UNESCO has announced that singing with the gusle (lute) has been registered as a world heritage.
The registration was made at the request of Serbia and this is the announcement on the official website of UNESCO and the news was conveyed with concern in Albania. Gusle is the name in Slavic languages of the musical instrument known in Albania as the lute.
A few years ago, there was an effort between Albania and Kosovo to register this musical instrument in UNESCO as a cultural heritage asset. However, the request was not submitted because Kosovo was prevented from becoming a member of UNESCO.
The Serbs in this regard were faster, TCH reports.
This very old musical instrument is widespread throughout the area of the Dinaric Alps, from Slovenia to Albania, and further from Romania, Bulgaria, but also in Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. This is the Albanian lute.
But similar songs are also sung by the Slavs with the instrument they call Gusle.
In Serbia and Montenegro, rhapsodes are called Guslarë, while in Croatia, where the lute is sung to heroes, this instrument was used by bandits.
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Montenegrins also have part of the folklore tradition. However, the musical instrument with the same name is also used in Russia and the Czech Republic, as well as by the Arabs. While the Romanians have a name similar to the Albanian, they call it Lauta.
But whose is this musical instrument that resembles the Byzantine or Arab lyre? The Ministry of Culture of Albania says that it is in contact with the Ministry of Montenegro, to expand the participation in this registration to Albania and other countries of South-Eastern Europe. A joint request of the ambassadors of Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia was made to UNESCO for this reason.
Meanwhile, Albanian musicologists are preparing the file to record the "epic of the Kreshniks". The declaration on behalf of all countries was presented by Albania's ambassador to UNESCO, Ferit Hoxha.
