"Istrian scale" refers both to a "unique"Thammy Evans, Rudolf Abraham (2013). ''Istria: Croatian Peninsula, Rijeka, Slovenian Adriatic'', p.17. .

musical scale In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale. Often, especially in t ...

of folk music genres from

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian and Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian, Italian and Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic betwee ...

and

Kvarner The Kvarner Gulf (, or , la, Sinus Flanaticus or ), sometimes also Kvarner Bay, is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian Littoral mainland. The bay is a part of Croatia's internal wa ...

which use the style.Two-part singing and playing in the Istrian scale
, ''UNESCO.org''. It is named for the Istrian peninsula. Istrian folk music is based on a distinctive six-tone musical scale (the so-called Istrian scale), and the peninsula's two-part, slightly nasal singing. The two-part singing and playing in the Istrian scale, a traditional singing practice characteristic of the Istrian region and the north Adriatic coastal area and islands, was inscribed in UNESCO's ''List of Intangible Cultural Heritage'' in 2009. Genres include ''kanat'' and ''tarankanje''; techniques include nasal tone,

variation Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

and

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

, and

resolution Resolution(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate * Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body * New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual ma ...

to the

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or pe ...

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

; and instruments include double reeds such as '' sopele'',

shawm The shawm () is a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. It achieved its peak of popularity during the medieval and Renaissance periods, after which it was gradually eclipsed by the ...

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...

, and other instruments such as flutes and '' tambura'' lutes. It was first named by

Ivan Matetić Ronjgov Ivan Matetić Ronjgov (10 April 1880 – 27 June 1960) was an Istrian composer. Ivan Matetić was born in Rojnići, a village in present-day Croatia, from which he took his nickname "Ronjgov". He discovered the pattern of the music of the Is ...

early in the twentieth century, assisting his study and notation of

Croatian music The music of Croatia, like the divisions of the country itself, has two major influences: Central European, present in central and northern parts of the country including Slavonia, and Mediterranean, present in coastal regions of Dalmatia and Ist ...

Description

Non-

equal-tempered An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system, which approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into equal steps. This means the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same, wh ...

,Marušić, Dario.
Reception of Istrian Musical Traditions
, ''Musicology 7/2007 (VII)''
Reception of Istrian Musical Traditions
, ''doiSerbia''). the scale could approximately be notated as: E-F-G-A-B-C exatonic(see:

enharmonic In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note, interval, or key signature that is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature but "spelled", or named differently. The enharmonic spelling of a written ...

), the first six notes of an

octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight- note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrica ...

on E. It may be thought of in various ways, such as the Gregorian Phrygian mode with lowered 4th, 5th, and 6th

degrees Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

(on E: E-F-G-A-B-C-D eptatonic. Performances feature

diaphony In music, parallel harmony, also known as harmonic parallelism, harmonic planing or parallel voice leading, is the parallel movement of two or more melodies (see voice leading). Illustrative example Lines with parallel harmony can be viewed as ...

and the

Phrygian cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel (1 ...

(in E: F and D moving to E). Sopile

Though, "relative intonation var esconsiderably from example to example nd between instruments" the scale has also been described as derived from

just intonation In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals as whole number ratios (such as 3:2 or 4:3) of frequencies. An interval tuned in this way is said to be pure, and is called a just interval. Just intervals (and ...

subharmonic In music, the undertone series or subharmonic series is a sequence of notes that results from inverting the intervals of the overtone series. While overtones naturally occur with the physical production of music on instruments, undertones must ...

s seven to fourteen (approximately D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D')( and ).Ruland, Heiner (1992). ''Expanding Tonal Awareness'', p.43. Rudolf Steiner. . Described by

Kathleen Schlesinger Kathleen Schlesinger (1862, in Holywood, Ireland – 1953, in London) was a British music archaeologist and curator of musical instruments at the British Museum.A. R. Meuss, ''Intervals, Scales, Tones and the Concert Pitch C'', 2004 p. 27/ref ...

on the Greek ''

aulos An ''aulos'' ( grc, αὐλός, plural , ''auloi'') or ''tibia'' (Latin) was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology. Though ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or " double flute", it was ...

'' In

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have le ...

's String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20 No. 5, something like the Istrian mode, but without its top note, is found. Uroš Krek's ''Inventiones ferales'' (1962) uses the scale, "in a disguised manner".

Tartini Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in the Republic of Venice. Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred of pieces for the violin with the majority of ...

may have studied the scale, and Bartók took note of the scale. Karol Pahor's cycle of 15 pieces, ''Istrijanka'' (1950), was the result of study of the Istrian mode, as was Danilo Švara's ''Sinfonia da camera in modo istriano'' (1957). The Istrian mode occurs in

Josip Štolcer-Slavenski Josip Štolcer-Slavenski (Serbian Cyrillic: Јосип Штолцер-Славенски; 11 May 1896 – 30 November 1955 ) was a Croatian composer and professor at the Music Academy in Belgrade. British musicologist Jim Samson described � ...

's ''Balkanofonija'' (1927). Throughout the areas of Istria and the Kvarner Gulf the distinctive vocal singing has spread, consisting of alternating half and whole steps, which, particularly in older singers' and instrumentalists' renditions, are untempered. The songs are sung by pairs of singers (male, female, or mixed) in a characteristic two-part polyphony in minor thirds (or major sixths) with a cadence to a unison or an octave. Singers distinguish the higher (''na tanko'' 'thin') part from the lower (''na debelo'' 'fat').Rice, Timothy; Porter, James; and Goertzen, Chris (2017).
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Europe
', unpaginated. Routledge. .

References

External links

*
Two-part singing and playing in the Istrian scale
(UNESCO), ''YouTube.com''. *
Few words about traditional Istrian Music and Dance
, ''Istria from Smrikve''. *
The folk music of Krk Island
, ''Gold and Silver Dots''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Istrian Scale Musical scales Croatian folk music Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity Istria Hemitonic scales

Description

See also

References

Further reading

External links