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Live recording from the concert ‘Songs of Asia Minor with Domna Samiou’ at the Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall, on 8/3/2005. Traditional songs from the western coasts of Asia Minor, Propontis, Constantinople, Pontus and Cappadocia.
Songs
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1. I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?
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2. Early last summer
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3. My old torments
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4. In the workshops of Constantinople
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5. Poor sad love
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6. Old Nun A-Cooking
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7. On my way to the mountains of Prussa
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8. Tsifteteli
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9. Syrtos from Silyvria
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10. How beautiful our bride
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11. You wear white
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12. If you want to marry
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13. I'll jump from the battlements
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14. Mother, spring is here
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15. Dance with kerchiefs
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16. The orphan maid is wed & Beloved stranger so far away
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17. Sereanitsa
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18. Kótsari
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19. If I want black eyes
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20. Giannoula
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21. Hasapikos dance from Aretsou
- Production: Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association
- Year of release: 2022
- Type: Digital release
- Sponsors: The Athens Concert Hall Organisation
- Production Country: Greece
Notes
The Muse of the Greek East
This musical variety which includes the music of songs in languages other than Greek) is not a summation of different idioms, but rather presents shared features which, however easy or hard they may be to discern, are still extremely useful for musicological research. Such elements include the songs’ rhythmic structures, their melodic content, the way in which the modal motifs move within the specific sounds, which often takes places within the bounds of a pentachord, a fascinating observation which stands as near incontrovertible proof that the roots of this approach to composition should be sought in the scholarly musical tradition of the Orthodox Church.
While the modal behaviour of traditional music in the Other Greece is often -and rightly- traced back to Byzantine music and its system, in the historical space of Asia Minor, these links are stronger still, leaving little room for the airing of alternative hypotheses in the service —often— of non-academic goals.
Of course, the multiculturalism of this geographical space meant that its different peoples, communities and cultures influenced each other in every popular art-form, including music. That said, in music (and in these lands, especially), these influences do not work in exactly the same way that they do in, for instance, language: despite speaking a range of tongues and living, doing and thinking differently, the various peoples, tribes and ethnicities of Asia Minor (and, indeed, all of the Balkans) ultimately share a musical tradition with the same or closely-related theoretical foundations.
The musical cultures which began to emerge in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 8th and 9th centuries -the Byzantine and the Arab- were both oriented around the twin poles of tradition and religion. And both shared a common lineage in ancient Greek musical theory.
Of course, this kinship between Byzantine and Arab music does not mean that the musical praxis of the various peoples is in any way identical in terms of their musical achievements and expression. The differences between them (in the sphere of scholarly music most of all) stem from the specific social functions, expressions and needs of peoples with a different aesthetic and tradition. Still, it has always been the deep-rooted similarities between the two musical systems, rather than their philosophical differences, that have impacted significantly on the perceptions, technique and art of the folk musicians of every era (especially in those places where Christians and Muslims lived side by side), who were far more concerned with the palpable and the hands-on than with abstractions.
Along the coast of Asia Minor and the islands opposite, in Constantinople, on Crete and further afield in the Mediterranean, Greek, Turkish, Jewish, Armenian, Arab, and other musicians shared a rich and constantly evolving body of musical material which was adapted to the needs, conditions and traditions of each new place it moved to.
