Cambridge Scholars Publishing Traditional Songs and Music of the Korçë Region of Albania

This book is concerned with the repertory of traditional urban song and music of the Korçë area in general and more specifically the karakteristike (characteristic) or ‘distinctive’ song associated with Korçë city, Albania. The first half of the 20th century marked the climax of an evolution which started in the mid-19th century with the oral tradition of urban song in Korçë. While the translation of ‘Kënga Karakteristike Korçare’ into ‘Korçare Distinctive Song’ seems to be an odd name for a genre, it is, however, a translation as close as possible to the original Albanian, denoting the characteristic songs of Korçë. The term ‘characteristic’ implies peculiar or specific songs, different not only from the traditional urban song of Korçë, but also from any kind of song, whether folk, popular, traditional urban or art, composed and performed among the Korçë people. The book also introduces the Korçare urban song and urban lyric song, as well as the Saze music, which were introduced during the Ottoman domination of the Balkans. About the Author Dr Eno Koço is a conductor and musicologist, and the author of several books and articles in English, including Albanian Urban Lyric Song in the 1930s (2004), ‘Shostakovich, Kadaré and the Nature of Dissidence’ in The Musical Times (2005), and “Styles of the Iso-based Multipart Singing of South Albania, North Epirus and Among the Arbëresh of Italy” in Multipart Music, a Specific Mode of Musical Thinking (2012), among others. He appears in the most recent international editions of the Albanian Encyclopaedic Dictionary and Who’s Who in the World. He was nominated an Honoured Artist by the Albanian state in 1984, and received his PhD from the University of Leeds in 1998. He is currently Associate Professor at the Academy of Arts in Tirana, Albania, and is a recipient of the Nation’s Honor Order of Albania.