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137(9) The singing style is harsh and strained, particularly in the top voices,and the bass is more relaxed. While singing, performers usually standclose to each other, with hands cupped around their ears, and theyoften sing with closed eyes.Each village usually had their own versu’s (the basic model of musicalrealization) and they were referred to as “u versu di Russiu”, “u versu di Tagliu”according to the village or region (Bithell, 2000:7). The central and most importantregion of the paghjella tradition is the forest-covered mountainous region of Castagnicciain central-eastern Corsica.Another part of Corsica’s polyphonic tradition is connected to the influence ofItalian music. Corsica belonged to the Italian cities Pisa and Genoa from the 11 th to the18 th centuries. This influence is felt in such polyphonic genres as Madrigale, sirinati(serenades), barcarole, brindisi and dance songs (Laade, 2000:570-571). Theirperformance style sometimes is referred as a paghjella (“in a paghjella style”, Bithell,2000:5). “Songs of Italian or French origin are always sung in a relaxed voice, and manyvillage and urban singers sing Italian and modern Corsican songs in an operatic bel canto[‘beautiful singing’ in Italian, a famous operatic singing style in Italy] voice” (Laade,2000:571).PortugalAccording to the Garland Encyclopedia article written by the expert of thePortugal traditional music and polyphony, Castelo-Branco (2000), vocal polyphonicsinging occurs in few isolated pockets of northern and southern Portugal. In themountainous north part of Portugal these are the districts of Viana do Castelo, Braga andAveiro. In the central part of the north of Portugal there is the district of Viseu, and incentral-east Portugal the district of Castelo-Branco. Another important region oftraditional polyphony is in the district of Beja in the southern part of Portugal.The polyphonic traditions are mostly connected to the European major-minorharmon ic system. Two-, three- and four-part singing in Portugal is based on Europeantriadic harmonies and parallel thirds.The scales are mostly European major and minor, but in the Beja and Castelo-Branco districts older scale systems are also used. The melodies in the central, easternand south Portugal polyphonic traditions use melismatic ornaments (but not in theNorthwestern districts). In most of the polyphonic regions women sing polyphonic songs.Only in southern Portugal (district Beja in Alentejo) is polyphony primarily a part of themale repertoire.SpainVocal monophony with oriental ornaments and the brilliant tradition of flamencois so dominating in Spanish musicology that Garland’s article on the music of Spain failsto mention the presence of vocal polyphony in the traditional music of any of the regionsof Spain.According to available information, the tradition of vocal polyphony is stillpresent in several regions of Spain: Valencia, Balears, Catalonia Aragon, Murcia,Navarra, and pa rticularly among the Basques. According to Ayats and Martinez, “In