who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...
who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ... who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...
118The similarity between the polyphonic traditions of Epirus with the polyphonictraditions of other regions of the Balkans is quite obvious.Another polyphonic tradition from Greece (the island Rhodes from theDodecanese group of islands) also shows the same common features of Balkanpolyphony, with the drone, dissonances between the parts, the small range of the mainmelody, and the pentatonic scale. According to the available information, the tradition ofthree-part singing with the third part, the yodeling klostis, is not known on Rhodes Island.The later European style of polyphony became popular on the island of Corfu,where the basis for such influences was created by long-standing political and culturalrelationships with Venice (these islands became part of Greece in 1864). According toCowan, “Romantic serenades (kantadhes), still popular, are the only Greek folk musicthat uses western harmony: men singing triadic three- and four-part harmonies,accompanying themselves on mandolins and guitars” (Cowan, 2000:1014).Vocal Polyphony in North EuropeNorth Europe represents a very interesting and somehow problematic picture ofthe distribution of the tradition of vocal polyphony. Traditional polyphony exists only intwo opposite regions of contemporary North Europe – the east (the Baltic region) and thewest (Iceland). At the same time, there are very important and clear historical sources ofinformation about the distribution of vocal forms of polyphony in many regions of NorthEurope. We will review first the live traditions of polyphonic singing (the Baltic statesand Iceland) and will then discuss historical sources from a few other regions.Baltic RegionLocated geographically between the eastern and northern parts of Europe, theBaltic region could be a part of both northern and eastern Europe. The Baltic regioncomprises three countries: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Out of them Lithuania andLatvia are closely related cultures with related Baltic languages. Estonians are a part of alarger Finno-Ugric family of languages. Most importantly for our subject, all three
119countries of the Baltic region are known to have interesting vocal forms of traditionalpolyphony. We shall first discuss two Baltic peoples, Lithuanians and Latvians, and thenEstonians.LithuaniaLithuania is the biggest out of all three Baltic countries and historically held aleading role in medieval Eastern Europe. Another interesting historical fact is thatLithuania was the last country in Europe to officially adopt Christianity in the 14 thcentury.Lithuania is particularly well known as a homeland of the unique polyphonicsinging style known as sutartines. Although the term sutartines means “agreement”, or“cohesion”, sutartines is well known as the “kingdom of the dissonances”. To be moreprecise, we need to know that there are a few different styles of sutartines, based ondifferent principles of polyphony (such as unison-heterophonic, canonic and drone typesof sutartines). Among all these types of sutartines the most well-known and truly uniquetype is the so-called “secondal sutartines”. The most important feature of secondalsutartines is the abundance of secondal dissonances. More precisely, in this type ofsutartines seconds sound almost constantly:Ex. 64. Lithuania. Example of two-part secondal sutartines, performed bythree singers (Slaviunas, 1972:64, #4)The technical means to achieve constant singing in seconds is very interesting.Singing in parallel seconds is always challenging for singers. So if you try to sing twoparallel melodies with the distance of a major second between the parts all the time, youwill soon find out how difficult this is to do.In sutartines the constant singing in seconds is not achieved by the parallelsinging of the same melodies in seconds. Instead, constant seconds are achieved by aclever combination of the type of the melody and the type of polyphony.Let us look at the melodic line of the typical secondal sutartines given above. Themelody often consists of two sections of mostly equal length. In our typical examplethere are three bars in each section, making the whole melody a six-bar structure (3+3
- Page 68 and 69: 68UkraineRegarding polyphonic singi
- Page 70 and 71: 70200), the difference between dron
- Page 72 and 73: 72BelarusBelarus is a part of the
- Page 74 and 75: 74Besides the drone and heterophoni
- Page 76 and 77: 76of the feast traditions and long
- Page 78 and 79: 78East GeorgiaEast Georgia consists
- Page 80 and 81: 80Fig. 3. Modulation from G to G# t
- Page 82 and 83: 82Polyphonic singing traditions in
- Page 84 and 85: 84In this four-part section we can
- Page 86 and 87: 86Improvisation in western Georgian
- Page 88 and 89: 88During our 1999 fieldwork in Geor
- Page 90 and 91: 90Interestingly, as Anzor Erkomaish
- Page 92 and 93: 92Different western Georgian dialec
- Page 95 and 96: 95Ex. 37. Lile. Ritual song dedicat
- Page 97 and 98: 97David Shugliashvili, both eastern
- Page 99 and 100: 99Urban MusicThe urban singing styl
- Page 101 and 102: 101Ex. 42. Suliko. Urban love song.
