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The polyphonic song of Epirus is a form of traditional folk polyphony practiced among Albanians, Aromanians, Greeks and ethnic Macedonians in southern Albania and northwestern Greece. The polyphonic song of Epirus is not to be confused with other varieties of polyphonic singing, such as the yodeling songs of the region of Muotatal, or the Cantu a tenore of Sardinia. Scholars consider it an old tradition, which either originates from the ancient Greek and Thraco-Illyrian era, or the Byzantine era, with influences from Byzantine music. The Albanian Iso-Polyphony – which is recognized as cultural heritage by UNESCO – is considered to have its roots in the many-voiced vajtim, the southern Albanian traditional lamentation of the dead. The Greek project Polyphonic Caravan, which aims at researching, safeguarding and promoting the Epirus polyphonic song since 1998, was inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of Good Safeguarding Practices in 2020.

Polyphonic Music in Greece and Albania

In Greece

Among Greeks, polyphonic song is found in the northern part of the Greek region of Ioannina; in Ano Pogoni, (Ktismata, Dolo, Parakalamos) and some villages north of Konitsa), as well as in very few villages in northeastern Thesprotia (Tsamantas, Lias, Vavouri, Povla). Among the Greek minorities in southern Albania, polyphonic singing is performed in the regions of Dropull, Pogon (Kato Pogoni) (Poliçan) and the cities of Delvinë, Himara, Sarandë and Gjirokastër.

Greek polyphonic groups can include six different parts: taker (partis), turner (gyristis), spinner (klostis), isokrates, rihtis (the one who "drops" the voice) and foreteller (prologistis). Songs are performed in two (taker and turner or taker and isokrates), three, four or five voices. In five-voice singing all parts are present, while the role of the spinner and the rihtis is performed by one part. The main voice, the taker, can be sung either by men or women, but it can also alternate between them. Greek polyphonic groups usually consist of 4 to 12 persons.

Among Greeks a second kind of polyphonic singing differing in maximum roughness is also performed in Karpathos and Pontos.

In 2020, the Polyphonic Caravan, which is a Greek project with the purpose of researching, safeguarding and promoting the Epirus polyphonic song since 1998, was inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of Good Safeguarding Practices.

In Albania

Among Albanians, all four regions of Myzeqe, Toskeri, Chameria, and Labëria have the polyphonic song as part of their culture. Among Albanians a related form of polyphonic singing is also found in northern Albania in the area of Peshkopi, the Albanian communities of Kaçanik in Kosovo, the areas of Polog, Tetovo, Kicevo and Gostivar in North Macedonia and the region of Malësia in northern Albania and southern Montenegro.

The region of Labëria is a particular region known for multipart singing and home to many different genres like that of pleqërishte. Songs can be of two, three, or four parts. Two part songs are sung only by women. Three part songs are more diffused and can be sung by men and women. Four part songs are a Labëria specialty. Research has shown that four part songs have come after three part ones and that they are the most complex form of polyphonical singing.

The Gjirokastër National Folklore Festival, Albania, (Albanian: Festivali Folklorik Kombëtar), has been held every five years in the month of October, starting from 1968 and it has typically included many polyphonic songs.

Albanian iso-polyphony is included in UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list.

The tradition of polyphonic singing has been contested and used by both sides of the Greek and Albanian border in a nationalistic manner.

Structure

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Polyphonic groups of Epirus consist of at least four members. Each group has two soloists and a drone group, which provides and maintains the vocal rhythm of the song.

The first soloist (or the taker) (Greek: "πάρτης" (partis) or "σηκωτής" (sikotis), Albanian: Bëj zë or Mbaj kaba or marrësi, Aromanian: Atselu tsi u lia) is the voice that sings the main melody. The first soloist performs the beginning of the song (Greek: παίρνοντας (pernontas, taking) or σηκώνοντας (sikonontas, lifting), Albanian: e merr dhe e ngre), and literally acts as the narrator and leader of the group, singing the main part of the song. The second soloist (or the turner) (Greek: "γυριστής" (yiristis)) answers (or "turns") the voice (Greek: "γυρίζει" (yirizei, turns) or "τσακίζει" (tsakizei, crimps) Albanian: kthej zë or kthyesi, Mbahes or Kthehës or Pritës Aromanian: Atselu tsi u tali).

Sometimes, instead of the "turner", or according to some musicologists parallel with it, we find the role of the spinner (Greek: κλώστης (klostis, spinner), Albanian: dredhes). The "spinner" spins the song between the tonic and subtonic of the melody, a technique that reminds the movement of the hand which holds the spindle and spins the thread. This is a role that is often, but not always, found is the one of "rihtis", who drops (Greek: ρίχνει) the song in the end of the introduction of "partis", by singing an exclamation (e.g. Greek: αχ ωχ ωχ (ah oh oh) or, "άντε βρε" (ante vre)), which is a fourth lower than the tonic of the melody, resting "partis" and uniting its introduction with the entrance of the drone group.

