Music of Greece

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Music of Greece
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The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its

Hellenic culture, both within Greece and in the diaspora
.

Greek musical history

Greek musical history extends far back into

Greek theater. Later influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire changed the form and style of Greek music. In the 19th century, opera composers, like Nikolaos Mantzaros (1795–1872), Spyridon Xyndas (1812–1896) and Spyridon Samaras (1861–1917) and symphonists, like Dimitris Lialios and Dionysios Rodotheatos revitalized Greek art music
.

Ancient Greece

Main article: Music of ancient Greece

In

kanonaki, 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

classical music
.

Roman era

See also: Music of ancient Rome

Due to Rome's reverence for Greek culture, the Romans borrowed the Greek method[2] of 'enchiriadic notation' (marks which indicated the general shape of the tune but not the exact notes or rhythms) to record their music, if they used any notation at all.

Byzantine era

Main article: Byzantine music

The tradition of eastern liturgical chant, encompassing the

santouri
and other instruments that are still played in post-Byzantine regions today.

Greek playing tambouras, 18th-century painting

Ottoman era

The

Greek folk music, elements of the Ottoman music, such as with surviving Byzantine music and more specifically, hymns: Church music.[4] These genres have certainly reached a high degree of evolution. They were forms of a mono music that had many elements of ancient Greek origin but also, they had nothing to do with Western polyphonic music.[5]

By the beginning of the 20th century,

Rosa Eskenazi and Rita Abatzi. This period also brought in the Rebetiko
movement, which had local Smyrniote, Ottoman and Byzantine influences.

Folk music (dimotiká or demotic)

Main article:
Greek folk music
Nikos Skalkottas (1904–1949) drew his influences from both the classical repertoire and the Greek folk tradition.
Different types of laouto

kleftes, warriors who fought against the Ottoman Empire. Klephtic music is monophonic and uses no harmonic
accompaniment.

kléftiko. The lyrics are based on dimotiki (folk) poetry (usually by anonymous lyricist) and popular themes are love, marriage, humor, death, nature, water, sea, religious, about klephts, armatoloi, various war fighters or battles etc. Some notable instrumentalists include clarinet virtuosos like Petroloukas Chalkias, Giorgos Gevgelis and Yiannis Vassilopoulos, as well as laouto and fiddle
players like Nikos Saragoudas, Vasilis Kostas and Giorgos Koros.

Greek folk music is found all throughout Greece,

Greeks in Turkey
with their own unique styles of music.

Nisiótika

Main article: Nisiotika

Nisiotika is a general term denoting folk songs from the Greek islands, especially the Aegean Islands. Among the most popular types of them is Ikariótiko tragoúdi, "song from Ikaria".

Ikariótikos
Main article: Ikariotikos

Ikaria. At first it was a very slow dance, but today Ikariotikos is a very quick dance. Some specialists say that the traditional Ikariotikos was slow and the quick "version" of it is in fact Ballos
. Music and dancing are major forms of entertainment in Ikaria. Throughout the year Ikarians host baptisms, weddings, parties and religious festivals where one can listen and dance to live traditional Ikarian Music.

Modern nisiótika

Singer Mariza Koch was largely responsible for the revival of interest in Nisiótika in the 1970s and 1980s.[6] During the 1990s and 2000s, singers such as Yiannis Parios and Stella Konitopoulou helped this music gain occasional mainstream popularity.

Cretan music

Main article: Music of Crete
Cretan lyras

The

Kostas Moundakis, Ross Daly, Nikos Zoidakis and Vasilis Skoulas are among the most renowned players of the lýra. The violin is used also in Cretan music. The most renowned player of the violin is the Antonis Martsakis which is also a dancer. Mandolin is also used in Cretan music. Loudovikos ton Anogeion (Λουδοβίκος των Ανωγείων) is a well-known mandolin player from Crete. The bass in that music coming from the laouto. Giannis Haroulis and Michalis Tzouganakis
are notable artists of the instrument.

