The folk music of Tirana is a phenomenon which was consolidated during the first half of the twentieth century. Its establishment was conditioned by three core elements: the introduction of European tempered instruments, secondly, the artistic locality with three big urban music cultures, such as the ones of Shkodra, Elbasan and Berat, and thirdly, the recognition and the proclamation of Tirana as the capital of Albania.
This music demonstrates the same structural and organisational features as the major part of music and of the urban songs of the cities of central and northern Albania. Our ethnomusicology classifies the music zone above the river Shkumbin, as mainly being the area of music monophony, of its forms that are expressed as mondi, backed-up mondi, or homophony. The new music expected to be established in Tirana did not make a difference in this regard, thus being and structured in general as monophonic music, similar to its condition nowadays. Beyond this, it complied with the music features of the surrounding area, even though from this moment and on, they would be transmitted through the European tempered instruments.
Manuscript of Muharrem Gurre on the origin of folk music in Tirana
Actually, a new city as Tirana, which was turning into a metropolis, needed a new urban music to certify the long tradition and its special identity within the national identity of the pan-Albanian folk music. At the same time, it naturally needed in its daily life the state and culture institutions, modern projects and developed trade, streets, parks and public squares, fashion and education of high standards etc. Lasgush would say: … what does custom, tradition, convention mean? Custom, tradition, convention means a People, a Nation, that means a conscious person, a person who knows their own self, who recognizes their own self. When you have a convention, you know yourself. When you have a tradition, you are a Nation, you are a People, not a population. A part of people (the one with no tradition), a group of people (with no tradition) is a mass, is a crowd, is a population, are inhabitants – but it is not a People, it is not a Nation. He would further emphasize the need that tradition, this colossal potential for the foundation of a Nation, has a condition: to be Written. Because the written word multiplies, centuples its action, multiplies it by thousands and millions. When it is written, it becomes concrete, powerful, it becomes saint, divine, it is divinized.
These were exactly the years of “writing” the tradition of Tirana through the urban music. Because “writing” it in notes and words, and documenting it would try that when you are a group with a tradition, at the same time, you are a Nation with a tradition. That your group has a spiritual and material power and is not amorphic. That it has expression, development, progress, perfection during its existence. That it fills up, accomplishes and realizes its own life, to head towards perfection, towards excellence. It means that it lives with its Fate, its Mission for which it was born in this world. That it evolves, does not stick at one place only, making no progress. That it is a man. It is, it exists!
Mrs. Hatixhja dhe Sofija, renown singers during 1920-1930. Their musical legacy is perpetuated on the Cd-s of the time. The registration belongs to the beginnings of the 1930s
Even though the tempered instruments came to Albania in the second half of the nineteenth century, the tradition of rural music and of their music formations was ancient, not only in comparison with Tirana but also with other older cities outside Albania. The cities such as Shkodra, Elbasan or Berat had been existing as such for hundreds of years. In this context, it is impossible to imagine rural life without places dedicated to entertainment, closely related to art and the interpretation of folk music. The cities mentioned above had hundreds of entertainment places, where music had the main place. Tirana was one of them.
Jules Alexandre Theodore Degrand (1844-1911), the former consul of France in Shkodra, in his book “Memories of High Albania”, published in 1901, writes that: … a broad paddock close to my host’s house, surrounded with admirable cypresses, has been inherited through his father’s will, a descendant of the prominent beys of Tirana, for the celebration of ahengs (ceremonies) held in these events (including Bayram and Bayram of Sacrifice-our note), where a considerable part of the population would gather. It was the standard of the big families of Tirana, which were closely bonded with their city, thus they protected and encouraged the development of urban folk music as a part of their engagement for a cultivated city.
The inhabitants of Tirana had and still preserve a strong cult of the house, because it contained essentially the family cult. The traditional Tirana house would be constructed with qerpic and wooden beams. There were two areas in a house that were admired daily by its members: the hearthstone and the entrance step. The fire in the hearthstone would symbolise the representative of the Sun-God in the house… Additionally, it would gather around the hearth three and sometimes four generations of the patriarchal family. It was around the hearth that the new generations would learn about the customs, the songs, the tales, the history, but also about the myths, the rites, the cults and all the other elements of urban identity.
