Penka Pencheva Mincheva

Bio: Penka Pencheva Mincheva is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Music education & Music and emotion. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 5 publications receiving 12 citations.

Teaching Creative Abilities of Children in Music Education in the General School

Abstract: In a community, where the consumer's attitude in all aspects of life is ever more commonly observed, including in the area of culture, the problem of stimulating the creative impulse, of training the creative activity of adolescents, becomes especially important. Responsible for seeking the appropriate means and methods for the development of the creative abilities in children are the parents, tutors, teachers. An important role, in that relation, could be entrusted to the music teacher in the general school.

Perceiving Music – One of Fundamental Activities at Mass School

Abstract: The two musical activities – performing and perceiving music in the mass school – are equally important. However, while to perform music after finishing school is random, to work and create in a ‘sounding” environment is something people do all their lives. That makes the problem of perceiving music very important – what music people are taught to choose, i.e. whether school has set and developed their musical-artistic taste; also how people listen, i.e, if they are trained to listen with understanding. The role of the musical teacher in the school of general education has thus become really important, so the question if the music teacher is well trained to cope with the high-level requirements of his job is crucial. The responsible attitude of the music pedagogue towards perceiving music, which is particularly important for educating cultural listeners of music, would suggest other promising forms of work in class and outside of class.

The Phenomenon of the Number 3 in Music

Abstract: In this publication, broad evidence is presented for the influence of the number three on different levels in the musical art: three properties, three values, three characteristics and others, observed in different elements of the musical language, in different relations and interconnections. This concerns the separate tone, as well as the correlations of the tones on the vertical and the horizontal plane. Attention is pointed at the parameters of both pitch and duration of the buildings elements of music, and also at the structure of musical pieces - the musical form. In almost all direction, the importance of the number three is found.

Principles of form construction and their dialectical relation in the musical styles

Abstract: Objects of the study are the two basic principles of the multi-voice thinking - the polyphonic - linear and the homophonic - vertical. Their effect is discussed in the various styles. The different meaning of the two main qualities of the chord is also clarified - phonism and functionality and their manifestation in the types of multi-voice musical thinking.

Characteristics of Bulgarian Folk Music

Abstract: This paper presents the unique richness and diversity of the Bulgarian folk music. It discusses its modal specificity – the widespread use of old modal structures and chromatic sound lines, the metrorhytmical diversity; indicates some features such as the non-measured song. The most commonly used modal structures and the most widespread metrums are highlighted. A special focus is the successional bond of the native folklore and the professional Bulgarian musical works.

The Synthesis of Balkan Folk Tunes in the Music of Vlastimir Nikolovski and Alexander Vladigerov

Abstract: ............................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................ vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. viii CHAPTER 1: ORIGINS OF FOLK MUSIC FROM THE BALKANS ...................................... 1 INFLUENCES ON FOLK MUSIC FROM THE BALKANS ........................................ 4 METER ............................................................................................................................ 5 REGULAR METERS ...................................................................................................... 6 ASYMMETRC METERS ............................................................................................... 9 COMBINATIONS OF DIVERSE ASYMMETRIC METERS .................................... 12 UNMEASURED METERS ........................................................................................... 13 MELODY ...................................................................................................................... 14 BÉLA BARTÓK ............................................................................................................ 16 CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE BALKAN COUNTRIES ............................................. 18 CHAPTER 2: SONATA FOR PIANO OP. 28 BY VLASTIMIR NIKOLOVSKI ................... 20 FORM ............................................................................................................................ 21 FOLK ELEMENTS ....................................................................................................... 28

Perceiving Music – One of Fundamental Activities at Mass School

Abstract: The two musical activities – performing and perceiving music in the mass school – are equally important. However, while to perform music after finishing school is random, to work and create in a ‘sounding” environment is something people do all their lives. That makes the problem of perceiving music very important – what music people are taught to choose, i.e. whether school has set and developed their musical-artistic taste; also how people listen, i.e, if they are trained to listen with understanding. The role of the musical teacher in the school of general education has thus become really important, so the question if the music teacher is well trained to cope with the high-level requirements of his job is crucial. The responsible attitude of the music pedagogue towards perceiving music, which is particularly important for educating cultural listeners of music, would suggest other promising forms of work in class and outside of class.

Opera, operetta, ballet, rock opera and musical in electronic music textbooks for the bulgarian general education school

