Thracian folklore region

Level and boundless is the Thracian land. She is walled by Stara Planina, Pirin, Rodophes Mountain and ends right at the black sea shores. In this area also contains many villages that are west from Pazadjik and are based over the eastern slopes of Rodophes Mountain.

It can be said that Thracian is the main folklore area in Bulgaria. This land gave birth to the most ancient culture to the Balkans made by its squatters the Thracians as well she is one of the first and most clean springs from which the customs of Greeks are based. This fact is proved as we find many ethnography cal monuments in our homeland like the Kazanlushkata Grobnica, Thracian Gold boon, and many others popular in world-wide cultural public.

Beautiful and expressive is the folklore music of Thracia, rich and diversified, the restfulness and beauty sounds in its citizenry songs, in the tunes to its pipes.
It participates in that area one interesting in numerous esteems Region - Strandjanian area.

The thracian singing manner has perfused enormous part from north Bulgaria, where the thracians have been migrating excessively frequently, particularly after the Dismissal in 1878, as well.

The unequivocal tattle is typical for the thracian area, with rich ornaments in the slow songs. The women sing out open, solid, naturally, but in a narrow tone. The separate chantress has consistency of not more than 10-11 tones and reaches RE 1 (d1). In the low record there are a relative fuller span-do, re, mi in a small octave.

The singers are mainly women with rich repertoire of ritual and epic songs. Typical style of singing is the anti-background singing, which is met in all genres. This way of singing is now met mainly in the “koledarian”, “jetvarian”and ”horovodni” songs. The structure of the melody is close to other folklore areas, with gradually movement. The tone volume is thin – kvarta, kvinta with prevail minor and frigian tetrahord, typical for ritual, horo and harvester folklore songs. With wider tone volume are the table and sedenkarski songs, which in their melody development and variety reach to 8th and 9th octave, and even wider volume. The slow thracian songs has the characteristics of dualladovia melody con structure, whom s first melody line is in one lad and the second in other.

Thracian folklore song is poor from uneven extends. In the areas with contained traditions, local songs patterns are men in two types of songs – in 2/4 dimension and slow without dimension songs. Many of the second kind are turned out to become masterpieces of the Bulgarian folklore with their elegant lyrics, crimped and richly of ornamented melodies and tender-dull sonority. In separate areas in the Thracian folklore region abreast of horo songs in 2/4 dimension, there are the ruchenica in 7/8 as so song like the Pajdushko horo in 5/8. In fact this is a prove for the deep layers, from which the thracian songs has bloomed, inheritors to the primary, ancient thracian style. Exception from the designated types of songs in equal-measurement dimension makes the koledarian songs and the horo melodies, which are in different non-equal-measurement dimensions.

In the Thracian koledarian custom the songs are extremely poetical, diverse by thematics, pattern and melody. Here the whole song is energetic, brisk, vital othrivistic melody, always in tempo “giusto”, with frequently low and high leaps in kvarts and kvints.

The Thracian folklore region is extremely various in genres. Here are met many typical songs connected with spring customs. Particularly attention is put aside for songs in the lyrical cycle - “songs of filek”, between whom is the rare 8/8 dimensions is familiar. One of the most widespread spring folklore songs are the Lasar's, which in some regions are called “on butterfly”. The woodpecker is irreplaceable friend of the thracian villager and this fact is proved by the bright trace he left in the characteristics of thracians folklore song. Many of the ornaments in the slow songs are literally taken from the kavaldjian melodies. Here they say: “he sings like kaval is playing”, like even some specific inotation marks of the kaval are met in the singing of the chantress. Very often is met the effect in which the kaval is extending the vocal melody of the song. This is the reason for that the kaval melodies are tunes form famous folklore songs, which like the horo songs are leading you to the expression for expanding of the melody form by adding new “knees” (an expression that is connected with the instrumental melodies, with widely developed melody-improvising characteristics).

Apart form the beloved folklore instrument the kaval in Thracian region there are others, typical for this area instruments – like “gajda” and rarely “gudulka”. The Thracian instrumental style is unique by it's characteristics – with richly ornamented, slow melodies in advanced musical forms, in which case there are strongly disjointed with specific musical filling “knees”. The “Knees” often are in different related lads, or are alternated in different lads – minor (eolian), followed by major (miksolidian), and after that with increased second (hiatos) between II and III stage of the lad. In this way the kaval horo melody grows in interesting, logically build multi fragment musical creation.

The Thracian dances are cheerful and vital. In single areas of this vast region are met typical for other region dances, as a result of influences from conterminous folklore regions. For example the west Thracian people are effected by the shipian and pirinian dances, from the type of the ”twisted” horoes in dimensions of 11/16. Well-known are the “Glavanishkata kopanica” and the “Vetrenskata kopanica”. Under the influence of the “Pirin dances” here are met “Iztursi kalci”, “Kucata” and others. Western-thracians people are with characteristic move “tropoli”, which is performed exclusively by men. They are specific with their graceful and solemnity.