Music of Thrace Music of Thrace Music of Thrace is the music of Thrace, a region in Southeastern Europe spread over southern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northeastern Greece (Western Thrace), and European Turkey (Eastern Thrace). The music of Thrace contains a written history that extends back to the antiquity, when Orpheus became a legendary musician and lived close to Olympus. Though the Thracian people were eventually assimilated by surrounding Balkan groups, elements of Thracian folk music continue. Traditional Thracian dances are usually swift in tempo and are mostly circle dances in which the men dance at the front of the line. The gaida, a
Thrace (theme) Krum (r. 803–814), Omurtag (r. 814–831), and Symeon (r. 893–927) the border moved by stages south of the Balkan mountains to roughly the line of the present Bulgarian frontier with Greece and Turkey. Thus, at around the start of the 10th century, the theme comprised essentially the eastern half of modern Eastern Thrace, although it extended north along the coast to include Anchialos. From the 11th century, Thrace and Macedonia appear to have been usually combined, as attested by numerous "strategoi" and judges ("kritai") holding jurisdiction over both themes. The name fell out of use as an administrative term in