Music of North Macedonia

Roots and traditions

Folk music

The ethnic Macedonian folk music (Macedonian: Народна музика, Narodna muzika) includes:

Traditional music (Macedonian: Изворна музика, translit.: Izvorna muzika literally meaning: roots music) Contemporary folk music (Macedonian language: современа народна музика)

The Macedonian traditional music, which can be rural or urban (starogradska muzika), and is recognizable by the heavy use of the Phrygian dominant scale, includes: lyric songs, epic songs, labour songs, ritual songs, humorous songs, circle dance ("oro"), the old urban style called Čalgija (not to be confused with chalga) etc. Popular traditional songs are: Kaleš bre Anǵo, Slušam kaj šumat šumite, Biljana platno beleše, Dafino vino crveno, Zemjo Makedonska and many others. Narode Makedonski is a nationalist folk song about the Macedonian national revival. Often referenced oro dances are Teškoto from the village of Galičnik, Kalajdžiskoto, Komitskoto (The Dance of the freedom fighters) and others. An internationally acclaimed professional folklore association is the award-winning Tanec.

Popular music

Contemporary folk music

Contemporary folk music is a popular style based on the traditional folk music. However, unlike it, contemporary folk music is credited to a particular author and it falls under the copyright laws, it is performed by professional musicians and it is usually (but not necessarily) played with modern instrumentation. Usually, the older performers and composers (such as the highly acclaimed Aleksandar Sarievski, Jonče Hristovski and Dobri Stavrevski) stay closer to the traditional roots, and thus contemporary folk music is often mistaken for traditional. On the other hand, the younger usually espouse a more modernized sound and image, thus often being disproved by the traditional purists as kitsch. Nevertheless, the style is popular among the common people and notable performers include: Anka Gieva, Vanja Lazarova, Violeta Tomovska, Elena Georgieva, Suzana Spasovska, Mitre Mitrevski, Efto Pupinovski, Voislav Stojanovski, Orce Stefkovski, Blagica Pavlovska, Dragan Vučić, Zoran Vanev, Vaska Ilieva Wik Kakarotski and others. Some of them also perform traditional songs.