For more on Dospatsko horo the dance, click here.
Excerpt from Folk Dance Problem Solver ©1997 by Ron Houston “According to all Bulgarian sheet music and to Rosen Toshov’s book [Akro Taktovi: Eseta (Sofia, 1994)] Dospatsko has an 8/8 rhythm of slow, quick, slow, counted 1-2-3, 4-5, 6-7-8. Contemporary arrangements, however, present the rhythm as 7/8 (slow, quick-quick), perhaps confusing it with the more common lesnoto rhythm of Macedonia to the southwest.
Most Rhodope tunes use a sustained E minor drone because the Rhodope kaba gayda [flabby bagpipe] can produce only that bass accompaniment. Dospatsko, however, used the fundamental chord-chord bass line and originally was played on tupan (drum) and zurna (ear-spliting tool of the devil), indicating vestigial Turkish influence.”
Download here: https://hjj.home.xs4all.nl/Bladmuziek/Fakebook_Bulgarian_Music.pdf
Folkdance Footnotes 