d: greek authors texts, translations,

Greece commentaries
(i) collections
I. Ancient (ii) individual authors (selective list), not
1. Introduction. including editions and translations in the
2. Source material. above collections
3. Scope. e: general accounts
4. Musical life in ancient Greece. f: greek musical life (including ethos and
5. Musical instruments. education)
(i) Idiophones and membranophones. g: instruments
(a) Krotala. h: pythagorean theory and the harmony of
(b) Kroupezai, kroupala. the spheres
(c) Kumbala, krembala. i: aristoxenus, aristoxenians and harmonicist
(d) Seistron. theory
(e) Rhombos. j: notation
(f) Rhoptron. k: rhythm, metre and dance
(ii) Aerophones. l: extant melos collections and
(a) Aulos. transcriptions
(b) Syrinx. (i) Literature
(c) Hydraulis. (ii) Recordings and videotape
(d) Salpinx and keras (horn). m: influence and history of scholarship
(iii) Chordophones. II. Post-Byzantine to 1830
(a) Lyres. III. Art music since 1770
(b) Psalteria. 1. The Ionian islands, 17711900.
6. Music theory. 2. Independent Greece in the 19th century.
(i) Pythagoreans. 3. The Athens Conservatory and the National
(ii) Harmonicists. School.
(iii) Aristoxenian tradition. 4. Other musical institutions, 190045.
(a) Notes. 5. Since 1945.
(b) Intervals. BIBLIOGRAPHY
(c) Genera. IV. Traditional music
(d) Scales. 1. Pan-regional principles.
(e) Tonoi and harmoniai. (i) Song, drone and metre.
(f) Modulation. (ii) Skopos.
(g) Melic composition. (iii) Dance.
(iv) Legacy. (iv) Instruments.
7. Notation. 2. Music regions.
(i) Pitch. (i) The mainland and the Peloponnisos.
(ii) Rhythm. (ii) The islands.
8. Extant melos. (iii) Urban musics.
(i) Stone. BIBLIOGRAPHY
(ii) Papyri. and other resources
(iii) Manuscripts. traditional music
BIBLIOGRAPHY urban musics
a: manuscripts dance
b: surveys recordings
c: encyclopedias
1
THOMAS J. MATHIESEN (I), DIMITRI CONOMOS(II), GEORGE LEOTSAKOS (III), SOTIRIOS
CHIANIS/RUDOLPHM. BRANDL (IV)

IV. Traditional music

Greek traditional music (dimotiki mousiki) consists of several autonomous regional styles
with similarities that are apparent only at a second glance (the skopos principle, verse forms
etc.). It includes the music both of minorities on the mainland (Vlachs, Albanians, Bulgarians,
southern Slavs and Gypsies) and of Greek communities outside the state of Greece itself,
particularly in Italy, the USA and Australia. Less well known are the Greeks of the Crimea and
the Azov area. The Cappadocians, the Greeks of Pontos and the Bulgarian Greeks of Asia
Minor now live in Makedonia. The Phanariots of Constantinople developed their own style
of Ottoman art music and left their mark on the urban culture of Romania in the 18th and
19th centuries.

The music of Greece divides into three major stylistic areas: the mainland, the islands and
Asia Minor. It can be further divided into urban and rural musics. The emergence in the 20th
century of a small pan-Greek repertory (the kritikos, pentozalis, kalamatianos, tsamikos and
sirtos) was the result of media influence (radio, records) and the promotion of folklore for
tourists. Another pan-Greek form is REBETIKA, arising from an urban sub-culture and
developing between 1810 and 1955 into a taverna song and dance form. Folk terminology
distinguishes between the secular singer, tragoudistis, and the Orthodox church singer,
psaltis.

The oldest (neumatic) notations are of urban Phanariot songs of the 16th to 17th centuries
from Athos. The instruments have been fully described by Karakass (1970) and in particular
by Anoyanakis (1979). Theories about the ancient roots of Greek traditional music are largely
hypothetical. The question of origin cannot be answered by the study of historical sources,
and influences from other Balkan styles were already present by the Byzantine period.
Conversely, it can be shown that Greek influence was brought to bear on Slav, Turkish and
Arab music in the Ottoman period through the Phanariot and Levantine-Greek maritime
trade. The intermediaries were professional Greek, Spanish-Jewish, Armenian and Gypsy
musicians.

1. Pan-regional principles.
2. Music regions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

dance
T. and E. Petrides : Folk Dances of the Greeks (New York, 1961/R)
M.G. Kaloyanides : The Music of Cretan Dances: a Study of the Musical Structures of Cretan
Dance Forms in the Iraklion Province of Crete (diss., Wesleyan U., 1975)
D.B. Kilpatrick : Function and Style in Pontic Dance Music (diss., UCLA, 1975)
R. Holden and M. Vournas : Greek Folk Dances (Brussels, 1976)
J.K. Cowan : Dance and the Body Politic in Northern Greece (Princeton, NJ, 1990)

2
recordings
ellnik mousik parados ts kat Italias/The Hellenic Musical Tradition in Southern Italy,
Peloponnsiako Laographiko Idryma PFF 67 (1983) [incl. notes by L. Liavas and others]
Folk Music of Greece, coll. W. Dietrich, rec. 19669, Topic Records TSCD907 (1994)
Oxford University Press 2007
How to cite Grove Music Online

3
Greece, III: Art Music since 1770
Greece, III: Art Music since 1770

III. Art music since 1770

The tradition of art music in Greece was long inhibited by the opposition of the Orthodox Church to
polyphonic, secular and instrumental music. However, until recently texts on the history of Greek art
music, reproducing the views of Manolis Kalomiris, invariably started from 1830 (the year of Greek
independence), thus marginalizing the contribution of the Ionian islands, successively under Venetian
(13861797), French (17971814) and British (181464) rule before their union with Greece. However,
the year 1771 should be regarded as marking the beginning of Greek art music: although the first opera
was presented at the Teatro S Giacomo in Corfu in 1733, it was only in 1771 that regular performances
helped to develop a musical tradition which gradually expanded to Zkynthos, Cephallonia, Lefkas and,
after 1830, to continental Greece.

1. The Ionian islands, 17711900.

Opera in the Ionian islands depended on contracts between the municipal authorities and itinerant
companies. Between 1771 and 1798, 45 operas were staged at the Teatro S Giacomo, mostly opere
buffe of the Neapolitan school. The first known stage work by a Greek composer, Stphanos Poyagos's
Gli amanti confusi, was given at the S Giacomo in 1791. Another work by Poyagos, I para Faeaxin afixis
tou Odyssos (Ulysses' Arrival (on the island) of the Phaeacians), was staged in 1819; both works are
lost. The earliest extant manuscripts of Ionian music, including Nicolaos Mantzaros's sole opera Don
Crepuscolo and a number of arias and cantatas, date from 1815. Works of Mantzaros akin to operas
were given in Corfu and operas in Lefkas (Leucadia) on festive occasions in 1832 and 1833. The Ionian
islands saw a considerable amount of operatic composition in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
including works by Xyndas, Edouardos Lambelet, Padovanis, Carrer, Frangiskos Domeneginis (1809
74), Iossif Liveralis (182099), Nicolaos Tzannis-Metaxas (18251907), Dionyssios Rhodhotheatos
(184992) and others, and culminating in the work of Samaras and Lavrangas. Deplorably, most of the
earlier Ionian composers' operas were either dispersed or were lost due to bombings (Municipal Theatre
of Corfu, 1943) or to the earthquakes in the Ionian islands in 1953. The stylistic models for the Ionian
School were initially Italian, from Zingarelli and Mercadante to Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. Several of
their operas were inspired not by topics from antiquity but by historical facts and figures from the more
recent past, especially the 1821 War of Independence; Italian composers, often resident, including G.B.
Ferrari (Gli ultimi giorni di Suli, 185960) and Rafael Parisini (Arkadion, inspired by the Cretan uprising
of 18667), also drew on such material. Among the few surviving Ionian operas from this period are,
besides that of Mantzaros, Dizce by Padovanis, O ypopsifios vouleftis (The Parliamentary Candidate,
1867, the first opera to a Greek text) by Xyndas; eight operas by Carrer; most of the output of Samaras,
whose operas were widely recognized internationally; the operas of Lavrangas, who did much to
promote the cause of opera in the country and whose Ta dyo adelfia (The Two Brothers, 1901) can be
1

regarded as the first National School opera; Iossif Mastrekinis's recently discovered Eleazaros (1898, a
biblical opera in an early Verdian style); and Sakellaridis's opera Perouze (1911), which may be seen as
an intermediate step between the Ionian group and the domineering figure of Manolis Kalomiris.

