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122region). Let us have a look at the “best-kept secret” from Lithuanian polyphonic culture –example of drone polyphony:Ex. 65. Lithuania. Drone sutartines. (Raciunaite-Vychiniene, 2002:200)Heterophonic (or variant-heterophonic) sutartines with almost unison singing isanother polyphonic style in Lithuania. Unlike drone polyphony, the existence ofheterophonic style has been long-since recognized.The ubiquitous contemporary polyphonic style (obviously influenced byEuropean professional music) with characteristic parallel thirds and cadencial fifths isspread through the same polyphonic region of Lithuania (Northeast region Aukstaitia)And finally we should say that the Lithuanian polyphonic singing style sutartines(and particularly the best-known type, the secondal polytonal sutartines) became atrademark of Lithuanian musical culture and a potent sign of national identity in thestruggle against the USSR policy of Russification.As a unique polyphonic style, sutartines has been discussed in numerousscholarly articles, and different points of views are expressed in the scholarly literatureregarding the archaic features and the chronology of the emergency of this singing style.We will have a special section in the second, “comparative” part of this book, fullydedicated to a discussion of different existing points of view on the origins of sutartines.