Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the National Dance of Bulgaria

Dancing - however you do it, even if it's in your living room - is a great workout.
Ciara

Festivals and in-person dancing, unfortunately, have been cancelled for a while until a vaccine or effective treatment can be found for Covid-19. These days the place to dance is your living room, via a Zoom connection. 

One of my favorite dances, rachenitsa, is the national dance of Bulgaria. Today's post will educate you about it.  If you have been reading this blog on a regular basis, you will know almost as much about rachenitsa as the Bulgarians. They, of course, know more about it than we do.

Tom Pixton does a great job of explaining the dance with text in Video #1.  He also arranged and played the music. He is a musician from the Boston area who plays at various gigs in New England.

This compilation is a delight for the eyes and ears. It is very well put together.

Rachenitsa na Horo means to dance rachenitsa in a line as opposed to solo or couple. We usually do the line rachenitsa at dances.

There are plenty of them, from every folklore region of Bulgaria.  I believe the music in Video #1 is a Thracian tune.  Thrace is the largest folklore region of Bulgaria. There is also a Thrace in Greece as well as one in Turkey, a source of confusion for some people.



Video #2 is a Thracian Rachenitsa. This is a dance performed in the town square during celebrations and holidays (just for the fun of it).  The dancers are of varying abilities; some are confident and some are hesitant.  The gadulka, gaida, clarinet, and accordion are important instruments in Bulgarian folk music.

The gadulka is the most Bulgarian of folk instruments, even more so than the gaida (bagpipe).  Some people find the "buzzy" sound takes some getting used to but I love it. You can hear the gadulka in the video from 1:06 to 2:18.



Video #3 is a rachenitsa arranged for violin. Although I have listened to Bulgarian tunes arranged for non-Bulgarian instruments such as the violin, piano, and marimba, the ensembles that played them kept the Bulgarian soul of the music.  To me this is just a classical piece in 7/8; it just doesn't sound Bulgarian. This melody is Bulgarian in name only.

Rachenitsa can be in 7/8 or 7/16; it depends on the speed of the music.  The best way to get the rhythm is to say the words apple-apple-pineapple.



Video #4 is another classical rendition of rachenitsa. This one is much closer to its Bulgarian roots.  The music is by Petko Stainov, Bulgarian composer who lived from 1896-1977.  It's part of his suite: Thracian Dances.

What is unusual about this version is that it was arranged for brass instruments. Stainov originally wrote it for symphony orchestra. (if you want to hear the symphonic arrangement, read the post on Petko Stainov below.)

Brass music is very popular in northwest Bulgaria and also in Thrace.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Variations on a Theme by Petko Stainov: Rachenitsa Travels to Guatemala

Classical Musicians Play Balkan Folk Music

The Accordion in Bulgarian Folk Music

The Gadulka in Bulgarian Folk Music

Variations on the Bulgarian Folk Dance: Thracian Rachenitsa


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Music Inspired by Romania

Music is the shorthand of emotion.
Leo Tolstoy

Today's post features two pieces of classical music plus one of the original tunes that became a part of Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody #1.  Both were inspired by the composers' impressions of Romania.

The piece in Video #1 was created by a Norwegian, Johan Halvorsen. Halvorsen was offered a post at the Bucharest Conservatory. Although he didn't take the position,  he took an interest in Bucharest and Boyars, in particular, the entrance of the Boyars into Bucharest in the 18th century.  I don't know if he ever visited Romania, but it fired up enough of an interest in him to write a piece about it.

The result was The Entry March of the Boyars. It's 5 1/2 minutes of passion and excitement; I love it, even though it doesn't sound like anything Romanian.  This is what inspiration sounds like.



The Romanian Rhapsody #1 by George Enescu uses Romanian folk motifs. One of the tunes in the Romanian Rhapsody is the music for the dance Hora Lui Dobrica.



Here is the Romanian Rhapsody in its entirety, with some beautiful scenery to go along with the music. Hora Lui Dobrica is at 2:20. After watching this video, I will always associate barges and bridges with Hora Lui Dobrica.

This piece starts off slow and gradually speeds up until the wild finale. Reminds me of some Romanian folk dances.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Romanian Hora

The "Flavors" of Romanian Sirba


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Beethoven With a Bulgarian Accent; Mozart goes Greek

Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, ,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was der Mode Schwert geteilt
Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder
Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt.

Friedrich Schiller, An Die Freude, first stanza
used by Ludwig Van Beethoven in the last movement of his Symphony #9 in D minor

About a year and half ago I wrote a post on classical composers inspired by Balkan folk music.  Today you will hear the opposite: Balkan folk music with allusions to Beethoven and Mozart.