In 1839 the British authorities forbade the participation of their military bands in foreign religious
ceremonies; this led the following year to the foundation of the Corfu Philharmonic Society, the earliest
Greek conservatory, whose main function was gradually reduced to the training of wind players.
Mantzaros was elected its president for life. Wind bands soon spread to other Ionian islands and to
mainland Greece. Some of the obstacles to the reception of Ionian composers in mainland Greece are
recorded in Carrer's Memoirs: the indifference of royalty and politicians, and at times open hostility. In
1861, for instance, the future Archbishop of Athens tried, unsuccessfully, to sabotage the premire of
Carrer's opera Markos Botsaris.

2. Independent Greece in the 19th century.

Western music was almost unknown to mainland Greeks in 1830, when over 350 years of Ottoman
domination came to an end. Ioannis Capodistrias (17761831) from Corfu, the first governor of Greece,
appointed Athanassios Avramiadis to teach Western music at the newly founded orphanage on Aegina.
After 1837, when Il barbiere di Siviglia became the first opera to be performed in Athens, the state, in
imitation of the Ionians, started importing itinerant opera companies to entertain foreigners residing in
the capital, often arousing the hostility of the local Greeks. Neglecting musical education, the state
spent lavishly on Italian companies until 1868. Schools of Byzantine chant (1837) and military music
(184355) were founded but were short-lived. After 1870 Western music, including opera, gradually
won a wider public. Several private musical societies flourished between about 1870 and 1900, and in
1871 the Athens Conservatory was founded, also as a result of private initiatives. Three composers and
teachers dominated 19th-century music in Athens. Dimitrios Dighenis (d 1880), the Italian Rafaele
Parisini (c18201875) and Alexandros Katakouzenos (182492), director of the Athens Conservatory
until 1891. Parisini, who lived in Athens from 1844 and composed, among other works, Arkadion, a
popular tone poem for wind band, established the private society Euterpe (18715), modelled on the
Corfu Philharmonic Society. The Athens Philharmonic Society (18851900) and the Omilos
Philomousson (18931900) were initially rivals, but later merged. The former was also active
propagating Western music among Greek communities in Alexandria, Egypt and Constantinople. After
1880 other excellent musicians, mainly Ionian-born and Italian-trained, came to Athens: Georgios
Lambiris (183389), composer of over 60 songs, piano pieces and a lost opera, Spyridon Samaras (a
student at the conservatory), the Lambelet brothers, Napoleon and Georgios, the Kaesaris brothers,
Iossif and Spyridon, Dionyssios Lavrangas, Lavrentios Camilieris, Ludovicos Spinellis and Georgios
Axiotis. A remarkable Ionian composer of this period was Dionyssios Rodhotheatos (184796).

An Armenian opera company introduced operetta to Athens in 1873. In 1888 the first Greek opera
company, Elliniko Melodrama, performed Xyndas's O ypopsifios vouleftis (The Parliamentary
Candidate) at the Boukouras Theatre, Athens, under the baton of Napoleon Lambelet. Although the

company made successful tours to Egypt, Turkey, Marseilles and elsewhere, it survived only until 1890.
This period saw the emergence of komidhyllio, a Greek vaudeville usually based on adaptations of
foreign texts interspersed with native songs. Its main exponents were the writer Dimitrios Koromilas
(185098) and the song composers Dimitrios Kokkos (185691) and Ludovicos Spinellis, who saw
komidhyllio as a stepping-stone towards a national school of opera. In 1900 Spinellis and Dionyssios
Lavrangas founded another Elliniko Melodrama, which led a struggling existence, unassisted by the
state, until 1943. The growing popularity of Greek operetta led in 1908 to the founding of a permanent
company, Elliniki Operetta, in Athens; this was followed by many other operetta companies. It is
estimated that about 1000 operettas by Greek composers were performed between 1900 and 1940.

3. The Athens Conservatory and the National School.

In the late 1880s Andreas Syngros, a multi-millionaire from Constantinople, offered to erect a new
theatre in Athens, the Demotikon Thatron, and to finance the Athens Conservatory, on the condition
that Georgios Nazos (18621934), a musical mediocrity trained in Munich, was appointed musical
director. Syngros, through Nazos, systematically championed French and, especially, German music at
the expense of native composers. Although Carrer wrote his opera Marathon-Salamis for the
inauguration of the Demotikon in 1888, apparently at Syngros's behest the work was set aside in favour
of Thomas's Mignon. Nazos's appointment at the conservatory in 1891 led to an abrupt Germanization
of the curriculum. He declared his fierce opposition to Italian-trained Greek composers, and as a result,
several leading composers, including Spinellis, Lavrangas and Camilieris, were ignored, dismissed or
forced to resign. Until Nazos's death in 1934, over 60 foreign guest teachers, mostly pianists, were
invited to the conservatory, while the Conservatory SO, founded in 1894, was directed successively by
Franck Choisy (18991907), Armand Marsick (190822) and Jean Boutnikoff (19239). But the
standard of instrumental teaching, mainly by local musicians, remained low, and performance standards
steadily deteriorated, partly because the orchestral musicians also played for opera and operetta
companies and lacked adequate rehearsal time. In 1899 a few professors, led by the pianist Lina von
Lottner, a former pupil of Blow, founded a second German-orientated conservatory, which lasted until
1919; it formed the first Greek mixed chorus to perform German oratorios and published Apollo, one of
the earliest Greek musical periodicals (19049).

On 11 June 1908 Manolis Kalomiris (18831962) gave the first concert of his works at the Athens
Conservatory. The concert's programme book included the manifesto of the Greek National School
according to Kalomiris. Defining as its purpose the building of a palace in which to enthrone the
national soul by combining folksong and folk rhythms with techniques invented by musically advanced
peoples, it initiated a civil war against earlier Greek (mostly Ionian) composers, who were rejected as
italianate. With his attacks in the periodical Noumas, Kalomiris sided with Nazos in the persecution of
Ionian composers, although his main target was Samaras, acclaimed internationally and regarded as a
potential successor to Nazos at the conservatory. Kalomiris instigated the division of Greek music into
three schools: Ionian, national (Kalomiris and his followers) and modernist (after Skalkottas). Recent
research, however, has shown the uninterrupted presence of national elements in the works of
3

composers after Mantzaros through Liveralis, Domeneghinis, Xyndas, Carrer and Samaras to the
Lambelet brothers and Lavrangas.

Appointed professor at the conservatory in 1911, Kalomiris fell out with Nazos in 1919 and founded two
other private conservatories, the Hellenic (1919) and the National (1926). Kalomiris, rather than Lottner,
paved the way to private Greek conservatories (officially acknowledged as secondary schools). After
1966 they proliferated, with 500 schools throughout Greece by 1994. Departments of musical studies in
the universities of Athens, Thessaloniki and Corfu appeared in the 1980s and 90s, but the project for a
state musical academy never materialized. Already in the 1920s, Kalomiris, promoting his own music
and that of his followers, soon made his peace with the Athens Conservatory. From 1923 Mitropoulos
conducted the Hellenic Conservatory's concerts until the amalgamation of the two organizations'
orchestras into a concert society (1925). This was dissolved in 1927, and Mitropoulos returned to the
Athens Conservatory. The prestige Mitropoulos brought to the orchestra helped attract such
international celebrities as Saint-Sans, Dohnnyi, Cortot, Brailowsky, Huberman, Thibaud, Kreisler,
Milstein, Casals, Martinon, Walter, Jochum and Scherchen. Mitropoulos was succeeded by Philoctetes
Ikonomidis, who directed the Athens Conservatory SO from 1927 to 1939.

