Get Him To The Greek Soundtrack List
Inell Krolick
The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originated in the Byzantine period and Greek antiquity; there is a continuous development which appears in the language, the rhythm, the structure and the melody.[1] Music is a significant aspect of Hellenic culture, both within Greece and in the diaspora.
In ancient Greece, men usually performed choruses for entertainment, celebration, and spiritual reasons. Instruments included the double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument (like pandura), the 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 music theory included the Greek musical modes, eventually became the basis for Eastern and Western religious music and classical music.
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.
The tradition of eastern liturgical chant, encompassing the Greek-speaking world, developed in the Byzantine Empire from the establishment of its capital, Constantinople, in 330 until its fall in 1453. It is undeniably of composite origin, drawing on the artistic and technical productions of the classical Greek age, of Jewish religious music, and inspired by the monophonic vocal music that evolved in the early (Greek) Christian cities of Alexandria, Antioch and Ephesus (see also Early Christian music). In his lexicographical discussion of instruments, the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911) cited the lūrā (bowed lyra) as a typical instrument of the Byzantines along with the urghun (organ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre), and the salandj (probably a bagpipe).[3] Other instruments used in the folk Byzantine-era music, were kanonaki, oud, laouto, santouri and other instruments that are still played in post-Byzantine regions today.
The Greeks were familiar, in this period that stretched from the 15th century to the time of Greek war of independence, with the traditional 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, music-cafs (καφέ-σαντάν) were popular in cities like Constantinople and Smyrna, where small groups of musicians from Greece played. The bands were typically led by a female vocalist and included a violin. The improvised songs typically exclaimed amn amn, which led to the name amandhes (αμανέδες amandes, singular αμανές amans) or caf-aman (καφέ-αμάν). Greek musicians of this period included Marika Papagika, Rosa Eskenazi and Rita Abatzi. This period also brought in the Rebetiko movement, which had local Smyrniote, Ottoman and Byzantine influences.
Dimotika tragoudia are only from the mainland and accompanied by clarinets, tambourines, laouto, violins and lyras, and include dance music like syrt, kalamatian, tsmiko and hasaposrviko, as well as vocal music like klftiko. 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, Cyprus, and several regions of Turkey, 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 Greeks in Turkey with their own unique styles of music.
Ikaritikos is a traditional type of dance, and also the name of its accompanying type of singing, originating in the Aegean island of 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.
Singer Mariza Koch was largely responsible for the revival of interest in Nisitika 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.
The Cretan lyra is the dominant folk instrument on the island; it is a three-stringed bowed instrument similar to the Byzantine Lyra. It is often accompanied with laouto (which is similar to both an oud and a lute), guitar, violin and (Cretan) mandolin. Nikos Xylouris, Psarantonis (Antonis Xylouris), Thanassis Skordalos, Kostas Moundakis, Ross Daly, Nikos Zoidakis and Vasilis Skoulas are among the most renowned players of the lra. 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.
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.
The Heptanesean kantdes (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.
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 tango, samba, waltz, swing, bolero, foxtrot, some times combined with melodies in the style of 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, Dana Stratigopoulou, Stella Greca and Tony Maroudas.
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 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, many ethnic Greeks from 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 teks (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 Metaxas dictatorship, rebetiko was suppressed due to the uncompromising lyrics. Hashish dens, baglamas and bouzouki were banned, or at least playing in 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 Bayandras), Stelios Perpiniadis, Spyros Peristeris, Giannis Papaioannou, and Apostolos Hatzichristos.
Drawing on rebetiko's internationalization by Tsitsanis and Chiotis, ntekhno (or ntechno) arose in the late 1950s. ntekhno (Art-Popular song) is orchestral music with elements from Greek folk rhythm and melody; its lyrical themes are often based on the work of famous Greek poets. As opposed to other forms of Greek urban folk music, ntekhno concerts would often take place outside a hall or a night club in the open air. Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis were the most popular early composers of ntekhno 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 ntekhno, in which they transferred some values of Western art music,[11] such as ballads tune.
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