The Different "Flavors" of Pravo Rhodopko Horo

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
French proverb

Pravo Horo and its numerous variations are popular all over Bulgaria. Today we shall focus on a single region, the Rhodope Mountains, and several versions of the dance from that area.

The basic village Pravo is a simple walking dance, three steps in and one step back, in a diagonal formation.

Here is an example of the basic village Pravo Rhodopsko accompanied by a kaba gaida, an instrument native to that region.  This bagpipe is larger and lower pitched than the traditional Bulgarian gaida.



This dance song Mitro is an excellent example of the fusion of traditional and modern in Bulgarian folk music. Listen to the gaida solo at the beginning and the end of the video.

It's different from the kaba gaida played in the previous video and loud enough to wake the dead.

The Pravo step is interwoven into the dance with stamps and step-hops.



Several dancers in my Sunday night group went to Pinewoods recently, during a session held the last week of June. This year,Yves Moreau taught a number of Bulgarian dances.  One that was introduced to my Sunday night dance group was Hajde Kalino.  Similar to Mitro, the Pravo step here is also interwoven with a faster figure that includes stamps and grapevines.

The dance is moderately slow and speeds up when the singing stops. Rhodope versions of the Pravo are generally slow to medium speed.  In other regions of Bulgaria, they can be so fast that you can barely see the feet!



In the next video, also of the song Hajde Kalino, the singers are accompanied by a kaba gaida.  What I find strange is that neither the singers or the gaida player are wearing folk costumes. This looks like an impromptu street performance.No one actually gets up to dance until 5:45.  Why did they wait so long?



The last video is another "souped up" Rhodope Pravo with claps and stamps (I thought Dobrudja Bulgarians, Romanians and Vlachs had a monopoly on those!)  The song is Sapril Dobri.  The instructor here is Jaap Leegwater, who specializes in dances from Bulgaria. He also led Mitro in video #2.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The Bagpipe in Bulgarian Folk Music

Bulgarian Singing Demystified (includes a medley of songs from the Rhodope region, directed by Tatiana Sarbinska)

Dancing Across Bulgaria: The Pravo and Regional Folk Dance Styles


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Variations on a Theme By Diko Iliev Part 2: Gankino Horo

Music is the melody whose text is the world.
Arnold Schopenhauer


Today's post features several versions of Gankino Horo as interpreted by the composer Diko Iliev.  He lived from 1898 - 1984 and is best known for the piece Dunavsko Horo, danced at just about every celebration in Bulgaria, especially during the New Year.

To get an idea about what the dance is about (since I couldn't find anything on YouTube with people dancing to Iliev's Gankino Horo) watch the video below. If you are familiar with The Alien Diaries, you will recognize the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel.

The rhythm is 11/16 ( quick-quick-slow-quick-quick).  Gankino Horo is a dance in the kopanitsa family and there are many fancy versions of kopanitsa out there. The one in the video is the basic village dance. The slow beat is the "hiccup" in the middle.

The music arrangement is by Boris Karlov, an accordionist of Roma origin. (It is easy to confuse him with the movie actor with a similar name, Boris Karloff.  If you're a fan of old movies, you may find this link of interest).

The melody is familiar to folk dancers around the world.  Karlov made many recordings of Bulgarian folk dances  for accordion and this one is extremely popular more than fifty years after his death in 1964.

Diko Iliev also used this melody in his Maisko Gankino Horo; there is a link to it at the end of this post.

Remember all Gankinos are kopanitsas, but not all kopanitsas are Gankino.



The next video is music by Diko Iliev: Dukovitsko Gankino Horo.  My guess is that it's name after a village or town.  Many Bulgarian dances are named after cities or towns.  Some are named after people. Ganka is a female name in Bulgaria.

The CD cover pictured is from the album Spomeni (memories, not a fancy Italian ice cream called spumoni.) Confused? Look it up on Google Translate.

There is a picture of the composer, a score from one of his pieces and a bouquet of red flowers.It must be something connected with Diko Iliev.  Does anyone out there know why?



This version of Gankino is actually named after a person named Gano. He is a winner (gano means "I win" in Spanish. Bad joke).  In both Spanish and Bulgarian, female names usually end with the letter "a", male names with the letter "o".



If you like two for the price of one here is Rachenitsa followed by Gankino Horo.  It is common in a horovod (medley of Bulgarian folk dances) to combine dances in different rhythms.  Rachenitsa is in 7/8 or 7/16 depending on the speed; say the words "apple-apple-pineapple" and you have rachenitsa.

