Lab Polyphony

Lab polyphony is the multipart singing of Labëria, the mountainous southwest of Albania, the more dramatic of the two regional styles of Albanian iso-polyphony. Where the Tosk drone flows continuously, Lab groups of three or four voices build tension from contrast: the marres leads, the kthyes cuts across him, a third soloist, the hedhës, throws in high cries and, in the celebrated four-part style, the iso drone itself is sung rhythmically, chopped into the beat. Its genres include the slow, low pleqërishte of the old men of Gjirokastër and laments and heroic ballads of extraordinary dissonance and volume.