- Page 103 and 104: 103In Georgian traditional polyphon
- Page 105 and 106: 105BalkansThe Balkans are one of th
- Page 107 and 108: 107the tradition of polyphonic sing
- Page 109 and 110: 109It represents an interesting mix
- Page 111 and 112: 111Ex. 54. Bosnia and Herzegovina,
- Page 113 and 114: 113MacedoniaSpeaking about Macedoni
- Page 115 and 116: 115Ex. 59. Albania. Laberi style po
- Page 117: 117of fact, together with Romania,
- Page 121 and 122: 121research about sutartines (Slavi
- Page 123 and 124: 123LatviaAnother Baltic country, La
- Page 125 and 126: 125Ex. 68. Estonia. Setu polyphony
- Page 127 and 128: 127Tbilisi State Conservatory in th
- Page 129 and 130: 129contracted this peculiarity of s
- Page 131 and 132: 131throughout medieval northern Eur
- Page 133 and 134: 133electronic media; and whether th
- Page 135 and 136: 135To complete the review of the Ce
- Page 137 and 138: 137(9) The singing style is harsh a
- Page 139 and 140: 139ItalyWith its internationally re
- Page 141 and 142: 141than 120 Sicilianvillages and it
- Page 143 and 144: 143Vocal Polyphony in AsiaAsia is b
- Page 145 and 146: 145music of Ancient Greece itself i
- Page 147 and 148: 147possible space of a second.” T
- Page 149 and 150: 149sources from the 5 th (Favstos B
- Page 151 and 152: 151polyphonic singing came from Taj
- Page 153 and 154: 153(asamchilog, choir). 6/8 metre i
- Page 155 and 156: 155or less in unison, and one voice
- Page 157 and 158: 157Lithuanian sutartines, where you
- Page 159 and 160: 159idea of how rich (and how unknow
- Page 161 and 162: 161Ex. 90. China, Tibet (Bucher, 19
- Page 163 and 164: 163South-East AsiaVietnamAccording
- Page 165 and 166: 165Not all the traditions and music
- Page 167 and 168: Vocal Polyphony in North AmericaThe
119countries of <strong>the</strong> Baltic region are known to have interesting vocal forms of traditionalpolyphony. We shall <strong>first</strong> discuss two Baltic peoples, Lithuanians and Latvians, and <strong>the</strong>nEstonians.LithuaniaLithuania is <strong>the</strong> biggest out of all three Baltic countries and historically held aleading role in medieval Eastern Europe. Ano<strong>the</strong>r interesting historical fact is thatLithuania was <strong>the</strong> last country in Europe to officially adopt Christianity in <strong>the</strong> 14 thcentury.Lithuania is particularly well known as a homeland of <strong>the</strong> unique polyphonicsinging style known as sutartines. Although <strong>the</strong> term sutartines means “agreement”, or“cohesion”, sutartines is well known as <strong>the</strong> “kingdom of <strong>the</strong> dissonances”. To be moreprecise, we need to know that <strong>the</strong>re are a few different styles of sutartines, based ondifferent principles of polyphony (such as unison-heterophonic, canonic and drone typesof sutartines). Among all <strong>the</strong>se types of sutartines <strong>the</strong> most well-known and truly uniquetype is <strong>the</strong> so-called “secondal sutartines”. The most important feature of secondalsutartines is <strong>the</strong> abundance of secondal dissonances. More precisely, in this type ofsutartines seconds sound almost constantly:Ex. 64. Lithuania. Example of two-part secondal sutartines, performed bythree singers (Slaviunas, 1972:64, #4)The technical means to achieve constant singing in seconds is very interesting.Singing in parallel seconds is always challenging for singers. So if you try to sing twoparallel melodies with <strong>the</strong> distance of a major second between <strong>the</strong> parts all <strong>the</strong> time, youwill soon find out how difficult this is to do.In sutartines <strong>the</strong> constant singing in seconds is not achieved by <strong>the</strong> parallelsinging of <strong>the</strong> same melodies in seconds. Instead, constant seconds are achieved by aclever combination of <strong>the</strong> type of <strong>the</strong> melody and <strong>the</strong> type of polyphony.Let us look at <strong>the</strong> melodic line of <strong>the</strong> typical secondal sutartines given above. Themelody often consists of two sections of mostly equal length. In our typical example<strong>the</strong>re are three bars in each section, making <strong>the</strong> <strong>who</strong>le melody a six-bar structure (3+3
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