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| Albanian dancers. |
Albanian music traditions mainly date back to the early 20th century, when the Albanians declared
independence
from the Ottoman empire upon which systems the local music had been
founded previously. Rural instrumental and vocal music was primarily
based on local styles, performed by community members, while the urban
music absorbed western art music as well as middle eastern music, and
was often performed by professional ensembles. Later in the same
century, the boundaries between rural and urban music would be blurred
through the influence and spread of mass media and sponsored
folk-ensembles.
Traditionally,
women have had the larger repertoires, thematically concerned mostly
with family life and surround events. On occasions such as births,
weddings and circumcisions, female singers would perform associated
ritual songs, and for the death of family members they would sing
emotive laments. In the past, girls and women would sing to accompany
work in the field or house, as well as for seasonal agricultural and
pastoral events, although such practices have largely been abandoned. In
contrast, men would have smaller repertoires of songs, dealing with
important historical events or legendary heroes, such as the great
warrior Skanderbeg who often appears in the epic-historical sung poems
of the north.
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| Regional separation of Albania. |
In
the north, the oldest styles of music are found in mountainous
districts where both men and women sing loud and forceful music for the
great outdoors, often in small ranges, and narrow, non-tempered
intervals. Women singers would often be very young, and performed
metered music for dancing, often accompanied by the large frame drum,
called def or daire. Men have their own distinctive styles, such as the
kângë malësorçe or kângë majekrahi, used to communicate between mountain
villages over large distances, not too dissimilar from alpine yodeling.
Another common style of music for men was the kângë kreshnikësh or
rapsodi, which were lengthy, epic-historical songs that would often
include fantastical elements. Singers would accompany this with the
single-stringed lute, lahüte, and was expected to demonstrate a manly
and heroic demeanor representative of the lyrical subjects.
In
lower-lying districts, closer to towns, features from middle-eastern
music would be adopted, giving way for music of greater range of more
complex forms, with lines resembling that of Ottoman melodic modes. This
was accompanied by, most commonly, the çifteli, another lute-like
instruments, but unlike the lahute it has two strings, one for melody
and one for playing drones, and would also be used for dance melodies
and virtuoso solo improvisations in addition to the role as
accompaniment to sung poems.
In
the south, polyphony is much more prevalent than in the north, quite
possibly owing to singing's important role as a communal social
activity. At gatherings, each adult is expected to participate in song
by providing solo lines to multi-part songs, while others sing
supporting lines or accompanying drones. Melodies are often of
pentatonic quality, with diatonic ornamentation, and would always be
performed vocally without instrumental accompaniment.
The
two main types of polyphony employed in the south are both of
iso-polyphonic nature, that is to say they consist of one main melodic
line accompanied by drones, however some communities also perform
two-part songs without drones. The first of these two is the Lab
polyphonic style of Labëri country, which consists of two or three
soloists singing in a homophonic way. The second is that of the Tosks,
found in Myzeqe, Toskëri and Çamëri, as well as bordering regions, which
is more complex in that it employs two soloists, laying forth
interweaving melodies again over a drone. Traditionally, the women's
songs such as laments, lullabies and seasonal ritual songs, have been
performed in unison or solo.
While
songs by men and women in the south have been similar in structure and
form, they have generally had different executions in line with their
respective expected behaviour and roles in society. Women would sing in
metrical and subdued manners to illustrate their reserved and dignified
social demeanor. Men, in contrast, were more energetic and dramatic, to
demonstrate their extroverted demeanor and to be evocative of the heroic
lyrical content of the majority of their repertoire. Their songs are in
many cases not metrical, and would rather employ elastic rhythms, and
would be performed using techniques such as portamento, melisma, vocal
pulsing, yodeling and leaps into falsetto registers. These techniques
are often said to be drawn from women's laments to infuse the men's
style with nostalgia and a melancholy feeling. As men and women become
older, however, their styles would draw elements from each other and
become less distinguished from each other.
In
both southern and northern urbal areas, instrumental ensembles are far
more prominent than in the rural areas. These ensembles would primarily
be reserved for men's gathering, however women's ensembles also existed
to some extent. In the north, these ensembles would play locally created
songs and dance tunes, based on the Ottoman musical systems, as well as
Ottoman compositions and modal improvisations, while southern community
ensembles performed music closer to local traditions and styles, often
with a lead clarinet and violin exchanging interweaving pentatonic
melodies. The southern ensembles were particularly renowned for their
virtuoso solo improvisations for clarinet or violin.
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| Traditional musicians from Tirana, ca 1910, playing the fiddle (left, middle) and çifteli (right). |
Some instruments
indigenous to Albania include the variety of aerophones employed by
stock-breeders, most commonly end blown or duct flutes under several
names. They are said to be used to calm animals or direct their
behavior. These flutes are sometimes used to pla
y
tunes and dance melodies at smaller gatherings. The single-reed pipe,
called zumare, consists of two parallel pies attached to the horn of an
animal. This can be attached to a leather bag to form a type of bagpipe,
called bishnicë or mishnicë. Individual reed-pipes are sometimes played
by two men in the same manner as polyphonic styles would be sung. The
southern bagpipe, called gajde is, in contrast to the flute like
aerophones, almost exclusively used in farming communities to accompany
singing or dancing, occasionally with frame drum, rather than as a tool
used in herding.