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The musical legacy of Greece is as diverse as its history.
Cypriot music has many similarities to traditional Greek
music, and their modern music scenes remain well-integrated.
Ethnic Greeks have long been the largest ethnic group on the
island.
Greek Music through the Ages
Greek written history extends far back into Ancient Greece,
and was a major part of ancient Greek theater. Later, influences
from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire
changed Greek music.
In the 19th century, opera composers like Nikolaos Mantzaros
(1795 - 1872), Spyridion Xyndas (1812 - 1896) and Spyros Samaras
(1861 - 1917) helped revitalize Greek classical music.
Ancient Greece
In ancient Greece, mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment,
celebration and spiritual reasons. Instruments included the
double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument, the lyre,
especially the special kind called a kithara.
Music was an important part of education in ancient Greece,
and boys were taught music starting at age six. Greek musical
literacy created a flowering of development; Greek music theory
included the Greek musical modes, which eventually became
the basis for Western religious music and classical music.
Greece in the Roman Empire
Due to Rome's revernence for Greek culture, Roman music continued
to use the Greek notational system.
Greece during the Ottoman occupation
By the beginning of the 20th century, music-cafés were
popular in Istanbul and Izmir, primarily owned by Greeks,
alongside Jews and Armenians. The bands were led by a female
vocalist, typically, and included a violin and a sandoúri.
The improvised songs typically exclaimed aman aman, which
led to the name amanédhes or café-aman. Musicians
of this period included Marika Papagika, Agapios Tomboulis,
Rosa Eskenazi and Rita Abatzi.
Types of Music
Folk music
Greek folk traditions are said to derive from the music played
by ancient Greeks. There are said to be two musical movements
in Greek folk music: akritic and klephtic. Akritic music comes
from the 9th century akrites, or border guards of the Byzantine
Empire. Following the end of the Byzantine period, klephtic
music arose before the Greek Revolution, developed among the
kleftes, warriors who fought against the Ottoman Empire. Klephtic
music is monophonic and uses no harmonic accompaniment.
Traditional dhimotiká are accompanied by clarinets,
guitars, tambourines and violins, and include dance music
forms like syrtó, kalamatianó, tsámiko
and hasaposérviko, as well as vocal music like kléftiko.
Many of the earliest recordings were done by Arvanites (ethnic
Albanian) like Yiorgia Mittaki and Yiorgios Papasidheris.
Instrumentalists include clarinet virtuosos like Yiorgos Yevyelis,
Vassilis Saleas and Yiannis Vassilopoulos, as well as oud
and fiddle players like Nikos Saragoudas and Yiorgos Koros.
Greek folk music is found all throughout Greece, as well
as among communities in countries like the United States,
Canada and Australia. The island of Cyprus and several regions
of Turkey are home to long-standing communities of ethnic
Greeks with their own unique styles of music. Apart from the
common music found all-around Greece, there are distinct types
of folk music, sometimes related to the history or simply
the taste of the specific places:
The Ionian Islands were never under Turkish control, and
their kantádhes (traditional songs) are based on the
popularItalian style of the early 19th centrury. Kantádhes
are performed by three male singers accompanied by mandolin
or guitar. These romantic songs developed mainly in Kefallonia
in the early 19th century but spread throughout Greece after
the liberation of Greece. An Athenian form of kantádhes
arose, accompanied by violin, clarinet and laouto. However
the style is accepted as uniquely Ionian.
The island of Zakynthos has a diverse musical history with
influences from Venice, Crete and elsewhere. The island's
music heritage is celebrated by the Zakynthos School of Music,
established in 1815.
Folk dances include the tsirigotikos, ballos, ai yiogis,
kerkyraikos and kato sto yialo.
The Aegean islands of Greece are known for nisiótika
songs; characteristics vary widely. Although the basis of
the sound is characteristically secular-Byzantine, the relative
isolation of the islands allowed the separate development
of island-specific musics. Most of the Nisiótika songs
are accompanied by lira, clarinet, guitar and violin. Modern
stars include Effi Sarri and the Konitopoulous clan; Mariza
Koch is credited with reviving the field in the 1970s. Folk
dances include the chiotikos, stavrotos, ballos syrtos, trata
and ikariotikos.
In the Aegean Cyclades, the violí is more popular
than the lýra, and has produced several respected musicians,
including Nikos Ikonomidhes, Nikos Hatzopoulos and Stathis
Koukoularis.
There are prominent elements of Cretan music on the Dodecanese
Islands, developing from Cretans that fled there from the
Turks. Dodecanese folk dances include the trata, ballos, syrtos,
issos and syrtos rodou.
