Country in south-east Europe. Under Ottoman rule from 1385, Albanians proclaimed their independence in 1912. This was recognized by international conferences in 1913 and again after World War I. The country was occupied by Italy from April 1939 and during World War II by Germany. In 1946 a people's republic was proclaimed with a Soviet-type constitution. China succeeded the USSR as Albania's chief patron (195671); thereafter the country lived in isolated revolutionary self-sufficiency until 1990, when a pluralist political system was adopted and the first non-communist government elected (1992).
GEORGE LEOTSAKOS (I), JANE C. SUGARMAN (II)
Art music along Western lines began in Albania during the Rilindja Kombėtare (National Renaissance), a broad political and cultural movement for the countrys independence dating from the 1830s. In the 19th century the main cultural centres were Shkodra (northern Albania) and Korēa (southern Albania). The first Western instruments, the violin and the clarinet, were known in Shkodra by about 1825 and 1850 respectively. The main factors promoting art music during this period were bands, often associated with the struggle for independence; local choruses and mandolinatas, especially in the south; and Franciscan or Jesuit priests, many of whom had a broad musical culture.
The first theatre in Albania opened at the Jesuit Collegio Saveriano in Shkodra in 1879; it was followed by others, in Franciscan monasteries and the convent of the Suore Stimmatine. A music school existed in Shkodra by this time and provided clarinettists for the earliest Albanian band, which from 1880 was conducted by Palokė Kurti (?18601920). Kurti composed numerous polkas, quadrilles and other works for the band, and between 1901 and 1911 conducted another band drawn from students of the Shkolla e Artizanatit (Artisans School). Kurtis son Lec (18841948), who studied in Pesaro, was the earliest professionally trained Albanian composer; among his compositions are an opera, a string quartet and piano music. Frano Ndoja (d 1923) founded a band in about 1889 and, apart from a fragment of an opera (1907), composed well-known patriotic songs and some other works. Two Albanian-born composers active in Russia in the 19th century were Harallamb Kristo Koēi (fl after 1850) and Vladimir Gjergj Kastriot-Skėnderbej (182079).
The earliest attempts at opera in Albania were two works by Martin Gjoka (18901940), a Franciscan monk and pioneer of Albanian music, active as a composer and teacher in Shkodra. Gjoka also founded a chorus and orchestra in 1917 and a wind band in 1922. Other musical organizations established in Shkodra at this time were Rozafa (1918), Vllaznia (191922) and Bogdani (1919); Rozafa included a mandolinata and Vllaznia had its own wind band, while Bogdani mustered an orchestra which performed symphonic works under the direction of Zef Kusti. Rozafa and Bogdani suspended their activities with the 1939 Italian invasion. In 1933 Dom Michele Koliqi, a highly cultured polyglot who had studied in Milan, organized the Schola Cantorum choir of Shkodra Cathedral, which attained high professional standards in works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert and others. Koliqis own compositions include motets for his choir and three so-called melodramas virtually operas to texts by Andrea Zadeja.
In 1916 a group of Albanian emigrants from the Korēa area under the flautist, conductor and composer Thoma Nasi (18921964) founded the 32-strong band Vatra in Worcester, Massachusetts. The band joined in the struggle against the foreign troops occupying Albania in 1920 and settled in Korēa, giving concerts whose typical programmes included an overture, excerpts from operas and transcriptions of symphonic works, together with dances and Albanian folksongs. Artet e Bukura was founded, with Nasi as president, in Korēa in 1920. It included a male chorus, a group of solo singers and an orchestra consisting mainly of members of Vatra, occasionally augmented by strings. Artet e Bukura passed the torch to Lira, founded in 1928. Initially this consisted of a mixed chorus and a mandolinata, later developing into a small orchestra. After 1930 the conductor of the chorus and orchestra was the composer Kristo Kono (190791). Liras activities were suspended after the Italian invasion in 1939, but were resumed after the war.