The folk-based nationalism of Kalomiris and his followers embraced an eclectic range of styles,
including neo-classicism, late Romanticism and Impressionism. French or Impressionist influence is
found in the works of Riadis, Levidis, Theodoros Spathis (?18831943), Koundouroff (educated in the
USSR), Loris Margaritis (18951953), Lila Lalauni (191096), Constantinidis, Varvoglis, Michaelides,
Zoras and the early works of Georgios Poniridis (18871982) and Papaoannou. Late Romantic
elements appear in the works of the German-orientated Kalomiris and Evanghelatos, and in the music
of Sklavos and Nezeritis and the early works of Karyotakis and Pallandios. Byzantine chant and
modality have inspired Petridis, Poniridis and Alkos Contis (18991965), while Vassilis Papadimitriou
(190575) and Alkos Xnos (191295) were influenced by folksong, late Romanticism and the music
of Shostakovich. Ideologically akin to them, Nikiforos Rotas (b 1929) remains a solitary figure. Less
easily identifiable with any group are Dimitrios Lialios (18691940) and Harilaos Perpessas, adhering to
German Post-Romanticism. Mitropoulos and Skalkottas (190449) stood at the furthest remove from
Kalomiris and the National School and were the only significant Greek composers of their era to adopt
atonality and 12-note techniques.

4. Other musical institutions, 190045.

Although the magnificent Dhimotikon Theatron (City Theatre) in Corfu opened with Lohengrin in 1902,
the centre of gravity for both opera and concerts had by then shifted to the capital, where concert life
was dominated by the Athens Conservatory and the conservatory founded by Lottner. Other musical
societies declined, with the exception of the composer Nikolaos Lavdas's Athinaki Mandolinata (1900
43) which, unlike the relatively poor conservatory orchestra, was acclaimed abroad. In 1921 Ikonomidis
founded the Horodia Athinon (Athens Chorus) which introduced to Greece many choral works by Bach,
Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, Verdi and Berlioz, together with more recent works such as

Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Honegger's Le roi David and Kodly's Psalmus Hungaricus. A
similar choir, Palladios Horodia (Palladian Chorus) existed for a few years in the late 1930s. In 1938 the
Radio Orchestra was founded in Athens, and the following year the Ethniki Lyriki Skini (National Opera)
was established, opening on 5 March 1940 with Die Fledermaus. Its repertory initially favoured operetta.
In 1942, during the German occupation, the Athens Conservatory SO was nationalized, becoming the
Athens State Orchestra. It shared most of its players either with the Radio Orchestra or with the
National Opera.

5. Since 1945.

During the civil war of 19469 the nationalist radio propagated rebetiko, the urban popular song of the
underprivileged, which had originated in Asia Minor. In 1948 the young composers Hadjidakis, Kounadis
and Theodorakis discovered in rebetiko a counterweight to Kalomiris's nationalism. Later, however, the
songs of Hadjidakis, Theodorakis and their followers, based on rebetiko, came to eclipse Greek art
music and, partly through the well-known film Never on Sunday, shaped Greece's musical image
abroad. Western-influenced Greek-music tended to be neglected in favour of an authentic Greek- (i.e.
rebetiko) influenced popular music with alleged roots in Byzantine chant, as exemplified by songwriters
such as Hadjidakis, Theodorakis, Yannis Markopoulos, pop singers such as Marinella, Yorgos Dalaras
and Nana Mouskouri, and to a lesser extent by much publicized figures such as the synthesizer
composer Vanghlis Papathanassiou (Vangelis).

In the early 1950s Kounadis, Hadjidakis and Theodorakis wrote comparatively novel ballets for Rallou
Manou's Elliniko Horodrama dance group, founded in 1951, while Skalkottas was being posthumously
discovered. Although Kalomiris composed his final works at this time (the Palamiki Symphony, 1955,
the opera Constantinos Palaeologos, 1961), his era had ended. In the late 1950s Jani Christou and the
composer and teacher Yannis Androu Papaioannou, both of whom used serial techniques, were well-
established figures, while Dragatakis, Sicilianos and Adamis, all of whom tempered 12-note writing with
a classical attitude to form, were rising to prominence. The Manos Hadjidakis Athens Technological
Institute competition (1962) introduced to Greece avant-garde composers living or studying abroad:
Xenakis, Logothetis, Mamangakis, Ioannidis, George Tsouyopoulos (b 1930) and Stephanos Gazouleas
(b 1930). More avant-garde composers became known in 1962 through the Studio fr Neue Musik,
founded by the Athens Goethe Institute under the composer Gnther Becker and the musicologist John
G. Papaisannou (19152000), and in 1965 through the (private) Hellenic Association for Contemporary
Music and the Greek section of the ISCM which organized five Hellenic Weeks of Contemporary Music
(19668, 1971, 1976) and the 1979 World Music Festival. These included Aperghis, Sfetsas,
Couroupos, Terzakis and Vlachopoulos, as well as local composers such as Iakovos Haliassas (b 1921)
and Stephanos Vassiliadis (b 1933).

The Athens Festival, founded in 1955, was held for 43 years from July to September, with an emphasis
on music above the other arts; it tended to bring in well-known artists and ensembles from abroad
rather than concentrate on Greek musicians. It reached a peak in the mid-1960s with performances by

the Ballets du Vingtime Sicle (1964), David Oistrakh (1965), the Kanze Kakan n theatre (1965), the
short-lived Hadjidakis Athens Experimental Orchestra (19646) and Stravinsky (1966). After the
dictatorship of the colonels (196774) the festival declined somewhat, and in 1998 it was reorganized to
incorporate the Epidaurus Festival of Ancient Greek Drama.

Between 1974 and 1982 Hadjidakis was the most influential figure in Greek musical life. He held many
important posts, notably those of director general of the Athens State Orchestra and director of the
Third Programme of Hellenic Radio and Television (ERT), which he extensively reformed. He also
founded the Moussikos Avgoustos (Musical August) festival in Iraklion, Crete, to promote the music of
younger Greek composers, among them Eleni Karandrou (b 1941), a composer of popular songs and
film scores, Vassilis Riziotis (b 1945), Haris Xanthoudakis, Marielli Sfakianaki (b 1945), Michalis
Grigoriou (b 1947), the last two both neo-classical in orientation, Vanghlis Katsoulis (b 1949), Dimitris
Marangopoulos, Nikos Kypourgos (b 1952) and others. In 1997 Riziotis was co-founder, with the
conductor Dragisa Savi, of an international institution, Balkan Music Forum.

Until 1991 concert life in winter was less active, largely due to the lack of concert halls and full-time
chamber ensembles. Most winter concerts in Athens and other cities were promoted by foreign cultural
organizations, such as the French Institute (1908), the British Council (1938), the Italian Institute
(reopened 1951), the Goethe Institute (1952) and the Hellenic-American Union (1957). Recitals and
concerts were also organized by the Ligue Francohellnique (1912) and the House of Arts and Letters
(1938), neither of which survives today.

On 21 March 1991 the Megaro Moussikis Athinon (Athens Concert Hall), known in Greece as the
Megaro, was opened. It contains a larger and a smaller hall, both with excellent acoustics, and hosts
most of the concerts given by the Athens State Orchestra. Opera productions, often imported, are also
regularly given at the Megaro: within seven years it had mounted all the major Mozart operas, together
with the Greek premires of Die gyptische Helena, The Golden Cockerel, Wozzeck and Pellas et
Mlisande. The Megaro has specialized in music by living composers and has commissioned many new
works, including Couroupos's chamber opera Pyladis (1992) and ballet Odyssey (1995), Kounadis's
Epilogos II (1992) and Bacchae (1997), Mikroutsikos's I epistrofi tis Elnis (Helen's Homecoming,
1993), Grigoriou's cantata Skotini praxi (Dark Act, 1994), Marangopoulos's To tango ton skoupidhion
(The Tango of Trash, 1996), Mamangakis's I opera ton skion (The Opera of Shadows', 1997), Alkis
Baltas's Momo (1997), Antoniou's Oedipus at Colonus (1998) and Thodoris Abazis' I apologhia tou
Sokratous (Socrates Plea, 2000).

