Shumi Maritsa” and “Varvi Narode Vozrodeni”. The Constitution of Bulgaria of July 12, 1991 declared the song “Dear Country” as the national anthem of Bulgaria, dropping the last two verses and performing only the first verse and the chorus of the 1964 anthem.
A LITTLE HISTORY
After the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, the national anthem was “Shumi Maritsa” – based on the text of the teacher, poet and revolutionary Nikola Zhivkov. “Shumi Maritsa” was performed as the national anthem for the first time in 1885 after the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. It is performed after the hymn “God, save our king”. In 1912, the writer Ivan Vazov revised the original text. Under the sounds of the march, the Bulgarian army reaped victories in the Balkan (1912-1913), the Inter-Allied (1913), the First (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945).
After September 9, 1944, the hymn “God, save our king” was briefly replaced by the song “Hey, Slavs”, and until 1950, the mass song “Our Republic, hello” was performed unofficially as the anthem, based on the text of Krum Penev and music by the composer Georgi Dimitrov. By Decree 688 of the Presidium of the National Assembly of 1950, the song “Bulgaria, land of heroes” was approved as the national anthem, with lyrics by Nikola Furnadzhiev, Mladen Isaev and Elisaveta Bagryana. The music is by the composers Georgi Dimitrov, Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin and Svetoslav Obretenov. It was performed until 1964.