88.1 KDHX Saint Louis

music for fretted instruments - from all over

Irish hornpipes

Norwegian - guitar is not traditional there, but the style and tune are - some astounding playing by this member of the group Kvarts

a Swedish recording from Ale Möller's early days

from Finland

from Brittany

The guitar was used traditionally in Corsica, best known for its polyphonic vocal music. the arrangement is more contemporary

guitar and mandolin in a Mazurka - a form intrduced to the island in the mid-19th century

The "guitarra Portuguesa" is actually a 10 stringed (5 course) mandolin-like instrument usually used for accompanying Fado singers, but is an instrument in its own right. It is accompanied her by a guitar, which they call "viola" in Fado music

southern Spain, of course

Croatian Tamburica music

Serbian-American. Not listed in the title, they end with a dance, Malo kolo

Macedonian music. The tambura there has 2 courses of double strings and is usually not used as a solo instrument , like here, but, rather, for accompaniment, as in the next selection from across the border in Pirin, Bulgaria

north Albanian music for Sharki

an ensemble of çiftellia s accompanying the singer in this Kosova-Albanian song

the quintessential Greek fretted instrument is the Bouzouki. t comes in different sizes, and its popularity arose in the mid-early 20th century when Greek musicians from Asia minor brought it with them

from Abkhazia, on the Eastern Black Sea coast, a 17-stringed guitar

from the republic of Georgia. The guitar was used only for "old city songs", like this one

From Hungarian great plains - tambura