Paydushka – motif structure and dance phrase length
The name “paydushka” (пайдушка) is both a generic term which is applied to various different dance types in the “short-long” rhythm, and a name given to a popular dance in this rhythm, which is widespread in Bulgarian and adjacent countries. These related dances are generically termed Paydushka in Bulgaria and Rustem in Romania.
The figure below shows diagrammatically the dances that are typically included in the Paydushka type. I propose that the ‘classic’ types of Paydushka (paydushka troika and paydushka chetvorka) within the red box in Figure 1 are loosely related to:
- dances that move predominantly to the left,
- bidirectional dances that repeat equally to left and right, and
- dances that are predominantly combinations of crossing steps and travel forward and backwards in a line.
There is an interesting variation of these ‘classic’ forms that has only three hop-steps to the right and an ending motif. This is predominantly found in the eastern regions but is clearly related to similar dances in 2/4 meter in other areas of Bulgaria and Romania.
Motif structure
The Paydushka has a structure that can be represented by:
These dances and their variations are built from a limited number of patterns of very few motifs. Culturally concordance with the music is not required which leads to the dance phrase length in musical measures being dependent on the sequence of patterns, although it appears in some examples that there is a cultural desire to have 10-measures and thus a reduction in the number of “limping” motifs.
The dance phrase length is generated by the selection of motifs in the dance, for example if a 10-measure ‘type 1’ has a repeat of the ‘interface motif’ it becomes 13-measures. If the 5-measure pattern is applied to the ‘type 1’ Paydushka it becomes an 11-measure phrase. If this is applied to ‘type 2’ Paydushka it becomes a 13-measure phrase. However, the number of limping steps to the left can be reduced to change an 11-measure pattern to the favoured 10-measures.
| title | Limping steps | Interface | Hop-steps | Interface | Dance phrase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paydushka troika | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 measures | |
| Surnato from Hlevene | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 measures | |
| Baiduska from Kítros | 3 | 3 x2 | 4 | 13 measures | |
| Song-dance from Veliko Tarnavo region |
3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 13 measures |
| Paydushka chetvorka | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 measures | |
| From Polski Senovets | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 measures |
| Zalivil Dyado from Hotnitsa, also generally in Ruse region |
2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 measures |
| Hartsoysko Trite pati | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 12 measures |
| Dobrich region | 2+4 | 3 | 2 | 11 measures | |
| Baiduska from Thrace | 3 x2 | 3 | 2 | 11 measures |
Footnotes
- In this text I have transliterated the Cyrillic to Latin alphabets using the official Bulgarian national system, whereas in the information tables I have left all titles in the script of the original document.
- Although “conventionally notated in 5/16 meter it should be observed, however, that “many good native folk musicians clearly play it in what could be written as 3/8” [Crum 1975], so we should only consider the ‘short-long’ rhythm and not be concerned about the musical meter.
- Generally it is thought that the name Paydushka comes from Turkish “paytak” meaning knock-knees or ‘to waddle’. The Greeks of Kavakli (now Topolovgrad, Bulgaria) had two names for the dance, the transliterated "Μπαϊντούσκα" and potentially translated "Κουτσός" [Kokkinos 1987, 241]. However, there are very many other theories.