Palokë Kurti (1858–1920) was an Albanian composer, performer, and singer. A native of

Shkodër Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra) is the fifth-most-populous city of the Republic of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. The city sprawls across the Plain of Mbishkodra between the southern part of Lake Shkod ...

, he was a musical amateur who composed the ''Unity of Albania March'' (''Bashkimi Shqipnis'') in 1881. Kurti took his first piano lessons from the Italian musician Giovanni Canale. During his youth he was in contact with the ''aheng'' groups from which he learned their way of singing and also how to compose verses in the ''

bejtexhi The Bejtexhinj (in Albanian sing. ''bejtexhi'', pl. ''bejtexhinj''; from tr, beyte meaning "poem"), were popular bards of the Muslim tradition, literally meaning "couplet makers". It means the same in the Albanian literature, firstly muslim poets ...

'' style. He joined the Shkodra band in 1878 and two years later became its bandmaster. After the ''Bashkimi Shqipnis March'' he also composed several marches, polkas and mazurkas in the Mittel-Europa tradition. However the compositions related to national music are the ones that will make him important in the history of the music of Albania. Kurti composed two

potpourri Potpourri ( ) is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant materials used to provide a gentle natural scent, commonly in residential settings. It is often placed in a decorative bowl. The word "potpourri" comes into English from the French ...

s on Shkodrane urban popular songs called "The Musical Entertainment of our Forefathers", the second of which is in F Major. In this potpourri he uses an entirely

diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize Scale (music), scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical sty ...

modal language and a tonal harmony (unlike in Potpourri 1 which uses non-diatonic modes of the

makam The Turkish makam ( Turkish: ''makam'' pl. ''makamlar''; from the Arabic word ) is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam speci ...

type). According to Koço he is doing this on purpose so that the local music was purged of Oriental sounds, but sounded more Western. Kurti composed songs and also wrote the texts of the songs. Several songs that have been composed by Kurti have survived but many survive without attribution. He was exiled for two years, probably for political reasons. After his return to Shkodër in the 1890s his main occupation was composing. He was exiled two more times, the last time to

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

in 1919. Exhausted, he died in 1920 and his burial was followed by a multitude of people from his native town. His value remains due to a very skillful and masterful combination of oriental and western music.

References

Bibliography

* 1858 births 1920 deaths Albanian composers Male composers Albanian musicians People from Shkodër Albanian conductors (music) {{Albania-composer-stub