Why do we believe that in all matters the odd numbers are more powerful?
Pliny the Elder
Odd number rhythms are prevalent in Balkan dance. Today's post features dances in 11/8 and 11/16 (the 11/16 is faster).
Video #1 is the dance Isu Bialo Nedo. This is a slow 11/8. The rhythm isn't obvious, but if you listen carefully it's there.
Video #2 is the familiar Boris Karlov version of Gankino Horo. This dance uses the basic kopanitsa step. The rhythm is a fast 11/16 and a lot less subtle than in Video #1.
Video #3 is a dressed-up Thracian Kopanitsa. It starts with a slow, synchronized walk, then a running step that reminds me of the dance Jove Male Mome followed with some fancy footwork. The dancers make it look easy. The rhythm is 11/16.
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.
Today's dance is the very popular Gankino Horo from the northwestern region of Bulgaria.
First, let's have a look at the dance. It's fairly easy once you get the feel of the 11/16 rhythm. That little "hiccup" in the middle takes some getting used to.
The 11/16 rhythm is also used in the dance kopanitsa.Gankino Horo is a kopanitsa, but not all kopanitsas are Gankino. Ganka is a female name in Bulgaria, and the dance may have been named after the woman who led it. This may or may not be true. There are a number of Bulgarian dances named after women or girls for example: Elenino Horo (Elena's Dance).
The dancers are from the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel (if you're a regular you have seen many of their videos on this blog). The music is from an old recording by Boris Karlov, a musician who died nearly 50 years ago. You can read more about him in one of the posts listed below. He created many arrangements of Bulgarian folk dances for accordion that are still used today.
Since the month of May is almost here, the next variation is Maisko Gankino Horo by Diko Iliev. You'll hear the same motif, but it sounds quite different played on brass instruments.
If you're not familiar with the name Diko Iliev, he was a composer from northwestern Bulgaria who composed many pieces based on folk dances. His most popular work is Dunavsko Horo, played during holidays and celebrations, and especially to welcome the New Year.
The next video of Gankino Horo uses different music. There is more than one tune associated with this dance, and I have found several versions on YouTube. In that respect it is like the dance Dunavsko Horo.
Finally, we have a duo of classical musicians. They play an rrangement of Gankino on piano and cello. This is the familiar melody you heard in the first two videos. Classical musicians can be sometimes intimidated by the unusual rhythms of Bulgarian folk music, but not these two. They do an excellent job with the piece and play it FAST.
Musicians tend to get bored playing the same thing over and over, so I think it's natural to experiment.
Dimebag Darrell
WQXR has been New York City's classical music station since 1936. I began listening to WQXR when I was about 12 years old. If you like classical music, you can listen to this radio station anywhere in the world as long as you have an Internet connection.
Today's post features two videos from the WQXR Cafe Concerts. You don't often find classical musicians playing music from the Balkans (probably because of the unusual rhythms), but there are some adventurous people out there.....
I found the first video by accident when I was searching for different versions of Gankino Horo, a Bulgarian dance tune.
The Canellakis-Brown duo plays it on piano and cello.I was pleasantly surprised since I'm so used to the accordion arrangement by Boris Karlov. They do an amazing job, especially since this is a difficult meter (11/16) for non-Bulgarians to master, and they play it FAST. (I wonder if they're folk dancers?)
The next piece is much slower. Although there is no one singing here, a doina is a Romanian folk song, rather melancholy in nature. This one was arranged by Grigoras Dinicu. He wrote a number of pieces based on Romanian folk tunes, the most famous being Hora Staccato, a favorite among classical violinists.
I can tell by the way somebody walks if they can dance or not. Just by the rhythm. Bruce Forsyth
Today's post is more of a dance lesson than a math lesson. So don't let the numbers and the odd rhythms scare you. Many people find Balkan dancing intimidating for this reason.
