Greek traditional music

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Greek traditional music (

ethnic Greeks in Greece, Cyprus, Australia, the United States and other parts of Europe. Apart from the common music found generally in Greece, each region of Greece contains a distinct type of folk music
that originated from the region due to their history, traditions and cultural influences.

Overview

A Greek of the 18th century playing tambouras.

Greek folk music originally, predominantly contained one genre, known as Greek Demotiko (or Demotic/Paradosiako). This refers to the traditional Greek popular songs and music of mainland Greece and islands, which date back to the Byzantine times.[1] It was the sole popular musical genre of the Greek people until the spread of Rebetiko and Laiko (other genres of folk music) in the early 20th century, spread by the Greek refugees from Asia Minor.[2] This style of music evolved from the ancient and the medieval Greek era and is still played today.[3][4]

The lyrics of Greek folk music are largely based on Demotic (folk) poetry (usually by anonymous lyricists) and consist of popular themes such as love, marriage, humor, death, nature, water, sea, and religion.

armatoloi), as well as various war figures and notable battles.[5]

The songs are played mainly in the following two categories of tempos: 'Syrtos' (various versions) and 'Pidiktos'.[6] Pidikto songs are more energetic and involve leaping, whilst the Syrto songs and accompanying dances are slower and more free-flowing.[1] Some songs also are a combination of Pidikto and Syrto tempos.

Universal dances that accompany Greek folk music include Kalamatianos (a universal Greek dance from Kalamata), Tsamiko, Ballos and Sousta.[2]

Notable folk songs

Some notable folk songs include:

  • "Itia"
  • "Milo mou kokkino"
  • "Kontoula lemonia"
  • "Mou parigile to aidoni"
  • "Enas aetos"
  • "Kira Vangelio"
  • "Gerakina"
  • "Saranta palikaria"

and from Nisiotika (the songs from the islands)

  • "Ikariotikos"
  • "Samiotisa"
  • "Thalassaki"
  • "Armenaki"
  • "Amorgos Sousta"
  • "Ela Na Pame S'ena Meros
  • "Dari Dari
  • "Dirlada"
  • "Lygaria"
  • "Psaropoula", such as "Tilirkiotissa" and "Psintri Vasilitsia mou" (Cyprus).

Crete

Main article: Music of Crete
Cretan dancers.
Different types of laouto.

The Greek islands of

Pentozalis, Sousta, Syrtos, Trizali, Katsabadianos, Chaniotikos, Siganos, Pidichtos Lasithou, Maleviziotikos, Tsiniaris, Ierapetrikos and Laziotikos.[9]

Aegean islands

Main article: Nisiotika
Various tsampounas from the Cyclades and Dodecanese islands
Mariza Koch

The Aegean islands of Greece are known for their

Greek music.[10] Nisiótika songs are often accompanied by the lyra, guitar, tsampouna, souravli and violin.[10]

Notable singers include

Michanikos, Trata, Panagia and Ikariotikos.[12]

In the Aegean Cyclades, the violin is used more often than the Cretan lyra as well as the clarinet, mandolin, bagpipe, dulcimer and guitar.[12] Some Nisiotika musicians include Nikos Oikonomidis, Leonidas Klados and Stathis Koukoularis. Folk dances in the Cyclades include Lerikos, Syrtos (Serifou, Naxou and Kythnou), Amorgos dance and Ballos. A prominent singer of Cycladic music was Domna Samiou, who was trained by Greek musicologist, Simon Karas.[12]

The folk music of the Dodecanese (part of the Aegean Islands), also contains prominent elements of Cretan music.[13] Dodecanese folk dances include the Trata, Ballos, Syrtos, Kremasti, Issos, Syrtos Rodou, Michanikos and Kalymnikos, which originates from the island of Kalymnos.[13]

Central Greece

In

Syrtaki, Kalamatianos, Kamilierikos, Koulouriotikos, Syrtos, Zeibekiko, Tsamiko and Syrto-kalamatianos. The musical tradition of the region is also influenced by Polyphonic songs, through the Arvanites.[14]

Epirus

Main article:
Music of Epirus

In

Tsamikos, Koftos, Fisouni, Sta Dio (4/4 tempo), Sta Tria (3/4 tempo), Zagorisios, Metsovitikos and Beratis.[18]

Peloponnese

Main article: Music of the Peloponnese

Folk dances that accompany

Mirolóyia (laments), typically sung by the old women of Mani.[21]

Ionian Islands

Main article:
Music of the Heptanese
Heptanesian music
.

