Ganga (music)
Ganga is a traditional polyphonic chant that is mainly used by Croatians in the rural areas of the adjacent high altitude regions of western Herzegovina , the Dalmatian hinterland and southwestern Bosnia .
In the drawn out monotonous singing, a lead singer usually leads through the singing of the melody and the text. Then other singers join in and accompany him with rhythmically modulated vocalises on "a" or "e". Ganga is probably an onomatopoeic word for a song category with the linguistic context of gangati , "singing monotonously and drawn out, doing a ganga ". A comparison with other languages in the Balkans and Eastern Europe shows in Macedonian gangoli , "speaking through the nose", in Romanian ganguri, gongai and similar, "lallen", gunguni, "Coo (from pigeons)", also Albanian gungát , in this meaning from ancient Greek . Albanian gungallë means "cicada".
There are usually three or four male or female singers involved in the songs. It is unusual for both sexes to sing the same song together.
In the past, Croatians and Bosniaks often sang Ganga songs together. Ganga texts also contain political content that is often nationalist and has dealt with experiences from the Croatian and Bosnian wars since the 1990s . In this respect, they represent the opposite pole to the nationalistic Serbian epic songs that are performed with the string gusle .
Popular Croatian musicians include Ganga as an ethnic element in their songs, for example the pop-folk singer Mate Bulić .
distribution
In western Herzegovina ( Bosnia and Herzegovina ):
- Belevarijska (Širokobriješka) ganga , in the area around Široki Brijeg to the east of Mostar and Čitluk
- Bekijska ganga , in the area around Posušje and Grude
- Najinska ganga , in the Ljubuški area
- Duvanjska ganga , in the area around Tomislavgrad (formerly Duvno) and Livno
In the Dalmatian hinterland ( Croatia ):
- Imotska ganga , in the area around Imotski ( Imotska krajina )
In southwestern Bosnia (Bosnia and Herzegovina):
- Ramska ganga , in the Prozor-Rama region
literature
- Ankica Petrović: Perceptions of Ganga . In: The World of Music . tape 37 (2) , no. 2 , 1995, p. 60-71 .
Web links
- Map of the distribution area with additional text and sound samples ( memento from February 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (Croatian)