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Обредните песни от Гора, Албания
Ritual Songs from the Gora Region, Albania

Author(s): Veselka Toncheva
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Customs / Folklore, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Пловдивски университет »Паисий Хилендарски«
Keywords: Albania; ritual songs; ethnomusicological approaches
Summary/Abstract: The Gora region is located in the territory of three countries – Republic of Kosovo (19 villages), Republic of Albania (9 villages) and Republic of Macedonia (2 villages). The part of this community, living in Albania, is incompletely studied, but the ritual songs of the Goranians are preserved with their music features and are still in use. The division of the area less than 100 years ago, the specific trajectory of the Albanian Gora and the "closed" and isolated way of life is a factor for the preservation of the ritual song. The text presents the calendar ritual songs performed on St. George's Day and the wedding songs as a part of this family ritual. Nazif Docle, a local researcher publishes a lot of song lyrics from his native village of Borje, but this does not give any details on the musical language and musical thinking of this group. The text analyzes the ritual song repertoire from the Gora region (Albania) using ethnomusicological approaches.