Geographically Albania is divided into two main regions: northern Ghegeria and southern Toskeria. The southern part (Toskeria) consists of two sub-regions, Toske and Laberia. These share many commonalities yet the musical styles of each are distinctly different. The Shkumbini River serves as a boundary between the two main regions, as well as a cultural divide distinguishing the varying musical performances and styles. Monodic music is practiced mainly in the north whilst polyphonic music is most commonly performed in the south. These two diverse systems impact on the folk songs of the two regions making them sound significantly different. In addition, different folk instruments are used in both regions. The instrumental and vocal monodic music of the north (Ghegeria) is based on the modal system, with Dorian, Aeolian, Mixolydian, Phrygian, Lydian, Ionian and Hypolydian modes being used. The songs of the north typically portray important historical events or heroic deeds, while the southern songs are not as nationalistic and cover various social themes. They are in general a lot softer and more melodic in character. The folk music of the south (Toskeria) is based on the pentatonic scale, with significant differences which are noticed within the two sub-regions (Toske and Laberia). The vocal music of the south consists of two, three or four vocal parts singing a capella, although sometimes instrumental accompaniment is added. The polyphonic music of the sub-region of Toske is characterized by imitative elements utilized in both the melodies and rhythms of the songs, providing a sense of thematic unity, whereas in Laberia contrasting elements are more dominant throughout the songs. Despite these differences, iso (or drone) is performed similarly in both sub-regions, and is another important element in the polyphonic music of the south. A notable form of instrumental polyphonic music of Toskeria is that of Kaba, performed by Saze folk ensembles. What distinguishes Albanian polyphonic folk music from its counterparts in other areas of the world is that it has not only survived but is flourishing in modern times. Unlike many other cultures that have excluded polyphonic music from mainstream society, Albanian polyphonic music is known by most Albanians and is well practiced and enjoyed by all age groups, and rural as well as urban Albanians, regardless of their degree of formal musical training / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Music / unrestricted

The mass and the motet are the most important musical components of the Catholic liturgy. The development of vocal polyphony in the Medieval Period culminated in the perfection of these forms in the sixteenth century. The purpose of this thesis is to give an account of the development of religious monody and polyphony that led to the inception of the motet in the early part of the thirteenth century; to show the development of the motet through the sixteenth century; to give a more detailed analysis of the style of Palestrina; and to emphasize the analysis with a stylistic examination of a Palestrina motet.

TITLE: THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC: Claudio Monteverdi as an innovator in the field of dealing with text in music. SUMMARY: The main topic of this Thesis is Claudio Monteverdi's work and its importance for the development of dealing with text in music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque period. In Monteverdi's compositions we can follow the evolution of counterpoint techniques reaching from the traditional 16th century vocal polyphony to the purely monodic approach to composition that is typical of Baroque music. The text works as a creative element that affects the author's way of working, leading him from the first experiments with the musical representation of each word in the madrigal to a dramatic expression of the text in the style of opera. In his work Monteverdi uses wordpainting to an unprecedented extent. He invents new musical expression for words that contain a strong emotional charge, like subtle rhythmic figures for joyful words, or sharp dissonances for words conveying pain. He is the first composer to achieve excellence in combining flawless technical skill with the dramatic line of the composition. His work forms an imaginary bridge between music of two periods: in the first period text is perceived as a mere "servant" of music but becomes the "ruler" of it in the later one. The Thesis...