Other composers, primarily of songs, and band conductors active in Albania in the first part of the 20th century included Thanas Floqi (d 1945), Filip Papajani, Isuf Myzyri (18801956), Luigj Filaj (d 1969) and Neēo Muko Marioti (?1899?1934), a pioneer of Albanian light music and compiler of a discography of folksong. Several composers of this generation chose to work abroad, among them Dhimitėr Mihali Toskani (18881962), who was active in Romania, and Fan Noli (18821965) and Murat Shehu (18971978), who settled in the USA. Noli was an extraordinarily versatile figure: a politician, clergyman, poet and musicologist as well as a talented composer in a predominantly neo-classical style.
In 1920 Tirana became the new capital of Albania, and a number of Korēas musicians, notably Nasi, moved there. Information about music in Tirana before 1939 remains sporadic, but it was an active period with singers such as the baritone and chorus conductor Mihal Ciko, the tenor Kristaq Antoniu, and the sopranos Jorgjia Filēe-Truja, Tefta Tashko-Koēo, Maria Paluca-Kraja and Gjuze Kosturi. After 1944 they became the pioneers of Albanian opera. But in 1938, after some experimental transmissions, Radio Tirana was officially inaugurated. The radios early musical staff included the composer Pjetėr Dungu (190889), the pianists Lola Aleksi-Gjoka, Tonin Guraziu and Mario Ettore, and several singers, notably Mihal Ciko and Tefta Tashko-Koēo.
In July 1944, before the liberation of Albania from occupation, Gaqo Avrazi (191585), from Korēa, founded the Ansambli i Ushtrisė Popullorė (Ensemble of the Peoples Army); later in the same year, in Tirana, the Kori i Rinisė Antifashistė (Antifascist Youth Chorus), under the composer Konstandin Trako, gave its first concert.
An incontestable achievement of the postwar socialist regime was the development, within 30 years, of music and musical education to a high professional level. The attainment of such standards by a small, undeveloped country, and the establishment of what gradually became a flourishing musical industry, began with the foundation of the first Albanian music school, Jordan Misja, in Tirana in 1946 and the official inauguration of the Filarmonia Shqiptare (Albanian Philharmonia) in 1950. The latter comprised the radio orchestra, a chorus, ballet and singers. It was succeeded in 1953 by the Teatri i Operės dhe i Baletit (Theatre of Opera and Ballet), which in November that year performed Dargomļzhskys Rusalka, the first opera to be given with an all-Albanian cast. During the 1950s many of the most talented Albanian composers completed their studies in Moscow or Prague. These included Tish Daija, Ēesk Zadeja, Pjetėr Gaci, Nikolla Zoraqi, Vath Ēangu, Tonin Harapi and Kozma Lara. Dhora Leka, who composed a number of well-loved partisan songs, spent many years in prison for her opposition to the regime of Enver Hoxha.
In the postwar years Albanian composers began to tackle traditional Western musical genres. The first Albanian oratorio, Trakos Partia (The Party, 1953), was followed by the first operetta, Konos Agimi (Dawn), 1954), string quartet (by Daija, 19545), symphony (by Zadeja, 1956), opera (Jakovas Mrika, 1958) and ballet (Daijas Halile Hajria, 1963). The development of instrumental forms, opera and large-scale choral works coincided with Albanias total breach with the USSR in 1960 and the dissolving of cultural links with Eastern European socialist states. In early 1961 all Albanian music students abroad were ordered to return. The foundation of the conservatory in Tirana in 1962 inaugurated a period of total control over musical matters by the ruling communist party. Music by native composers was performed at a vast network of festivals throughout the country commemorating historical anniversaries and celebrating political events such as party congresses. Very little non-Albanian music was heard until the fall of the communist regime in 1991. Composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich were banned on political grounds. French Impressionism was rejected, the music of Wagner and Richard Strauss was condemned for its perceived Nazi associations, and jazz and rock were taboo. Cut off from foreign influences, Albanian composers drew deeply on the rich native tradition of folk music. In keeping with the communist ethic, works were composed with a specific social or educational purpose. Choral cantatas, symphonic poems and rhapsodies, and light music, including film music, were particularly important. After about 1970 the artistic climate in Albania became slightly less rigid; and works like Daijas Symphonic Dance, no.1 (1971), his ballet Bijt e peshkatarii (The Fishermans Sons, 1972) and Ibrahimis Piano Concerto, no.1 (1971) explore a relatively advanced harmonic idiom. However, this laxity was temporary. The 11th song festival of the RTV (Dec 1972), echoing jazz, led to Enver Hoxhas famous report at the Fourth Plenum (June 1973) of the Labour Partys Central Committee proclaiming an intensification of Albanias cultural isolation. No composer suffered any damage, yet this report, combined with previous directives, determined the course of Albanian music and culture until 1991.
