Macedonian music refers to all forms of music associated with ethnic Macedonians. It shares similarities with the music of neighbouring Balkan countries, yet it remains overall distinctive in its rhythm and sound.
Folk music The ethnic Macedonian folk music (Macedonian: Народна музика, Narodna muzika) includes: Traditional music (Macedonian: Изворна музика, translit.: Izvorna muzika literally meaning: roots music) Contemporary folk music (Macedonian language: современа народна музика)
Traditional music The Macedonian traditional music, which can be rural or urban (starogradska muzika), and is recognizable by the heavy use of the Phrygian dominant scale, includes: lyric songs, epic songs, labour songs, ritual songs, humorous songs, circle dance ("oro"), the old urban style called Čalgija (not to be confused with chalga) etc. Popular traditional songs are: Kaleš bre Anǵo, Slušam kaj šumat šumite, Biljana platno beleše, Dafino vino crveno, Zemjo Makedonska and many others. Narode Makedonski is a nationalist folk song about the Macedonian national revival. Often referenced oro dances are Teškoto from the village of Galičnik, Kalajdžiskoto, Komitskoto (The Dance of the freedom fighters) and others. An internationally acclaimed professional folklore association is the award-winning Tanec.
The music of the Balkans is known for complex rhythms. Macedonian music exemplifies this trait. Folk songs like "Pomnish li, libe Todoro" (Помниш ли, либе Тодоро) can have rhythms as complex as 22/16, divided by stanza to 2+2+3+2+2+3+2+2+2+2, a combination of the two common meters 11=2+2+3+2+2 and 11=3+2+2+2+2 (sheet music). In order to add tension to notes, musicians (primarily from older schools) will add the distinctive characteristic of stretching out beats.
The gajda (гајда), a type of bagpipe, was the most common folk instrument in traditional Macedonian culture. It has now become an instrument for concert recitation, drawing on recent legends like Pece Atanasovski (video), leader of the Radio Skopje ensemble Ansambl na Narodni Instrumenti, as the source of modern tradition. Other instruments include: šupelka (шупелка) – small flute kemane (кемане) – three-stringed fiddle tambura (тамбура) – long-necked lute zurla (зурла) – large double-reed horn tapan (тапан) – cylindrical drum kaval (кавал) – rim-blown flute harmonika (хармоника) – accordion
Macedonian folk orchestras consist of a clarinet or saxophone, drum kit, bass guitar, accordion and guitar, sometimes with modern synthesizers and drum machines. These orchestras are very popular in Macedonia. Popular members are virtuoso musicians Skender Ameti and Goran Alachki on accordion and Miroslav Businovski on clarinet.
Čalgija is an urban style, played by bands (Čalgii) with a dajre (tambourine) and tarabuka (hourglass drum) providing percussion for ut (lute), kanun (zither), clarinet and violin. Though modern musicians have updated the Čalgija into a spectrum of hard and soft, classical and pop sounds, some traditional musicians remain. Perhaps the most influential of recent years was Tale Ognenovski, who plays a wide variety of traditional and modern sounds.
After World War II People's Republic of Macedonia sponsored the creation of professional ensembles such a "Chalgii orchestra", "Folk music orchestra" and "Authentic folk instruments orchestra" which were departments of "Radio Television Skopje" and performed arranged version of folk melodies. Folk music orchestras performed arranged versions of folk melodies.
Since 1971 the Macedonian folk music duo, Selimova-Želčeski is active.Selimova-Želčeski At the International Folklore Conference organized by the International Folklore Committee in Istanbul, Turkey, 1977, on the subject of "Folklore on the Radio" representative from Yugoslavian Radio Television (Former Yugoslavia) was Dushko Dimitrovski, Editor of the Folk Music Department for "Radio Television Skopje" (now Macedonian Radio Television) from the Socialist Republic of Macedonia presented folklore material in his presentation entitled "Chalgija music in Macedonia", including the recordings of Macedonian folk dances: "Kasapsko oro", arranged by Tale Ognenovski, and "Kumovo oro chochek", composed by Tale Ognenovski and performed by him as clarinet soloist accompanied by the "Chalgii" orchestra of Radio Television Skopje (now Macedonian Radio Television), which created great interest not only amongst the delegates of the Conference but also around the world.
In the book entitled "Rough Guide to World Music Volume One: Africa, Europe & The Middle East" written by Simon Broughton and Mark Ellingham on page 202 subtitle: Macedonia tricky rhythm, Kim Burton noted: "In western music, a bar of triple time – such as a waltz has three equal beats: but in Macedonia it may a bar of 7/8 divided up as 3-2-2 or 2-2-3 or 2-3-2 and so on…" In this book on page 203 was written: "One of the few clarinettists to have performed successfully both with a calgia and in the more modern style is Tale Ognenovski, born in 1922 and one of the most influential musicians of the post-war era. He was a member of the Tanec group during the 1950s and lead clarinet of the Radio Skopje calgia. The composer of many tunes that have become standards, and which is the basis for Macedonia's own new composed folk music."
