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    Kosovo | The Legendary Epic of Kosovo | Isa Elezi-Lekgjekaj | The Song of Halil’s Wedding (vv 1-20)



    “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: http://www.cini.it/en/events/seminar-the-legendary-epic-of-kosovo-concert-song-of-halils-wedding 
    Preliminary research: http://leavlab.com/the-song-of-halils-wedding/
    Filming: Simone Tarsitani, Carlo Mezzalira, Costantino Vecchi
    Video: Simone Tarsitani
    Translation of the lyrics: Nicola Scaldaferri

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    37 Comments

    5. @Stablosekvoje on

      Basically just a remade Epic Bosniak Song. The Hrnjica brothers (Mujo, Halil and Omer) are actual people that were recorded as Hajduks in Velika Kladuša, in the Krajina region of Bosnia in the 17th century.

      Same thing applies for Gjerg Elez Alia. Which is based on a Ottoman Bey that died in Bosnia. Epic songs about him emerged in the end of the 15th century again in the Krajina region in Bosnia. Which were later transmitted by mutlilingual guslars (lahutare) to Albanian.

    7. @nikizelen5878 on

      Lahuta isn't even an original Albanian word. Anyone with a bit of common sense can clearly see that it's the loanword meaning lute, probably from some older form of Italian. On the other hand, the Slavs from Western Balkans have their own original word for it – gusle. I won't go into who was here first and such stuff, but if it was originally an Albanian instrument, you would presume that they would have their native name for it, and not name it after some foreign instrument, that doesn't even look or work alike.

    8. @lionheart5418 on

      ,,Slavic played gusle (lahuta) because they didn’t have any brass instruments. When they sing howl like wolfs”🇷🇸🇲🇪🐺 Teofil Simokata 590

    17. @goranarsic8546 on

      This is only one more proof of how much they are trying to steal and destroy the Glorious Serbian history, which is still mentioned in major world schools.. But it's useless, you can't destroy the glorious history until we ourselves forget it. These acts only remind us who WE are and who They are.

    21. @schoenhier on

      To those debating here, that these folk epics are Bosnian or Serb or whatever other slavic background it has. Let's step back for 1 second from your political (hostile) view. Let's take some historical ground facts. I quote from the book Kosovo A Short History (Sir Noel Malcolm, professor for history at Oxford – we can agree that it's one of the best universities in the world): "No ethnic groups in the Balkans ever lived in completely watertight compartments; there has been assimilation in almost every direction…." later he states: "…in nearby areas such as the Sandzak the Slavicization of Albanians continued well into the twentieth century. Some of the bilingual singers of folk epics recorded there by Albert Lord and Milman Parry in the 1930s came from villages, or families, which had once been Albanian but were now mainly Slav-speaking" (page 197). This song is 100% Albanian, you can believe it or not, it won't change the history. Nor does any Albanian here want you to believe it. Because it's a historical fact. It doesn't make Bosnian or Serbia culture worse, it doesn't attack them, it doesn't do anything to it, besides claiming this instrument and the epic folk songs as theirs – which they are. Yet still there are for sure also really well playing gusle artists or beautiful singing Serbs or Bosnian. It doesn't mean that one culture is better than the other, because it's simply not true. Peace won't be upon the Balkans if people fight even about stuff like this, as if their life depends on it. Sit back and enjoy this old guy playing and singing for god's sake.

    27. @Darwesh-1967 on

      Этот инструмент с Арабского Востока, особенно среди арабов-бедуинов, используется до сих пор.Привет Добро пожаловать

    30. @dardanhoti2039 on

      Lamartine: "Albanians, this nation and this people can not be mocked … This is the land of heroes of all time … Homer found there Achilles, the Greeks the Alexander the Great, Turks found Skanderbeg, people these of the same race, the same blood" .

      Maurico Druon, secretary of the French Academy: "Albanians belonging to those people older than History itself. Albanian grandparents participated in the war of Troy, led by Achilles (on one side) and Hector (the other side) ".

      Nicolas Iorga: "The Albanian people together and the Basques one are the oldest in Europe."

      Maximilian Lambertz: "The true History of the humanity will be written only when it will be written with the participation of Albanians".

      Huacunthe Hecquard: "In no country in the world women are not more respected and does not exercise a powerful activity than Albanian women, some Albanian mothers ousted from home their children because left the war front. They had returned them to the battlefield".

      Lord Byron: "Albanians with their costumes make a most wonderful scenery in the world … Albanians are the most beautiful human race exists, courageous, stronger than their strongholds."

      Henry Noel Brailsford: "… The 'primitive' Albanian, in fact is the superhuman," of which Nietzsche dreamed."

      Giuseppe Katapano: "Atlantida which disappeared 12,000 years ago, was the land of the Illyrians (Pelasgians), who escaped the flood of Atlantis and began new civilizations on all continents, especially in Europe, Africa and Small Asia small".

      Agostino Ribeco: "The millennial Albanians Rights, ethnographic and geographic range from old times in Illyria, Macedonia and Thessaly."

      Branislav Nušić: "Albanians are indigenous, who during all invasions of peoples kept its type and character significantly. They faced attacks by Romans, dense Slavs raids, who invadet them all fields, plains, and rivers ".

      H. Dusko Konstantinov: "Albanians are the oldest inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula and direct descendants of the Illyrians, who had built the most powerful state in the Balkans."

      Edvin Jacques: "The Illyrians or Albanians, these stalwart warriors were Albanians, heirs of Achilles, Philip, Alexander the Great and the Piros of Epirus …".

      Edvin Pears: "Albanians are descendants of the oldest race of the Balkan Peninsula, namely the Aryan race, to draw this word from two Albanian roots of words: Gold and side, which i.e. people of pure gold."

      Max Myle: "The names of of most familiar people derived from the old Albanian word 'Ar'. This also applies to many other countries of the world."

      Fanulla Papazogllu: "Dardania is one of the ancient Balkan provinces where the indigenous population is the best preserved."

      Jen Goss: "The origin of the Albanians to the time of Pelazgs and have pre-helen origin."

      Gustav Meier: "Albanians are young Illyrians".

      George Hahn: "Albanians are descendants of Illyrians, but the descendants of the Illyrians were Pelasgians … Albanians are grandchildren of Pelasgians".

      Haki Pasha: "If the Albanian history emerges, the Ottoman Empire will go to the river".

      Harold Whitehal: "Egyptian hieroglyphics, created 4,000 years ago have Albanian significance".

      Henri Braisford: "In Macedonia, Albanians are the only indigenous people."

      Johan von Han: "The Albanian derives from Illyrian and the Illyrian from Pellasgian one".

      Jovan Cvijiq: "South Slavs, after arrived in the Balkans, found there the Albanians, who under their pressure (Slavs) retreated southward and to most mountainous areass, where we face today."

      Konstantin Paparigopulos: "Only the Albanians are considered descendants of the Illyrian race

    37. @boldyboldijevic on

      You took the Kastriot Crnojević coat of arms, you took the traditional costume, and now you want the gusle too, as if that wouldn't be enough for you.Do you know how to take something on without ruining it. Stick to dealing heroin and selling people. Leave the Serbian history gusle alone.

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