From the 1960s every major city in Albania possessed its own chorus, band and symphony orchestra. Tirana, the capital, had no fewer than five symphony orchestras and a chamber orchestra. Particular attention was given to amateur ensembles in factories, cooperatives and schools, and to folk and dance ensembles. A vast repertory was created, especially of vocal and orchestral music, with older works neglected in favour of new ones. The most prominent composers between the 1960s and the 1990s have been Abdulla Grimēi (b 1921); Koēo Uēi (192382); Ēesk Zadeja (192797); Gjon Kapidani (b 1933); Mark Kaftalli (b 1933); Gjon Simoni (b 1936); Zef Ēoba (b 1951); Avni Mula (b 1926), also a well-known baritone; Agim Prodani (192889); Agim Krajka (b 1937); Limos Dizdari (b 1942); Shpėtim Kushta (b 1946); Thoma Gaqi (b 1948); Kujtim Laro (b 1948); Lejla Agolli (b 1950); Hajg Zaharjan (b 1951); Aleksandėr Peēi (b 1951); Gazmend Mullahi (b 1951), also a double bass soloist; Iossif Minga (b 1953); Sokol Shupo (b 1954); David Tukiēi (b 1956); Thoma Simaku (b 1958); and Besa Alia (b 1960). Some of these composers have settled abroad. Most of the works composed in the period 196090 adopt a post-Romantic idiom, with thematic material either drawn directly from Albanian folksong or based on its modes and rhythms.
From 1961 musical and theatrical activities in the larger towns and cities were organized by palaces of culture and in smaller towns by houses of culture. The music sector of the Lidhja e Shkrimtarėve dhe e Artistėve (Union of Writers and Artists, founded 1946), financed by the state, played an important role in musical life and musical education, and provided financial assistance to composers and performers. It also publishes scored through Shtėpia Qendrore e Krijimta-risė Popullore (Central House of Peoples Creation) and, since 1977, through Shtėpia Botuese e Librit Shkollor (Educational Publishing House). There were dozens of specialist primary music schools in Albania, and a secondary music school in each of the major towns and cities.
The countrys most important festivals, in chronological order, are the Festivali i Kėngės nė Radiotelevizion (Albanian Radio and Television Song Festival), founded in 1962 and still held annually; Festivali Kombėtar i Kėngės pėr Fatosa dhe Pionierė (National Childrens and Pioneers Festival), founded in Shkodra in 1963 and likewise still held annually; the 10-day Koncertet e Majit (May Concerts), held between 1967 and 1990 at the Tirana Opera, and the leading festival for new Albanian art music; and the Festivali Folklorik Kombėtar i Gjirokastrės (National Folklore Festival of Gjirokastra), first given in 1968 in the ancient city of Gjirokastra, and subsequently held every five years. The festival was revived in Berat by the ethnomusicologist Ramadan Sokoli in 1995. A number of new festivals have been founded in Tirana since 1991.
The upheavals caused by the collapse of communism in 1991 had serious consequences for Albanian music. Hundreds of good musicians emigrated, mostly to Greece. The Union of Writers and Artists was deprived of funds, orchestras and choruses were reduced, and several primary and secondary music schools closed. However, private sponsors began to appear, while Albanian composers rapidly acquired modern compositional techniques and began to promote their music abroad. Catholic composers like Harapi, Simoni and Kapidani were now free to compose religious works; other composers such as Daija, Zadeja, Kushta, Laro and Lara turned to chamber music, hitherto a neglected genre, and even explored atonality. Not surprisingly, it was the younger generation of composers that took the lead in experimentation. These included Peēi, Shupo, Simaku Ermir Dergjini (b 1955), Fatos Qerimi (b 1957), Nestor Kraja (b 1959), Vasil S. Tole (b 1963), Endri Sina (b 1967) and Albana Fejzo (b 1970).