The

Kefalonia in the early 19th century but spread throughout Greece after its liberation in 1821.[23]

An

Heptanese.[22] The island of Zakynthos has a diverse musical history with influences also from Crete and many of these traditional, Heptanese songs would be played in theatre productions.[24] Folk dances include the Tsirigotikos (from Kythira), Levantinikos (from Zakynthos), Ballos, Syrtos, Ai Georgis, Kerkiraikos (from Corfu).[25]

Notable songs are "Kato Sto Yialo", "S'ena paporo mesa", "Apopse tin kithara mou".[25]

The

Heptanesean or Ionian School, Επτανησιακή Σχολή) was also founded and established in 1815.[26]

Macedonia

Main article: Music of Macedonia (Greece)

Folk dances in Macedonia include the

trumpets and bells (koudounia or "chálkina" in the local vernacular).[27] Other instruments used include violin, clarinet and Macedonian lyra
.

Thessaly

Main article: Music of Thessaly

Folk songs from

Tsamikos, Sta Tria, Karagouna and Beratis.[28]

Thrace

Main article: Music of Thrace

Instruments used in Ancient

bagpipe, is commonly used in Thracian music and clarinets are also used.[30] The Thracian Gaida, also called Avlos, is different from the Macedonian or other Bulgarian bagpipes. It is more high in pitch than the Macedonian Gaida but less so than the Bulgarian gaida (or Dura).[30] The Thracian Gaida is also still widely used throughout Thrace in northeastern Greece. Notable singers of Thracian music include Chronis Aidonidis and Kyriakos Sfetsas.[31]

Pontus

Main article: Pontic_Greeks § Music
Pontic lyra

Pontic music retains elements of the musical traditions of Byzantine music and the music from the region known as Caucasus.[32]

The primary instruments in Pontic music are a bowed instrument known as

drums, lute, Askomandoura (a type of bagpipe), Daouli (a type of drum) and Aulos (a wind instrument). Folk dances from Pontus include slower dances including the Omál, Tik and Dipát. Faster dances include the Tik Tónyia and Kotsari and other dances include Giouvarlantoum, Serra and Tas.[34]

Constantinople

Main article: Hasapiko

The main Greek dance, for which folk songs are used as an accompaniment in Constantinople is the Hasapikos.[35] It originated in the Middle Ages as a military exercise with swords, adopted by the Byzantine military.[35] During Byzantine times, the Hasapiko was called μακελλάρικος χορός (makellarikos horos). The songs were later danced by butchers in a social setting, and it was danced in both Turkey and Greece.[36]

The use of Politiki Lyra and Politiko Laouto is common to the folk songs from Constantinople. The Hasapiko also later served as one of the bases for the Sirtaki and it is danced in mostly all areas of Greece, with the use of Bouzouki.[37]

Cyprus

Main article: Music of Cyprus
Evagoras Karageorgis from Cyprus playing laouto.