The Megaro has come to dominate Greek musical life, eclipsing other institutions. Foreign cultural
organizations now tend to promote their artists through the concert hall, while the press gives little
coverage to classical concerts elsewhere in the country. In the 1990s Hellenic Radio and Television
discontinued its 15-year series of concerts at the National Gallery in Athens; the Kentro Synchronis
Moussikis Erevnas (Centre for Contemporary Music Research), founded in 1986 under Xenakis, also
suspended its activities. The country's only major institute for contemporary music at the start of the

21st century is the Institouto Erevnas Moussikis ke Akoustikis (Institute of Research in Music and
Acoustics, or IRMA), founded in 1989 by the composers Haris Xanthoudakis and Kostas Moschos and
the ethnomusicologist Marios Mavroidis, which is primarily orientated towards technological
developments and cataloguing the works of contemporary Greek composers. In the latter part of the
20th century such composers as Dragatakis, Sicilianos, Kounadis, Adamis, Ioannidis, Mikroutsikos,
Zervos, Travlos and Xanthoudakis, all distinguished by their technical skill, formal cohesion and clarity
of musical thought, have created a solid modern tradition in Greece, paving the way for Christos
Zerbinos (b 1950), Yannis Metallinos (b 1959) and Koumendakis. Other composers of the younger
generation include Nikos Fylaktos (b 1951), educated in Poland, Haris Vrondos (b 1951), Savvas
Zannas (b 1952), Babis Kanas (b 1952), Nikos Christodoulou (b 1959), Iossif Papadatos (b 1960),
Minas Alexiadis (b 1960), Periklis Koukos (b 1960), Alexandros Kaloyeras (b 1960) and Alexandros
Mouzas (b1962). In recent years the number of composers graduating from Greek conservatories and
subsequently teaching there has increased markedly. Composers who have settled abroad and are well
known in Greece include Dinos Constantinidis and Sophia Serghi (USA), Christos Hadjis (Canada),
Stlios Koukounaras, Nikos Athinaeos and Constantia Gourzi (Germany), Ptros Corlis (France),
Dimitris Nicolau (Italy) and Thodoris Abazis (Netherlands).

Thessaloniki is the second most important musical centre of Greece. Music there is largely independent
from Athens, and its composers are rarely performed in the capital. The earliest Thessaloniki composer
of note was Dimitrios Lalas (18441911), a friend and disciple of Wagner. More recent composers
active in the city have included Lalas's pupil Emilios Riadis (18801935), Solon Michaelides (190579),
Nikolaos Astrinidis (b 1921) and, more recently, Kostas Nikitas (194089), Ilias Papadopoulos (b 1951)
and Christos Samars (b 1956).

See also ATHENS; CORFU and THESSALONIKI.

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A. Hadjiapostolou : Istoria lou ellnikou melodramatos [History of the Hellenic opera] (Athens, 1949)

S. Michaelides : Neo-ellniki mousik [Neo-Hellenic music] (Cyprus, 1952)

F. Anoyanakis : I moussiki stin neoteri Ellada [Music in modern Greece], in K. Nef: Eisagogi eis tin
mousikologian [Gk. edn of Einfhrung in die Musikgeschichte] (Athens, 1958), 546611

S. Motsenigos : Neo-ellniki mousik (Athens, 1958)

Y. Sidris : Ioannis Papaoannou: Actor's Day, Athens, 29 September 1958 [programme book for the
commemoration day of the Elliniki Operetta Company]

S. Petras : Vassiliko Thatro, Ellniki Operetta [The Royal Theatre and the Elliniki Operetta Company]
(Athens, 1960)

M. Hadjidakis : Music of Modern Greece, Music Journal, xix/3 (1961), 34 only, 667

T. Vournas : To synchrono laiko tragoudi [Contemporary popular song], Epitheorissi technis, xiii (1961), 277
85

M.E. Dounias : Mousikokritika, ed. G.N. Politis (Athens, 1963)

N. Slonimsky : New Music in Greece, MQ, li (1965), 22535

M.P. Dragoumis : L'glise grecque du XVe sicle nos jours, Encyclopdie des musiques sacres, ed. J.
Porte, ii (Paris, 1969), 17075

S. Petras : The Composers of Greek Operetta, Lyrical World, iii/25 (1969), 389

Odion Athinon: ekatontaetiris 18711971 [Athens Conservatory, centenary 18711971] (Athens, 1971)

B. Schiffer : Neue griechische Musik, Orbis musicae, i (19712), 193201

Y. Karakandas : Apanda tou lyrikou thetrou [Everything about lyric thetre] (Athens, 1973)

C.G. Patrinelis : Protopsaltae, Lampadarii, and Domestikoi of the Great Church during the post-Byzantine
Period (14531821), Studies in Eastern Chant, ed. E. Wellesz and M. Velimirovi, iii (Oxford, 1973), 14170

T. Hadjipandazis and L. Maraka, eds.: athenaki epitherisi [The Athenian Revue] (Athens, 1977)

D.A. Hamoudopoulos : anatoli tis ntechnis mousiks stin Ellada ke dimiourgia Ethniks scholis [The rise
of art music in Greece and the creation of a national school] (Athens, 1980)

G. Leotsakos : Music, Sdostoeuropa Handbuch, iii: Griechenland, ed. K.-D. Grothusen (Gttingen, 1980),
54458

T. Hadjipandazis : To komidyllio [Greek vaudeville] (Athens, 1981)

D. Yannou : Neoellniki mousik os andikeimeno tis mousikologias [Modern Greek music as the object of
musicology] (Athens, 1981)

G. Leotsakos : 150 khronia mousiks [150 years of music], Ellada, istoria ke politismos, ix (Thessaloniki,
1983), 23259

A.D. Zakythinos : Discography of Greek Classical Music (Buenos Aires, 1984, 2/1988, Gk. trans., enlarged,
1993)

M.A. Raptis : Epitomii istoria tou Ellnikou Melodramatos ke tis Ethniks Lyrikis Skinis 18881988 [One-
volume history of the Hellenic Opera Company and the National Opera] (Athens, 1989)

O. Frangou-Psychoaedi : ethnik scholi mousiks: provlimata ideologias [The National School of Music:
problems of ideology] (Athens, 1990)

N.M. Panayotakis : paideia kai mousik stin Kriti kata ti Venetokratia [Education and music in Crete during
the Venetian occupation] (Crete, 1990)

Y. Philopoulos : Isagogi stin ellniki polyphoniki ekklsiastik mousik [An introduction to Greek polyphonic
church music] (Athens, 1990)

N. Bakounakis : To phantasma tis Norma: ypodokhi tou melodramatos ston ellniko horo to 19o aeona
[Norma's Phantom: the reception of opera in Greece in the 19th century] (Athens, 1991)

G. Leotsakos : khamnes ellniks operes o aphanismos tou mousikou mas politismou [Lost Greek
operas or the annihilation of our musical civilization] (Athens, 1992), 398428
9

G. Leotsakos : Mia apokryphi all' okhi kryphi istoria tis neotatis ellnikis mousiks: dokimi syngraphis tou
khronikou tis dysleitourgias tis [An apocryphal yet by no means secret history of modern Greek music: an
attempt to record the chronicle of its malfunction], Kyklos ellnikis mousiks [A cycle of (contemporary) Greek
music] (Athens, 1993), 724 [programme notes]

G. Leotsakos : Italy as the Alma Mater of the 19th Century Greek Music and as a Vast Field of Future
Historical Research on it, Mediterraneo musica: Palermo 1995, 6676

A. Symeonidou : Lexico ellnon syntheton [A dictionary of Greek composers] (Athens, 1995)

Y. Philopoulos : Spoudi sti mousik bibliographia tis ellnikis polyphonikis ekklsiastiks mousiks [A study on
the bibliography of Greek polyphonic church music] (Athens, 1996)

K. Romanou : Ethnikis mousiks perigisis, 19011912: ellnika mousika periodika os pigi revnas tis istorias
tis neoellnikis mousiks [A journey in national music, 190112: Greek musical periodicals as a research
source for the history of modern Greek music] (Athens, 1996)

G. Leotsakos : Lychnos ypo ton modion [Light under the bushel] (Athens, 1998) [incl. CD]

C. Tsiamoulis and Pavlos Erevnidis : Romii synthtes tis Polis, 17os-20os aeonas [Oriental Greek
composers of Constantinople, from the 17th century to the 20th] (Athens, 1998)

