When speaking of the traditional music of
Labinština
(the region of Labin) one primarily thinks of the two-part singing
style of narrow intervals. This rural music, nowadays
primarily sung by the Croatian population, although stylistically
rather uniform in all of Istria, undoubtedly features some local
characteristics which differ from place to place. The region of Labin
is notable precisely for its immediately recognizable local
coloration. This is the area that developed the artistic rendering of
singing na tanko i debelo (in high and low tones) the most and
that introduced the combination of playing of the sopele
shawms with the mih bagpipe. The bagpipe playing technique in
the region of Labin noticeably differs from the playing techniques in
the remainder of Istria owing to the organologic properties of the
bagpipes and to the staccato
playing technique employed. Additionally, the Kršan area was
in the past an important center of construction of the sopele.
A much as the dvojnice double flutes and the bagpipes were
usually a domestically product, the construction of the sopele
was entrusted to experienced craftsmen. The Fonović craftsmen,
father and son, had constructed the sopele shawms in the
village of Lazarići for almost a century. The son Ivan (nicknamed
Zlatela - "golden", for his hair color) became
something of a legend even during his lifetime because of the quality
of the instruments he made. Since radical changes in lifestyle and
the intense depopulation of villages changed in many ways the musical
landscape of Istria, the folklore associations RKUD Rudar
(founded in Raša in 1949) and KUD Ivan Fonović Zlatela
(established in Kršan in 1997) have especially contributed to
stimulating the interest of new generations in the tradition and in
the promotion of the music of the Labin region. If
the merits of Rudar
are its maintaining of the continuity of playing, singing and dancing
and, among other things, organizing of the local festivals under the
title Labinske konti i tonci
(Labin's songs and dances), the importance of the Kršan folklore
association expresses itself through the modernisation of its
approach towards traditional music, by the research of the
contemporary folkloristic creativity of its homeland, and by the
introduction of other, until recently completely neglected,
traditional musical styles.
Dario Marušić