• Increase font size
  • Decrease font size
  • Ελληνικά
  • English

Καλλιτεχνικός Σύλλογος Δημοτικής Μουσικής Δόμνα Σαμίου

Menu
  • Domna Samiou
    • Domna Samiou
    • Contents
      • Domna Samiou
      • Biography
      • A Tale of a Life
      • Others on Domna
    • richmenu_01
      A tale of a life
      Homeless During the Civil War
      richmenu
      richmenu_02
      A tale of a life
      Next to Her Mentor Simon Karas
      richmenu_03
      Socrates Sinopoulos
      A Teacher-Student Relationship
  • Her Work
    • Her Work
    • Contents
      • Her Work
      • Discography
      • List of Songs
      • Concerts
      • "Musical Travelogue"
      • Press Clippings and Interviews
      • Collaborators
      • Domna Samiou Archives
      • Selections
    • richmenu_kalanta
      Musical Selections
      Christmas, New Year & Epiphany Carols
      richmenu
      richmenu_ton_akriton--3
      New release
      Epic Songs of Warriors and Heroes
      richmenu
      richmenu_nikos_papavramidis
      Collaborators
      Nikos Papavramidis
      pa623_main_nikos_stefanidis--2
      Collaborators
      Nikos Stefanidis (1890-1983)
      richmenu
  • The Association
    • The Association
    • Contents
      • The Association
      • About Us
      • Activities
      • The Association's Releases
      • Events
      • Sponsors and Donors
      • Web Links
    • association_richmenu_en_v3
      Activities
      Domna Samiou Archives
      richmenu
      association_richmenu_en_v3
      The Association
      The Board and the Members
      richmenu
  • The Choir
    • The Choir
    • The Lessons
    • The Teachers
    • Contact the Choir
  • Translator's Notes
    • Translator's Notes
    • Musical Instruments
    • Pronunciation Notes
  • Contact
Sign in Show/Hide Search Form

You are at: Home page Her Work List of Songs You wear white

covergr
Listen to Spotify Listen to YouTube Music Listen toiTunes Listen toAmazon
You wear white
covergr
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Send with e-mail

Άσπρα φορείς

Listen

Lyrics

You wear white and hold white and white is your dress
And white the flowers that swoon at your passing.

Dance, sweet bride, and I'll sing you a song
I'll sing your praises, sweet angel, all day long.
You say one thing but do another
You' ve taken a vow to make me suffer.

I’ve never seen a bride so fair,
No City* apple tree, no Chios orange grove can compare.

In your white skirt and [your sleeves rolled up]
You stole my wits from me like a witch.
You say one thing but do another
You've taken a vow to make me suffer.

What sky, what sea, what sun, what moon
Gifted our bride with so much grace.

It's you I’m telling, and listen if you want to,
Take pen and paper, sit down and set to.
You say one thing but do another
You've taken a vow to make me suffer.

Translated by Michael Eleftheriou

* City: Constantinople

Original Lyrics

Άσπρα φορείς

Άσπρα φορείς κι άσπρα κρατείς κι άσπρη είν’ η φορεσιά σου
κι άσπρα λουλούδια πέφτουνε απ’ την περπατησιά σου.

Χόρεψε, νυφοπούλα, τραγούδι να σε πω
να σε παινέσω θέλω, κορμί μ’ αγγελικό.
Άλλα λες κι άλλα με κάνεις,
βάλθηκες να με τρελάνεις.

Τέτοια νύφη δεν είδα εγώ ούτε μηλιά στην Πόλη
ούτε νεραντζολεμονιά στης Χιος το περιβόλι1.

Άσπρη μου φουστανούσα και κοτσομάνισσα2,
εσύ το νου μου επήρες, ωσάν τη μάγισσα.
Άλλα λες κι άλλα με κάνεις,
βάλθηκες να με τρελάνεις.

Ποιος ουρανός, ποια θάλασσα, ποιος ήλιος, ποιο φεγγάρι
εστόλισαν τη νύφη μας κι έχει περίσσια χάρη.

Σένα τα λέω, σένα, κι αν θέλεις, άκου τα,
πάρε χαρτί και πένα και κάτσε, γράψε τα.
Άλλα λες κι άλλα με κάνεις,
βάλθηκες να με τρελάνεις.

1 Η Χίος ήταν πασίγνωστη στη Δυτική Μικρασία για τα εσπεριδοειδή της, ιδίως δε στην Προποντίδα και την Κωνσταντινούπολη, όπου δεν ευδοκιμούσαν καθόλου τα ξινά.
2 Κο(υ)τσομάνισσα: με κοντά ή ανασηκωμένα μανίκια (ιδιωματικό του Μαρμαρά).
 

