Seven traditional folk pieces from the Balkan region arranged for guitar

Abstract

Currently, the classical guitar repertoire includes very few pieces from the Balkan region. The authentic melodic and harmonic structures combined with complex rhythmic components found in certain Balkan folk music are very rarely found in classical music repertoire. Therefore, the primary purpose of this project was to analyze the selected Balkan folk music and provide a guitar transcription for each piece in order to expand the classical guitar repertoire. As a guitarist who grew up in the Balkan area, exploring and applying different musical styles from the Balkan region to the classical guitar was something that I have always felt would contribute uniquely to the repertoire for this instrument. In this document, I first introduced the historical background of Balkan folk music. Following this, I analyzed the musical styles/characteristics and performance practices of eight Balkan folk music selections and transcribed them for classical guitar. Through detailed analyses of Balkan music literature and scores, I aim to provide guitarists and guitar teachers with valid materials they can use in their performance and teaching.