La fiction longue entièrement composée d'une lettre ininterrompue – le roman (ou la pièce) épistolaire monologique – représente un cas de figure négligé, souvent même refusé, par la théorie. Son existence est démontrée ici par un corpus de quinze textes en anglais, français, italien et allemand, de Gide (1902) à Norman (2011) via Yourcenar, Coetzee, Celestini, ou Amis.Ce travail mesure dans un premier temps les dimensions de cet inventaire : sa largeur, grâce à la mise en place d'un cadre formel ; sa longueur historique ; la profondeur de ses interactions avec la lettre réelle, le genre épistolaire, et enfin avec les qualités épistolaires de toute fiction, dont la lettre monologique est un miroir aux déformations calculées.Le corpus révèle l'intérêt de ce cadrage technique grâce à des thèmes récurrents, qui interrogent trois caractéristiques-clé de l'écriture épistolaire. Le thème de la mort de soi (Yourcenar, Coetzee, Bernstein, Robinson, Amis) se conjugue à une réflexion sur la structure physique de tout texte que la lettre rend soudainement tangible, établissant une réflexion sur la lettre-cadavre. Une imagerie apocalyptique (Auster, Coetzee, Amis) problématise ensuite cette idée de la lettre qui se résumerait comme manifestation physique de la mort de l'auteur ; il met en scène un portrait de la temporalité qui ouvre à des superpositions et des rencontres. Ces deux chapitres établissent les pôles du débat pour un dernier, qui emprunte l'imagerie du double pour parler de la communication épistolaire (Gide, Coetzee, Bernstein, Celestini). Après l'absence et la correspondance, ce chapitre interroge le problématique “avec” du titre ; le plan narré de la lettre et le plan dramatique de son envoi sont rejoints par un troisième, pragmatique, posant la question de l'éthique de la correspondance épistolaire, et à travers elle, l'éthique de la fiction même. / Long fictions composed of one uninterrupted letter – monologic epistolary fictions – are underrepresented in critical discourse, and frequently shunted more or less overtly beyond its margins. Their existence is brought to light here by one play and fourteen novels in French, English, Italian and German, ranging from 1902 (Gide) to 2011 (Norman) via a cast of authors including Yourcenar, Coetzee, Amis and Celestini.This study aims firstly to fill the critical lacuna, establishing the dimensions of this new sub- genre. It measures the breadth of the formal definitions of the single-letter epistolary novel, the length of its inscription in literary history, and the depth conferred upon it by critical discourse about real letters, the letter-novel genre and a certain epistolary quality to be found in all literature, which our novels set themselves up to reflect and refract.Our rather disparate corpus of texts reveals the interest of this technical framework, haunted as it is by recurrent themes which illuminate the characteristics of monological epistolary writing. Firstly, the theme of one's own death (Yourcenar, Coetzee, Bernstein, Robinson, Amis) shines a light on the physical structure of any text, rendered visible in the format of the letter; this conjunction suggests the idea of the text as corpse. A series of apocalyptic universes complicates this rather empirical portrait, which reads like the symbol of the Death of the Author; novels by Coetzee, Amis and Auster use complex portraits of fictional time to suggest the possibility of coincidence, overlap, meetings both epistolary and literary. These two chapters set up the terms of a final debate concerning literary communication, investigated via the symbol of the double (Gide, Coeztee, Bernstein, Celestini). After the narrative of the text itself and the implied drama of the letter's trajectory, a pragmatic dimension comes to light. This final analysis allows us to investigate the ethics of correspondence, and the letter as one key to understanding those of fiction itself.

Although music publishing in Italy was on the decline around the turn of the seventeenth century, Venice emerged as one of the most prolific publishing centers of secular song in Italy throughout the first three decades of the 1600s. Many Venetian song collections were printed with alfabeto, a chordal tablature designed to facilitate even the most untrained of musicians with the necessary tools for accompanying singers on the fashionable five-course Spanish guitar. Carlo Milanuzzi's Quarto Scherzo (1624) stands out among its contemporary Venetian song collections with alfabeto as an anthology of Venetian secular songs, including compositions by Miniscalchi, Berti, and Claudio and Francesco Monteverdi. Issues surrounding its publication, instrumentation, and musical and poetic style not only contribute to the understanding of Venetian Baroque monody, but also help to construe a repertory of vocal music with defining characteristics usually associated with popular music of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

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