Information

  • Region: Propontis
  • Area: Marmara
  • Type: Couplets
  • Categories: For the Bride, Wedding Song
  • Rhythm: 4 beats
  • Dance style: Syrtos
  • Duration: 03:27

Collaborators

  • Singer: Domna Samiou
  • Choir: Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association Choir
  • Clarinet: Thodoris Georgopoulos
  • Violin: Nikos Oikonomidis
  • Kanun: Panos Dimitrakopoulos
  • Constantinopolitan lute: Socrates Sinopoulos
  • Saz: Evgenios Voulgaris
  • Lute: Kyriakos Tapakis
  • Bendir (frame drum): Andreas Pappas
  • Tambourine: Vangelis Karipis
  • Informant (source of the song): Antonis Marmarinos

Albums

  • My Old Torments

Notes

In the six Greek villages on the island of Marmara, ancient Proconnesus, the wedding songs, which they call nyphikata or nyphilia, are in essence songs of love and passion. Like all the Greek songs of this type, their roots are in ancient Greek songs sung in a similar wedding context (hymenaios, epithalamia, katakoimitika etc.), and their main purpose is to praise the young couple, and to wish them well-being, happiness and a long life together. These songs accompany every wedding custom and ceremony, and have a very positive impact on the mental state of the bride and groom, but also of everyone present, moving them, advising them, praising them, and indicating their new position in society. Intensely poetic, elegant, expressive and making use of symbolic words and allegories aplenty, the popular poet guides the couple along the new path they are embarking upon.

The bridal songs of Maramara, as genuine poetic creations, refer to every moment of the wedding, from the first meeting of the bride and groom through to their betrothal and from there to the end of the wedding feast. The emotions they express are mixed. Joy, happiness and pleasure at beginning a new life, but also sadness, sorrow and melancholy at being separated from parents, especially the bride from her mother. 

They have different melodies, depending on their content, which is slow, lyrical and sensual at times, sometimes sad and melancholic, other times frenetic and almost Dionysian, usually played to a four-beat rhythm (syrtos) to be danced to at the wedding feast - as is the case with this song. Almost all the songs consist of couplets which exude beauty and light, lyricism, imagination and exaggerated imagery. In the past, every islander knew countless couplets of this sort by heart, since many had become associated with marriage and were customarily sung at wedding celebrations. Needless to say, the women took the lead here, and this remains true to this day in communities with roots in the Sea of Maramara area (Neos Marmaras, Pyrgadikia, Sarti, Ammouliani, Ouranoupoli, Nea Palatia, Amarynthos, Limni, and elsewhere). Still, those with a talent for it would improvise new couplets relating to the families, talents, beauty, and personalities of the bride and groom.

This song, which is danced to the steps of the local ‘jumping’ version of the syrtos, consists of fifteen-syllable couplets with thirteen-syllable interjected gyrismata, and praises the bride and her unsurpassed beauty. It is followed by an eight-syllable tsakisma which, semantically unrelated to the rest of the song, occurs in various dance songs from Asia Minor. Two similar wedding songs were recorded in Neos Marmaras and included on the records Popular Winter 7 , A1 (1993) and Popular Winter - 10 Years, A2 (1990), compiled and curated by Giorgis Melikis.

Theodor Kondaras (2022)

 

Recording information

Live recording from the concert Songs of Asia Minor with Domna Samiou at the Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall, on 8/3/2005.

The song was recorded by Domna Samiou in Neos Marmaras, Chalkidiki, in 1983, sung by members of the “Propontis” Cultural Society of Neos Marmaras.

You Wear White
Members of the “Propontis” Cultural Society. Neos Marmaras, Chalkidiki, 1983. © Domna Samiou Archive

Member Comments

0 Comments

Post a comment


up to 2000
Login to post a comment

See also

d35_badge
Song
The Wedding Time Has Come
Bride's Song
d35_badge
Album
Wedding Songs
Unreleased collection
d35_badge
Song
Good Luck My Bride
d16_badge
Song
I Bid Farewell to My Neighbourhood
d23_badge
Song
I Want to Savour All the Months
I want to savour all the months, I want to know them all, but oh , not March, I can’t abide the dreadful month of March. Th...
d35_badge
Song
Mother, at Noon
d26_28_badge
Song
The Boastful Partridge
A partridge fair bragged to all she met that there was no hunter in the land, no hunter in the land could bag her. When th...
d35_badge
Song
The Newlyweds Are Sleeping
d27_badge
Song
The Song of Saint George
A monster plagues our land curled up in a deep well. We feed it poor townsfolk every morn and every night, but when a day g...
d35_badge
Song
We Are Here to See You
d35_badge
Song
Wedding Processional Tune From Samothrace
799_badge_rmp45_047_1
Song
Wedding Song From Cyprus
d35_badge
Song
Wedding song (Peloponnese)
d14_badge
Song
Well Met
Well met to all of us who love each other, who are joyful for a while and of a glad heart. Vré, off the beach I’m chasing ...
d24_badge
Song
What Did I Do to You, My Sun
What did I do to you, my sun, what did I do? What did I do and now you’re set on setting? Tourna, tourna, tourna there’s a...
  • Home page
  • Disclaimer
  • Contact
  • Sitemap
Follow us
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
Subscribe to Newsletter
To Top
© 2010-2014 Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Powered by TOOLIP Web Content Management Designed & developed by EWORX S.A.