Albanian Music

Albania is located in southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea, between Greece in the south and Montenegro and Kosovo to the north.

Albanian music is a combination of the music of Southeastern Europe, especially Turkish music as the Ottoman Empire ruled Albania for over 500 years.

Albanian Folk music

Albanian folk music includes northern Gheg traditions and southern Labs and Tosks. Albanian folk songs comprise heroic epics, lullabies, love songs, wedding music, work songs and other kinds of songs.

Epic songs in northern Albania include këngë trimash (songs of bravery), këngë kreshnikësh, ballads and maje krahi (cries). The most traditional form of epic poetry is called Rapsodi Kreshnike (Poems of Heroes). These epic poems are sung, accompanied by a lahuta, a one-stringed fiddle. It is rarely performed in modern Albania, but is found in the northern highlands.

In Dibër and Kërçovë in Macedonia, the çifteli is used. It is a two-stringed instrument in which one string is used for the drone and the other one for the melody. Other musical instruments include the zumarë (reed), an unusual kind of clarinet.

The maje-krahi songs were originally used by mountain dwellers to communicate over wide distances, but are now seen as regular songs. Maje-krahi songs require the full range of the voice.

The music of southern Albania is polyphonic. Vlorë in the southwest has one of the most unique vocal traditions in the area, with four sections (taker, thrower, turner and drone) that combine to create a complex and emotionally cathartic melody.

South Albania is also known for funeral laments with a chorus and one to two soloists with overlapping, mournful voices. There is a prominent folk love song tradition in the south, in which performers use free rhythm and consonant harmonies, elaborated with ornamentation and melisma.

The Tosk people are known for ensembles consisting of violins, clarinets, llautë (a kind of lute) and def.

Southern instrumental music includes the sedate kaba, an ensemble-style form led by a clarinet or violin alongside accordions and llautës. The kaba is an improvised and melancholic style with melodies.

The ethnic Greek population of Dropulli performs music that is very similar to the music of Epirus in Greece.

Albanian Folk Iso-polyphony

Traditional Albanian polyphonic music can be divided into two major stylistic groups as performed by the Ghegs of northern Albania and the Tosks and Labs living in the southern part of the country.

The term iso is related to the ison of Byzantine church music and refers to the drone accompanying polyphonic singing.

The drone is performed in two ways: among the Tosks, it is always continuous and sung on the syllable ’e’, using staggered breathing, while among the Labs, the drone is sometimes sung as a rhythmic tone, performed to the text of the song.

Rendered mainly by male singers, the music traditionally accompanies a wide range of social events, such as weddings, funerals, harvest feasts, religious celebrations and festivals such as the well-known Albanian folk festival in Gjirokastra.

From time to time some information reached the outside world at scientific congresses, at cultural exchanges with friendship organizations like the German Deutsch-Albanische Freundschaftsgesellschaft or with a few ethno musicological surveys presented on records and later on CDs, of which the Disque Cellier record is well known. Most information came from Albanians outside Albania itself: Kosovo, Macedonia, northern Greece and from refugees.

However, much effort have been done in Albania to study, collect and preserve the Albanian cultural heritage, as has been done also in other Eastern European countries.

The ethnological department of the Science Academy has documented a huge amount of traditional dances, songs, music, rituals, stories, folk dresses, architecture etcetera. The collection contains texts, drawings, photographs, musical scores, movies, textiles and artifacts. Many books on different subjects were published. The periodicals Kultura Popullore and Etnografia Shqiptare provided a continuing flow of articles on the subjects.

Now that Albania is open to the world we are able to see the enormous richness and diversity of Albanian folklore in its proper context. Not just from the Republic of Albania itself, but of all Albanians living in the Balkan peninsula and the minorities like the Aruman within the Republic of Albania.

Still part of daily life, especially in the mountainous regions; the encouragement of preserving and keeping alive the traditions by governmental organizations like the Qendra Kombëtar të Veprimtarive Folklorike, in English the National Centre for Immaterial Folklore; the great Folk Fest Kombëtar, every five years in Gjirokastër , lasting 6 days; the Ethnographical museums in every major town and the ethnological department of the Albanian Science Academy, with many specialists in the field, who presented many papers and books throughout the years. All these aspects show a deep respect of the Albanians for their traditions and the eagerness to share it with us.

In cooperation with the Qendra Kombëtar të Veprimtarive Folklorike, the Folklore Institute of the Science Academy and related individuals we like to open the dowry chest of Albanian folklore for you in every possible expression and invite you to join us exploring the richness of it.

Albanian iso-polyphony is characterized by songs consisting of two solo parts, a melody and a countermelody with a choral drone. The structure of the solo parts varies according to the different ways of performing the drone, which has a great variety of structures, especially in the popular style adopted by all groups performing this music.

Over the last few decades, the modest rise of cultural tourism and the growing interest of the research community in this unique folk tradition have contributed to the revival of Albanian iso-polyphony. However, the tradition is adversely affected by poverty, the absence of legal protection and the lack of financial support for practitioners, threatening the transmission of the vast repertoire of songs and techniques.

The rural exodus of young people to the bigger cities and abroad in search of jobs compounds this danger. Given these conditions, at the present time, the transmission of this tradition is maintained through professional folk artists, rather than within the family structure. Source: UNESCO