T. Kaloyeropoulos : To lexico tis ellnikis mousiks [The dictionary of Greek music] (Athens, 19989)

H. Xanthoudakis : Neoellniki mousik [Modern Greek music], Ekpaidephtiki ellniki engyklopaidia, xxviii
(Athens, 1999), 24550

George Leotsakos

10

GroveMusicOnlineGreece,IV:TraditionalmusicGreece,IV:Traditional
music

IV.Traditionalmusic

Greek traditional music (dimotiki mousiki) consists of several autonomous regional

styles with similarities that are apparent only at a second glance (the skopos
principle,verseformsetc.).Itincludesthemusicbothofminoritiesonthemainland
(Vlachs, Albanians, Bulgarians, southern Slavs and Gypsies) and of Greek
communities outside the state of Greece itself, particularly in Italy, the USA and
Australia. Less well known are the Greeks of the Crimea and the Azov area. The
Cappadocians,theGreeksofPontosandtheBulgarianGreeksofAsiaMinornowlive
in Makedonia. The Phanariots of Constantinople developed their own style of
OttomanartmusicandlefttheirmarkontheurbancultureofRomaniainthe18th
and19thcenturies.

The music of Greece divides into three major stylistic areas: the mainland, the
islands and Asia Minor. It can be further divided into urban and rural musics. The
emergence in the 20th century of a small panGreek repertory (the kritikos,
pentozalis, kalamatianos, tsamikos and sirtos) was the result of media influence
(radio,records)andthepromotionoffolklorefortourists.AnotherpanGreekform
is REBETIKA, arising from an urban subculture and developing between 1810 and
1955 into a taverna song and dance form. Folk terminology distinguishes between
thesecularsinger,tragoudistis,andtheOrthodoxchurchsinger,psaltis.

The oldest (neumatic) notations are of urban Phanariot songs of the 16th to 17th
centuries from Athos. The instruments have been fully described by Karakass
(1970)andinparticularbyAnoyanakis(1979).Theoriesabouttheancientroots of
Greek traditional music are largely hypothetical. The question of origin cannot be
answeredbythestudyofhistoricalsources,andinfluencesfromotherBalkanstyles
were already present by the Byzantine period. Conversely, it can be shown that
GreekinfluencewasbroughttobearonSlav,TurkishandArabmusicintheOttoman
period through the Phanariot and LevantineGreek maritime trade. The
intermediaries were professional Greek, SpanishJewish, Armenian and Gypsy
musicians.

1.Panregionalprinciples.

(i)Song,droneandmetre.

Traditionally the ancient term mousiki is hardly used at all. Classification is

functional,dependingonwhetherapieceisasong(tragoudi)oradance(horos),the
1

latter term being applied to purely instrumental dances. As well as instrumental

dancemusicthereareslowdancesongs(katohoros)sungafterfestivemealswith
versesimprovisedtofitthesituation.Melodiessungrubatotistavlas,toutrapeziou
(atthetableofatavernaorfeast)arecalledtragoudi;iftheyaredancedthesame
melodiesarecalledhoros.Traditionally,songanddancetitlesareformedintermsof
apersonalpossessionskopostouGeoryiou(tuneofGeorge),denotefunction(e.g.
tou gamou, wedding song) or involve place names and regional names (e.g.
kalamatianos,adancefromKalamata;pogonisios,adancesongfromPoyoni).Titles
relating to content (e.g. zoumpouli, hyacinth) or quoting the opening line of the
text are rare, and often derive from collectors. Songs with standard texts (ballads)
arecalledstereotipika.Variousballadtextsarefrequentlysungtothesamemelody
(idiomelos).

Themusiciansthemselveshardlythinkatallintermsofscalesandchords,orifthey
do they describe them as maiore (major) or minore (minor). Teachers but not
village musicians know the oktoihos (oktchos; see BYZANTINE CHANT). Terms
such as taksimi and (a)manes are used synonymously, and the terms makami and
dromoionlyinrebetika.

Folksongsemploysyllabiclinesof5,6,7,8,11,12and,veryrarely,13syllables.In
the Phanariot ballads of Constantinople the 15syllable (8 + 7) line predominates
(called political verse from the Greek polis, city). Scholars agree thatthere is no
strictassignmentofsyllablestomusicalmetres(hronosprotos),insteadsyllablesare
freelydistributedoveramelodiclinebeginningwithexclamations(eri,more,aide,
ela, aman), with filler syllables (tsakismata, chopped pieces, inserts) and syllabic
repetition(yirismata)withinwordsandphrases,providingthemelodiclinewiththe
requisitequantityofsyllables.Theanalogybetweentherhythmofthemusicandthe
rhythmoftheversecorrespondstoanidealratherthanpracticeinperformance.

Rhyme was introduced into the islands by the Crusaders at the end of the 14th
century, but not until 1800 on the mainland, at the court of Ali Pasha at Ioannina
(17921822).Rhymedpoliticalversealsooccursinimprovisedcouplets,introduced
by the lead singer with an exclamation at the start. In the islands, improvised
couplets(madinades,kotsakia)aremorefrequentthanpresettexts.Everyhalfline
(only the second in Crete) is repeated by the chorus, in a tradition of competitive
singing.

InCappadocia,andinthewomen'ssongsofThessalia,15syllableand8syllablelines
occupy three melodic lines in the panBalkan ballads of The Dead Brother, The
WomanSacrificedandTheHusbandRuinedbyhisWife.Thisisalsothetypicalform
ofatablesongonthemainland,therizitikaofCrete,theCarpathiansirmatikos,the
2

Cypriotwomen'sballadsandoflamentsforthedeadinMani.Moiroloyia(laments
for the dead) and nanourismata (cradle songs) are not considered songs or
music.Theyaresungonlybywomen(oftenprofessionalmourners)andonlyonthe
relevantoccasion,sincetheyareotherwisethoughttobringbadluck.Worksongs,
songslinkedtocustomsandchildren'ssongs(suchasthekalanda,demandsongs)
aredyingout.

In the areas of Greek, Vlach and Albanian settlement, Vlach influences (doina)can
be found in the shape of pentatonics and tonality in 5ths. Greek melodies, on the
otherhand,areconstructedonthetonic,subtonicorhypertonic.Themigrationof
melodies within mainland Greece and between the islands and Asia Minor shows
thatscalesandrhythmsarenotconstantbutcanbeexchanged,althoughaconcept
of melody common to them all does exist, and is distinct from both Western and
makamiprinciples.

Ipeiros (as elsewhere in the Balkans) has a diaphonic style with a choral drone in
three parts employing microintervals (see ALBANIA, II, 1 ). It is described by the
singers themselves as Albanian (with a narrow tonal range in the second part) or
pastoral Vlach (with the second part falsetto). Here, as elsewhere, it imitates the
soundofByzantinebells.Itsoriginandantiquityarenotknownandthereisnoproof
of an archaic or monogenetic origin. The rhythm is regular or in a metre of five
beats, and also occurs with seven syllables in the old Albanian area of settlement
aroundParnassos(Arahova).

On Karpathos, until about 1930, there was a twopart diaphony sung by women
(withanalternatingdroneofsubtonicandtonic)inimitationofthetsabouna(see
(iv)below).Thedroneiscalledtheisonorbassos(asinecclesiasticalsong).Onthe
islands and in Asia Minor the infix drone provides the tonal framework of the
melody(withawholetonealternatingdrone).Onthemainlandthelowdrone(e.g.
ofthegaida)eitherembedsthemelodyinastaticsoundsurfaceorelseturnsinto
ostinato figures. In the Dodekanisa, since the Italian occupation (191247), the
alternatingdrone(tonicandsubtonicortonicandhypertonic)orthedroneof4th
+ 5th (dgad) has become increasingly pseudoharmonic (alternating dg/da).
ThetriadicharmoniesoftheIonianislandsandItaloGreekareaareimportedfrom
southernItaly.