The charting of Albanian art music would be incomplete without a reference to the composers of Kosovo. Until 1991, their studies and experience in Yugoslavia contrasted dramatically with those of their culturally isolated colleagues. Their works are often performed in Albania, yet information about them remains sparse. They include Shime Deshpali (b 1897); Lorenc Antoni (190391), also active as a folksong collector and ethnomusicologist; Ismaļl Hoxha (b 1934); Mark Kaēinari (193585); Vinēenc Gjini (b 1935); Krist Lekaj (b 1935); Fahri Beqiri (b 1936); Akil Mark Koci (b 1936); Esad Rizvanolli (b 1936); Halit Kasapolli (193759); the composer and musicologist Zeqirja Ballata (b 1943); Rauf Dhomi (b 1945); Rafet Rudi (b 1949) and Bahri Mulliqi (b 1959).
See also Tirana (i).
MGG2 (B. Reuer); ES (E. Koliqi); ME (R.D. Kochy and V.N. Konopatskaya)
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N. Kraja: Fillimet e traditės muzikore instrumentale nė Shqipėri [The beginnings of the Albanian tradition in instrumental music], Studime mbi artin (Tirana, 1997), 12035
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V.S. Tole: Muzika dhe Letėrsia [Music and literature] (Tirana, c1997)
R.H. Bogdani: Koreografi & art i kultivuar [Choreography and serious art] (Tirana, 1998)
K. Goshi and L. Daja: Muzika nė Shqipėri (19531997): bibliografi e periodikut tė botuar nė Republikėn e Shqipėrisė [Music in Albania 19531997): a bibliography of the periodicals printed in the Republic of Albania] (Tirana, 1998)
R. Hajro: Pėr Tė kuktuar njė koha [Recollections of an era] (Tirana, 1998)
G. Leotsakos: Entechni alvaniki moussiki: historia kai katagrafi enos monadhikou phaenoménou [Albanian art music: the history and recording of a unique phenomenon] (forthcoming)
Musical forms that are today recognized as Albanian folk or national music (muzika popullore) descend from types of music-making that characterized Albanian-speaking communities in the early decades of the 20th century. Until 1912, when Albanians declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire, musical life in Albanian territories was much like that in other regions of Ottoman Europe. In rural areas songs and instrumental music, performed largely by community members, were based on distinctive local styles. Urban music, in contrast, had absorbed features of both Middle-Eastern and European art musics, and was performed largely by professional musicians, many from the Rom (Gypsy) ethnic group. This division in repertory characterized the music-making not only of Albanian speakers, but also of other ethnic communities living in Albanian lands, including Aromānii (Vlachs), Macedonians (see Macedonia, §II), and Greeks (see Greece, §IV). In the course of the 20th century, the distinction between rural and urban musics became blurred as musical styles were disseminated through the mass media as well as government-sponsored folk ensembles. The distinction nevertheless provides a useful starting point for considering national styles of Albanian music.
Albania, §II: Traditional music
At present almost two-thirds of the population of Albania lives in rural areas. Until collective farms were established in the socialist period (194491), families typically lived in large patrilineal households, within which work activities were organized on the basis of gender and age. Womens lives revolved around childrearing and household maintenance, while men served as their familys spokesmen and defenders in affairs of the community and the state. When community members gathered to socialize, most activities took place among segregated groups of females or males, a practice that continues today in most regions.
Rural musical repertories have developed in line with such divisions. Each community has maintained a large corpus of songs (South Albania, kėngė; North Albania, kāngė) in local style. Women have sung primarily lyric songs whose themes address the concerns of family life. At life-cycle occasions celebrating a birth, a sons circumcision (in Muslim communities) or a betrothal or wedding, girls or women have been the principal vocalists, performing ritual songs suited to the particular event. At any social gathering they might also perform songs for dancing, sung in a variety of duple, triple and additive metres. Upon the death of a family member, women have performed highly emotional laments, known variously as vaje, vajtim, kuje, me tė qarė (with crying) or tė qarė me zė (cried with the voice). In the past, girls and women sang to accompany work activities in the fields or the house, as well as for seasonal agricultural or pastoral rituals, but such songs are rarely performed today. Men have had their own (generally smaller) repertories of ritual and dance songs, and in many areas have sung rapturous love songs as well. The greatest number of mens songs are narratives that commemorate the deeds of legendary heroes or recount important moments in the history of the community or of the Albanian people as a whole. Men have also been the principal performers of instrumental music.
