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The gusle () or lahuta (; related to English lute) is a bowed single-stringed musical instrument (and musical style) traditionally used in the Dinaric Alps region of Southeastern Europe (in the Balkans). The instrument is always accompanied by singing; musical folklore, specifically epic poetry. The gusle player holds the instrument vertically between the knees, with the left hand fingers on the string. The string is never pressed to the neck, giving a harmonic and unique sound.
Singing to the accompaniment of the Gusle as a part of Serbia's intangible cultural heritage was inscribed in 2018 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.
The instrument is held vertically between the player's knees, with the left hand fingers on the neck. The strings are never pressed to the neck, giving a harmonic and unique sound. The most common and traditional version is single-stringed, while a much less-common version is the two-stringed found in Bosanska Krajina and in Lika.
The varieties of the guslar music are based on cultural basis; the content of the stories of each ethnic group is different, as different epic poems are used to accompany the instrument. There is minor differing characteristics of vocality in the regions of Southeast Europe. The design of the instrument is identical; only the design of the neck and head varies with ethnic or national motif.
The gusle instrumentally accompanies heroic songs (epic poetry) in the Balkans.
The gusle has played a significant role in the history of Serbian epic poetry because of its association with the centuries-old patriotic oral legacy. Most of the epics are about the era of the Ottoman Empire occupation and the struggle for the liberation from it. With the efforts of ethnographer Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, many of these epics have been collected and published in books in the first half of the 19th century. Serbian folk poetry was given a marvelous reception, as it appeared in Europe when Romanticism was in full bloom. This poetry, which appeared in Karadžić's anthological collections, met the "expectations" of the sophisticated European audience, becoming a living confirmation of Herder's and Jacob Grimm ideas about the oral tradition. Jacob Grimm began to learn Serbian language so that he could read the poems in the original. He wrote minute analyses of each new volume of Serbian folk songs. He ranked them as being equal to the Song of Songs, as did Goethe somewhat later. Thanks to Grimm, moreover to the initiatives of Slovene Jernej Kopitar (the censor for Slavonic books in Vienna, Karadžić's counselor and protector), Serbian folk literature found its place in the literature of the world.Nada Milošević-Đorđević, "The history of Serbian Culture", Porthill Publishers, Edgware, Middiesex, 1995.
Vuk Karadžić divided the epic songs he collected from guslars like Filip Višnjić and Tešan Podrugović into three cycles.
The first cycle includes songs from the earliest era of the medieval Serbian state and the era of the Serbian Empire. Some of the most well-known poems from this cycle include The Wedding of Emperor Dušan ( Ženidba cara Dušana), The Building of Skadar ( Ženidba Dušanova) and Uroš and Mrnjavčevići ( Uroš i Mrnjavčevići)
The next cycle includes songs about the Battle of Kosovo (1389) and the events related to it. The most famous song is the Prince's Curse ( Kneževa kletva), in which Miloš Obilić and Prince Lazar are main characters. The Kosovo Battle is probably the most important event in Serbian epic poetry. Singing songs about the Battle of Kosovo to gusle significantly influenced the birth of the Kosovo Myth.
The last cycle includes songs about the events after the Battle of Kosovo. They sing about the first battles against the Ottoman Empire and conflicts between Serbian nobles. A famous poem from that era is the poem about Strahinja Banović. The greatest hero of this cycle is Prince Marko. Poems about the chivalry of and Uskoks who resisted the Ottomans also belong to that cycle. Some of them are Starina Novak, Stanoje Glavaš, Starac Vujadin, Janković Stojan, Ilija Smiljanić, Bajo Pivljanin and Hajduk Veljko. Battles between Montenegrins and the Ottomans (Battle of Vučij Do, Battle of Grahovo, Battle of Fundina) were also sung, as well as the Serbian Revolution and its heroes: Karađorđe, Hajduk Veljko, Aleksa Nenadović, Ilija Birčanin, Tanasko Rajić, Vasa Čarapić and Miloš Obrenović.
More recent poems sing about recent battles and wars for the liberation of Serbia and Montenegro, such as the Serbian-Ottoman Wars of 1876-1878, the Herzegovina Uprising, the Balkan Wars, the Siege of Skadar, the First World War, and the Battle of Mojkovac. One of the participants in the Battle of Mojkovac, Radovan Bećirović Trebješki, will become the most famous modern writer of Serbian epic poems.