The first video is the music for the Bulgarian folk dance Opas, played by the Orchester Sabor at a performance in Trier, in Germany.

By the way Trier is a very lovely city.  I have been there many times to shop, visit the Roman ruins, the museums, and drink wine.  The best known structure is the Porta Nigra (Black Gate) which has stood over the city for over 2000 years.  Also, you can see the remains of what were Roman baths. The Roman bridge over the Mosel River carries traffic to this day. There is even a house where Karl Marx once lived; it is now a museum.

Porta Nigra in Trier, by KDB

What makes this version of Opas unique is that the band uses a bit of Beethoven's Ode to Joy from the 9th Symphony. It has a unique sound played on the gaida and the accordion (violins are more typical symphony orchestra instruments.)  The Beethoven starts at 2:58, but the whole piece is worth a listen.    You can even dance to it (looks like the gaida player wants to give it a try, but I imagine it's difficult to dance and play a bagpipe at the same time).



The next piece is a Hasapiko, which during the Middle Ages was the dance of the Greek Butchers' Guild.  There are many versions of Hasapiko done to different tunes.

This one is based on  Mozart's Symphony #40 in G minor, first movement, and sung in Greek.  I have no idea what the words mean, if someone could post a translation in the "comments" section, it would be much appreciated!

The group is from Hong Kong. If you're a regular here you know that Balkan folk dance is very popular in China!



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Classical Composers Inspired by Balkan Folk Dances

Two Variations on a Bulgarian Folk Dance: Opas

Allusions, Musically Speaking

Classical Musicians Play Folk Music from Bulgaria and Romania



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Classical Musicians Play Balkan Folk Music

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.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Classical Composers Inspired by Balkan Folk Dances

The Legacy of Boris Karlov, Bulgarian Folk Accordionist

Having a Blast With Diko Iliev (Bulgarian composer whose music was based on folklore themes)


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

Classical Composers Inspired by Balkan Folk Dances

Musicians from the beginning of time have been there to express the mood and the musical feelings in the air for whatever's going on in that particular culture. It's the greatest joy as a musician to be able to translate that, be part of something and watch the scenery around you.
Trey Anastasio

In today's post we'll explore music by classical composers who were inspired by folk dances from the Balkans.

The Romantic Period in classical music, which took place during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was a time of musical nationalism, and composers from several countries used folk motifs as part of their compositions. Some famous examples from the 19th century include Brahms (who wrote 21 Hungarian Dances); Smetena (his folk opera The Bartered Bride is very popular to this day), and Franz Liszt, who wrote a set of Hungarian Rhapsodies.

There were also composers in Balkan countries who wrote music based on folklore themes; most of them they are unknown in the States, except for George Enescu, who did quite a bit of traveling. He gave concert tours in the United States and Europe and spent his final years in Paris, France, after the Communist takeover of Romania. They had confiscated his home in Bucharest, and he never went back.

This video of Romanian Rhapsody #1, composed in 1901 by George Enescu features some beautiful scenery from his homeland. The work was based on songs and dances from Romania; it's a very dramatic and beautiful piece. Although it's a bit long (14 minutes) it's worth a look and listen.



The next piece is by Bulgarian composer Petko Stainov (1896-1977). Stainov composed a number of works based on Bulgarian folk dances, this one is  Rachenitsa (Thracian Dance). The concert commemorates a Bulgarian holiday, March 3, 1878, celebrating the liberation of that country from Ottoman rule.



The last video is of a kolo (circle dance) from the folk opera Ero s onoga svijeta (Ero the Joker). The composer, Jakov Gotovac, was a native of Croatia. When the opera made its debut in 1935, Croatia was part of a larger entity, Yugoslavia.

I heard the orchestral version of the kolo many years ago on a New York classical music station and maybe once or twice. I searched for it on YouTube using the words "folk opera Yugoslavia kolo," since had no idea who the composer was, and I had forgotten the name of the opera, but I recognized the music when I heard it.

This is the lively finale from Ero the Joker, Zavrsno Kolo, done in true Croatian style, with tamburitza accompaniment.



There is an article on Wikipedia about Jakov Gotovac, click here for information about his life and music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakov_Gotovac

If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Having a Blast with Diko Iliev (Bulgarian composer of the 20th century who wrote music based on folk dances)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/06/having-blast-with-diko-iliev.html

The "Flavors" of Bulgarian Rachenitsa (national dance of Bulgaria)

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/07/flavors-of-bulgarian-rachenitsa.html


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