Albanians distinguish two major subgroups. North Albanians, or Gegs, live north of the Shkumbin River in Albania, as well as in adjacent areas of Macedonia and Yugoslavia (see Yugoslavia, §III, 3). South Albanians, or Tosks, live south of the Shkumbin and in a few districts of southern Macedonia and northern Greece. The musical styles of the two subgroups are highly distinctive. While northern music is predominantly monophonic, southern musicians perform in a variety of polyphonic styles.
In the north the oldest musical genres are to be found in mountainous districts such as Malėsi, which straddles the northern border with Montenegro (see Yugoslavia, §III, 2). In these areas both men and women sing in a loud, forceful style typical of outdoor singing in many parts of the Balkan peninsula. Both also employ a variety of vocal techniques such as glottal shakes and, for women, lapses into head register. Melodies often have a small range and use narrow, non-tempered intervals. Particularly in Muslim communities, the most active female vocalists have generally been girls of less than marriageable age. Often they accompany metrical songs such as those for dancing with large frame drums, called def or daire. A more unusual type of accompaniment for womens singing is provided by a large metal tray called tepsi. While one woman rotates it on its edge on a level surface, other girls or women sing into it. The spinning of the tepsi alters the timbre of their singing and its deep rumble serves as a form of drone.
Men in mountain districts also perform a number of distinctive vocal genres. The kāngė malėsorēe (song or the people of Malėsi) of kāngė majekrahi (song sung over the peak of the arm) is sung by a soloist or pair of singers: each man cups his ear with his hand or places a finger in his ear, then projects his voice upward at full volume over his bent arm. Kāngė malėsorēe were used in the past by herdsmen as well as soldiers to signal from one mountain to the next and are also sung on festive occasions. A second genre is the kāngė kreshnikėsh (from Serbo-Croatian krajinik, frontier hero) or rapsodi (rhapsody), a lengthy historical song that often includes fantastical elements. Specialists in this genre, known as rapsodė, have traditionally extemporised their songs in performance, basing their renditions upon verbal and musical formulas. Singers accompany their vocal line on a type of long-necked, one-string fiddle called lahutė, whose pegbox is decorated with patriotic or zoomorphic designs. The performer holds the instrument vertically at an angle and is expected to adopt a manly and heroic demeanour while singing. Like similar epic songs sung to gusle accompaniment in Bosnia, Montenegro and southern Serbia, most kāngė kreshnikėsh recount military skirmishes that took place during the Ottoman period. Shorter historical songs with more fixed texts may also be sung to lahutė (ex.1). A third genre, known as gjāmė, is a type of elegy that was once commonly performed at the funerals of adult men. As with womens laments in this region, gjāmė might be performed by a family member or by a semi-professional lament specialist.
In low-lying districts and in settlements closer to towns, rural musicians have adopted some features of Middle-Eastern musical styles. Melodies often have larger ranges and more complex forms, and they may resemble specific Ottoman melodic modes (makam). In place of the lahutė, men generally accompany their singing on long-necked fretted lutes, of which the two-string ēifteli (or ēiteli) is the most popular. Unlike the lahutė, the ēifteli is also used to play dance melodies as well as virtuoso solo improvisations. For large celebrations, families or whole communities may hire Rom men to perform loud, outdoor dance music. Their standard ensemble consists of one to two surle (curle, zurlė, cigonė), double-reed pipes with a conical bore; and one lodėr (lodėrti, daulle), a double-headed bass drum. This ensemble is particularly associated with the mens repertory of virtuoso dances, which often have a heroic character.
In southern regions, the prevalence of polyphonic singing indicates its importance as a communal social activity. At family celebrations, each adult has been expected to participate by singing the first solo line of a multi-part song, while others at the gathering have sung supporting lines or have joined in on a choral drone (iso). Most southern songs have a pentatonic tonality, although ornamentation is diatonic. Only recently have they been sung with instrumental accompaniment.
