This resource aims to introduce Western audiences to what is perhaps the
least known, heard or discussed urban folk-music in Europe. Although
this music--Albanian urban song--is the most prominent of Albanian
musical genres, it has continuously been overlooked by musicologists in
favor of rural folk-music. Some commentators have implied that Albanian
urban music was not as genuinely Albanian as the music of its mountains
and countryside. But it is no less a part of the country's musical
history, particularly in the twentieth century, and is equally as pure
an expression of Albanian spirit and culture. The author examines the
indigenous diatonic and chromatic modes used in Albanian urban music and
classifies them under traditional headings and as part of a newly
established grouping, here termed south-western Balkan modes. The core
of the work is the analysis of Albanian urban lyric songs, seen as an
artistic version of the traditional Albanian urban songs. When these
songs began to enter the classical repertories, the pioneers of the
1930s suggested that, based on the Albanian urban songs, the new genre
should be developed into urban lyric song. Whatever its origin, whether
Near Eastern or south-western Balkan, the composer-arrangers and the
lyric singers of the Albanian urban lyric song in the 1930s conceived
them on the whole as Western vocal and instrumental products.
Complemented by two music CDs, Albanian Urban Lyric Song in the 1930s
provides musicologists, students of Balkan music, and curious readers
with an enlightening discussion of a much overlooked but richly
rewarding musical tradition.