Cretan music in media

The Cretan music theme

Zorba's dance by Mikis Theodorakis (incorporating elements from the hasapiko dance) which appears in the Hollywood 1964 movie Zorba the Greek
remains the best-known Greek song abroad.

Other folk traditions

Other major regional musical traditions of Greece include:

Notable artists

Classical music

Ionian School

See also: Ionian School (music)
Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù, the first theatre and opera house of modern Greece and the place where the first Greek opera, Spyridon Xyndas' "The Parliamentary Candidate" based on an exclusively Greek libretto was performed.

It was through the

Ionian islands (which were under Venetian rule and influence) that all the major advances of the western European classical music were introduced to mainland Greeks. The region is notable for the birth of the first School of modern Greek classical music (Heptanesian or Ionian School; Greek: Επτανησιακή Σχολή), established in 1815. Prominent representatives of this genre include Nikolaos Mantzaros, Spyridon Xyndas, Spyridon Samaras, Dionysius Rodotheatos and Pavlos Carrer.[7]

The Church music (Byzantine) of the islands is also different from the rest of Greece, with significant western and Catholic influences on the Orthodox rite.

Greek National School

Dimitris Mitropoulos.[8]

Popular music

Greek operetta and early popular songs

Spyridon Samaras (1861–1917)
Sofia Vembo

The

kantádes (καντάδες 'serenades
'; sing.: καντάδα) are based on the popular Italian music of the early 19th century and became the forerunners of the Greek modern song, influencing its development to a considerable degree. For the first part of the next century, several Greek composers continued to borrow elements from the Heptanesean style.

The most successful songs during the period 1870–1930 were the so-called Athenian serenades (Αθηναϊκές καντάδες), and the songs performed on stage (επιθεωρησιακά τραγούδια 'theatrical revue songs') in

dramatic forms of Art, they eventually became hits as independent songs. Notable actors of Greek operettas, who made also a series of melodies and songs popular at that time, include Orestis Makris, Kalouta sisters, Petros Epitropakis, Vasilis Avlonitis, Afroditi Laoutari, Rena Vlahopoulou, Eleni Papadaki, Aris Maliagros, Marika Nezer, Marika Krevata and others. Italian opera
had also a great influence on the musical aesthetics of the modern Greeks. Some popular operettas include:

Ta Niata
"Ta Niata (The Youth)", composed by Miliaris/Attik, 1918
Problems playing this file? See media help.

After 1930, wavering among American and European musical influences as well as the Greek musical tradition, Greek composers begin to write music using the tunes of the

Athenian serenades' repertory. Nikos Gounaris was probably the most renowned composer and singer of the time (often called "Mr. Greece"). Giorgos Mouzakis was a prominent virtuoso trumpeter (borrowed latin jazz elements), while Attik and Michalis Souyioul were also among the most succeeded and popular composers. Notable singers of this style include also Fotis Polymeris, Sofia Vembo (a star of the era), Mary Lo, Danaë Stratigopoulou, Stella Greca and Tony Maroudas
.

Notable artists

(1910s–1960s)

Rebetiko

Main article: Rebetiko
Minore from Smyrna
"Smyrna Minore", traditional, sung by Marika Papagika, 1918
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Smyrna-style rebetiko trio: Dimitrios Semsis, Agapios Tomboulis, Roza Eskenazi (Athens 1932)

Rebetiko was initially associated with the lower and poor classes, but later reached greater general acceptance as the rough edges of its overt subcultural character were softened and polished. Rebetiko probably originated in the music of the larger Greek cities, most of them coastal, in today's Greece and Asia Minor. Emerged by the 1920s as the urban folk music of Greek society's outcasts. The earliest Greek rebetiko singers (refugees, drug-users, criminals and itinerants) were scorned by mainstream society. They sang heartrending tales of drug abuse, prison and violence, usually accompanied by the bouzouki.