Abstract: The education of erudite and creative thinking young people is one of the tasks of the disciplines of the aesthetic cycle, among which is the discipline Music. Musical activities perception, performance and composition of music provide rich opportunities for provoking children's imagination, forming a creative attitude and need for creation, and building a musical culture in future users of art. In order to realize these opportunities, all the three main musical activities, appropriately distributed in the particular lessons, must be present in the music courses in the general education school. This means that tasks to include these activities in the lessons must be provided in music textbooks. In the printed editions of the textbooks of Mincheva et al. (Mincheva et al. 2018a, Mincheva et al. 2018b) is provided a balanced realization of all three musical activities, and each textbook contains the basic information that students must learn, illustrated in an appropriate way, ideas for applying the musical activities, questions, tasks, illustrations on the topic of the lesson. Separately, in an electronic carrier, the musical examples for each lesson have been provided.The electronic textbook on music is a modern and useful, and given the new conditions and imposed by the circumstances online training and a necessary version of the textbook, which includes:The entire educational content of the printed edition of the textbook;The works for listening and songs for performing assigned to each lesson, placed on the page on which they are to be used;Additional questions, tasks, suggestions for student projects, schemes, photo galleries, videos. All these additional electronic resources (also featured on the relevant page) are designed to better mastering the learning information, a deeper insight into the character of the sounding music, developing musical abilities, intelligence, creativity, emotional responsiveness of students.In the present study are analyzed the tasks from the electronic textbooks on music for 3rd and 7th grade of the author team led by Prof. Penka Mincheva (Mincheva et al. 2018a, Mincheva et al. 2018b), which relate to opera, operetta, ballet, musical and rock opera. The analyzes are made in order to prove the effectiveness of a set of methods for teaching the musical stage arts in terms of:a) Mastering the educational information, which (since the subject music is part of the disciplines of the aesthetic cycle) is part of the general culture of young people;b) Encouraging the imagination and creative thinking of students.Among the tasks assigned to students are:After listening to the musical characteristics of Odette and Prince Siegfried the main characters of the ballet "Swan Lake", third graders are asked to describe how they imagine Prince Siegfried and the evil magician Rothbart, how they look, what they are wearing and what music in nature should sound when each of the two characters appears. A similar task is to compare Odette and Odile, who are very similar in appearance, but there is a small difference between them. Here, third graders are required to try to imagine what could be the difference that helps to distinguish positive from negative female character. Children are offered to recall the "musical portrait" of Odette and to assess whether the music changes at the moment when the daughter of Rotbart Odile, appears before the Prince instead of Odette.A task addressed to 7th graders is to describe how they imagine the stage costume of the main character in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Cats", whether and how she will dance while performing her famous song "Memory", how the stage will be decorated and what lighting is appropriate at this time of the musical. In another electronic resource, seventh graders are asked to compare images from productions of "Cats" and the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar", indicating whether they find certain characteristic differences in the stage clothing of the characters from the productions of the two works, ie. to find one of the signs by which the two musical stage genres differ from each other.

Musical means of expression taught via an electronic textbook for fourth grade of the general education school

Abstract: Musical means of expression - this is the language of music, the materialization of the idea of the one who created the particular musical work, the means by which the listeners can reach the author's idea. Knowledge of some musical means of expression, such as harmony and polyphony, requires a long preparation, they are accessible to professionals. Others, such as dynamics (force of sounding), rhythm, metrum, timbre, the main characteristics of the melody, are accessible to any listener who is familiar with their possible meanings. Due to the great importance of the musical means of expression to understand the meaning, the message of the work, they are studied in music classes in the Bulgarian general education school in a form accessible to the age of the students. The music curricula require the teaching musical means of expression each school year. Initially, they are presented in the most elementary form without introducing terms, gradually, with each new school year, knowledge is upgraded and complicated. In this publication, I will present some of the tasks involved in teaching musical means of expression through the electronic textbook for fourth grade at Prosveta Publishing House.At first tasks are placed for mastering the new information. Such tasks are, for example:- Horizontal arrangement of dynamic signs, starting from the sign for quietest sounding to the sign for strongest sounding. Graphs of dynamic signs are offered that students to rearrange to the correct order;- Tasks of calculating durations, such as “at three-quarters size, which groups of note values make one beat?” Of the suggested answers, “a half and two eighths”, “a dotted quarter and three eighths” are true;- Tasks for arranging of photos of known for the pupils musical instruments in a table by indications: strings, plucked strings, wind instruments, keyboard instruments, percussion instruments; as well as "Bulgarian folk" and "classical".Later the tasks become more complicated. In another electronic resource the students listen to the piano piece "Bagpipe" by Bulgarian composer Dimitar Nenov, but the title of the piece does not reported. Fourth-graders, answering the following questions: what dynamics prevail in the play; whether a low voice that maintains the same tone sounds and for which Bulgarian folk instrument this is distinctive; in which folk musical instrument the initial tone of the melody is reached with a slight "sliding" in an upward direction; have to guess which Bulgarian folk music instrument is imitated.In a next task, students are asked to indicate by what musical means of expression - what size, character of melody, character of accompaniment - the characters of a child operetta on the Andersen story "The Brave Lead Soldier" are depicted.In other electronic resources, students are now required to compose a brief musical description of the characters of the fable "Grig and Ant". At first, students answer questions about what is the nature of each of the two characters - grig is cheerful, irresponsible, lazy, vain, party-goer and a little cheeky, and ant is hardworking, unpretentious, thrifty, even stingy, devoid of compassion. Through successive questions are clarified the appropriate dynamics, timbre, metrum, rhythm and character of the melody to "portray" the characters. Then pupils proceed to composing.

The Seasons in the Music Lesson - A Resourceful Topic for the Acquisition of Musical Means of Expression and the Development of Students' Creative Thinking

Abstract: The educational set for the music lesson in Bulgarian school contain a printed edition of the textbook with the basic information intended for acquisition; a teacher's book which contains additional information on each topic that will be taught and a suggested plan for each lesson; a student's book with supplementary questions and tasks, suitable for both classroom work and homework; a set of CDs with the music for listening and the songs for singing; an electronic textbook, combining the content of the printed edition of the textbook, all musical works for listening and songs for performing, offered with soloists included, and in a separate file only the instrumental accompaniment suitable for performing simbeck, as well as many additional questions tasks, project ideas, a variety of illustrative material videos, additional musical works, diagrams, tables, photos, poems. The availability of the electronic textbook from any device with internet makes it especially up to date in the conditions of distance learning imposed by the pandemic. In the present study, the tasks dedicated to the topic of the seasons from the printed and electronic textbooks of Prosveta publishing house [1-3] are subjected to theoretical analysis. The results of a pedagogical experiment confirmed those of the theoretical analysis, proving significantly higher success rate, higher potential for unconventional thinking and increased interest in music lessons in students of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade of general education school after the experimental education.