In the Southern part of Albania, we find isopolyphony widely sung with two voices and often accompanied by various musical instruments such as fiddle, def, clarinet, etc. For the authenticity of the performance of its values and its antiquity, since 2005 isopolyphony has become part of the world heritage and is protected by UNESCO.

In the area of Berat, isopolyphony is found in the form with two – and three main voices, accompanied by iso, which is formed by the vowel ‘e’. The content of the songs is different. 

Due to the historical importance of the city of Berat in the time of the Ottoman Empire, as well as its geographical features, the formation of civic music followed the flow of other cities of Toskeria and Labëria. It is one of the only cases that the compact isopolyphonic musical culture of the southern cities was neighbored somewhere in its center with the data of the monodic Perso-Arabic-Turkish musical culture.

The change of the music of the villages around Berati (which represents the ancient musical tradition of the area), from the music of the city in general, is an indication of the change of the former musical unit that the city of Berat had. Thus, from the Turkish invasion until the beginning of the XIXth century, the musical culture of the city of Berat appears as a monodic culture, cultivated by groups of musicians, while we find that the new civic musical culture, isopolyphonic, begins and develops there at the beginning of the XXth century from the saze formation, in parallel with the folk music of Toskeria.

In the Ottoman registers, as early as the XVIth century, we find the occupation of the musician – orchestrator of Berat, called mehter. Evlia Çelepia (1670), appriciating the group of musicians who was among the best, gives a clue about the existence of musical and performing groups in Berati. Çelepia also claims that there were dozens of places of entertainment in Berat, where, among other things, popular music was performed.

In general, until the first years of the XXth century, the musical culture of the city of Berat was a musical culture performed by groups of musicians, music which in a large part was brought from the permanent commercial and cultural communication of the city of Berat with other countries, and mainly with Turkey.

/k.s/