Albanian folk music

[Dax]

Never heard any Albanian folk music? Try here.

http://www.r3ok.com/index.php/topic,1006.0.html

Some of the links may have expired: the later ones certainly haven't.

[arkiv]

Yes, I like Albanian folk music in 5/8 and 7/8.

[snyprrr]

Armenia...Albania...boy do I get them confused. I used to have an album of what I believe was plaintive ALBANIAN folk music on the Arion label. As I remember, certain sections had the same kind of plaintive beauty that informed the Bulgarian Women's Choir cds on Nonesuch. So, as far as i can remember, Albanian folk music is the shizznit!

[Tapkaara]

I have a disc of Albanian folk music that I picked up in France a few years ago. This disc is called Mysterious Albania. The music is great, and very strange.

I also got a disc of Armenian folk music (on that same trip) and I think it is immediately more accessible than the Albanian.

[Dax]

Valle festivale

http://www.sendspace.com/file/dk2x2x

Another two

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ctsb5e

http://www.sendspace.com/file/h01gc9

Këngë e Bajram Curri

http://www.sendspace.com/file/8h5p02


which comprises 4 items of Albanian folk music.

Each of them features a characteristic Central Albanian rhythm. I would maintain that the bars are essentially in 7, but the beats are unequal; in other words, to notate them, beats would last 3, 4 or 5 semiquavers.

The first example is entitled Valle festivale (festive dance) - (3+4) + (4+5) + (3+4+5) and there are a couple of other instrumental numbers which feature the same rhythm. There is also an apparently percussionless song entitled Këngë e Bajram Curri which appears to employ a reversal of that rhythm namely (3+4+5) + (3+4) + (4+5).

The rhythm will be unfamiliar to most and apparently baffling to those hearing it for the first time. In order to work it out, one should of course focus on the percussion. The most readily identifiable part of the rhythm is the final (3+4+5) to which the solution seems clearly to be
quaver+semiquaver/quaver+quaver/quaver+semiquaver+quaver
and then the rest of the rhythm can be worked out from there.

This rhythm seems not uncommon in Central Albanian music although I've never seen a reference to it in any Albanian publication or anywhere on the internet. Nor have I come across a similar rhythm in my rather limited knowledge of the music of neighbouring countries (Turkey would possibly be the obvious suspect). I've encountered a couple of people who have a view (specifically on Këngë e Bajram Curri) concerning the rhythm which is rather different from my own - one person whose view I don't respect and another (a respected ethnomusicologist) who points out that it's quite common when identifying such things for different people to come up with varied metrical/rhythmic solutions. This is a wiser view than it might seem given that I possess a number of recordings featuring this rhythm, some of which have a subtly different rhythmic "feel".

So here's the problem for any fellow-member who feels able to reply - identify the rhythm! I'd be grateful for your views, whether or not it happens to agree with my own.

Of course, you could set it as a test for your students, should they need to be kept off the streets for a bit . . .

Edit: apologies to anyone who attempted to access the previous file. I cocked it up.

[Dax]

No takers then? Never mind - it was worth a try!

[rhomboid]

http://www.youtube.com/v/jHulS1Sbzbg

http://www.youtube.com/v/HmuwzIJvRjo

[Dax]

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/50qqaktp9c024/Albania_1973-88_DS1

This file (DS1) contains 22 items recorded from Radio Tiranë during visits to Albania between 1973-88. They will all fit on to a single CD. No apologies are made for the state of the recordings, time-checks, the bizarre and obscure identification tags etc.

[Dax]

Unfortunately, I gather that there's a problem with the Mediafire link - aggressive advertising: apologies for that.

http://we.tl/lLSoG12xkv is a We Transfer link for DS1 which will expire on the 25th June.

[Roy Bland]