Modality in professional music in Albania and Kosovo

• Author: Kushtrim Jakupi
• Position: Faculty of Music of Pristina University
• Pages: 159-166

Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Tirana-Albania

Vol. 2 No. 2

July 2016

ISSN 2410-3918

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

159

Modality in professional music in Albania and Kosovo

PhD (C.). Kushtrim Jakupi

Faculty of Music of Pristina University

Abstract

Albanian folk music, this great treasure preserved over generations is an expression of high con-

sciousness of everything precious inherited from the past. In determining the typology of this

folklore, Albanian Ethnomusicology rightly refers to two major ethnographic divisions, which,

accordingtothenaturalboundarydenedbyShkumbiniRiverareGheginthenorthernpart

and Tosk, south of it. In a general approach (even within these two large ethno music areas, folk-

lore is presented with its striking diversity), it can be said, that: northern folklore, respectively

Gheg one, is distinguished for its monodic singing, based on oj- and chromatic modes with 11

soundsinuencedbyorientalmusicwhilesouthernfolkmusicgenerallyappearsuniediniso

polyphony, which by modal perspective is built on pentatonic (Tole, 2007, 5).

The types of degree’s steps that are encountered in Albanian folklore music can be divided in

twocategoriesdenedby theirown originsIn therstgroupthesocalled diatonic modes,

includeoldermodesinwhichdidnotpenetratethelaterinuencesthatcamefromtheOrient

whenAlbanianbecamepart oftheOoman EmpireKoçi apart ofwhichwith

ancient origins, like three, tetra, penta and hexachord, while the rest derived from church

modes, like eolik and jonic, but also anhemitonic pentatonic. To the other group belong chromatic

modes, with oriental origin.

Consequently, even the Albanian folk music melody is based on diatonic modes on one hand,

where eolic, doric and jonic dominate (and the combination of two modes, eolic and jonic are

a rather frequent phenomenon), as well as in defective modes mentioned above and on the

other hand in chromatic modes (Çefa. 1997, 97).

Keywords: Folklore, Albania, Kosovo, modality, music.

Introduction

A special interest in Albanian folk music is present in particular in the pentatonic modal

system, through which we can say that it is proved the earliest origin of Albania’s

folk tradition. The wide spreading of this system, not only in the Balkan Peninsula,

but also in distant musical cultures, as in the Far East or even to the indigenous of

America, realizes that melodic systems are the result of the human consciousness

development (Shupo, 2002, 4). Among all global ethnic cultures, pentatonic presence is

taken as a cultural privilege.

The chromatic construction modes can be heard to a large extent in civic music,

becauseforeign inuence penetrated much more and quickly in the large centers

(cities) than in rural areas. Due to its geographical position and isolation that came

asaresult ofthe articialclosureofnaturalboundariesinAlbanianareasoriginal

indigenous music made an active life, remained preserved almost intact. Until World

War II, Albanians did not manage to create their own professional music, and the

musical developments that occurred in pre-war period, generally, may be called of