In 1923, after the

Asia Minor fled to Greece as a result of the Greco-Turkish War. They settled in poor neighborhoods in Piraeus, Thessaloniki, and Athens. Many of these immigrants were highly educated, such as songwriter Vangelis Papazoglou, and Panagiotis Toundas, composer and leader of Odeon Records' Greek subsidiary, who are traditionally considered as the founders of the Smyrna School of Rebetiko. Another tradition from Smyrna that came along with the Greek refugees was the tekés (τεκές) 'opium den', or hashish dens. Groups of men would sit in a circle, smoke hashish from a hookah
, and improvise music of various kinds.

With the coming of the

eastern-style manner
and scales.

Some of the earliest legends of Greek music, such as the quartet of Anestis Delias, Markos Vamvakaris, Stratos Payioumtzis and Yiorgos Batis came out of this music scene. Vamvakaris became perhaps the first renowned rebetiko musician after the beginning of his solo career. Other popular rebetiko songwriters and singers of this period (1940s) include: Dimitris Gogos (better known as Bayandéras), Stelios Perpiniadis, Spyros Peristeris, Giannis Papaioannou, and Apostolos Hatzichristos.

The scene was soon popularized further by stars like

laïkó. In the 1960s Manolis Chiotis popularized the eight-string bouzouki and set the stage for the future 'electrification' of rebetiko
.

Regime of the Colonels banned it. After the end of the Junta, many revival groups (and solo artists) appeared. The most notable of them include Opisthodromiki Kompania, Rembetiki Kompania, Babis Tsertos, Agathonas Iakovidis
and others.

Éntekhno

Main article: Éntekhno
Mikis Theodorakis

Drawing on

song cycles. They were both educated in Classical music and -among other reasons- the lacking of a wide public for this kind of music in Greece, drove them to the invention of Éntekhno, in which they transferred some values of Western art music,[11]
such as ballads tune.

Theodorakis was the first composer to use the bouzouki in this genre of music, trying to include this organ into the mainstream culture. Other significant Greek songwriters included

Tasos Livaditis. By the 1960s, innovative albums helped éntekhno become close to mainstream, and also led to its appropriation by the film industry
for use in soundtracks.

A specific form of éntekhno was the so-called "political song"; songs with political message, of the Left, which arose during the

Néo Kýma
and contemporary éntekhno.)

Notable éntekhno works include:

Notable artists

Laïkó

Main article:
Laïkó
A modern four-course bouzouki

Greek folk music, and on the other, the peculiar musical trends of the urban rebetiko (song of the cities) known also in Greece as αστικό.[12]

Other significant songwriters and lyricists of this category are considered

George Zambetas, Akis Panou, Apostolos Kaldaras, Giorgos Mitsakis, Stavros Kouyioumtzis, Lefteris Papadopoulos and Eftichia Papagianopoulos. Many artists have combined the traditions of éntekhno and laïkó with considerable success, such as the composers Mimis Plessas and Stavros Xarchakos
.

During the same era, there was also another kind of soft music (ελαφρά μουσική, also called ελαφρό, elafró 'soft (song)', literally 'light') which became fashionable; it was represented by ensembles of singers/musicians such as the Katsamba Brothers duo, the Trio Kitara, the Trio Belcanto, the Trio Atene and others. The genre's sound was an imitation of the then contemporary Cuban and Mexican folk music,[13] but also had elements from the early Athenian popular songs.

Notable artists

Modern laïká

Main article:
Modern laïka

Modern laïká
(μοντέρνα λαϊκά)—also contemporary laïkó/laïká (σύγχρονο λαϊκό/σύγχρονα λαϊκά) or laïko-pop (λαϊκο-πόπ)—is currently Greece's mainstream music along with some pop recordings.

Modern laïká emerged as a style in the early 1980s. An indispensable part of the contemporary laïká culture is the písta (πίστα; pl.: πίστες) "dance floor/venue". Night clubs at which the DJs play only contemporary laïká where colloquially known on the 1990s as ellinádika. Over the years until today, the aim of Greek music scene is only one: quality. Virtuoso musicians and expressive singers take every season, with more professionalism and love for what they do to entertain the Greek audience, to lure and to make it dance with the songs and music that everyone loves. All this music effort take place in

Hellenic culture, both within Greece
and in the diaspora.

