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221monophonic singing styles. So, we are looking at the vocal polyphonic traditions withthe following specifications:(1) Drone polyphony (most likely the pedal drone),(2) Melodic lines are richly ornamented with melismas,(3) The rhythm is free (or relatively free), and(4) The time organization is mostly non-metric.Those who read the first part of this book very carefully may remember thatpolyphonic traditions with such characteristics are not rare in Europe. Here are some ofthem:• South Albanian polyphony of the Tosks and Chameri (but not the Labs);• Part of the polyphony of the Macedonians (although the other part does notshow these features);• Polyphony of Farsheroti Aromanians in Romania;• In Bulgaria – vocal polyphony in Pirin;• Northern Greece (Epirus) polyphony;• Southeastern Serbian polyphonic style;• Northern regions of Belarus Palessie (and again – the southern part does notshow these features);• Corsican polyphonic singing;• North Sardinian polyphonic singing;• East Spain polyphonic singing in Albacete;• Eastern and Southern Portugal polyphony (but not the northeastern polyphonicstyle).More about Mixed Styles: Age MattersAny migration can and usually does lead to the mixture of different ethnicelements and cultures, and there is hardly a culture (or nation) on our planet that does notrepresent a mixture of different ethnic and cultural elements. The only difference is thatearlier influences from a different type of culture are much more difficult to trace thanlater influences, because the longer period of time of the interaction between differentmusical styles assists the process of natural “absorption” of two initially different culturesinto one common mixed style. Later influences are often more obvious, less “absorbed”and much easier to detect. For example, in Georgia the later influences (from the 7 thcentury onwards) of Arabic and Turkic musical cultures are very obvious, because oftenthe complete melodies, musical instruments, performance genres and terminologyunivocally point to the external influences. At the same time an earlier influence of IndordndEuropean culture in Georgia (3 -2 millennia B.C.) is much more difficult to detect, asthis earlier influence has been long since absorbed, and today it is represented by a muchmore subtle mixture of elements from polyphonic and monophonic singing traditions(like the ornamented melodic lines and rhythmically freely flowing singing of polyphonic“long” table songs of East Georgia). Late external influences are usually readily