The drone group is composed by the rest of the members of the polyphonic group and is also called iso keepers group (Greek: ισοκρατές, (isokrates, iso keepers) Albanian: Venkorë or Iso-mbajtës, and Aromanian: Isu), from the Greek Isocrates "ισοκράτης" and that from the Medieval Greek "ισοκρατών" (isokraton), "one who holds the ison", the note that holds on the whole length of a song, from Ancient Greek "ἴσος" (isos) generally meaning "equal" but here "equal in flight of song" + "κρατέω" (krateo) "to rule, to hold". The words ison and isos literally mean the continuous base note and isocrates creates and holds the modal base of the song. The isokrates role is particularly important; the louder the keeping of the vocal drone, (Greek: ισοκράτημα, romanized: isokratima), the more "βρονταριά" (vrontaria) (i.e. better) the song goes, because the rhythm and the vocal base of the song are maintained. The term derives from the Byzantine Greek musical tradition, where the "ίσον" also features.

The perfection of the rendition of the polyphonic song presupposes the existence and the unity of the several voices–roles of the polyphonic group. As a result, polyphonic song presupposes the collectiveness of expression and the firm distinction between the roles it reflects, and the unwritten hierarchy in the composition of the group and the distribution of the roles.

See also

• Music of Greece
• Music of Albania
• Aromanian music
• Music of Epirus (Greece)
• Byzantine music
• Deropolitissa
• Song of Çelo Mezani
• Song of Marko Boçari
• Yodeling

References

1. Bart Plantenga. Yodel-ay-ee-oooo. Routledge, 2004. ISBN 978-0-415-93990-4, p. 87 Albania: "Singers in Pogoni region perform a style of polyphony that is also practised by locals in Vlach and Slav communities .
2. Engendering Song: Singing and Subjectivity at Prespa by Jane C. Sugarman,1997,ISBN 0-226-77972-6,page 356,"Neither of the polyphonic textures characteristic of south Albanian singing is unique to Albanians.The style is shared with Greeks in the Northwestern district of Epirus (see Fakiou and Romanos 1984) while the Tosk style is common among Aromanian communities from the Kolonje region of Albania the so called Faserotii (see Lortat-Jacob and Bouet 1983) and among Slavs of the Kastoria region of Northern Greece (see N.Kaufamann 1959 ). Macedonians in the lower villages of the Prespa district also formerly sang this style "
3. Engendering Song: Singing and Subjectivity at Prespa by Jane C. Sugarman,1997,ISBN 0-226-77972-6,page 356,A striking counterpart from outside the Balkans is the polyphonic Yodeling of juuzli from the Muotatal region of Switzerland
4. Nitsiakos, Vassilis; Mantzos, Constantinos (2017). "Negotiating Culture: Political Uses of Polyphonic Folk Songs in Greece and Albania". In Tziovas, Dimitris (ed.). Greece and the Balkans: Identities, Perceptions and Cultural Encounters Since the Enlightenment. Taylor & Francis. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-351-93218-9.
5. Shetuni, Spiro J. (2014-01-10). Albanian Traditional Music: An Introduction, with Sheet Music and Lyrics for 48 Songs. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-8630-4.
6. Koço, Eno (2021). Albanian Identity in History and Traditional Performance. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 113–114. ISBN 978-1-5275-7189-1.
7. Tole, Vasil S. (2022). "Kabaja With Saze as a Ballad Without Words" (PDF). Studia Albanica (2): 43–50. ISSN 0585-5047. pp. 43–45.
8. Ricky Holden, Mary Vouras: Greek Folk Dances, 1965, page 10
9. Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham: World Music: The Rough Guide, 1999, ISBN 1-85828-635-2, page 149
10. Athinoula, Gkika (1 January 2014). Τεχνικές ηχογράφησης της ηπειρωτικής παραδοσιακής μουσικής (in Greek). Technological Educational Institute of Ionian Islands. p. 15. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
11. Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham: World Music: The Rough Guide, 1999, ISBN 1-85828-635-2, page 5, 127
12. Ardian Ahmedaja, Gerlinde Haid. European voices: Multipart singing in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2008 ISBN 978-3-205-78090-8, p. 267.
13. Paraskevi, Kanellatou. Το Ελληνόφωνο Πολυφωνικό Τραγούδι στο Νότιο Τμήμα της Επαρχίας Πωγωνίου στην Ήπειρο [The Greek Polyphonic Singing of the South Pogoni Province in Epirus]. ResearchGate (in Greek). ERKET e-Journal, Vol.: 1, Jul. 2010. pp. 5, 16. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
14. Ardian Ahmedaja, Gerlinde Haid. European voices: Multipart singing in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2008 ISBN 978-3-205-78090-8, p. 283.
15. "UNESCO - Polyphonic Caravan, researching, safeguarding and promoting the Epirus polyphonic song". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
16. "Ιστορικό". www.polyphonic.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2021-05-16.
17. European voices: Multipart singing in the Balkans and the ..., Volume 1 By Ardian Ahmedaja, Gerlinde Haid page 210, 243-44
18. European voices: Multipart singing in the Balkans and the ..., Volume 1 By Ardian Ahmedaja, Gerlinde Haid pages 214-215
19. ^ European voices: Multipart singing in the Balkans and the ..., Volume 1 By Ardian Ahmedaja, Gerlinde Haid page 241
20. "UNESCO Culture Sector - Intangible Heritage - 2003 Convention". Unesco.org. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
21. Notes from the Balkans: Locating Marginality and Ambiguity on the Greek-Albanian Border,2005,ISBN 0-691-12199-0,page Back matter ,"... the appropriate manner(Adkins 2002; Adkins and Lury 1999; Skeggs 1997). 16. Theodosiou (2003); Nitsiakos and Mantzos (2003) note that polyphonic singing has become one of those traditions that is argued about by nationalist folklorists on both sides of the border, .."
22. ^ European voices: Multipart singing in the Balkans and the ..., Volume 1 By Ardian Ahmedaja, Gerlinde Haid page 215
23. European voices: Multipart singing in the Balkans and the ..., Volume 1 By Ardian Ahmedaja, Gerlinde Haid page 211
24. Takis Kalogeropoulos, Lexicon of the Greek Music, 2001, ISBN 960-7555-39-2
25. ἴσος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
26. κρατέω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
27. Psaltic Chant, Monastère de la Théotokos et de Saint martin
28. Sugarman, Dave (1997). Engendering song: singing and subjectivity at Prespa Albanian weddings. Chicago studies in ethnomusicology. University of Chicago Press. p. 221. ISBN 0-226-77973-4.
29. Tziovas, Demetres (2003). Greece and the Balkans: identities, perceptions and cultural encounters since the Enlightenment. Ashgate Publishing. p. 198. ISBN 0-7546-0998-7.

