What does Byzantium want in the Albanian folk polyphony?

From: Zeno Jahaj

The presentation at UNESCO, the UN Agency, of the so-called "Albanian Isopolyphony", has basically legalized six theses which confuse, humiliate and alienate Albanian identity and national history.

These theses have been submitted through the "UNESCO Entry Form", sent by Albanian state institutions or ghost institutions with individual signatures, or sent by individuals, bypassing and abusing Albanian state institutions (see UNESCO's official website, by clicking on these two testicles: here and here).

In order to shed light on the content of each of the above theses, as well as on the implementation of the legal procedures for sending to UNESCO and on the fate of the projects related to the "protection of Albanian folk iso-polyphony", I will present, in the following, the analytical writings relevant. In today's article I will try to shed light on only one of the above theses: "Albanian Iso-Polyphony derives from Byzantine church music". The Byzantine Empire is a relatively late historical entity, whose birth dates back to 330 AD. However, the Albanian people are not only pre-Byzantine, but they are so ancient that even the biggest haters against them, no matter how much they dig, will not be able to find evidence to contradict the truth that this is a people from the earliest, if not the earliest, indigenous to their own land and not immigrants.

In these lands he cultivated the land and cattle, the eternal material wealth that God and time gave him, and together with them he built, planted and grew his own spiritual wealth, among them monophonic and polyphonic singing. Because every material life of man, of all peoples, cannot be imagined without the non-material, spiritual life. This is a universal law, both divine and earthly. It has even been scientifically proven that man sings before he speaks and that singing serves as a transitional state between primitive vocalization and speech.

In the monumental work "Who asked the first question?" The origin of choral singing, intelligence, language and speech", Joseph Jordania, an outstanding ethnomusicologist of our time, winner of the "Fumio Koizumi" Prize for ethnomusicology (an alternative to the Nobel Prize), writes: "The origin of polyphonic singing it is much deeper and is associated with the earliest stages of human evolution. Polyphony was an important part of the defense system of the first people (hominids)". This scientific conclusion is so significant that it deserves repeating: polyphonic singing is an important part of the defense system! What it means is that the song, moreover the polyphonic one, gives the spiritual power to people, groups of peoples, to complement their physical power, to build a protective barrier against the unexpected or infidelities of life, wherever it may be. they come The eminent German musicologist, Curt Sachs, states that "ancient polyphony, itself, was undoubtedly known at least five thousand years ago".

Meanwhile, Jan Ling, professor of Musicology and rector of the university in Sweden, author of the book "History of European folk music", affirms that the idea according to which popular polyphony takes its origin from the models of musical art, has finally been archived as unfounded.

Meanwhile, the prominent Albanian researcher, Prof. Ramadan Sokoli, has scientifically determined that "... the question has been raised whether the polyphony of the Balkan siujdhesa is of ancient origin and has survived until our time, or we are dealing with something that came from distant places! Some researchers have argued the popular polyphony of this hymn, as a result of the influence of the Byzantine liturgy, but this conjecture has neither been proven nor approved. Even the opposite has been claimed: the borrowing of the church liturgy from popular traditions. Albanian folk polyphony, which is elaborated in weak pentatonic scales, has no morphological connection with Byzantine literature..."

Also, prof. Beniamin Kruta has determined that "The autochthonous character of Albanian polyphony and its connections with the musical culture of Illyrian antiquity is proven, among others, by its traces preserved in the old Illyrian lands...Albanian polyphony covers a wide territory that stretches from from the northeastern areas around Struga... and the entire South of Albania, to the depths of Chameria".

The institutions of Albania or individuals from Albania, who legalized the internationally bastardized "Albanian Iso-polyphony" in UNESCO, probably do not even know that Byzantium is not a nation, that there is no Byzantine nation, nor Byzantine people. Therefore, there can be no Byzantine chants. Moreover, at the time of the Byzantine Empire, the Albanian territories lay in its farthest periphery, in comparison, say, with the Greek or Bulgarian territories. Then, the simplest logic would require that, the geographically closer to Byzantium the peoples or nations were, the more they should cultivate polyphony. But the opposite has happened.

The Greek "Caravan" polyphony is preserved only in the area of ​​Epirus in Northwest Greece, while the Bulgarian "Bistritsa Babi" polyphony is preserved only in the Shoplouk region, in western Bulgaria. Both the Greek and the Bulgarian are registered in UNESCO in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, but with scientific authority and national dignity, neither of them connects their origin from Byzantine church music. In fact, in their presentations, the term "church" is not even mentioned at all, and no longer Byzantine church. Meanwhile, none of the more than 17 other countries that have registered their polyphony in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, do not seek the origin in the church, but only in the people. Even Georgia, in the introduction to the Georgian Polyphonic Song, writes: "Byzantine liturgical hymns have absorbed from the Georgian polyphonic tradition to such an extent that these traditions have become an important expression of Byzantine liturgical hymns."

For correctness and respect, let's refer to what is "Byzantine church music" itself, which, for its own values, was registered in 2019 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In its presentation on the official website of UNESCO, it is written, among other things, that Byzantine church music "... is exclusively vocal music; it is essentially monophonic", although accompanied by iso. Clear as daylight: Byzantine church music has nothing to do with and no conditioning to any popular polyphony. But even if we assume that Byzantine church music is polyphony, it is still professional polyphony, composed especially for songs and hymns in function of court and religious ceremonies and sung by the same group specialized for this purpose.

In contrast, folk polyphony is traditional polyphony, which comes naturally from the soul of its bearers, at any time and in any place, to keep alive the past and identity values, historical and cultural heritage, to experience joys and sorrows as part of human life. Thus, it is absurd that traditional polyphony can be produced from professional polyphony. The opposite is true. Even, "With the expansion of Christianity in medieval Europe, attempts were made to suppress folkloric folk music, due to its association with pagan rites and customs." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008, p. 687). Thus, the presenters of the thesis that "Albanian iso-polyphony derives from Byzantine church music", have presented the Albanian nation and people of the pre-Byzantine Empire as a pre-human herd.

According to this thesis, this flock had to go to Byzantium, specifically to the non-national Byzantine church, to learn how to sing and how to pass from the prehuman state to the human state. This is humiliation, not only for the people of the Albanian nation, but for every people and nation. Because it is ignoring the absolute truth that "folk music is the original melody of man, the musical mirror of the world" (Friedrich Nietzsche). It is an insult to any national chemistry, because "The nation, first of all, is a soul, a spiritual principle" (Ernest Renan). The soul is the essential part of all sentient beings. Music, whether monophonic or polyphonic, is an expression of the human spirit, the first act of human communication with life and the world.