Customer Reviews

Vocal Traditions of Albania

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One of my most exciting CD discoveries this year, this masterpiece was recorded live by Radio Tirana, during the last day of the National Folklore Festival in Berat (Albania)in 1995. Different regional groups from all over Albania performed their unique style of music and vocal traditions. It is a valuable CD because it contains so many examples, of rural, urban, homophonic & polyphonic songs from all regions of Albania. There are epic hero stories, love songs, and working songs. The music itself sounds like a hybrid of Serbian, Macedonian, Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian. I love the instruments: clarinet, accordion, llaute (an eight-stringed lute), an end-blown shepherd's flute and kamanche (up-right three stringed violin). The music and singing is intense, raw, and passionate. It will appeal to anyone who loves traditional music of the Balkans.

Some of my favorite selections are, "Far from the Golden Palace", which is about a dervish who was such a staunch patriot that he built a mosque which inspired everyone who visited to love their homeland as much as he did. "Bec Patani" is played on a cifteli, a lute-like instrument which sounds like a zither ensemble. It is a patriotic song dedicated to a hero, a young man who fought valiantly against the Ottoman Occupation. "Kam shtepine me rasa" is a polyphonic song, in which one set of men sing the melody, and another group of male voices create a drone soung. The song is about a young man who falls in love but he may be rejected because his house is very old and made of wood and sticks. My most favorite is "Kenge populare qytetane" in which a female vocalist professes her love for a young man. The musical elements and stylizations are very appealing, along with a very catchy refrain and infectious rhythm. This CD will appeal to anyone who loves traditional music of the Balkans and wants to explore and expand their boundaries of musical appreciation.
Erika Borsos (erikab93)

A great CD for those who love Albanian folk music and for those who would like to know it. Includes pure traditional music from different regions of Albania so you will get a complete picture: polyphonic chants from the south, warrior dances from the North, ballads, laments, love songs, lullabies, wedding dances and what more. I love it. I doubt there is any Albanian cd out there more complete that this one.

This CD is very interesting & enjoyable for a number of reasons.

Balkan folk music in general is fascinating. Certainly it sounds more Middle Eastern than W. European. It's a lot like the Western enjoyment of Raga (East Indian, Ravi & Anouka Shankar, etc.) in that it appeals to two levels of Western taste: (1) The musical professional who understands it from a technical level, and (2) People like me who just really dig it.

The first category of listeners understand that Balkan folk music, like Raga, is composed in a completely different tonal scale than Western music. When they go wild over the music it is because they understand the nature of technical expertise it takes to produce a musical result. The rest of us (and I'm not excluding professionals from this category either) love it because it plays all sorts of exciting games with our neurons--that is, it is conducive to completely involved natural high.

Some people have said that the male Balkan chorus featured on some CDs sound like tom cats in heat--and, well, frankly there's some truth in that if some selections are heard from the perspective of an unaccustomed ear; but they bring to my mind images of old time Western cowboys singin' and tellin' tale tales over the campfire. The Cowboy & Romani cultures certainly have distinct parallels. This particular CD showcases the "best of" Albanian men's chorale. I believe any receptive, if not necessarily musically trained ear, will enjoy the male choral selections.

When it comes to Balkan women's choral & individual singing--there's no question I think in anybody's head who appreciates it, that it is touches a perfect & harmoniously sublime creative level. When I think lullabye, I hear a Balkan female voice singing it.

One of the other interesting things about Balkan music is the lyrics. It's been said that the Balkan lanquages are among the most difficult to learn in the world. In a way this is a plus, because most of the lyrics seem amazingly mundane in comparison to the extraordinary spiritual depth of the music that supports them. Things like, so-and-so traveled over the wide mountains to kill so-and-so, a bloody Turk! Of course there are also many love & wedding songs as well.

Lately a new genre of music seems to have emerged labeled Gothic/Vampire--really, no kidding. Back in the late 70's I produced an ill-fated & ill-conceived Vampire Play with Balkan folk music as a thematic backdrop. The play was justly panned & garnered such reviews as, "Oedipal nonsense a la Dracula-Meets-Lady Chatterly, but with a wonderful, ethnic musical score."

Getting back to this particularly wonderful CD.

Many of the selections--if not all--are excellent recordings from live performances. I am not a big fan of this type of recording, primarily because the audience reaction (at least to me) seems to get in the way. This CD has no problems in that arena at all, and, in fact, wisely integrates the audience response. Applause is barely discernable in most selections; but in some, particularly near the end of the 23 songs, it is most appropriately included. I liked this because it demonstrated (1) the sheer fervor of the audience for their folk superstars & musical national treasure, and (2) draws the receptive listener into this really exciting experience.

The closing number Dasmore sot asht tan Shiqinija, a wedding song, is one of the most powerfully ecstatic & wild & passionately life-affirming songs I've ever heard.

Balkan Journeys Close to Home
Balkan: Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria
Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares
Music of Bulgaria
Songs and Dances from Albania
Transylvania
Carnival Of Lost Souls
Necronomicon

My father is from Albania, so I wanted to get a few Albanian CDs for him. He likes the songs on this CD.