Albanian musicologist Beniamin Kruta has distinguished two main styles of southern polyphony. In the Lab style, characteristic of the region of Labėri in south-central Albania, two or three soloists declaim their text over the drone in a homophonic manner (ex.2). In the Tosk style, found in the regions of Myzeqe, Toskėri and Ēamėri as well as adjacent areas of Macedonia and Greece, two soloists interweave their melodies above a drone that is sung most often to a single vowel sound (ex.3). These two types of polyphony also have parallels among neighbouring ethnic groups. The singing of Greek communities in Albania and in the district of Epirus in Greece closely resembles that of Labėri, while some Aromān and Macedonian communities sing songs in the Tosk style. The lullabies of southern Albanian women (ex.4), as well as laments and songs for seasonal rituals, have customarily been sung solo or in unison. In some communities, two-part songs without a drone are also sung.
Although southern mens and womens songs are similar in structure, they often differ in manner of execution. Younger women generally sing in a subdued, metrical manner that complements their reserved and dignified social demeanour. Younger men, by contrast, often sing in an exuberant and dramatic style, consistent with their more extroverted demeanour and evocative of the heroic affect that characterizes their repertory. Many mens songs are not metrical or are executed in an elastic rhythm and singers perform them using an array of techniques such as portamento, melisma, vocal pulsation, yodelling, or leaps into falsetto register (see ex.3). A number of these techniques are said to be drawn from womens lament styles and infuse menperformances with a sense of melancholy or nostalgia. As men age, they often turn to a more sedate performance style, known as shtruar (calm) that is closer to womens singing. Particularly in Lab communities, men may recognize a formal distinction between young mens songs (kėngė djemurishte) and elders songs (kėngė pleqėrishte). In turn, women as they age may begin to incorporate into their performances more demonstrative elements of the mens style.
Throughout Albania, men in stock-breeding communities have accompanied their herding activities with various types of aerophones. Most common are end-blown or duct flutes ranging in length from 20 to 90 cm. While the term fyell is known throughout the country, other regional names include njijare or cule in Labėri, kavall or duduk in Tosk areas, and bilbil or fyelldrejti for northern duct flutes. In some communities a double-bore duct flute is played, known as binjak (twin) in the north and culedyjare (double flute) in Labėri. Some herdsmen say that they use their flutes to calm their animals or to direct their movements. To do so they perform expansive, unmetrical melodies with descriptive titles such as When the sheep go to drink water or Air of the shepherd in the mountain. In southern areas herdsmen also perform melodies in the style of womens laments, which they term vajtim or tė qarė. At smaller family gatherings, flute players might perform song tunes or melodies for group dancing.
A second type of herdsmens instrument is the single-reed pipe, generally made from cane. In the north the most common such instrument is the zumare, which consists of two parallel pipes with a single bell made from an animals horn. This instrument may be attached to a skin bag to form a bagpipe, known as bishnicė or mishnicė. In the south individual reed-pipes, known as pipezė, are sometimes played by pairs of men in the manner of a polyphonic song. The southern bagpipe or gajde, found only along the eastern border, has a wooden chanter and drone pipe, each with a single reed. Unlike other aerophones, the gajde is played primarily in farming communities (sometimes together with frame drum) to accompany singing or dancing.
Albania, §II: Traditional music
During the late Ottoman period, distinctive musical styles developed in both northern and southern towns. For religious holidays or family celebrations, land-owning families or members of the rising middle-class hired professional ensembles to perform songs and instrumental music for both dancing and listening. Their music was reserved primarily for mens gatherings, although in some areas women performers were engaged for female guests. While many of the performers were Roma, some were ethnic Albanians. The largest and most polished ensembles performed in the major towns, but smaller groups gradually introduced urban repertories to outlying towns and villages.
In the northern town of Shkodėr and in the towns of Central Albania (particularly Tirana, Durrės and Elbasan), the most typical ensemble or aheng (ēallgi, saze) of the early 20th century consisted of a long-necked, plucked saze or a short-necked, fretted llautė, a clarinet (gėrnetė), a violin played vertically on the knee, and a frame drum (def) or goblet drum (qypi). The repertory of such ensembles was based on the system of Ottoman makam-s and included locally created songs and dance tunes as well as Ottoman compositions and modal improvisations (taksim). Albanian-language songs that were created within this repertory may be in a variety of metres and generally alternate lines of text with instrumental interludes. Some songs are multi-sectional, incorporating several changes in metre. While Ottoman compositions are no longer performed, northern urban songs are still widely sung and have been recorded in recent decades by singers such as Fitnete Rexha, Hafsa Zyberi, Luēije Miloti, Myslym Leli and Merita Halili. Since World War II the accordion has largely replaced the plucked strings, and contemporary ensembles often augment or replace the older instruments with saxophone, synthesizer, electric guitar and bass, and Western drumkit. As Western instruments have been adopted, performers have gradually modified their intonation to a tempered diatonic scale.
