Index Introduction Background Definitions Setting Technique Harmony Bass Drills Scores References
This page is under construction.
The Bulgarian dance tunes that are the subject of this tutorial are monophonic melodies that maintain a 16th note pulse of 5,6,7,8,9,11 or more beats in a regular symmetric (e.g. pravo) or asymmetric (e.g. paidushko) pattern. Longer notes (8ths, dotted 8ths) are usually filled in to maintain the pulse either with repeated notes or some form of ornamentation.
This page gives some advice on creating a good setting, which is a specific player's realization of the general idea of a tune. A setting consists of two parts: a 16th note pulse outline and ornamentation that fleshes out the outline. Choosing appropriate harmony and bass accompaniment for a tune are not discussed here, but in later sections of this tutorial. A good setting takes into account a player's instrument, aesthetics and level of technique. This document describes my personal aesthetics and technique (described in the introduction), which may or may not apply to other players.
One of the great joys of playing Bulgarian music is crafting a nice setting for a tune. Hopefully, this page will further the reader in his enjoyment of this craft. Note that a setting is judged aesthetically, so the choices made in crafting a good one ultimately defy mechanical or programmatic construction. The reader should hold no illusions that the principles described here can provide an artistically insensitive musician a magic wand for creating a good setting.
Contents:
A setting outline describes the notes of the 16th note pulse of a Bulgarian melody. It consists mostly of 16ths, 8ths and dotted 8ths plus occasional rests. One way to get started constructing an outline is as follows:
First, listen to a lot of Bulgarian instrumental music (not just accordion) to get a feel for how the melodies move. Hum them to yourself until you drive the people around you crazy. You may wish to study the scores in this tutorial, in the EMDB scores database or elsewhere to get a sense for what a Bulgarian setting looks like on paper. After much listening, select a particular melody you wish to create a setting for.
Sing the melody (using nonsense syllables like "da") free of ornamentation and drop notes. This will define the pitch at each 16th pulse. Group the longer notes in 8ths and dotted 8ths, with the rest remaining 16ths (notes longer than dotted 8ths should be fairly rare). If you learned the tune from a singer, you will probably have a larger fraction of long notes than if you learned it from a instumentalist. Depending upon your vision for the setting, you may regroup the pitches into more long notes (for a more lyrical quality) or into more 16ths (for a more agitated quality). Some possible substitutions are:
two 16ths = 8th three 16ths = dotted 8th 8th + 16th = dotted 8th
NEED EXAMPLES: more long notes, more short notes
Rests in your outline should occur mostly at the ends of phrases. Mid-phrase rests create a lot of drama, and so should be used sparingly lest they lose their freshness (making the melody boring) or disturb the continuity of the underlying pulse (making the melody disjointed). As an alternative to mid-phrase rests, consider either extending the previous note through the rest or substituting drop note(s) for the rest. Either substitution makes the melody smoother and maintains a better pulse.
NEED EXAMPLES: rest/extension/drop note substitutions
Note that drop notes may be taken to various scale degrees, the most common being the tonic, 5th and 7th. Dropping to the 4th is sometimes used in imitation of gaida playing.
NEED EXAMPLES: drop notes to various degress
Good Bulgarian melodies maintain an perpetual rolling beat (like riding a cantering horse with a loose rein, as a friend memorably put it). This is especially true for melodies played on gaida or gadulka whose players do not need to pause for breath, so it's sometimes tempting to create outlines with no rests at all. Unfortunately, accordionists can't usually switch bellows direction fast enough to keep a strong 16th melodic pulse going over the switch. This means you will need add at least a 16th rest per phrase in order for your melody to be playable on the accordion. (This is terribly sad, I know. Life is hard.) If a bellow change rest is not part of the original melody, it's usually easiest to add one toward the end of a melody or immediately after a strong note of the melody. The frequency of needed rests depends on your instrument mechanics, playing volume and reed selection. You should be able to play 8 bars of moderate speed pravo, or 4 bars of moderate speed gankino without a bellows change, so add a bellow change rest about that frequency when needed. If you can't play that long on a single bellows pull, consider playing softer, using a lighter reed combination or a lighter bass style, or getting your instrument checked for air leaks. Adding bellow changing rests more frequently than this will profoundly disturb the rolling beat you're trying to achieve.
NEED EXAMPLES: adding bellows change rests
Ornamentation builds upon an outline, shaping a melody by adding grace notes in between the 16th note pulse. The ornaments considered here are the prall, prall+, mordent, trill, antemordent and blip. These are described in the Definitions page which should be read before continuing here.
