Two-part singing and playing in the Istrian Scale is a complex style of folk music found even outside Istria and the Croatian Littoral, but it is most compactly preserved precisely in this area. Basically, two-part singing is based on non-tempered tone relations and a characteristic color of tone that is achieved in vocal music by powerful singing, partly through the nose.
There is often a degree of improvisation and variation during the performance in both voices, but endings in unison or in octave remain as a strict rule. This feature can be noticed in bugarenje sub-style, too, regardless of the fact that the lower voice drops additionally for a second or a diminished third.
Most of tone rows consist of four to six tones. Metro-rhythmical organization, formal structure and structure of the sung text range from simple to very complex patterns, and the relationship between music and lyrics is specific.
©Valter Primožić, Festivities in Kršan, 2006