In the south, early 20th-century ensembles or saze featured one to two clarinets and/or violins, a llautė and a large def. To these were eventually added accordion and, more recently, amplified instruments. Southern saze have performed music that is closer in style to nearby rural genres than to urban Ottoman ones. Typically, the lead clarinet and violin play interweaving, pentatonic melody lines, while llautė, accordion and any other instruments provide a chordal accompaniment. Saze have developed their own repertory of polyphonic songs and play a variety of dance tunes, including more rapid ones for women and slower tunes with more elastic metres for men. They are most renowned for virtuoso solo improvisations, played most often on clarinet or violin, that are known variously as kaba, avaz, vajtim or me tė qarė. Similar to herdsmens melodies but more expansive and highly ornamented, these performances draw on expressive features of womens lament styles to evoke feelings of longing and nostalgia. Most of the pre-World War II recordings of southern music featured performances by Rom saze from towns such as Korēė and Leskovik, sometimes accompanying Albanian singers. Performers of this repertory in recent decades have included clarinettist Laver Bariu and the Lela family, both from Pėrmet. Women singers such as Vaēe Zela from Vlorė and Eli Fara from Korēė have popularized the performance of monophonic songs based on southern pentatonic scales and accompanied by saze instrumentalists.
In towns throughout Albania, amateur musicians also developed repertories that they performed for their own enjoyment. Particularly in the south, men in the late Ottoman period created songs either in Turkish or local styles that they sang to the accompaniment of instruments such as the ud, bakllama (Turkish bağlama) and buzuk (Turkish bozuk). By the turn of the 20th century, these were replaced in popularity by European instruments such as the guitar, violin and mandolin, used to accompany a new type of urban song (kėngė qytetare) based on the Western tonal system. Another characteristic European ensemble, the brass band, was also popular in early decades of the 20th century. Various types of urban songs, particularly those that can be spontaneously harmonised, are still sung enthusiastically by urbanites at many family occasions.
Albania, §II: Traditional music
Since the mid-19th century, when members of the intelligentsia first began to publish collections of song texts, forms of Albanian folk music have been systematically employed to encourage national loyalties and serve as models for a national culture. Following World War II, such practices became institutionalized as state policy under the new socialist government. Traditional songs were introduced at all levels of the school curriculum and became the basis for compositions in the Western classical style (see §I above). Both Radio Tirana (established in the 1940s) and the state television (initiated in the late 1960s) broadcast many hours of national music each week, disseminating state-sponsored musical styles to even the most isolated rural areas. While music-making continued in family and community settings, media forms came to set the standard for Albanian musical performance, not only within Albania but also in neighbouring Yugoslavia.
In emulation of Soviet models, a State Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances (Ansambli Shtetėror i Kėngėve dhe Valleve Popullore) was founded in Tirana, as were similar amateur ensembles throughout the country. Each full ensemble consisted of vocal soloists, a chorus, an instrumental group and a troupe of dancers. For younger Albanians especially, participation in an ensemble came to replace older, rural settings for music-making that had been rendered obsolete by policies such as the collectivisation of agriculture and, in 1967, the abolition of all forms of religious practice. In order to give the new ensembles showcase, a network of folkloric festivals was created. Most festival performances featured choreographed dance suites set to highly arranged and harmonised musical accompaniment. At the National Folk Festival, however, which was held every five years in the town of Gjirokastėr, village groups presented performances that, while also arranged, were closer in style to community music-making. Partly to assemble materials that could serve as a basis for new artistic forms, scholars trained in ethnography, folklore, ethnomusicology and dance ethnology undertook detailed documentation of Albanian folkloric forms, resulting in an extensive programme of scholarly publication. Formerly assigned to several different institutes, after 1979 these scholars worked under the auspices of the Institute of Folk Culture (Instituti i Kulturės Popullore) in Tirana.
