Throughout the areas of Istria and the Kvarner Gulf the distinctive vocal singing has spread, consisting of alternating half and whole steps, which, particularly in older singers' and instrumentalists' renditions, are untempered. The songs are sung by pairs of singers (male, female, or mixed) in a characteristic two-part polyphony in minor thirds (or major sixths) with a cadence to a unison or an octave. Singers distinguish the higher (na tanko 'thin') part from the lower (na debelo 'fat').Rice, Timothy; Porter, James; and Goertzen, Chris (2017). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Europe, unpaginated. Routledge. .
