Kontinentalno-planinske [континентално-планинске]

Continental-mountainous

These are songs that for the most part arose from the rural and patriarchal culture of the continental part of Montenegro, which is the origin of the heritage of the majority of the inhabitants of the Montenegrin littoral and its hinterlands. These songs have adaptable text, mostly asymmetric deca- or tredecasyllable, and are performed on a tetrachordal tonal basis, mostly through two-part melodic-“models”, determined by tradition. They are sung loudly, from the throat, for they are traditionally connected to performance in open areas (this means singing loudly, for as the inhabitants say, when the singers “thunder, it can be heard afar”, Donković 2000). These songs are generally sung in a group, in unison, except in some parts of the Montenegrin littoral and its hinterlands in which the unison sound is interrupted with heterophonic second two-parts in the cadences of the melo-line or melo-stanza (Grbalj, see singing heterophonic two-part). Some of the songs of this cultural sphere are also performed in unison, with heterophonic second two-parts in the cadences, but also antiphonally (Spič, see singing antiphonic).