Vardar – Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918

I’m very grateful to SCS member, Rob Elliott for writing this very timely piece… Thanks Rob!

On 3 March each year, Bulgaria celebrates its national day of independence from Ottoman Rule in 1878. A local shop owned and run by a Bulgarian family held a small celebration on the day and were playing some folk music in the background. Prompted by this and a conversation about folk music and dance, I wondered if Bulgaria had produced any classical composers and to my surprise, there are quite a lot.

The most famous is Pancho Vladigerov (1899-1978). His mother was related to the author Boris Pasternak. Vladigerov is clearly a national treasure and his music includes Bulgarian folk idioms, one of the first composers to do so. He was admired by Dmitri Shostakovich, Richard Strauss and Aram Katchaturian but remains largely unknown outside Bulgaria.

But what is the significance of this? His most famous work is known as the Vardar Rhapsody. It was composed in 1922 for violin and piano, but it was also
orchestrated shortly afterwards and exists in a few other versions. It lasts around 8 minutes and is an astonishing tour de force – well worth a listen.

A recording of this dazzling music in its original version is available here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzMCjrqVryg

Rob Elliott

**Pancho Vladigerov.** Photo by Unknown author – This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Bulgarian Archives State Agency as part of a cooperation project. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43489517

Yesterday, Dr Jake Gasson¹ presented ‘Salonika: The Battle Against Boredom’ online from the National Army Museum². If you missed the talk, or would like to listen again, you can catch it below or via this link. The talk begins at 15 minutes 24 seconds.

¹Dr Jake Gasson is a National Army Museum Fellow based at King’s College London, where he is a postdoctoral researcher. He obtained a DPhil from Pembroke College, Oxford, specialising in the Macedonian front of the First World War. He is also the first recipient of the Salonika Campaign Society’s Philip Barnes Bursary. Jake joined the Society’s 2024 battlefield visit to Greece, delivering two presentations to the tour party while there. We recently published his article on Searching for Scapegoats: The ‘unreliable Zouaves’ and the Second Battle of Doiran. Jake will also be writing a piece for the The New Mosquito in the future.

²The National Army Museum is a leading authority on the British Army and its impact on society past and present, and has hosted many free online events in the past. You can support its work here.