The Music of Panko Dobrev

Lesser artists borrow. Great artists steal.
Igor Stravinsky

A number of years ago I wrote two posts about the Bulgarian composer Diko Iliev. While searching for Diko Iliev on YouTube I found several gems by a composer named Panko Dobrev (not the Japanese bread crumbs!) that were strongly influenced by Diko Iliev.

The first one is Gankino Horo, a dance that originated in Northern Bulgaria. Brass music is very popular in that region and this piece really sparkles. It made me want to get up and dance. By the way, the piece was named after a woman named Ganka, and there are numerous versions of Gankino Horo making the rounds. The dance itself is a basic kopanitsa.



The second piece is Rachenitsa Simona. I take it that Simona is also a woman's name. Rachenitsa is the national dance of Bulgaria and performed everywhere in the country. It can be in 7/8 or 7/16 depending on the speed. This one is rather slow and it's a lovely piece of music.



Video #3 is Elenino Horo, the dance we know as Eleno Mome, another dance that originated in Northern Bulgaria.  So far every dance tune I've found by Panko Dobrev was named after a woman; this time it's Elena.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find Panko Dobrev on Bulgarian Wikipedia, although he does have a YouTube channel.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Having a Blast with Diko Iliev

A Birthday Celebration and a Source of Inspiration: the Music of Diko Iliev


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

Two Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Dance: Opas

Today's featured dance will be Opas, from the region of Dobrudja in northeast Bulgaria. Like last week's Romanian dance, Hora de Mina, it has different "flavors" with different music and choreography. Opas is the Dobrudjan variation of the dance Pravo Trakiisko Horo, shown here:



This link goes to Eliznik's Web Page a very informative source on folk dances from Eastern Europe.
If you scroll down and read the last paragraph, it explains the regional differences of Pravo Horo, the most popular dance in Bulgaria.

The version of Opas done in Bulgaria is a relatively easy dance, although the front basket-hold raises the challenge level a little, especially for beginner folk dancers. I happen to like this video because it's part of a series for learning Bulgarian folk dances, and the people wear elaborate embroidered costumes from the different folklore regions.



If you're a regular reader of The Alien Diaries the people in the next video will be familiar to you. The Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel has a new series of videos featuring dances from the Balkans. I happened upon this when I was doing a search for the version of Opas that's done by recreational folk dance groups here in the States. This one rates 9.5 on a difficulty scale from 1-10; the belt hold makes it especially challenging. An especially difficult element of the dance is the deep knee bends, this is definitely off-limits if you have arthritis :)



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Two Variations on a Romanian Folk Dance, Hora de Mina
http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-variations-on-romanian-folk-dance.html

Dancing Across Bulgaria: The Pravo and Regional Folk Dance Styles:
http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/06/dancing-across-bulgaria-pravo-and.html

More dances from the Bulgarian folklore region of Dobrudja:
http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/06/more-stamping-it-out-reka-sborenka-and.html



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