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| Albanian dancers. |
Albanian music traditions mainly date back to the early 20th century, when the Albanians declared independence from the Ottoman empire upon which systems the local music had been founded previously. Rural instrumental and vocal music was primarily based on local styles, performed by community members, while the urban music absorbed western art music as well as middle eastern music, and was often performed by professional ensembles. Later in the same century, the boundaries between rural and urban music would be blurred through the influence and spread of mass media and sponsored folk-ensembles.
Traditionally, women have had the larger repertoires, thematically concerned mostly with family life and surround events. On occasions such as births, weddings and circumcisions, female singers would perform associated ritual songs, and for the death of family members they would sing emotive laments. In the past, girls and women would sing to accompany work in the field or house, as well as for seasonal agricultural and pastoral events, although such practices have largely been abandoned. In contrast, men would have smaller repertoires of songs, dealing with important historical events or legendary heroes, such as the great warrior Skanderbeg who often appears in the epic-historical sung poems of the north.