This album cover is a view from the town of Oriahovo, where Diko Iliev lived for 42 years. The town square is named after him.  The Bulgarian National Radio compiled this CD, and you can hear the music from it on YouTube.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Variations on the Bulgarian Folk Tune: Gankino Horo (three different variations of the same tune by different artists, including Diko Iliev)

Variations on a Theme by Diko Iliev (several different arrangements of Dunavsko Horo)

The Legacy of Boris Karlov, Bulgarian Folk Accordionist

Bulgarian Dances Named After Cities and Towns


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

The Dances of Greek Macedonia

A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.
Mahatma Gandhi

Today's post features dances from the Macedonia region of northern Greece.

The name "Macedonia" has been much contested because the region historically known as Macedonia spans three countries: northern Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, and the Pirin region of Bulgaria.

My intent is not to start World War III in the Balkans, but to educate readers why the name of "Macedonia" has stirred up so much conflict.

There are also places with the name Macedonia in other parts of the world, and there are numerous towns in the United States with this name.

It doesn't make sense to me to fight over a name. See video below for an explanation.The one thing it  does not mention is that there is a region called "Pirin Macedonia" in Bulgaria. Its official name is Blagoevgrad Province.

By the way if people danced more, there would be no fighting. Too much time, money and energy are spent on war.



The first dance is Sire Sire. (If anyone can find the dance notes for this, please let me know).  It is very popular in recreational folk dance groups in the States. The rhythm and the movements of Sire Sire remind me of rachenitsa, the national dance of Bulgaria, which can be in either 7/8 or 7/16 depending on the speed of the music. The Greek tik is similar to the rachenitsa, and also to the Romanian geampara. It's the same rhythm: apple-apple-pineapple.

This group is from the city of Edessa.



There is a lot of cultural cross-pollination in the Balkans.  Brass bands, I've noticed, provide the music for all of the dances featured in this post.. They are also popular in Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, parts of Bulgaria, and also in Romania.

 You heard one in the last video, and you will see one here.  The dance is Raiko, also in 7/8 rhythm.



The last dance, which has been featured on this blog before, is also from Greek Macedonia.  It has a very strange rhythm: 12/16.  It also has two names, depending on which side of the border you're from.  In Greece it's known as Leventikos.  In the Republic of Macedonia they call it Pusteno.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Bulgarian Dances and Their Greek Relatives

Dancing Through the Alphabet, Letter L



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Beli Dunav Part Three: Modern Bulgarian Danube Songs

I have no plan. I will leave it to the good things and good times to find me.
Nimrat Kaur

The third and final post in the series Danube Songs From Bulgaria features some modern, happy folk songs with amusing videos.

The first video is of the Ensemble Plam from Ruse. According to Google Translate, the word "Plam" translates to enthusiasm or passion.  They certainly express it here!

Plam reminds me of another band from Ruse: Orchestra Horo.  There is a link about them and their music at the bottom of this post.

Plam is into modern instrumentation (except for the tupan.)  There are two guys on accordion, one on saxophone, one on a keyboard and one on a clarinet; you don't see evidence of a gaida or gadulka here.

The song is Kray Dunava (from the Danube region); the music and the dance are another variation of Kraj Dunavsko Horo.  It's lively and fast, and there's some eye candy for the guys (two attractive female singers with bright purple dresses, which alternate with quasi-folk costumes). The dancers get silly with brooms and a bottle of booze. It's fun to watch.



Harry Bend is another group that plays modern versions of traditional Bulgarian folk tunes. The next video is another "White Danube" song (Dunave Beli Dunave).

The instrumentation is similar to Plam except that the drummer plays a modern set of drums instead of a tupan.  This is another fun video with dancers, a man and a woman in a rowboat, and a woman in a swing (all wearing elaborate embroidered costumes.)  I have no idea what's in the two white bags, it could be contraband for all I know :) The guy in the boat also has a kaval,  but you can't hear him play it.

You will recognize the rhythm of this song if you are familiar with the dance Padjusko Horo.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Orchestra Horo: Modern Bulgarian Folk Songs, Traditional Rhythms

The Travels of Padjusko Horo

Two Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Dance: Kraj Dunavsko Horo

If you missed the first two posts in this series you can find them here:

Beli Dunav Part One

Beli Dunav Part Two


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.