Yiorgos Ε. Papadakis (2005)
(An excerpt from the concert programme)
Credits
Production team
- Domna Samiou (Research, Collection, Musical supervision),
- Daphne Djaferis (Production management),
- Tasia Papanikolaou (Production assistant)
Sound team
- Charalambos Blazoudakis (Sound engineer),
- Yiorgos Karyotis (Sound engineer),
- Vangelis Koyulouris (Sound engineer),
- Andreas Mandopoulos (Sound engineer),
- Yiorgos Karyotis (Remixing ),
- Socrates Sinopoulos (Remixing ),
- Petros Depian (Digital editing),
- Yiorgos Karyotis (Digital editing)
Booklet team
- Theodor Kondaras (Texts and commentaries),
- Yiorgos Ε. Papadakis (Texts and commentaries),
- Michael Eleftheriou (English translation),
- Theodor Kondaras (Text Editing),
- Michael Harrison (Proofreading),
- Dimitra Toulatou (Proofreading),
- Stathis Mitropoulos (Cover Design)
Singer
- Domna Samiou (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, Early last summer, Poor sad love, Old Nun A-Cooking, On my way to the mountains of Prussa, You wear white, If you want to marry, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, How beautiful our bride),
- Zacharias Karounis (My old torments, In the workshops of Constantinople, Giannoula),
- Katerina Papadopoulou (I'll jump from the battlements, Mother, spring is here, Giannoula),
- Ilias Yfantidis (The orphan maid is wed & Beloved stranger so far away)
Choir
- Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association Choir (Early last summer, On my way to the mountains of Prussa, You wear white, If you want to marry, If I want black eyes, Giannoula)
Clarinet
- Thodoris Georgopoulos (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, Early last summer, My old torments, In the workshops of Constantinople, Poor sad love, Old Nun A-Cooking, On my way to the mountains of Prussa, Syrtos from Silyvria, You wear white, If you want to marry, I'll jump from the battlements, Mother, spring is here, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, Hasapikos dance from Aretsou)
Pontic bagpipe
Violin
- Nikos Oikonomidis (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, Early last summer, My old torments, In the workshops of Constantinople, Poor sad love, Old Nun A-Cooking, On my way to the mountains of Prussa, Tsifteteli, Syrtos from Silyvria, You wear white, If you want to marry, I'll jump from the battlements, Mother, spring is here, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, Hasapikos dance from Aretsou)
Constantinopolitan lyra
Pontic lyra
Kanun
- Panos Dimitrakopoulos (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, Early last summer, My old torments, In the workshops of Constantinople, Poor sad love, Old Nun A-Cooking, On my way to the mountains of Prussa, Tsifteteli, Syrtos from Silyvria, You wear white, If you want to marry, I'll jump from the battlements, Mother, spring is here, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, Hasapikos dance from Aretsou)
Bowed tambouras
- Evgenios Voulgaris (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, My old torments, In the workshops of Constantinople, Poor sad love, Old Nun A-Cooking)
Constantinopolitan lute
- Socrates Sinopoulos (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, Early last summer, My old torments, In the workshops of Constantinople, Poor sad love, On my way to the mountains of Prussa, Tsifteteli, Syrtos from Silyvria, You wear white, If you want to marry, Mother, spring is here, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, Hasapikos dance from Aretsou)
Saz
- Evgenios Voulgaris (Early last summer, On my way to the mountains of Prussa, Tsifteteli, Syrtos from Silyvria, You wear white, If you want to marry, I'll jump from the battlements, Mother, spring is here, Dance with kerchiefs, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, Hasapikos dance from Aretsou)
Oud
- Kyriakos Tapakis (My old torments, Old Nun A-Cooking, On my way to the mountains of Prussa, I'll jump from the battlements, Dance with kerchiefs)
Lute
- Kyriakos Tapakis (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, Early last summer, In the workshops of Constantinople, Poor sad love, Tsifteteli, Syrtos from Silyvria, You wear white, If you want to marry, Mother, spring is here, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, Hasapikos dance from Aretsou)
Daouli (davul)
Goblet drum
- Vangelis Karipis (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, Early last summer, Syrtos from Silyvria, I'll jump from the battlements),
- Andreas Pappas (In the workshops of Constantinople, Poor sad love, Tsifteteli, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, Hasapikos dance from Aretsou)
Bendir (frame drum)
- Vangelis Karipis (My old torments, In the workshops of Constantinople, Poor sad love, Old Nun A-Cooking, If you want to marry, Mother, spring is here, Dance with kerchiefs),
- Andreas Pappas (I gave up all I had & What’s wrong, Theonitsa?, My old torments, Old Nun A-Cooking, You wear white, If you want to marry, I'll jump from the battlements, Mother, spring is here)
Tambourine
- Domna Samiou (How beautiful our bride),
- Vangelis Karipis (Tsifteteli, You wear white, If I want black eyes, Giannoula, Hasapikos dance from Aretsou),
- Andreas Pappas (Early last summer, Syrtos from Silyvria)
Spoons
- Vangelis Karipis (On my way to the mountains of Prussa),
- Katerina Papadopoulou (Mother, spring is here),
- Andreas Pappas (Dance with kerchiefs)
Informant (source of the song)
- Kyriaki Gioulbaxioti (My old torments),
- Nikos Karageorgiou (If you want to marry),
- Antonis Marmarinos (You wear white),
- Eleni Stratoudaki-Lazopoulou (On my way to the mountains of Prussa),
- Garyfalia Sουri (My old torments)