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“The Song of Halil’s Wedding”.
Isa Elezi-Lekgjekaj (Isa Muriqi), voice and lahuta (Rugova, Kosovo).
This video presents the opening twenty verses of a performance of the “Song of Halil’s wedding”. It is part of the legendary epic cycle of Kreshnike, the borders heroes; the protagonists are the two brothers Muji and Halil and their friends, and the song tells the story of the heroic feats accomplished by the young Halil in order to marry the beautiful Gjeline, daughter of the king of Talir. These songs are often shared among different cultures and languages of the Balcanic area. Singers accompany themselves with a one string fiddle, known as gusle in the Slavic languages and lahuta in Albanian. Today the most important area of presence of these songs is the region of Rugova, in Kosovo, at the border with Montenegro. They are still performed during social gathering, festivities and wedding parties. The singers ‘compose in performance’ their song, re-combining each time a repertory of verses and expressions (formulae) in different ways, while keeping always the core of the story to be narrated.
Isa Elezi-Lekgjekaj is today widely recognized as the greatest living performer of Rugova.
The importance of legendary epic songs in the border areas between Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania and Serbia, was, among others, highlighted by the fundamental research of Milman Parry and Albert Lord in the 30s of the last century; the research and the study of these repertoires, in relation to the writing of the Homeric epic, allowed the two scholars to focus on concepts of fundamental importance in the study of both written and oral epic traditions. Moreover, some of the landmark figures of ethnomusicology like George Herzog and Béla Bartók were attracted by the musical features of these songs and provided the first significant analytical contributions.
The song of Halil was performed during the concert The legendary epic of Kosovo, promoted by the Institute of Comparative Music Studies at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The event, coordinated by Nicola Scaldaferri, was introduced by a seminar with David Elmer, Zymer Neziri and Ettore Cingano, and saw the collaboration of Leav (University of Milan), Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, Harvard University, Albanological Institute of Prishtina, Durham University's Department of Music.
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 13 November 2018
More on this event: www.cini.it/en/...
Preliminary research: leavlab.com/the...
Filming: Simone Tarsitani, Carlo Mezzalira, Costantino Vecchi
Video: Simone Tarsitani
Translation of the lyrics: Nicola Scaldaferri