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When they used to build with the materials from the ruined temples
Restoration or renovation?
Vassilis Angelikopoulos, Magazine, Difono, 01/03/1996
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(Extracts)
Restoration or renovation? It is probably a false dilemma. Not that there is no dispute as to how we should treat our traditional music and songs. There is, and at times it acquires the force of a veritable conflict. 'They are corrupting them the way they present them, with inappropriate instruments and foreign ways of interpreting them. They are distorting their character and their true nature'. That is how the proponents of the 'authentic' interpretation attack the 'modernisers'. 'With the outdated way they present them, as if they are museum pieces, they bury them, condemning them to gathering dust on shelves, because they do not interest or move contemporary people in the least', retort others.
Peace upon us, since the dilemma is false. People, all of us that is, have proved the need for, and have accepted, both the revival of the 'authentic' form of songs and the renovations which older material can inspire in a contemporary musician. It is quality that is the real judge of the outcome. Works from both side of the divide have at times caught our interest. In the same way that attempts by people of both schools have also been condemned to oblivion. Of course everyone supports his own approach and his own work, and hence the conflicts. The coexistence and parallel development [of the two 'schools']have been a reality and will continue to be by necessity. And it is also necessary. We need the valuable work that is being undertaken, usually without any assistance, by researchers and recorders of our traditional music, who also usually prefer to present it in its 'authentic' form. It is essential that we get to know these 'authentic' interpretations. The questions of from which time, which place and of what persuasion the 'authenticity' we are recording is, is a separate but huge issue. Because folk song was never fossilised whilst it was still alive. Every period in time added its own mark, without this being a cause for conflict, and handed it down to the next period dressed in it's own 'garments'. (So, [which is in fact the original] version?) And of course it is desirable and completely acceptable [at the same time] for every contemporary artist to put to good use the treasures of our traditional heritage in any way he may desire.
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Domna Samiou, who needs no introduction, is one of the few who insist on authenticity. But maybe it should be noted that she is one of the few who can present the authentic in a way that is accessible to people today. Most of the people who are devoted to the authentic, to be quite honest, usually bore us a little. But Domna Samiou usually does not. Her previous record, the delectable Carnival Songs, was a piece of work where the tireless researcher and interpreter hit the golden mean. Her new record Kaneloriza, that she published herself, is in the same vein.
The common thread of the tracks which are included in the record are the seven beat metre (as in the kalamatianos dance) and the nine beat metre (as in the zeibekikos dance and the karsilamas). This may not mean much [to some of you], but the songs which have been included in the record are mainly unknown songs, the product of the researchers work […]. 'I ensured' Domna Samiou notes, 'that the songs that narrate a story are presented in their entirety, in contrast to the ugly habit of our days of just singing the first two or three stanzas and hence losing the consistency and meaning of the song. Also I tried to interpret the songs in their authentic form, with the musical style of their area of origin'.
They are mainly songs from Asia Minor and the near by islands. Beautiful song which she interprets together with her choir, with the accompaniment of classical folk instruments (clarinet, violin, lute, goblet drum, and wherever necessary, since we are talking about Asia Minor, Constantinopolitan lyre, kanun, oud and tambouras). I will not say that the sound is not at times a little monotonous, especially that of the violin, but the overall result is pleasing. The songs that this collection introduces us to are interesting. And Mrs Samiou's voice, charmingly mature and flexible as ever, becomes the bridge between the old world [of the songs] and us today. The following songs are especially pleasing: Do not nurture any doubts, My aching breast, Kaneloriza (familiar to us from the version recorded around 1960 by the excellent Kostas Giannidis with the young Nana Mouskouri), You, sweet lass (which the famous Yannis Papaioannou, who was also from Asia Minor, had recorded as his own, together with Rena Dallia), the exquisite This lovely summer, Mandilatos and D'you hear the water-mills.
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Translated by Alexander Seferiades
When they used to build with the materials from the ruined temples
Vassilis Angelikopoulos, Magazine, Difono, 01/03/1996