Drăgăcuţa, a graceful and beautiful dance from Romania,is in 3/4 meter.. Most people associate this rhythm with waltz music. (1-2-3-1-2-3). This is a quick-slow (with the accent on the second beat). It's easy to follow (most of it is walking) but difficult to lead because of the quirky rhythm.
In Romania, women dance this at weddings to mourn the loss of the bride to the world of the married; in this instance it's an equal opportunity dance, since there are several men in the group.
The next number is five, and this Macedonian dance is Strumicka Petorka (pet is Macedonian for five). It's has a totally different feel from Pajduško Horo, another dance with a five in the time signature.
I skipped over seven and nine since they have been covered in previous posts (see links at the end). The next dance is Gankino Horo, a basic kopanitsa from Bulgaria. The rhythm for this is 11/16. (quick-quick-slow-quick quick).
Kopanitsa comes in different "flavors." Bulgarian dances are often named after cities and towns and sometimes regions, for example there is aPazardzhishka Kopanitsa and a Shopska Kopanitsa. This particular dance is Bistrishka Kopanitsa. As difficulty goes, I would rate this as a 9 on a scale of 10.
Perhaps the people who work at the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute taught these cute little penguins how to dance Bistrishka Kopanitsa. If the video looks familiar, you have probably seen the movie Happy Feet.
“A writer doesn't dream of riches and fame, though those things are nice. A true writer longs to leave behind a piece of themselves, something that withstands the test of time and is passed down for generations.”
― C.K. Webb
Writers as well as musicians want to be remembered after they die; although material success is important it won't follow you into the afterlife :)
If you came here looking for Boris Karloff, the actor who played Frankenstein's monster in vintage movies, you've just been hijacked to a blog about Balkan folk music. The Boris Karlov mentioned here is a musician, and even if that wasn't exactly what you were looking for, read on, you may enjoy this post.
Boris Karlov, the musician, was born in Sofia, Bulgaria on August 11, 1924 to a family of Roma (Gypsy) musicians. His passion was the accordion, and he and his music became famous well beyond his homeland. During his short 40 years on this earth, he created pieces for this instrument that are played at folk dances to this very day.
Here is an example of classic Karlov; the dance is Gankino Horo from the northwestern region of Bulgaria, the dancers are the Dunav group from Jerusalem in Israel. By the way Gankino Horo is a kopanitsa, a dance in 11/16 meter (11 beats to the measure; the 16th note gets the beat); odd rhythms are par for the course in the Balkans, but in Bulgaria especially.
Another Karlov rendition of a popular Bulgarian folk dance is Elenino Horo; most of us know it better as Eleno Mome. This is another dance in an uneven rhythm, try tapping your foot out to this one. It's in 13/16.
Here's the dance, the music was "borrowed" from Boris Karlov!
An accordionist from the United States, who goes by the YouTube handle, GrigPit, is an admirer of Karlov's music, this piece is Graovsko Horo. GrigPit has a number of Bulgarian folk dances as well as music scores linked to his YouTube site; if you're a musician, check him out.
Some see the accordion as an instrument of torture; it is not considered one in neither Bulgaria nor Serbia (where it is the national instrument of that country.) Karlov often performed on Yugoslav radio (yes, in those days there was a Yugoslavia!) The next piece is a Serbian kolo, Niska Banja, and if you listen carefully it's the same rhythm as the Bulgarian dance Daichovo Horo. Was that Karlov's intent?
And check out another composer of Bulgarian folk music, Diko Iliev, whose works for brass orchestra are played during celebrations in his native country. By the way, this post was also written on the composer's birthday.
If you love Balkan music and dance you have come to the right place! The Alien Diaries began in February 2010 and is updated at least twice a month.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my cat Fatso (see avatar), who passed away on April 9, 2011 from congestive heart failure. He was the inspiration for several of my early posts.
Don't forget to check out my second blog, Light and Shadow, for some humor, satire, photos and poetry!
