Narrative song with lahuta [bowed lute] - “Djegja e Rugovës” (“The burned down town of Rugovës”)
1971/Rugovës, Yugoslavia
From JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance Vol. 22: Europe 3
Notes accompanying video:
The one-string bowed instrument known as the lahuta is used to accompany Albanian narrative heroic songs. It thus corresponds to the gusle of Serbia and Montenegro. This recording was made in Rugovés, in the northwestern mountains near Pee, and shows an archaic type of lahuta . The instrument is made of maple. The use of the pad of the fingers in stopping the strings is a characteristic of the playing technique of this area. The singer of this song - a professional - wears a white turban. He sings of an incident that occurred after the outbreak of World War II. Two hundred men from Rugovës had joined the army in Belgrade but refused to fight in Albania, for which the town was burned to the ground.