Renowned songwriters of modern laïká include

Giorgos Theofanous, Evi Droutsa and Natalia Germanou
.

2010s

In the 2010s, several new artists emerged. Artists, such as Kostas Martakis, Panos Kalidis, Ioakim Fokas, Stella Kali, Stan, Katerina Stikoudi, Demy and X-Factor contestants such as Konstantinos Argyros, Eleftheria Eleftheriou and Ivi Adamou. Several artists sometimes incorporated dance-pop elements in their laïko-pop recordings.

Terminology

In effect, there is no single name for modern laïká in the Greek language, but it is often formally referred to as σύγχρονο λαϊκό ([ˈsiŋxrono laiˈko]), a term which is however also used for denoting newly composed songs in the tradition of "proper" laïkó; when ambiguity arises, σύγχρονο ('contemporary') λαϊκό or disparagingly λαϊκο-ποπ ('folk-pop', also in the sense of "westernized") is used for the former, while γνήσιο ('genuine') or even καθαρόαιμο ('pureblood') λαϊκό is used for the latter. The choice of contrasting the notions of "westernized" and "genuine" may often be based on ideological and aesthetic grounds.[14]

Criticism

Despite its popularity, the genre of modern laïká (especially laïko-pop) has come under scrutiny for "featuring musical clichés, average singing voices and slogan-like lyrics" and for "being a hybrid, neither laïkó, nor pop".[15]

Skyládiko

Main article: Skiladiko

Skyládiko (Greek pronunciation: [sciˈlaðiko]; pl.: Skyládika; Greek: Σκυλάδικο, meaning "doghouse") is a derogatory term to describe some branches of laïkó music and some of the current nightclubs in Greece in which a form of popular Greek music is performed. It is performed with electric bouzouki and guitars. It is associated with mass entertainment of lower quality and until the 1970s was marginal, but gained popularity after the 1980s. Critics of this genre relate it with modern laïká, mentioning the low quality and the indispensable common part of the pista (πίστα, pl.: πίστες) "dance floor/venue".[16]

Other popular trends

Dionysis Savvopoulos

New Wave (Néo Kýma)

Folk singer-songwriters (τραγουδοποιοί) first appeared in the 1960s after

Mihalis Violaris, Kostas Hatzis and the composer Giannis Spanos. This music scene flourished in a specific type of boîte de nuit.[17]

Political song

A notable musical trend in the 1970s (during the

Giannis Markopoulos, and Manos Loïzos.[18]

Other

Nikos Xydakis, one of Savvopoulos' pupils, was among the people who revolutionized laïkó by using orientalized instrumentation. His most successful album was 1987's Kondá sti Dóxa miá Stigmí, recorded with Eleftheria Arvanitaki.

Thanasis Polykandriotis, laïkó composer and classically trained bouzouki player, became renowned for his mixture of rebetiko and orchestral music (as in his 1996 composition "Concert for Bouzouki and Orchestra No. 1").

A popular trend since the late 1980s has been the fusion of éntekhno (urban folk ballads with artistic lyrics) with pop / soft rock music (έντεχνο ποπ-ροκ).[19] Moreover, certain composers, such as Dimitris Papadimitriou have been inspired by elements of the classic éntekhno tradition and written songs cycles for singers of contemporary éntekhno music, such as Fotini Darra. The most renowned contemporary éntekhno (σύγχρονο έντεχνο) lyricist is Lina Nikolakopoulou.

Vangelis Papathanassiou (Vangelis)

There are however other composers of instrumental and incidental music (including filmscores and music for the stage), whose work cannot be easily classified, such as Stamatis Spanoudakis, Giannis Spanos, Giorgos Hatzinasios, Giorgos Tsangaris, Nikos Kypourgos, Nikos Mamangakis, Eleni Karaindrou, and Evanthia Remboutsika. Vangelis and Yanni were also Greek instrumental composers who became internationally renowned.

