For years Bulgarian traditional instruments were made by the musicians and tuned to their tastes ­ with no common rules for tuning.
This was okay, because the instruments were usually played individually.
But during the 1935 Christmas season a group of solo instrumentalists who were playing with choral groups in Plovidiv were asked by a member of Plovidiv's Western-style orchestra why they didn't play together.

The answer:
They hadn't thought of it.

They were aware of ensemble performance - there were brass bands and cafe orchestras in their home town of Bistrica. But it wasn't really in their vocabulary to conceive of an ensemble of traditional music ­ somebody from outside the tradition had to suggest it.

So they went back and built new instruments that worked in tune together, and thus formed Bistrica Foursome, the first Bulgarian folk orchestra - or so the story goes.

Bistrica did a little dancing too, and once hit the floorboards so hard on a finale that all four members fell through the stage, leaving just their heads visible to the audience's delight.

- from The Origin of the Folk Orchestra in Bulgaria by Tim Rice in Traditions, published by the Balkan Arts Center, Spring 1974.