Preservation of Cultural Heritage Reflected in the Musical Tradition

This paper refers to the musical tradition of the Turkish rural population in the Republic of North
Macedonia with a focus on the western part of the country – Municipality Zhupa. The interest is driven
from the knowledge of rich historical past of this area with several villages, and specifics of the settled
population—Yuruk Turks. Changes in social structures, migration from villages to cities, development
of the technology and the Internet, as well as changes oriented from traditional to contemporary social
forms are factors that contribute to narrowing the traditional musical repertoire. However, this music is
still one of the vital factors that continually sublimate events of the rich history of many centuries. This
is confirmed by our field research started during 2013 and still continuing until nowadays by collecting,
recording, and monitoring of certain secular events, in which music plays an important role. The
performing ensemble depends on the occasion of the traditional rites, and it can be instrumental,
vocal, or vocal-instrumental. The instrumental ensemble is still constituted of traditional instruments,
davul, and zurna. The musical repertoire consists of local traditional and Rumelian songs (türkü and
oyun havasi) from the wider region in which lyric thematic prevails.