Even though it has always had a considerable number of listeners supporting it throughout the history of the post 1960s Greek music, it is only very recently (late 2000s) that pop-oriented music has reached the popularity of laïkó/laïká, and there is a tendency among many urban folk artists to turn to more pop-oriented sounds.[20]

Artists

The following classification is conventional and categories may occasionally overlap with each other. Each artist is entried under the genre designation that the Greek musical press usually classifies him or her.

Laïkó / Néo Kýma
Main article:
Greek New Wave

1960s–1970s

Laïkó / Skiladiko

1970s–2010s (songs from this period of Greek laïkó were mainly influenced by the music skydaliko, including branch of laiko music and some of the current nightclubs in Greece in which this music is performed, the country music movement and style folk-pop)

laïkó

1980–2010s

Europop

1990s–2010s

Rock / soft rock

1970s-1980s

1990s–2010s

2000s–2010s

Alternative

1980s-1990s

2000s–2010s

Mainstream hip hop / R&B

1990s–2010s crews

Independent music scenes

Rotting Christ on stage

Since the late 1970s various independent scenes of "marginal" musical genres have appeared in Greece (mainly in Athens, Piraeus, and Thessaloniki). Most of them were short-lived and never gained mainstream popularity but the most prominent artists/bands of these scenes are critically acclaimed today and are considered among the pioneers of independent Greek music (each one in their own genre).

Genres

See also

Notes

  1. ^ 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).
  2. ^ Ulrich 1963, p. 25
  3. ^ Kartomi 1990, p. 124
  4. ^ Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
  5. ^ The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2007 - "Byzantine music"
  6. ^ "Home - Program in Hellenic Studies" (PDF). Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  7. ^ Xepapadakou, Avra (2013). "Pavlos Carrer [Paolo Karrer]". Grove Music Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press.
  8. ^ Ioannis Foulias, “The composer Dimitri Mitropoulos and his relation to the Greek National School of Music”, Contribution to the Conference "The National Element in Music", Athens Concert Hall, 18–20 January 2013. Organization: Faculty of Music Studies of the University of Athens, Music Library of Greece "Lilian Voudouri".
  9. ^ Administrator. "music-art - ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ". Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  10. ^ "Κυρίαρχη αισθητική και μουσικό γούστο" - article on 'Kathimerini' Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "When Progress Fails, Try Greekness: From Manolis Kalomiris to Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis": Paris Konstantinidis, When Progress Fails, Try Greekness: From Manolis Kalomiris to Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis, in Nikos Maliaras (ed.), "The National Element in Music" (Conference proceedings, Athens, 18–20 January 2013), University of Athens, Athens 2014. pp. 314–320.
  12. ^ greekdance.dancenews.gr - "Ο ορος λαικοι χοροι " Archived 2009-08-30 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Music, Greece, Greek music and songs". Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  14. ^ "Οι εφτά ψυχές του λαϊκού τραγουδιού - ΑΡΧΕΙΟ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΥ - Η ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ". Archived from the original on 1 November 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  15. ^ Τάσος Π. Καραντής. "Ποιο είναι το λαϊκό τραγούδι σήμερα; - e-orfeas.gr. Με άποψη στη μουσική και στο τραγούδι". Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  16. ^ "Το έτυμον της λέξεως "σκυλάδικο" - Απόψεις - Η ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ". Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  17. ISBN 960-7555-39-2 (online version
    ).
  18. ^ "Πολιτικό Τραγούδι - Ελληνική Μουσική Πύλη". Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  19. ^ In contemporary use though, the terms έντεχνο ποπ, and έντεχνο ροκ may be ambiguously used to denote, respectively, Grecophone indie pop and alternative rock, not necessarily having the typical characteristics of éntekhno.
  20. ^ Τα Νέα Οnline (23 September 2009). "Εξορίζουν το λαϊκό για να μας κάνουν ποπ". Τα Νέα Οnline. Retrieved 23 December 2015.

References

External links

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