[4] The Gjirokastër National Folklore Festival, Albania, (Albanian: Festivali Folklorik Kombëtar), has been held every five years in the month of October since 1968, and it typically includes many polyphonic songs.

[2] Many scholars who have studied the Albanian iso-polyphony and in general the polyphonic music of the Balkans consider it an old tradition that dates back to the Thraco-Illyrian era.

However, since it is considered the product of oral transmission down many generations, scholars came to their conclusions by analyzing this musical tradition that continues to be performed in modern days.

There are found many specific features of the Albanian polyphonic tradition that indicate its ancient origin: the pentatonic modal/tonal structure, which is widely thought by scholars to represent an early beginning to the musical culture of a people; the presence of recitative vocals, because when the melody of the vocals is not developed, the tradition is thought to be in a more primitive phase; the presence of calls and shouts, which indicates a primitive phase of development in the musical culture of a people; the a cappella singing style, which suggests an old age of a musical tradition since it lacks of instrumental accompaniment.

The Balkan tradition was non-institutionalized and has been continually collectively formed, while the Byzantine music was created by individual composers and was institutionalized.

The turner likely played initially a non-specific melodic role, a style that can still be found in the two-voiced polyphonic singing of the women in Gjirokastër.

The introduction of the drone was a significant artistic achievement because it brought the diversification and the enrichment of the harmonic interplay between melodic lines.

[15] Being completely absent in Toskëria, Myzeqeja, and Chamëria, the four-voiced polyphony exists only in Labëria, where it is found along with the more common three-voiced style.

[2] Pleqërishte is a genre of Albanian folk iso-polyphony sung by men in Labëria and is principally identified with the city of Gjirokastër and its environs.

[16][18] One of the best-known songs of the genre and most notable renditions of the group is Doli shkurti, hyri marsi, which details a battle between Çerçiz Topulli and Ottoman troops in 1908 in the village of Mashkullorë near Gjirokastër.