Καλλιτεχνικός Σύλλογος Δημοτικής Μουσικής Δόμνα Σαμίου

A charming love song from Moudania, based on a poetic allegory. It is danced to the steps of the fast hasapikos or the ‘three-step hop’ (pidichto sta tria) which was, along with the syrtos, the favoured rhythm of the Greeks around the Sea of Marmaris.

The theme was found in various parts of North-Western Asia Minor and now of Greece, set to different melodies, of course. With real poetic force and beautiful, highly visual imagery, it conveys allegorically the burning passion of the ‘hunter’ as he -in vain, at first- pursues “a little bird”, meaning the girl he loves. In a miraculous way, the 'little bird’ will make the impossible possible: it flies up to heaven, fetches down an angel, and with its divine assistance drains the sea, only for the hunter to turn her into a lemon and orange grove! Which is to say, the love the young people share thrives and flourishes. Just as miraculously and curiously, the ‘garden', which is none other than the hunter’s beloved, will grow and bear fruit in just five days, and the ‘master hunter’ no longer permits any 'thief’ to reap its sweet fruit, which is to say the erotic allures of his fair maid. 

The song is structured in pairs of rhyming eight-syllable lines, with the interjection "geia sas, vre children" (or vasta, vre children) sung after the first half of each first line.

Theodor Kondaras (2022)

Live recording from the concert Songs of Asia Minor with Domna Samiou at the Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall, on 8/5/2005.