Although the gusle was played throughout the entire territory of the former Serbian Empire, and later in the areas to the north and west - in Vojvodina and in the Military Frontier, the tradition of playing gusle is strongest today in Herzegovina and Montenegro, where Serbian medieval culture has been best preserved. That is why gusle today are mostly decorated with details that remind of the heroic past of these areas. Many gusle are decorated with Carving depicting scenes from battles (Battle of Vučji Do, Nevesinjska Puška), characters of famous Serbs (Saint Sava, Petar Petrović Njegoš, Karađorđe, King Nikola) or famous places (Ostrog Monastery, Cetinje Monastery and Lovćen Chapel).
In all major cities, such as Belgrade, Podgorica, East Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Cetinje, Pljevlja, Užice, Novi Sad, Niš, Nikšić and Kraljevo, there are guslar societies that organize concerts and gusle evenings ( guslarske večeri). Guslar Society "Vuk Karadžić" is the oldest existing guslar society in Belgrade. The societies are organized into three guslar federations - in Serbia, Montenegro and the Republika Srpska. Gusle competitions called are organized regularly. There are numerous youth competitions and festivals for seniors, but the biggest competition being the Federal Festival of Gusle ( Савезни фестивал гусала/ Savezni festival gusala).Competitors are the highest-ranked guslars at festivals in Serbia, Montenegro and Republika Srpska. The champion is considered the best Serbian guslar that year. Most famous modern Serbian guslars are Branko Perović, Boško Vujačić, Đorđije Đoko Koprivica, Milomir Miljanić Miljan, Saša Laketić and Maksim Vojvodić.
Singing to the accompaniment of the gusle as a part of Serbia's tradition was inscribed in 2018 on the Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists of UNESCO after years of Serbian guslars' efforts.
Avdo Međedović was the most versatile and skillful guslar encountered by Milman Parry and Albert Lord during their research in the oral epic tradition of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Montenegro in the 1930s. At Parry's request, Avdo sang songs he already knew and some songs he heard in front of Parry, convincing him that someone Homer-like could produce a poem so long. Avdo dictated, over five days, a version of the well-known theme The Wedding of Meho Smailagić that was 12,323 lines long, saying on the fifth day to Nikola (Parry's assistant on the journey) that he knew even longer songs. On another occasion, he sang over several days an epic of 13,331 lines. He said he had several others of similar length in his repertoire. In Parry's first tour, over 80,000 lines were transcribed.
It is played by a lahutar, a rapsode or bard. The Albanian songs are octosyllable, in relation to the decasyllable Serbian.
The use of lahuta is traditionally mastered in the Highlands and Malësi e Madhe District. Gjergj Fishta, the Albanian national poet and priest, wrote the book Lahuta e Malcis which is often played with a lahuta. The famous Albanian song about Gjergj Elez Alia, the Albanian mythological hero who slays a beast that rises from the sea, is also played with a lahuta.
A good number of Albanian epic singers (Albanian: lahutarë or rapsodë, 'bards' or 'rhapsodes') can be found today in Kosovo and northern Albania, and some also in Montenegro. The Albanian traditional singing of epic verse from memory is one of the last survivors of its kind in modern Europe, and the last survivor of the Balkan traditions.Di Lellio, Anna; Dushi, Arbnora (2024). "Gender Performance and Gendered Warriors in Albanian Epic Poetry". In Lothspeich, Pamela (ed.). The Epic World. Routledge Worlds. Taylor & Francis. .
The exact origin of the nominations of the related concepts gusle, gadulka, gudok and gudalo, the latter as the name for the bow of the gusle could also illuminate a more accurate assignment in the history of the Gusle after Walther Wünsch.
In the parlance of the South Slavs, in addition to the feminine plurale tantum "gusle" that has prevailed as a lexeme, even the older "gusli", which is found in the area of the middle Drina River region to Arilje and throughout Montenegro. The use of the phonemes and is in the same language as the same speaker, or it can be used in lyrics or everyday speech.
The singular form "gusla" is found only in Eastern Serbia, west of the Timok, around Niš, Ivanjica, as well as in the area of the Zlatibor. On Korčula only "gusla" is in use.
The term "gusle" by Alberto Fortis has been introduced into European literature. "Gusle" is in Serbian linguistic usage, however, a feminine plurale tantum (Serbo-Croatian gusla or gusle, Albanian lahuta or lahutë).
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