The Greek islands of Kárpathos, Khálki, Kássos
and Crete form an arc where the lýra is the dominant
instrument. It is a three-stringed fiddle similar to the Turkish
kemençe. Kosta Moundakis is probably the most widely-respected
master of the lýra, which is often accompanied by the
laoúto which resembles a mandolin. Bagpipes are often
played on Kárpathos.
Crete has a well known folk dance tradition, which includes
swift dances like syrtos, maleviziotikos, haniotikos, pentozalis
and laziotikos.
Folk dances from Peloponnesos include the kariatidon and
tsakonikos.
In Epirus, Albanian and Macedonian influences are common,
and folk songs are polyphonic and sung by both male and female
singers. Distinctive songs include mirolóyia (mournful
tunes) vocals with skáros accompaniment and tis távlas
(drinking songs). The clarinet is the most prominent folk
instrument in Epirus, used to accompany dances, mostly slow
and heavy, like the menousis, fisouni, podhia, sta dio, sta
tria, zagorisios, kentimeni, koftos, yiatros and tsamikos.
Folk dances in Macedonia include samarinas, akritikos, baidouska,
gaida, macedonikos antikristos, leventikos, mikri eleni, partalos,
kastorianos and sirtos macedonias. Note: The term "macedonia(n)"
is also claimed by the Slavic population of the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia. The Ottoman province of Macedonia,
ecompassing regions of the ancient Macedonia, Paeonia, and
Thrace was divided between Greece, Serbia(Yugoslavia), and
Bulgaria respectively in 1918.
There is a long-standing tradition of a cappella music in
Thessaly, including in dance music. Folk dance from Thessaly
is slow and stately, and includes dances like the klistos,
tai-tai, pilioritikos, svarniara, sta tria and karagouna.
Instruments used in ancient Thracian music such as Bagpipes
(gaida) and lyra are still the ordinary instruments of folk
music in Thrace. Folk dances include the tripati, sfarlis,
souflioutouda, zonaradikos, kastrinos, syngathistos, baintouska
and apadiasteite sto xoro.
In Thrace there is also a Muslim, mainly Turkish and Gypsy,
minority. The dominant music of Turkey, Arabesk, had been
banned in Turkey because of its Arabic origins in the past.
Thus the traditional music of the minority in Greece is usually
seen as more genuine Turkish (Arabesk) than the folk music
found in Turkey itself.
Cyprus is an independent country, currently contested between
the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus. Cyprus' folk traditions include dances like the sousta,
syrtos, zeimbekikos, dachas, and the kartsilamdhes.
Izmir, formerly known by the Greek name Smyrna, is a city
in modern Turkey, in Izmir Province. The city was ethnically
Greek until the 1920s, when the Greek population was expelled.
The city's musical heritage include the songs of these people,
similar in style to rebetiko; they are sad tales of burning
and loss, and are called Smyrnaiika.
Pontos is a region in Turkey on the eastern shore of the
Black Sea. It was inhabited by ethnic Greeks until 1924, and
elements of Greek music remain. The region's dance style uses
unique techniques like odd shoulder tremors and knee bends.
Folk dances include the gerasari, trgona, kots, omal, serra,
kotsari and tik.
Popular music
Having missed the Renaissance and all the following achievements
of the Western world due to the almost four centuries of Ottoman
occupation, the first liberated Greeks were anxious to catch
up with the rest of Europe. The flourishing Greek culture
of the Ionian islands, which were under the Italian rule and
influence, was in sharp contrast to the Ottoman cultural poverty.
It was through these islands that all the major advances of
the European music were introduced to mainland Greeks. The
songs of the islands known as Eptanissian, became the forerunners
of the Greek modern song, influencing its development to a
considerable degree. For almost a century all later musical
attempts had to borrow elements from the Eptanissian music.
The Athenian songs
The most successful songs during the period 1870-1930 were
the so-called Athenian songs, the serenades and the songs
performed on the Athenian stage in revues and operettas that
dominated the Athenian theatres. The serenades were operating
by definition in an autonomous way, whereas the "Athenian"
songs, despite their original connection to a total dramatic
work, also achieved to become hits as independent songs. Italian
opera had a great influence on the musical aesthetics of the
Modern Greeks.
After 1930, wavering among American and European musical
influences as well as the Greek musical tradition, the Greek
composers begin to write music to the tunes of the tango,
the samba, and the waltz as well as the melodies that refer
to Athenian serenades and the theatrical revue songs.
Rembétika
Rebétiko, the underground greek music, evolved from
traditions of the urban poor. Refugees and drug-users, criminals
and the itinerant, the earliest rembétika musicians
were scorned by mainstream society. They sang heartrending
tales of drug abuse, prison and violence, usually accompanied
by the bouzouki, a sort of lute derived from the Byzantine
tambourás and related to the Turkish saz.
