28/11/2007
The traditional music of the Pomaks of Thrace

Nikolaos Kokkas, Daniel Emmanuelides © Foundation of Thracian Art and Tradition

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Presentation on the demotic songs of the Pomaks of Rodhopi, attempts to study them, musical knowledge and poetical characteristics of the Pomaks.
The importance of demotic songs for the study of Pomak traditional culture is particularly great, as these songs preserve their linguistic idiom and references to events and customs that are disappearing.
The main musical instruments that accompany the songs of the Pomaks are the flute, the kaval, the bagpipes, the saz and the tabor.
The music of the Pomaks of mountain Xanthi, mostly vocal, is comprised of songs that do not usually exceed a four- or five-tone scale, as with the melodic line of the songs of Bulgarian Rodhopi, where the range of the songs does not exceed an octave and the songs meet in the diatonic and pentatonic scale.
The traditional songs of the Pomaks can be distinguished as songs of love, marriage, immigration, dirges, lullabies, sayings, taunts, nonsense, history, brigands, work and illness.
As an expression of people?s emotions, they reflect every aspect of human life: birth, joy, love, pain, and death.
The traditional Pomak musician Ali Rongo of Glavki sings at the event, and important musical recordings of the songs of the Pomaks of the Thrace released in the past decade are also presented.