The introduction of European music instruments, such as the violin, the clarinet, the accordion etc., in folk music established a phenomenon which is considered by the ethnomusicology as the “music hybridization”, which the case when these instruments combine their music features with the music features of a domestic culture to create a new type. This is what happened to the music with saze of the cities of Southern Albania, at the end of the nineteenth century, this is what was happening with the new urban music of Tirana. Another sign of “hybridization” was also the implementation of the traditional approaches with the new instruments. Prof. R. Sokoli explained that the ahengxhinjtë of the cities of Northern Albania mixed some features of the technique of kemanxhe with the technique of using the violin, keeping the instrument vertically supported on the knee, the same way the lute and lahuri are kept.
Unlike what is mentioned above, he explains that the folk violinists of Central Albania would keep the instrument horizontally on the shoulder. This is proved to have happened in the first decade of the twentieth century. Another aspect of “hybridization” was the approach of tuning the violin, especially when the “Valle e Pipzave” would be interpreted. The first and the second wire would be tuned in unison, meanwhile the two other wires were tuned in a quintet (la-la-re-sol).
Nga ana tjetёr, ajo qё mund tё dukej si disfavor pёr Tiranёn, pra qё fillimi i shek. XX-tё e gjeti nё fazat fillestare tё urbanizimit e tё jetёs qytetare, e kёsisoj pa formacione e muzikё tё konsoliduar qytetare, u pa se ishte vёrtet njё përparësi, kjo nё pikёpamje tё procesit tё krijimit tё muzikёs popullore qytetare tё pas vitit 1920. Kjo përparësi lidhej me faktin se muzika e qytetit tё ri tё Tiranёs do tё krijohej edhe nё kushtet e lirisё, nё kuadёr tё njё shteti shqiptar qё po konsolidohej, me rrёnjё dhe e mirё fokusuar nё muzikёn qindravjeçare tё njё terreni tё virgjёr si ishte muzika e fshatrave tё Malёsisё sё Tiranёs. E theksoj kёtё fakt pasi muzika tradicionale e fshatrave tё Tiranёs (nё kёngё, melodi instrumentale e valle), ruan elemente melodike primitive tё origjinёs sё lashtё arbёrore, kjo e e mbёshtetur mbi mode modale diatonike, pa ndikime tё thekshme kromatike, tё cilat si dihen, lidhen mё sё pari me shtresimet e mbishtresimet e gati 500 vjetёve pushtimi otoman nё muzikёn tonё qytetare.
In his opinion, Ernest Koliqi specifies some cities where the impact was stronger, according to him: … the Turkish impact in the cities would grow bigger especially in Elbasan, Berat and Shkodra. The songs performed with one small orchestra with five instruments (a harmonica, a small mandolin, a violin, a clarinet, a drum and a singer) would boom festively during weddings. They were copied voluntarily based on the eastern models (qaside, gazel), and they have a lot of Turkish, Persian and Arabic dances.
Our ethnomusicology has treated this phenomenon that has occurred in the rural music, mainly of the Central and Northern Albania. For example, in our analysis on the repertoire of “Ahengu Shkodran”, we have identified four music layers: the old, traditional layer before the Turkish invasion and of the modal-diatonic music of Shkodra and the surroundings; the layer of the modal-chromatic music spread by the ottomans among us, too, such as in the folklore of the other areas of the Balkans; the layer of the pan-Balkan music; and the layer which includes the period recognized as “shkodranizimi i agengut”, or the liberation of aheng (celebration) from orientalism elements.
Tirana was not included in the list of the direct impacts, because the Turkish invasion was essentially an invasion of cities and their castles, and was subsequently spread in villages, as well. This happened because the Turkish influence was an urban influence. They would locate there their administration and military forces, along with the music formations.
The writer Ismail Kadare dedicates a considerable part of his creativity to the analysis of the folk songs in the framework of the Albanians’ European identity, and especially to the supposedly-folk songs, referring to the ashiks’ and dylbers’ flat and feeble songs, as well as to the vulgar songs. According to him, the so-called erotic literature was, in a considerable part, nothing else but bejte, and praises paedophilia. …We listen to these songs even today, but we pretend we do not understand what they mean. He considers them as a subculture introduced illegally, under the passport of the folk art, as the remains of the rugs of Ottoman slavery. Fortunately, Tirana was not the city that would be invaded and impacted musically. What would be created later as the rural music of Tirana resulted to be an authentic and real process, which is enjoyed by the inhabitants of Tirana, as well as the others.
For more about the urban folk music, see Vasil S. Tole, “Muzika popullore qytetare e Tiranes”, interviste 2020 – YouTube