Lyubomir Pipkov is among the Bulgarian classical composers who have inscribed the highest examples of Bulgarian compositional creativity in the art music of the European twentieth century. His varied artistic achievements as a composer, writer and poet, publicist and public figure, educator and artist with a bright social position and progressive convictions for his time, define him as a leading personality in the musical culture and the Bulgarian intellectual elite in the 1930s – 1970s. He studied piano with Ivan Torchanov and Henrich Wiesner. He studied at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris (France), composition under Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger, and piano under Yvonne Lefebure. After his final return to Bulgaria in 1932, he worked as accompanist and choirmaster at the Sofia Opera and was actively involved in the work of the newly founded Society of Bulgarian Composers “Contemporary Music”; he was among its founders in 1933. After 1944 he held responsible public positions. He was director of the Sofia Opera (1944-1948). From 1948 he was professor of vocal ensembles at the Music Academy in Sofia. He was the founder and first editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian Music magazine (1948). From 1945 to 1954 he chaired the Union of Bulgarian Composers. Lubomir Pipkov composed in all genres of the epoch reconsidering in a new creative manner their imagery and musical language. He is author of three operasm – “Yana’s Nine Brothers”, “Momchil” and “Antigone ’43”; the cantata “Wedding” “Oratorio for Our Time”, Five Songs based on foreign poets – chamber cantata for soprano, bass and chamber orchestra, and other vocal and orchestral works; 4 symphonies and others for symphony, string and chamber orchestra, Concerto for violin and orchestra, Concerto for piano and orchestra, chamber music; choral, solo songs, children’s songs, arrangements of folk songs for voice and piano; film scores, etc.

Lyubomir Pipkov’s Symphony No. 1 was composed in 1940. In it, some of the characteristic tendencies of Bulgarian music of the 1930s can be clearly detected. At the same time, the symphony also gives expression to the anxious moods generated by social strife and the Spanish Civil War in 1936-7. Its undoubted merit is its stylistically unified intonation, which is based on various genres of Bulgarian folk music. Without resorting to ready-made folk melodies, Pipkov finds several characteristic themes through which the main conceptual idea of the work is revealed.

The symphony is written in the traditional four-movement cycle. The first and fourth movements use heroic-dance-like intonations and rhythms in 8/8, the slow second movement is inspired by the long-drawn-out reaper songs, and the third movement, the Scherzo, is in the skipping rhythm of the Piduch chorus (5/8) with a dreamy-lyrical melody unfolding over this rhythm in the middle section. The individual movements of the symphony (excluding the Scherzo) are built on a monothematic principle – one theme is developed each in the first, second and fourth movements. Moreover, the individual movements do not strictly follow familiar musical forms. This gives the movements an intonational and thematic monolithic character, but at the same time narrows the conceptual and emotional content somewhat, since there is no conflicting opposition of two or more themes. Pipkov’s motivic development is limited, and in it he rarely resorts to dense harmonies, preferring independent sub-voices and recitative lines in separate instruments and groups. This also determines the character of his orchestration – it is relieved by dense mixed timbres and pedal sonorities. The timbre of the individual instrument is preserved, and self-serving colouristic effects are avoided. The string group is treated most extensively and best.

Lyrical in its overall sound, Pipkov’s Symphony No. 1 also contains elements of drama and heroic appeal. These are embedded in several of its themes, especially the theme of the first movement, whose broad, ascending strokes impose the volitional intonations of heroic song. The main theme of the fourth movement is also heroic in character. In the virile folk dance in 8/8, Pipkov invests active, appealing intonations. The theme thus acquires a bright heroic expression.

The lyrical themes of the symphony are imbued more or less with a sorrowful-contemplative mood. In the slow second movement, the main theme combines hidden grief and pastoral landscape, while in the poetic theme of the middle section of the scherzo the grief is lighter, more intimate and breathless. This theme is very indicative of the nature of  Pipkov’s  lyrical gift.