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ConclusionsWith the survey of Italy we have finished the survey of the vocal polyphonictraditions of the European continent. Although I have tried to present a completely fulllist of the main regions and styles of polyphony in different European countries andregions (particularly of the peoples of Eastern Europe, much less known to westernethnomusicologists and interested readers), I acknowledge that such a brief survey of thewhole continent cannot cover the amazing variety of all practices of group choral singingin Europe. Another shortcoming of this survey is that certain countries and polyphonictraditions have received more attention than others. So, bearing all this in mind, andwithout repeating the few remarks about European polyphony that we discussed at thebeginning of the review of the European continent, let us formulate a few generalconclusions about vocal polyphony in Europe:‣ Although in a certain sense we may say that the whole of Europerepresents one big polyphonic region, unlike sub-Saharan Africa,different types of polyphony are spread here in certain isolated regions.‣ Without going into a more detailed classification of the polyphonictraditions of European traditional polyphonic styles, I would like todistinguish three main types of polyphony here. The drone type ofpolyphony is definitely one of the dominating types of vocal polyphonythroughout the European landscape. This is particularly evident ingeographically more isolated (and supposedly more archaic) regions – inmountain ranges, islands and forests. The harmonic language of thisstyle often features very specific secondal harmonies and small-rangemelodies.‣ Another “pan-European” style we may call the “late European type ofpolyphony” as it seems to be connected to the later influence ofEuropean professional polyphony and harmonic system. Movement inparallel thirds and sixths, triadic chords and tonic-subdominantdominantharmonic relationships characterize this polyphonic style.‣ The third widely spread type of vocal polyphony in Europe is variantheterophony. Although variant heterophony can be potentially presentin every singing style where any of the parts is performed by more thanone performer (for example the bass part), I use the name “variantheterophony” as a name for a type of polyphony only in cases when themain melody is performed by a group of singers in a variantheterophonictexture. Rich and varied forms of variant heterophony areparticularly widespread in eastern Europe.142