Theregionalstylesdisplayconsiderabledifference:regulartimewithahronosprotos
ontheislands,asymmetricalrhythmswithtwohronoi(longshort)onthemainland
andarapidbasictempoinMakedoniaandamongthePonticGreeks.InIpeirosand
the Peloponnisos the Albanian tsamikos in 3/4 occurs side by side with binary
rhythms (e.g. pogonisios and sirtos). The 7/8 of the kalamatianos is purely Greek.
3

Some rhythms of nine beats (the karsilamas and zeibekikos) are originally Turkish
(zeybek)butdisplaydifferencesinmelodics,emphasisandtempo.Thederivationof
all asymmetrical rhythms from the Turkish aksak is a theory that cannot be
maintained,anymorethanBartk'shypothesisofsouthernSlavBulgarianoriginis
tenable.

(ii)Skopos.

Amonophonicmelodycanbeformedeitherintermsofspatialpitch(ihos/makami)
oronastructuralprincipleofthemesandmotifs.Inihos/makamiseparatepitches
referspatially(highorlow)tomodaltones.Intervalsandrhythmswithinaphrasedo
notshapethestructureasawhole.Inthemotifprinciplethesequenceofnotesis
conceived as a selfcontained unit and one that can be transposed; it is based on
internalintervalsandinternalrhythmsshapingthestructure.

Both principles complement each other in the Greek skopos (tune). Each skopos
has a skeletos (framework melody) of spatial pitch, lacking set rhythm and metre
andusuallyconsistingoftwoformulaeestablishedonlyinoutline.Theseareneither
motifs nor in the nature of the makami, since the makami melody is bound to a
certainmodality.Theskeletosisindependentofanyscale,existsonlyinthemindsof
the musical ensemble of performers and can be extracted only through the
comparisonofmanyactualperformances.Onlyinitsrealizationcantheskeletosbe
placed in a regional scale determined by initial notes. When it moves to another
regionotherscalesandrhythmscanbeusedforthesameskeleton.Consequently,
thesameskoposmaybepentatonic,tetrachordalorchromaticonthemainlandbut
diatonicontheislands.

A second layer of music is added to this skeleton by the musician. This consists of
figures and melismas, trills, runs, glissandi etc., structured within the intervals (as
pseudomotifs) and capable of transposition. These realize the skopos by
substituting,paraphrasingorconnectingthe(imagined)notesoftheskeletonwitha
figure or group of notes, socalled melodic folding or melodic splitting. Popular
terms employed are stolidia (ornamentations), doxaries (bow strokes), figures
played on a stroke of the bow, or daktilia (fingers) and figures running on of
themselves. Such stolidia are also performed by singers. They are not part of the
skeletos or bound to a scale but are characteristic of a musician and a musical
landscape. Depending on the region they may be microtonic and perceptible
separatelyfromtheskeleton(onthemainlandandinthePeloponnisos),ordiatonic
and acoustically merged with the skeleton (on the islands). On the mainland, they
result in the aesthetically important dirty playing of the zournas or gaida. These
improvised figures are fixed in the hronos (metre): either in one metre (on the
4

islands)orintwo(2+1,3+2)onthemainland.Themelodicandrhythmictension
theyproduce(tonosisthefolkterm)givestheimaginaryskeletontemporalshape,
with different lengths of phrases and lines. The duration of the line depends on
function:inkatohorosthemelodiclinecoincideswiththerhythmicperiods;atthe
festivetableorinthecafeneionthemusicisperformedrubato(tothepointofbeing
infreemetre),particularlyinthecaseofkleftika.

Onlythesynthesisofbothoftheseisdescribedbymusiciansasskopos(skeletos+
doxaries=skopos).Thustheskoposhasonelinewithtwomelodicdimensions:the
nonrhythmic tonally spatial skeletos and the metrically established figures
rhythmically structured within themselves. In the identity of a skopos, therefore,
scales and rhythms are subsidiary features, features that can be interchanged but
arelocallysignificant,sothatwhenmelodiesmigratethesefeaturesdonotgowith
them.

Traditionally,aparea(companyofmusicians)performsinparts,inthesameregister
and in hierarchical order. The singer or aerophone (or if there is none present a
stringinstrument)leads,improvisingtheloudermainpart.Theothermusiciansplay
subordinate, softer variants of the skopos (lira, violin) or the (alternating) drone
(lute, santouri), i.e. the modal framework (tonic, subtonic or hypertonic, fourth,
fifth).Itisageneralrulethattheplayingmustbesimfono(inagreement),thatis,
themusicianswillallproceedincommon[simfono]withthesameaim[theskopos]
but each in his own way, waiting for one another at certain places (identical
statements of this principle have been made in Ipeiros and Karpathos). These
meeting places are the notes of the modal frame and are held for lengths of
differentdurationdependingonthetonosofthestolidiaoftheotherplayerswhile
one of the musicians adds a melodic splitting figure. Consequently, there are
several simultaneous realizations of a skeleton, producing heterophony. This is
never understood as polyphony, since there are no vertical harmonics. Instead all
theperformersareperformingoneandthesamemelodyinagreement(simfonia).

Besidestheinstrumentalhoros,playedforaslongasiswished(e.g.thesoustaand
pano horos of the islands), with an open form of improvised sequences of small
groupsofnotesrepeatedandvariedthreetofourtimes(e.g.A+A+B+B+C+
C[+A,B]+Detc.),therearecertainmelodicfeaturesintheurbanGreekstyles
(Phanariot music, rebetika and some kleftika) that are analogous to the
ihoi/makamia. These are distinct from the skopos principle in having long
paraphrasesoftonallevelsinaspecificmode,involvingsequences.TheGreeksgive
themakamidifferentaxialtonalnotesandmelismasfromthosegiventhembythe
Turks.

(iii)Dance.

Dancerhythmisindependentoftheskoposandcanchangefromregiontoregion.
Emphasized beats form a rhythmic framework and the unemphasized beats are
improvised. If there is no drum present therhythm is marked by plucking the lute
and the stamping of feet. Only in the Pontic style does the dance sometimes go
againsttherhythm.

Dancinginvillagesisconfinedtosaints'days(paniyiria),weddings,christeningsand
farewell parties for emigrants (tis xeniteias, the foreigner). To this day, these
occasions are the traditional opportunity for young people to flirt. Traditionally,
there are no coupledances between men and women but instead a hierarchical
arrangement in ranks or in a circle with the musicians standing or sitting in the
middle.InMakedonia,onlythedrummerorbagpipermoveswiththeleaddancer.
Menandwomendancetogether,veryoccasionallyseparately.

Dancesintavernasareurban(rebetika)orareperformancesfortourists,assolosor
with two dancers performing opposite each other or with three to four men in a
row.Therebetikaasdancedinthetekkedesgaverisetospontaneoussolodances,
the dancer being surrounded by men clapping the rhythm (zeibekikos, servikos,
hasapikosortsifteteli).

Dancing is usually anticlockwise, and is clockwise only in certain dances (e.g.

zervos). A hierarchy analogous to that of the parea among musicians prevails: the
lead dancer (usually a man, a woman only in specific parts of a wedding or
christening dance) improvises leaps, turns etc., employing a traditional canon of
figures. He is usually held by one hand, or by a cloth. The second most important
roleisallottedtotheseconddancer,whomaybemaleorfemale.Heorshemust
holdthefirstdancer'shandandleadtheotherdancers,ofbothsexes,whoperform
onlythebasicsteps.Afterafewroundstheleaddancerchanges,andthemusicians
are paid. On the mainland these musicians are Gypsy professionals, on the islands
they are semiprofessional village musicians who take turns to play without
interruptingthedance.Largedanceformscontainingoverfiveseparatedancesare
foundonCYPRUS(thekarsilamassuite).OnKarpathos,thepanohorosisdancedfor
uptotenhourswithoutabreak.

Aspecialformoftraditionalmusicistheweddingmarch(inIperiosthepatinada)tou
dromou (on the way, i.e. to the church, to the brides house, to the place of the
wedding celebrations), generally in a stately 6/8 or 4/4. The wedding sponsor and
familyfriendsgoattheheadoftheprocession,dancingandsinging,whilethebride
andbridegroomwalkataserious,measuredpace.

(iv)Instruments.

Thefloieraisanobliquelyheldendblownfluteofcaneorwood.InmainlandGreece
itisgenerallyassociatedwithshepherdsandgoatherds,althoughinvillagesitmay
alsoprovidesolodancemusic.