The magazine "Ilustrovana politika" observes,"Radio Television Belgrade" (PGP-RTB, now PGP-RTS Radio Television of Serbia, Serbia) released an LP of Macedonian folk music (LP 1439 RTB, produced in 1979), on which is performances by the extraordinary clarinetist Tale Ognenovski. His music repertoire is folk dances, jazz (besides others he includes works by Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw), concerts from Carl Maria von Weber, Mozart and Ernesto Cavallini...This is Tale Ognenovski who began to play the clarinet in the village of Brusnik near Bitola, who with this wooden instrument toured the world and received well-deserved applause wherever he performed."
In his book, For Our Music Dushko Dimitrovski writes: "The impossible becomes possible: two usually non-complementary parallel-existing worlds of sounds, Europe and The Orient, are in Tale Ognenovski's music naturally brought closer together, understand each other and merge."
In September, 2001 Tale Ognenovski released CD album: Jazz, Macedonian Folk Dances and Classical Music Reviewer Neil Horner of the MusicWeb International comments, "He is undoubtedly an exceptional artist and the predominant image created in my mind is of Benny Goodman playing the superb Contrasts he commissioned Bartók to write for him …This disc is likely to appeal to world music aficionados who enjoy the Balkan/Levantine soundworld and perhaps also those who care to hear the source musics of their classical favourites, the aforementioned Bartók but also, here, perhaps people like Skalkottas."
Contemporary folk music Contemporary folk music is a popular style based on the traditional folk music. However, unlike it, contemporary folk music is credited to a particular author and it falls under the copyright laws, it is performed by professional musicians and it is usually (but not necessarily) played with modern instrumentation. Usually, the older performers and composers (such as the highly acclaimed Aleksandar Sarievski, Jonče Hristovski and Dobri Stavrevski) stay closer to the traditional roots, and thus contemporary folk music is often mistaken for traditional. On the other hand, the younger usually espouse a more modernized sound and image, thus often being disproved by the traditional purists as kitsch. Nevertheless, the style is popular among the common people and notable performers include: Anka Gieva, Vanja Lazarova, Violeta Tomovska, Elena Georgieva, Suzana Spasovska, Mitre Mitrevski, Efto Pupinovski, , Orce Stefkovski, Blagica Pavlovska, Dragan Vučić, Zoran Vanev, Vaska Ilieva Wik Kakarotski and others. Some of them also perform traditional songs. The newest generation of performers of this genre such as Aneta Micevska, Blagojce Stojanovski-TUSE, Sonja Tarculovska, Elena Velevska, Jasmina Mukaetova, Aneta Nakovska, Pane Panev altogether with the bands such as Molika, Bioritam, Akademci Bolero bend, Art Plaza have introduced a newer outlook to this kind of music inspired by the Serbian turbofolk, Bulgarian chalga, and Greek laika, so their style is more considered as pop-folk, rather than folk music.
Several popular folk music festivals exist, including: Folk fest Valandovo in Valandovo, Serenada na Širok sokak in Bitola, Cvetnici in Skopje, Ohridski trubaduri – Ohrid Fest in Ohrid and others.
Outside North Macedonia Traditional as well as modern music is created and performed in other countries where Macedonian communities exist, which include primarily the Balkan countries surrounding North Macedonia, as well as enclaves resulting from the diaspora in the US, Australia, Canada and other countries. A notable example is the folk musician Kostas Novakis from Greece (born in Koufalia, Thessaloniki regional unit, Greek Macedonia), who claims Macedonian ethnicity and performs traditional ethnic Macedonian music. Despite the political tensions between North Macedonia, with ethnic Macedonians on one side and Greece on the other, Novakis released several CD titles with traditional ethnic Macedonian music in Greece .
Receiving the audience through the World of Unusual Rhythm of Macedonian Folk Music
"Macedonian folk music is governed by rhythmic laws and set metres. Foreign influences, in so far as they existed, where subjected to the rules of accentuation of the Macedonian popular language. The melody is usually asymmetrical... ""Teškoto" from Nižopole (Bitola) means "heavy," and indicates the heavy rhythm which is typical of very ancient dances," appeared in an article entitled, "Extracts from PROGRAMME NOTES ON THE DANCES AND SONGS performed at the Yugoslav Folk Music Festival", with the subtitle 'MACEDONIA – represented by 23 villages", published by The International Folk Music Council (IFMC) Stevan Ognenovski in his book entitled Tale Ognenovski Virtuoso of the Clarinet and Composer / Тале Огненовски виртуоз на кларинет и композитор (2000), noted: "At the "Yugoslav Folk Music Festival in Opatija, Croatia (8 to 14 September 1951) the Folk Dance group from the Bitola village of Nižopole from the Bitola in which Tale Ognenovski was playing as a clarinet soloist in the folk dance "Teškoto", received First Award as the best Folk Dance group at the festival. This was a great success because in this Festival participated 85 different folk dance groups from Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The musical part of the group had only two members: Tale Ognenovski played solo clarinet with the accompaniment of drummer Lambe Petrovski."