ABSTRACT
Macedonia, a land of deep valleys and rugged mountains in the south-central Balkans, asserted itself historically in the fourth century B.C., when King Philip II conquered Greece, and his son, Alexander the Great, created an empire stretching from western Asia to Egypt, Persia, and northwestern India. Rituals of the pre-Christian agricultural and Christian calendar once supported a richly varied repertoire of songs, music, and dance: house-to-house caroling by boys at Christmas and New Year or young children before Easter and during droughts. To play folk music, the station hired combinations of Rom and Slav professional musicians, who formed a calgija orchestra. Polyphonic, ritual, and work songs often have a narrower range, but soborski pesni 'fair songs'—well-known songs, probably reflecting contact with urban culture—range up to an octave or ninth. Each village typically has several social dances that both sexes dance and a few social dances for each sex alone.