Further reading

• World Music: The Rough Guide by Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham - 1999 - ISBN 1-85828-635-2
• Greek Folk Dances by Rickey Holden, Mary Vouras – 1965
• Engendering Song: Singing and Subjectivity at Prespa by Jane C. Sugarman,1997,ISBN 0-226-77972-6

External links

• Greek traditional music from Epirus
• Vasil Tole (in English)
• Unesco

Songs in Greek

• Himara

• Κόρη του Βουνού (Daughter of the Mountain)
• Του Σπυρομήλιου (Song of Spyromilios)

• Delvina

• Μάνα καημένη Μάνα (Mother poor Mother)
• Polyphonic Song from Delvino

• Dropull

• Δεροπολίτισσα (Woman of Dropull)
• Του Μάρκου Μπότσαρη (Song of Markos Botsaris)
• Κάστρο της Ωριάς (Song of the Castle of the Fair Maiden)

• Pogoni

• Gianni Γιάννη μου
• Του Γιοφυριού της Άρτας (Song of the Bridge of Arta)
• Αλισμωνώ και Χαίρομαι Song from Ktismata

• Permet

• Σύρε Μάνα πες του Γιάννη (Go Mother tell to Giannis)

Songs in Albanian

• Songs from Labëria
  • Song from Labëria Albanian: Kenge nga Laberia
  • I'll Start by Thinking Albanian: Do filloj duke menduar
  • Ismail Qemali Song
  • Albania Rock and Stone, You'd Kill Yourself for Your Flag Albanian: Shqiperi o shkemb e gure, vritesh pritesh per flamure
  • Sons of Shepards Albanian: Bijë Çobanesh
  • Kurvelesh, What did You Do with Your Sons? Albanian: Kurvelesh, ç'i bëre djemtë?]
  • Shake Your Handkerchief Albanian: Tunde moj shamine
  • Get Out, May Your Root Get Out Albanian: Dile moj te dalte rrenja
• Songs from Skrapar
  • I miss you Riza Cerova Albanian: O Riza Cerova Malli C'Me Ka Marre
  • Month of August, Day the Twentieth Albanian: Muaji Gusht dita njezete
  • When the Boyhood I Remember Albanian: Djalerine kur e kujtoj

• Albanian folk music
• Epirus
• Music of Greece
• Gjirokastër
• Polyphonic singing