Thetermspipizaandkaramoutsa(karamouza)arecommonlyusedintheregionsof
RoumeliandthePeloponnisostodenoteadoublereedwindinstrument.Thereisno
cleardistinctionbetweenthesetwoinstruments:eachhassevenfingerholesanda
thumbhole, a conical bore and is about 30 cm long. Several additional holes are
bored in the bell of the instruments (possibly to tune the lower notes). In
Makedonia,IpeirosandThrakiamusiciansusealargerformofthisinstrumentcalled
thezournas.Thesearetraditionallyplayedinpairs(ziyia).Onesustainsatonicdrone
while the other interprets the melodic line with tonal inflections, slides and
ornamentalformulae,commonlyreferredtoasdreves.Theperformersusecircular
breathingtoprovideacontinuousmelody,whosepiercingtonequalityiswellsuited
tooutdoorplaying.

Theklarino(keyedclarinet),whichwasintroducedtoGreeceinthefirsthalfofthe
19thcentury,istheprincipalmelodicinstrumentofthemainland.TheAlbertsystem
clarinetinCisthemostcommon,andfulluseismadeofcrossandpartlycovered
fingerings.Theclarinetusuallyformspartofaninstrumentalensembleconsistingof
lute or guitar and violin, which doubles the clarinet in unison or the octave in
heterophonic style. These ensembles accompany dancing as well as the Kleftic
ballads.

Therearetwotypesofbagpipe:thegaida,whichhasasinglechanterandadrone
pipe (with a single reed), is found in mainland Greece, while the tsabouna (or
askomandoura), with a double chanter but no separate drone, is played in the
islands.Thebagpipesareplayedsoloor(inthecaseofthegaida)mayaccompany
singingwithadrone.OntheislandofKarpathos,thetsabounaisoftenplayedinan
ensemble with the string instruments lira and laouto. Elsewhere it may be
accompaniedbythedrumknownasdaouliorbythedoumbi,itssmallerversion.The
daouli (also termed toubano) is the most common type of drum. It is a large
cylindrical doubleskin drum, hung from the player's left shoulder. The main
accented beats of the metre are played with a heavy wooden beater held in the
right hand,while subtle subdivisions of these beats are played with a light flexible
stick held in the left hand. The daouli provides rhythmic accompaniment to the
zournas (as well as the pipiza and the karamoutsa) and may also accompany the
bagpipesand,lesscommonly,thelira(e.g.onCrete).

TraditionallyinpartsofmainlandGreecebutespeciallyintheislands,theprincipal
melodicinstrumentisthelira,afiddlewhichishelduprightontheplayerskneeand
playedwithunderhandbowing.Therearefourbasictypesoflira,threeofwhich,the
Cretanlira(fig.1),theliraoftheDodekanisa,andtheThrakianlira,arepearshaped
andhavethreeorfourmetalorgutstringswhicharestoppedfromthesidebythe
fingernails, allowing for glissandos and fine ornamentation. Bells on the bow were
oncecommon,butarenowrare.Thefourthtype,thePonticliraorkementzes,was
broughttoGreecebyrefugeesfromtheTurkishBlackSeacoast.Theinstrumenthas
along,narrowbody,taperingtowardsthepegbox.Itsthreemetalstringsareplaced
close together and tuned in 4ths, enabling the performer to play the melody in
parallel 4ths on two strings simultaneously. The violi (violin) has in some places
supplantedtheliraasoneofthemostprominentmelodicinstruments.Itistunedin
5ths,gdae.

Lira(fiddle),CreteHellenicFolkloreResearchCenteroftheAthensAcademy

The chief accompanying instrument of traditional Greek ensembles is the laouto

(lute). The neck has 11 movable frets (an additional eight are glued to the
soundboard)andthefourdoublecoursesofmetalstringsaretunedin5ths(cgd
a).Traditionallythelaoutoisplayedwithaquillplectrum.ExceptonCrete,whereit
isusuallyusedtoplayasimplifiedversionofthemelody,inheterophonywiththe
lira,itsprimeroleistoprovidearhythmicorchordalaccompaniment.Insomeareas
itisrapidlybeingreplacedbytheguitarandthelaoutokithara(aguitarwithadded
tuningpegs,movablefrets,tunedasalaouto).

The santouri and tsimbalo are trapeziform dulcimers; like the laouto they provide
chordal accompaniment in ensembles. The strings of both instruments are struck
with cottoncovered mallets. The basic difference between the two lies in the
distributionoftheirstringsandintheirtuning.Thesantouriismorecloselyalliedto
theinstrumentalandvocalmusicofthe(easternAegean)islands,whilethetsimbalo
ismorecommonlyfoundonthemainland.

Two instruments of great importance in urban music are the BOUZOUKI, a long
neckedlute,anditssmallerversion,thebaglamas.Thebouzoukihasthreeorfour
8

doublecoursesofmetalstringstunedeitherebeordgbeandisplayedwith
aplectrum.ItwascloselyassociatedwithREBETIKAmusicians,andthroughvirtuoso
performers, such as Manolis Hiotis, and widespread recording it has become
extremelypopular.

2.Musicregions.

(i)ThemainlandandthePeloponnisos.

Ipeiros (including southern Albania as far as Gjirokastr) has a selfcontained

regional style taking in the Vlach area of Metzovo and northern Thessalia. Greeks,
AlbaniansandVlachshavesettledsidebysideinIpeiros.Danceisdominatedbythe
sirtos (2/4, 2/4), tsamikos (arvanitikos, 3/4, from amen in Albania) and the local
dancesinregulartimeofPogoniandDelvino(2/4,4/4).Theendblownfloieraand
tzamara flutes are dying out. A regional feature is a diaphonic style of vocal
polyphony.AcompositestyledevelopedundertheAlbanianAliPashaofIoannina,
itsoutstandingfeaturesaretheIoannitika,Alipasalitikaandotherkleftika(robber
ballads of the 19th century) in free metre. This style was influenced by the
Phanariots and the Ionian islands, but transmitted to the mainland (Makedonia,
Thessalia,RoumeliandPeloponnisos)bytheGypsyprofessionalensembleknownas
koumpaneia(Albaniansaze)consistingofclarinetinC,violin,laoutoanddefi(frame
drum).Inthisensembletheviolinplaysdoublestoppedostinatofigures,whilethe
luteplaysdroneostinati.InthekoumpaneiastylesofDramaandthePeloponnisos
the violin plays only the drone. Instrumental preludes in free metre called doina
indicateVlachorigins.Thecafeamanexistedintownsintheseareasuntil1930.The
klarino style, with electronic amplification after 1960, is hardly found at all on the
islands,butduringtheyears196090itsupersededthedaoulizournas,alsoGypsy
music,onthemainland,andcompetedsuccessfullywithbouzoukiaatpaniyiria.

Makedoniahassonglinesof7,6,8and15syllables.Anirregular7/16(3+2+2)is
found in the Makedonian oro, and the Bulgarian rezenitsa (7/16, 2 + 2 + 3)
corresponds to the madilatos. In western Makedonia (Kozani and Kastoria) the
dominant ensemble is a kobaneia influenced by southern Slav military music,
consisting of clarinet, cornet (or trumpet in E), concertina, daouli and cymbals.
Kleftika are performed at festive tables as instrumental pieces in free metre. The
structureissimpler(usingdroneostinati)thaninIpeiros.

Until 1917 Thessaloniki had a predominantly (70%) Jewish population and it

developedasynthesisofTurkish,WesternEuropeanandsouthernSlavmusicwhich
nowexistsonlyinhistoricrecordings.In1924refugeesfromAsiaMinorsettledhere

andwereintegrated.Theygaveanewhometorebetikawhenitwasdrivenoutof
Athensin1940.

Anolderformofensemble(theThrakianmakamorThrakianamanes)isfoundin
easternMakedoniaaroundDrama,aformerhuntingpreserveofthesultans,inan
areaextendingtoAlexandroupolis.ItisbasedontheOttomanfaslensembleandis
known as the psili foni, with clarinet, violin, outi, sadouri (dulcimer) or kanonaki
(psaltery)andtoubeleki(gobletdrums).Themakamiaarethesameastheihoiinthe
Phanariottradition.