During the socialist period, artistic innovations were actively encouraged as long as they were viewed as contributing to the evolution of Albanian socialist culture. Many older song texts representing past modes of life or oppositional political stances were not performed. In their place, performers were encouraged to create new songs, known as folklor i ri (new folklore), that extolled the Party of Labour and its leader Enver Hoxha. Many groups also experimented with new musical formats. The orchestra of the State Ensemble began as an expanded version of a northern urban ensemble, but gradually adopted a core configuration of Western instruments, with local Albanian ones used for occasional colour. Some regional ensembles developed families of ēiftell, or fyell. or created orchestras of instruments that were formerly played separately. Such new configurations were often used to accompany types of singing that were once performed a cappella. Women joined men as prominent public performers of rural and urban styles, either as vocal soloists, singers in mixed ensembles or even instrumentalists. As in neighbouring countries, large integrated ensembles, performing complex arrangements with discipline and precision, came to be seen as embodying many of the ideals of socialist ideology.
The fall of the socialist system in 1991 precipitated large-scale social dislocation and economic hardship in Albania, affecting all aspects of musical life. Since the government can no longer support its extensive cultural institutions, the future of both professional ensembles and research institutes is now in question. Few Albanians have either the capital or the business expertise to open private recording companies or performance venues. Families that might once have hosted a large wedding celebration with a live band might now plan a small family gathering with dancing to recorded music. In response to such conditions, a number of prominent performers and scholars have left the country. Other musicians support themselves through concerts in neighbouring countries or tours of expatriate communities in western Europe and North America. Although recordings of national music are still broadcast on radio and television, many of the cassettes available for sale are imported from Macedonia. At present the most ubiquitous forms of music are popular styles from the United States and Western Europe. Only when Albania has recovered from the economic strains of recent years will an active musical life develop in which local musicians have a more prominent role.
Albania, §II: Traditional music
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Kėngė dhe valle shqiptare [Albanian songs and dances], Liria Albanian Recording Company CO 29752979
Strictly Albanian, Strictly Albanian 10011003
Folk Music of Albania, coll. A.L. Lloyd, Topic LP 12 T 154 (1966); reissued as TSCD 904
Traditional Tosk (Southern Albanian) Songs and Dances from the Lake Prespa Area, coll. R.H. Leibman, Selo LP2 (1974)
Chansons et musiques populaires d'Albanie, Disques Vendémaire V050 FP8
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Albania I: canti e danze tradizionali: polifonia vocale e musica strumentale, comp. B. Kruta, I Suoni-Fonitcetra Cetra SU 5009 (1982)
Folklore instrumental albanais, coll. J.-P. Graziani and Y. Letourner, Disques Vendémaire VDE 114 (1986)
Albania: Vocal and Instrumental Polyphonies, coll. B. Lortat-Jacob and B. Kruta, Chant du Monde LDX 274 897 (1988)
There Where the Avalanche Stops: Music from the Gjirokastra Folk Festival, Albania 1988, i, coll. M. Harding, L. McDowall, J. Wozencroft and S. Shituni, touch T33.11 (1990)
Famille Lela de Pėrmet: polyphonies vocales et instrumentales d'Albanie, perf. R. Lela, Label Bleu LBLC 2503 (1992)
L'Albanie mystérieuse, coll. M. Cellier, Disques Pierre Verany PV 750010 (1995)
Songs from the city of Roses, perf. L. Bariu, GlobeStyle CDORBD 091 (1995)
Chaj zibede: musique rromani d'Albanie, perf. Rromano Dives, Al Sur ALCD 172 (1996)
Music of the Balkans, i: Albania, Central Balkans 19201940, coll. P. Tabouris, FM Records FM 706
Vocal Traditions of albania, prod. G. Lucena and c. Johnston, Saydisc CD-SDL 421 (1997)
Albanian village Music Recorded in Tirana 1930, prod. B. Häupl and P. Vernon, Heritage HT CD 40 (1998)
Music from Albania, coll. B. Reuer, Rounder CD 5151 (1999)