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who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

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210perform two-part songs with enthusiasm” (Lloyd, 1961:145). The author of <strong>the</strong>sevisionary words did not try to generalize his idea towards <strong>the</strong> general tendency of <strong>the</strong>disappearance of vocal polyphony all over <strong>the</strong> world, but <strong>the</strong> appearance of such an idea(even in connection with only one region – <strong>the</strong> Balkans) was symptomatic.Unfortunately, ideas like this sounded like <strong>the</strong> singing of an exotic bird in <strong>the</strong>environment of <strong>the</strong> solid belief of musicologists in <strong>the</strong> steady evolutionary movementfrom monophony to polyphony.As we have seen, <strong>the</strong> only documented case of <strong>the</strong> appearance of <strong>the</strong> polyphony isEuropean professional polyphony, discussed in <strong>the</strong> previous section. It was mostly <strong>the</strong>legacy of <strong>the</strong> study of <strong>the</strong> late emergence of European professional polyphony thatfundamentally influenced <strong>the</strong> historical thinking of musicologists and ethnomusicologistsabout <strong>the</strong> origins of vocal polyphony. And although <strong>the</strong> idea of <strong>the</strong> independent andearlier origins of polyphony in traditional music is generally accepted, polyphony is stillmostly viewed as <strong>the</strong> logical result of <strong>the</strong> development of <strong>the</strong> initial, or “primordial”monophony. The results of this study strongly suggest that polyphony is not <strong>the</strong> result of<strong>the</strong> evolutionary development of initial monophonic singing. On <strong>the</strong> contrary, <strong>the</strong>historical dynamics and <strong>the</strong> available recorded information from different continentssuggest that <strong>the</strong> tradition of polyphonic singing is gradually disappearingon our planet.So where and when should we look for <strong>the</strong> origins of polyphonic singing? I wouldsuggest readers not jump to conclusions about <strong>the</strong> origins and age of vocal polyphony.We will reach this subject in <strong>the</strong> final, third part of this book. In <strong>the</strong> third part of <strong>the</strong> book,after discussing <strong>the</strong> origins of <strong>the</strong> vocal polyphony, we will discuss <strong>the</strong> reasons and <strong>the</strong>mechanisms of <strong>the</strong> gradual disappearance of <strong>the</strong> vocal polyphony. But before this westill have a few more important “case studies” to discuss.Case Study # 4Drone and Horses:Ancient European Family of Polyphonyand <strong>the</strong> Indo-Europeans<strong>For</strong> <strong>the</strong> understanding of <strong>the</strong> puzzling distribution of vocal polyphonic traditionsin <strong>the</strong> European continent <strong>the</strong> <strong>question</strong> of Indo-European migrations is crucial. No o<strong>the</strong>rmigration process had such a profound impact for <strong>the</strong> history and populations of Europe,as <strong>the</strong> appearance and spreading of waves of Indo-Europeans. What I am going to do inthis “case” is to generally discuss <strong>the</strong> appearance and spreading of Indo-Europeanlanguages throughout Europe from <strong>the</strong> musical point of view (Jordania, 1992b). I am notgoing to discuss <strong>the</strong> problem of Indo-European languages in any detail. I trust that <strong>the</strong>reader of this book would have some general knowledge of Indo-Europeans and <strong>the</strong> factthat most of <strong>the</strong> languages of Europe (particularly of Western Europe) belong to one huge

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