NeartheeasterncoastalareaofSmyrna(nowIzmic)themusicofAsiaMinordivides
intoCappadocianandPontictraditions(since1924inMakedonia).Themusicofthe
PonticGreeksoftheBlackSeaisacompositeGraecoLazianstyle(theLazisarefrom
Georgia) with parallel 4ths and 2nds and a hexachordal system using a rapid basic
tempo with many asymmetrical rhythms. The instruments are the kementses or
Pontiaki lira (see 1(iv) above) and the touloumi (tsabouna), as well as the daouli
zournasensemble.

Cappadocia had an ensemble consisting of sine keman (a boxshaped fiddle with

resonatingstrings)andouti,sometimeswithtoubeleki(apairofgobletdrums).All
theinstrumentsareofurbanorigin.Atfestivals,womenperformeddancedballads
withtwoformsofthe12syllableline(5+7and7+5),aswellas15syllablelinesand
11syllablelineswithemphasisfallingonthe10thsyllable.

The Thrakian lira tradition and the Byzantine ballad cycle of Akritika (of the 13th
century, telling the tales of the heroes Digenis Akritas and Mikrokonstantinos)
survivearoundSerres(fivevillagesaroundAyiaEleni)throughtheOrthodoxsectof
anastenarides(firedancers).Ahexachordalsystemwithdgatonality(thetuning
of the lira) predominates. Whole villages from BULGARIA were resettled here in
1924,sothatarepertorysimilartotheBulgarianexists,withasymmetricalrhythms
(e.g. baidouska, rezenitsa) played on the gaida, together with daouli and the
BulgarianKAVAL,orshepherd'spipe.

Centres of the exclusively Gypsy, professional daoulizournas ensemble (consisting

oftwolargeconicaloboesanddoubleheadeddrum,withthesecondoboeplaying
analternatingdrone),whichdevelopedfromtheJanissaryband(seeTURKEY,II,4
), include Makedonia, Pelion and Parnassus, Arkadia and Xanthi, and the Pontic
region.Ithassupersededthevillagebagpipeanddrumensemble.Since1924there
has been a composite repertory, the result of PonticGreek influence. No research
hasyetbeendoneonthemusicofthePomaksoftheThrakianandTurkishborder.

10

ThestylisticregionofRoumeliandthePeloponnisoscontainsremnantsofanolder
Albaniantradition(aroundDelphiandasfarasThebes)includingkleftika.Ithasbeen
influencedby the style of Iperios since 1960. The old karamouzesensemble (small
conical oboe and daouli) and the floiera shepherd's flute are dying out. In the
Peloponnisosthedominantstyleisanolderone,ChristiancumAlbaniancumVlach,
withkleftika,Alipasalitikaandtsamika.Thescalesaretetratonic,pentachordaland
pentatonic, with microtonic ornamentation (stolidia/psevtikes). The repertory of
Arkadia is similar to that of Roumeli. As well as the sirtos in regular time
asymmetricalrhythmsarefound:e.g.thekalamatianosisin7/8time,theAlbanian
kagkeliin7/8timemovinginto2/4timeandtheAlbaniantsakonikosfromamenin
5/4time.TheManiintheTaigetosmountainrangeisfamousforitslamentsforthe
dead(moiroloyia),alegacyofbloodfeuding.

(ii)Theislands.

Companies of Singspiel performers kept the Ionian islands and Dalmatia (Ragusa,
now Dubrovnik) in cultural touch from the 13th to the 19th centuries. Southern
Italian influences reached Ipeiros and Athina. The guitar (lute) and an unorthodox
harmonic system of 3rds and triads was imported into the Athenian kantades
(canzonas)bywayoftheHeptanes(Ionianislands).

ThecapitalofEvvoia,Halkis,hasremnantsofanoldAlbaniantradition(thekagkeli)
and was a centre of rebetika. Ensembles of violin and laouto and koumpaneia
ensemblesperforminmusicians'cafsinthemarketplace,wheremusicinmakami
style (dromoi) is played. In the south of the island the ziyia ensemble still exists,
consistingofapearshapedliraanddaouli,performingoldAlbaniansongs.

TherearenoasymmetricalrhythmsintheAegeanarea.Regulartimewithoutclear
accentsdominates.Thescalesareheptatonicorhexatonic,withatonalityofdga
d. Until 1930 Siros, from which such wellknown rebetika musicians as Markos
Vamvakaris came, was a place of cultural exchange between East and West. The
music of the Dodekanisa was influenced by the Italian occupation of 191247.
ThankstotheMuslimminority,amixtureofLevantineandItalianinfluencesexists
onRhodes,NaxosandHios.

Since 1985, modern love songs and drinking songs of the Sporades and Cyclades,
sung to the ziyia ensemble of violin and lute or santouri, have become known
throughout Greece as nisiotika (island songs). They are accompanied by an
alternatingchordaldrone(fourth/fifth+tonic)inthebasicmetre.

11

IntheAegean,CyprusandCreteformtwofocalpointsfortheregion,alongwiththe
oldfashioned lirotsabouno style of Karpathos, and Kasos and Halki which have
akritika sung at the festive table in the sameway as thekleftika on the mainland.
OnlyCretehasitsownkleftika(rizitika).Thepearshapedliraoccurshere(see1(iv)
above)andsodothetsabounaofthetulumtypeandtheaskomandoura,laoutoand
santouri (on Kasos). The Cretan lira tradition has been in decline since the master
musicians Nikos Hilouris and Yeoryios Moudakis died without successors. The
kondilies, melodic blocks in different modes put together to form strophes, are
characteristic of western Crete. BaudBovy suspected Venetian influence on the
vocal music of eastern Crete. The urban voulgari (small longnecked lute) and the
violinziyiastyleoftheoldTurkishcoastaltownsofCreteareindecline.TheCretan
Muslims were resettled around Bodrum in Asia Minor in 1924. There are still
itinerantpoiitarides(bards)onCYPRUS.Theirmelodiesarecalledfonaiorfones.

(iii)Urbanmusics.

TheartmusicofAsiaMinorandGreekArmeniaisabranchoftheTurkishmakamat
withitsownmodalcharacteristics.ThePhanariotsuseGreekterminology,andthe
Smyrna style employs Graecized TurkoArabic terms. The main source is the
Pandoracollectionmadein1830inoppositiontotheWesternartmusicfavoured
by King Otto I (183262), with its Western polyphony and tonal system. This art
musichascompositionsinasynthesisofihoiandmakamat.

Related to this form of art music are the Smyrneka (pieces in the Smyrna style)
which emerged around 1820, with makami/dromoi (paths) melodies or European
song forms, taksimia and (a)manedes (sung taksimia, amorous laments). The
womensingers(manyofthemArmenianJewish,e.g.RozaEskenazi,RitaArbatziand
MarikaNinou)areaccompaniedbyviolin,outi,umbusanddefi(Turkish:def,frame
drum). They performed in public in seaport towns in the cafe aman, the Turkish
versionoftheFrenchcafchantant.Bothformsexistedfrom1893(whenthefirst
cafeamanopenedinSmyrna)until1950inalltheseaportsoftheLevant,andwere
inexistenceasearlyasaround1810inYalata,Thessaloniki,IoanninaandArta.

After the forcible resettlement of Greeks from Asia Minor in 1924, rebetika
developedfromtheprofessionalSmyrnastyleandanostalgicsubculture(withsongs
sungtothesmalllongneckedbaglamaslute)inthetekkedes(hashishbars)around
thebazaarsofAthens,PiraeusandThessaloniki.Despitepolicebansandcensorship,
theyspreadfastthroughrecordingsmadeintheUSAbyemigrants.VasiliosTsitsanis
startedtouseEuropeanscales(maiore,minore)insteadofthedromoi(makami)in
about 1955, and the texts have subsequentlybeen toned down. A typical group is

12

theBOUZOUKIensemble,comprisingabaglamas,oneortwobouzouki,pianoand
percussion.

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13

G.Amarjanakis:BemerkungenberdiekretischeVolksmusik,GriechischeMusik
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14

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SotiriosChianis/RudolphM.Brandl

15