Albanian music

The music has always been a very important chapter in our life. Music has always existed in the world.
Every population has a form of music that it has evolved over time.

There are many types of music: pop, rock, metal, classic, rap and even folk. If you think that you have listened to all genres of music, you are wrong because probably you haven’t listened to our music… Our Albanian music!

The most popular music in Albania is folkloristic music. This type of music is very antique and it has been handed down orally. Albanian folk music is proudly represented by ‘’shota’’ band, with the most famous soloist Shkurte Fejza.

Albanian music represents a set of different traditional kinds of music, from Balcanic music (with its particular rhythm) to many other Turkish and Western influences. In Kosovo there is a type of Balcanic traditional rap: we call it ‘’tallava’’. Besides, you can even listen to a mix of Macedonian and Albanian songs with Eastern rhythm. It’s a very funny and appreciated genre, especially during weddings.

The characteristic instrument of Albanian music is definetely “çiftelia”.

It is a musical instrument with two strings. It is typically played in popular music. The word “çiftelia” actually comes from the Albanian language “çift” (double).
Nikolle Nikprelaj is one of the most famous person that plays this instrument. The lyrics of popular music usually talks about heroes and love. This instrument is best used by elders because they don’t want to lose their traditional music, so they like to teach young people how to play the çiftelia. Recently, indeed this instrument is played by young people to keep traditions alive as you can see in the following video.

After that, the çiftelia is usually played with “tupani”. It is known as one of the oldest rhythmic instruments comes from Asian countries.
It’s a cylindical drum made of leather. It works with a rod, with a set of traditional instruments.
This musical instrument has deserved place in popular Albanian music; without it, popular dances can not be immagine. Indeed the drum can’t miss in Albanian weddings. The “tupan” is an alarming and informative tool, used to inform the people of a neighborhood that the marriage was about to begin. Thanks to his thunder the neighbours could realize that there was a wedding and this automatically meant to be invited to the wedding dinner.
This has happened because there was the lack of communication tools.Finally, in Kosovo, we find modern music that comes from the Western countries. There are others kinds of music too, such as pop, hip-hop, rap, rock and jazz music.
Currently, the kind of music young people mostly listen to is Rap.

GLOSSARY

Handed down => transmit over time, through generations.
Lyric=> are words that make up a song usually consisting of verses and choruses.
Çiftelia => music instrument, with plucked cordes, the most characteristic thing: only 2 cordes.
Tupani => it’s a cylindical drum made of leather. It works with a rod, with a set of traditional instruments.
Folk => genre of music that develops traditional thems starting with peasant protests and popular generally.
Tallava => albanian music style
Elderly => is a person that i san old age. This person is considered old, when has over sixty-five years
Neighborhood => the inhabitants of the same street you life.