Contact: A Journal for Contemporary Music (1971-1988) http://contactjournal.gold.ac.uk

Citation

Smith, Dave. 1983. ‘Music in Albania’. Contact, 26. pp. 20-22. ISSN 0308-5066.

21 archive of the Institute of People's Culture in introduces an authentic lyrical folk-tune at one point holds about 21,000 folk melodies. 'This may seem a -before launching into a brief but astonishing large collection', the assistant director told me, 'but it cadenza, related to the particular variety of kaba is small in comparison to what we must have.' There found in Permet and featuring a stylised 'wailing' are frequent national and regional contests and figure and retuning of the violin's G string. festivals, of which the most celebrated is the National This is a good example of a work that openly Folklore Festival, held in Gjirokastra, a picturesque displays its folk music connections without sounding city in the south renowned for its unique architecture. like a sophisticated arrangement. While it is unmis- This festival is held every five years, most recently in takably of the 20th century, it is light years away from, October 1978. say, Bartok or Enescu, being pretty consonant and full Thanks to the pioneering work of the late A. L. of typically Romantic gestures. The clarity and Lloyd, Albanian folk music is not completely unknown immediate attractiveness reappeared in other works in Britain. But what of the music produced by Albanian by Pe<;:i for solo instrument and orchestra, particularly composers? John Jansson's performance of <;:esk the Cello Fantasia (1979). The Variations for horn Zadeja's Toccata at the Albanian Society's memorial (1975) is a less memorable piece (I've never heard a meeting for A. L. Lloyd in January was possibly the horn player use so much vibrato) , but the Suite for first British performance of any Albanian composition. piano and orchestra entitled 'Kuadro heroizmit' But however little known these composers may be to (Pictures of heroism) is more dissonant and highly the rest of the world, they seem well publicised and charged and contains flourishes reminiscent of widely appreciated within their own country. Armed Prokofiev. Pjese per flaut (Piece for flute; accom- with a radio-cassette machine and a daily newspaper, panied by an almost Latin-American-sounding folk I was able to record a fairly representative sample of orchestra) is unashamedly 'light' in character and orchestral, choral, and operatic music, though solo reflects the fact that Pecyi, like most other Albanian piano and chamber music proved more difficult to composers, is equally at ease writing film music, a locate. stirring revolutionary song, an orchestral piece, or A general guide-book informed me that 'Albanian even 'light music'.s composers base themselves on the folklore of the Not all composers make such clear references to country and avoid "abstract and decadent" trends. folk music as Pe