Cyprus is an independent country, currently contested between the

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.[38] Cyprus includes a variety of classical, folk and popular genres. Cypriot folk music is similar to the folk music of Greece and includes dances such as the Sirtaki, Syrtos, the Cypriot Zeibekiko and Antikristos.[39] Cypriot folk music typically uses the Lute (Laouto) and since World War Two, the violin has been also used.[39]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Greek Folk Music and Dance". socalfolkdance.org. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  2. ^
    JSTOR 942190
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  3. ^ "Greek Traditional Music": Ινστιτούτο έρευνας μουσικής και ακουστικής - Institute for research on music and acoustics.
  4. ^ Samuel Baud-Bovy, Δοκίμιο για το Ελληνικό Δημοτικό Τραγούδι, 3rd edition, Πελοποννησιακό Λαογραφικό Ίδρυμα, Ναύπλιο: 1966, pp. 1–13. (Υπάρχει μια συνεχής εξέλιξη από την αρχαία Ελληνική μουσική έως και το δημοτικό τραγούδι, η οποία μαρτυρείται, εκτός από τη γλώσσα, στο ρυθμό, τη δομή και τη μελωδία).
  5. ^ a b Beaton, Roderick (1986). "The Oral Traditions of Modern Greece: A Survey" (PDF). Oral Tradition. 1: 110–133 – via SpringerLink.
  6. ^ Dance, Athan. "Greek Folk Music and Dance". socalfolkdance.org. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  7. ^ "Melbourne's Cretan community pays tribute to the music of Kostas Mountakis". Greek Herald. 2021-02-23. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  8. JSTOR 25163899
  9. ^ "Traditional folk dances of Crete". www.crete.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  10. ^ a b c King, Christopher C. (2014-03-22). "Greek Rhapsody--Instrumental Music From Greece, 1905-1956". ARSC Journal. 45 (1): 105–108.
  11. ^ "Mariza Koch". IMDb. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  12. ^ a b c Andrew R. Martin, & Matthew Mihalka Ph.D. (2020). Music Around the World: A Global Encyclopedia [3 Volumes] : A Global Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO.
  13. ^
    OCLC 59355874
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  14. OCLC 947016928
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  15. OCLC 1057732835
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  16. OCLC 733699433
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  17. ^ Romero, A (2019). "The Extraordinary Clarinet and Lauto Sound of Epirus | World Music Central.org". Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  18. ^ a b World Music Institute (2000). Festival of Greek Music and Dance. New York: World Music Institute.
  19. OCLC 947016928
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  20. ProQuest 304652978
  21. ^ Giaxoglou, K (2019). Trajectories of treasured texts: laments as narratives. In: Falconi, Elizabeth and Graber, Kate eds. Storytelling as Narrative Practice: Ethnographic Approaches to the Tales We Tell. Studies in Pragmatics (19), pp. 136–162.
  22. ^ a b Stavrianos, L., & Stoianovich, T. (2008). The Balkans since 1453 (2nd ed.). Hurst& Company.
  23. ^
    OCLC 828735796
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  24. ISSN
     0147-2526.
  25. ^ a b "HDNJ - The Ionian Islands". www.hellenicdancersofnj.org. Retrieved 2021-12-08.
  26. ^
    ISSN
     1479-4098.
  27. ^
    ProQuest 232195527
  28. ^ a b Hunt, Y., & Dragoumēs, M. (1996). Traditional dance in Greek culture (1st ed.). Centre for Asia Minor Studies.
  29. ^ Evangelos, A. (2013) Memory and Identity on the Greek–Bulgarian Border, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 15:4, 396-411, DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2013.844586
  30. ^ a b "Thracian Dance". www.yorku.ca. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  31. ^ "Meet the Artists Ushering Traditional Greek Music Into the Present". Bandcamp Daily. 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  32. ^ Liddle, V. (2013). The Pontic Greeks, from Pontus to the Caucasus, Greece and the diaspora [Ebook]. University of Adelaide. Retrieved from https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/88838/8/02whole.pdf
  33. ^ a b Margaret J. (1990). On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology, University of Chicago Press.
  34. ^ "Pontian Dance". www.yorku.ca. Retrieved 2021-12-09.
  35. ^ a b   Alonso, Torre, F. de la, Anonymous, Encina, J. del, & Ballard, R. (2001). CONSTANTINOPLE: Music of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance. Naxos Digital Services US Inc.
  36. ^ Zelazko, Alicja. "Sword dance -Description, History, & Facts". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  37. ^ "Hasapiko: A Greek folk dance with roots from Constantinopole". FolkWay - The Only Folk Culture. 2012-01-04. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  38. ^ "Cyprus country profile". BBC News. 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  39. ^ a b Rousha, Y. (2014). The development of musical preferences in Greek Cypriot students [Ebook] (pp. 32-40). Roehampton University London. https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/429421/Yianna_Rousha_THESIS.pdf
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