Ornaments shape a melody, and Bulgarian music needs a lot of them to work. But more isn't always better. Use ornaments as a spice, and pick the right amount for your technical level and aesthetic sense. Poorly executed ornaments do no one any good. In choosing ornaments, you may find yourself going back to adjust the outline. This is fine. Developing the outline and the ornamentation are part of the same artistic process. My separation of the two is for pedagogical purposes.
The principles below should inform your ornamentation choices:
The prall is the most commonly used ornament, and may be added to 8ths or dotted 8ths in the outline. One can make a perfectly satisfactory setting using only pralls, an approach is taken by many old-style players.
NEED EXAMPLE: old-style pralls only arrangement
Pralls usually use the half-step auxillary, which creates a sharper, more angular and more dramatic effect that the whole-step which create a mellower effect. Fingering considerations may necessitate a sub-optimal choice of auxillary. That's fine in moderation. Good execution makes up the difference.
Adding an intermediary grace to two consecutive 16ths with the same pitch also creates a prall. Such pralls have the same notes and timing as pralls notated with the ornamental symbol, but if they straddle a beam or bar line, the feeling is different because the strong beat is the second 16th rather than the first.
A mordent is mellower than a prall and, consuming 2 pulse 16ths, can be used instead. The same half-step/whole-step auxillary considerations apply. Fingering considerations may necessitate substitution of a mordent for a prall, or vice-versa, and this is fine in moderation so long as it facilitates good execution.
NEED EXAMPLES: mordents
When consecutive 2 pulse ornaments occur on the same base note, it's usually best to alternate prall and mordent for both aesthetic and technical reasons:
NEED EXAMPLE: alternate prall/mordent
Pralls and mordents may use more distant auxillaries when imitating gaida playing. Using the major 3rd auxillary in an up mordent rings very brightly, but lacks the angular definition of the half-step. This ornament is especially used in Shope gaida playing (e.g. Iliya Dimitrov):
Gaidas can't play the sharp 4th above the tonic, so 5th degree mordents should use whole steps when imitating this style. Mordents may also drop to the tonic, 7th, 5th or 4th degrees in imitation of gaida drop notes. Consult a gaida player for details.
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Avoid using the augmented 2nd auxillary in pralls and mordents (e.g. B-flat prall in A hijaz). This result sounds blurry.
An antemordent is a variation of a mordent with altered timing. The first two notes are shifted forward in time, approximating an anticipatory grace note followed by two step-wise rising pulse 16ths. However, the actual shift is not that extreme, and so the exact nature of the timing is tricky. An antemordent can be used to spice up any 2 step-wise rising 16th, but is most common on the 4th degree when imitating the gaida. I notate antemordents with graces notes rather than using a special symbol. A slur connects the grace and following pulse 16ths to prevent misinterpretation of the grace's function.
A trill may substitute in the outline for a dotted 8th, or at another point where the pulse maintains the same pitch for 3 consecutive 16ths. The chromatic considerations for pralls and mordents apply also to trills, which almost always use the half-step auxillary. A whole note trill creates a very smooth effect not usually appropriate for Bulgarian music. Trills are more difficult to execute than pralls or mordents, and so for good execution it is often better to substitute a prall plus a repeated pulse 16th. This substitution usually increases the energy of a tune, although this is not always the case. Generally, more auxillaries make a tune smoother.
The prall+ is a relatively recent addition to Bulgarian ornamentation, becoming popular with the rise of wedding music in the 1980s. It can be used in only some of the places a prall are used - when the following 16th is lower than the ornament base. Prall+s introduce a mildly Turkish flavor to a setting. Prall+s are smoother than pralls because they fill in more empty space with graces. Use them in place of pralls when a melody becomes too choppy.
NEED EXAMPLES: prall+
A blip is an upper auxillary grace inserted between two descending pulse 16ths, or after a pulse 16th followed by a rest. The usual chromatic guidelines apply. Higher auxilliaries can be used when the blip is followed by a rest, creating a nice ring.
For the sake of completeness, I should mention the turn, which is an ornament consisting of 3 pulse 16ths with one upper and one lower auxillary interspersed. Turns are very popular amoung some moderns Bulgarian player, especially wedding musicians, but I use them rarely because they tend to oversmooth a melody while retaining a chromatic character, a combination I find icky. A notable exception is using the major 3rd upper auxillary with the half-step lower auxillary, which is lively and sharp. As a consequence of their rarity, I do not include a special symbol for turn in my notational conventions.
NEED EXAMPLE: roll 3rd up, 1/2 step down
Copyright 2013 Erik Butterworth. All rights reserved.