In 1923, many ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor fled to Greece
as a result of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). They settled
in poor neighborhoods in Pireás, Thessaloníki
and Athens. Many of these immigrants were highly educated,
and included songwriter Vangelis Papazoglou and Panayiotis
Toundas, composer and leader of Odeon Records' Greek subsidiary.
However, one Turkish tradition that came with the Greek migrants
was the tekés, or hashish dens. Groups of men would
sit in a circle and smoke hashish from a hookah, and improvised
music of various kinds was common. With the coming of the
Metaxas dictatorship, rembétika was repressed due to
the uncompromising lyrics. Hashish dens and bouzoúkis
were banned. Many songs from this period were composed in
prison, where musicians made instruments out of scavenged
equipment.
After World War 2, rembétika had become a calmer form
of music, Out of this music scene came two of the earliest
legends of Greek Oriental music, like the quartet of Markos
Vamvakaris, Artemis, Stratos Payioumtzis, and Batis. Vamvakaris
became perhaps the first star of rembétika after beginning
a solo career. The scene was soon popularized further by stars
like Vassilis Tsitsanis. His "Synefiazmeni Kyriaki"
became an anthem for the oppressed Greeks after it was composed
in 1943, though it wasn't recorded until 1948. He was followed
by female singers like Marika Ninou, Ioanna Yiorgakopoulou
and Sotiria Bellou. In 1953, Manolis Khiotis added a fourth
pair of strings to the bouzoúki, which allowed it be
tuned tonally and set the stage for the electrification of
rembétika.
Rembétika was revived during the 1967-1974 coup, which
banned the music. Ironically, the banning meant that the dispossessed
of Greece were attracted to the music and its messages of
subversion. Revival groups included Opisthodhromiki Kompania,
Rembetiki Kompania, Agathonas Iakovidhis and Ta Pedhia apo
tin Patra.
Éntekhno
Drawing on rembétika's Westernization with Tsitsanis,
éntekhno arose in the late 1950s. Éntekhno is
orchestral music with elements of Greek folk rhythm and melody.
Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis were the most popular
early performers. By the 1960s, innovative albums made éntekhno
mainstream, and also led to its appropriation by the film
industry for use in soundtracks, often watering-down the music
in the process.
Laïkó
Laïkó was the pop music of the 50s and 60s. It
was criticized from all quarters for its apoliticism and decadence,
and its unpure Turkish roots. The influence of oriental music
on laïkó can be most strongly seen in 1960s indoyíftika,
Indian filmi with Greek lyrics. Manolis Angelopoulos was the
most popular indoyíftika performer, while pure laïkó
was dominated by superstar Stelios Kazantzidhis and Stratos
Dionisiou.
Tsifteteli
Tsifteteli is a type of music that was bought over by refugees
from Asia Minor in the 1920's. Basically, it is Greek belly
dance music. The Arabic and Turkish influence on this type
of music is very clear, and adds to the cultural similarities
Greeks have with the Middle East. This is an extremely popular
form of Modern Greek music, and played almost everywhere in
Greece. Some popular modern popular artists who include tsifteteli
in their music are Despina Vandi, Eleni Karousaki, Yiorgos
Mazonakis, and many others.
Other popular trends
Folk singer-songwriters first appeared in the 1960s, with
Dhionysis Savvopoulos' 1966 breakthrough. Many of these musicians
started out playing néo kýma, a mixture of éntekhno
and chansons from France. Savvopoulos mixed American musicians
like Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa with Macedonian folk music
and politically incisive lyrics. In his wake came more folk-influenced
performers like Arletta, Mariza Koch and Kostas Hatzis.
Another of Savvopoulos' pupils was Nikos Xydhakis, who revolutionized
laïkó by using orientalized instrumentation. His
most successful album was 1987's Konda sti Dhoxa Stigmi, recorded
with Eleftheria Arvanitaki.
Also, due to the common musical heritage much Greek music
has with Turkey and the Middle East, their have been exchanges
of music and duets with singers from these areas. Greek singers
like Sarbel have traslated songs from Arabic to Greek and
these have become extremely popular. Also, with Greek-Turkish
relations warming, and given the extremely similarity between
Greek and Turkish music, you have songs that are the same
and sung as a duet in both languages. A good example of a
song crossing these three cultures is the song "Anaveis
Fwties" by Despina Vandi. This song has been made into
Arabic by Fadel Shaker and called, "DeHket Al-Donya".
Also, the same song was done by Mustafa Sandal, called "Aska
Yürek Gerek", a song which is a duet containing
both Greek and Turkish.
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