Haunting vintage music from the Greek region of Epirus
The Wild, Healing Music of Epiros | An Odyssey into Europe's Oldest Surviving Folk Music (Rediscovering the healing power of music)
Epiros. Surely the age-old war between passion and reason which so often consumes the Greek world began there, stoked by its fierce beauty. Home of the Vikos gorge, the world’s deepest, and the oracle of Dodona, Hellenism’s most ancient, the greatest poets can only take snapshots of Epiros’ soul – Lord Byron sang of the Souliotes in Child Harold. Words fail. They cannot capture Epiros’ essence or express its wisdom – only music can reveal its magic. Amanda Petrusich, an American music journalist and author was hypnotized by the music and was powerfully drawn to that continent – the literal meaning of Epiros. The music of Epirus , in Epirus, northwestern Greece, present to varying degree in the rest of Greece and the islands, contains folk songs that are mostly pentatonic and polyphonic, characterized as relaxed, gentle and exceptionally beautiful, and sung by both male and female singers.
Distinctive songs include lament songs (mirolóyia), shepherd's songs (skáros) and drinking songs (tis távlas).The clarinet is the most prominent folk instrument in Epirus, used to accompany dances, mostly slow and heavy, like the menousis, fisouni, podhia, sta dio, sta tria, zagorisios, kentimeni, koftos, yiatros and tsamikos. The polyphonic song of Epirus constitutes one of the most interesting musical forms, not only for the east Mediterranean and the Balkans, but also for the worldwide repertoire of the folk polyphony like the yodeling of Switzerland. Except from its scale, what pleads for the very old origin of the kind is its vocal, collective, rhetorical and modal character.
The Polyphonic Song of Epirus, one of the most significant examples in the repertoire of world polyphonic music, is a living tradition and an element of the cultural identity of the populations of the borderland region of Epirus and the Greek minority of Albania (Northern Epirus).
The Wild, Healing Music of Epiros | An Odyssey into Europe's Oldest Surviving Folk Music (Rediscovering the healing power of music)
Epiros. Surely the age-old war between passion and reason which so often consumes the Greek world began there, stoked by its fierce beauty. Home of the Vikos gorge, the world’s deepest, and the oracle of Dodona, Hellenism’s most ancient, the greatest poets can only take snapshots of Epiros’ soul – Lord Byron sang of the Souliotes in Child Harold. Words fail. They cannot capture Epiros’ essence or express its wisdom – only music can reveal its magic. Amanda Petrusich, an American music journalist and author was hypnotized by the music and was powerfully drawn to that continent – the literal meaning of Epiros. The music of Epirus , in Epirus, northwestern Greece, present to varying degree in the rest of Greece and the islands, contains folk songs that are mostly pentatonic and polyphonic, characterized as relaxed, gentle and exceptionally beautiful, and sung by both male and female singers.
Distinctive songs include lament songs (mirolóyia), shepherd's songs (skáros) and drinking songs (tis távlas).The clarinet is the most prominent folk instrument in Epirus, used to accompany dances, mostly slow and heavy, like the menousis, fisouni, podhia, sta dio, sta tria, zagorisios, kentimeni, koftos, yiatros and tsamikos. The polyphonic song of Epirus constitutes one of the most interesting musical forms, not only for the east Mediterranean and the Balkans, but also for the worldwide repertoire of the folk polyphony like the yodeling of Switzerland. Except from its scale, what pleads for the very old origin of the kind is its vocal, collective, rhetorical and modal character.
The Polyphonic Song of Epirus, one of the most significant examples in the repertoire of world polyphonic music, is a living tradition and an element of the cultural identity of the populations of the borderland region of Epirus and the Greek minority of Albania (Northern Epirus).
Songs and dances of Epirus Vol. 2 (Recordings 1930 - 1957)
℗ 2003 Hellenicrecord
Source: Digital
1. Stylianos Bellos, Anastasios Halkiopoulos - Asimoula (1956) 3:24
2. P.Kavakopoulos - Dance of Samarina (Sygathistos) 3:25
3. Yorghos Trakis, Kostas Harisiades - Alexandra (1954) 3:11
4. Dimitris Halkias - Menousis Agas (1927) 4:22
5. Stefanos Pashalis, Aikaterini Tassi - Grape muskat grape (1958) 3:12
6. Manthos Halkias - Little pigeons (1926) 2:51
7. Fotis Halkiopoulos, Anastasios Halkias - Mountains of Grevena (1951) 3:22
8. Yorghos Trakis, Kostas Harisiades - Cage with iron rods (1954) 2:59
9. Glykeria Zouba, Fotis Halkiopoulos, Anastasios Halkias - Come Litsa Vangelitsa (1955) 3:36
10. Dimitris Halkias - Frasa (1932) 2:51
11. Yorghos Gagas - Live it up my poor heart (1955) 3:30
12. Alexis Zoubas - Sirtos dance in two steps (1928) 4:17
13. Fotis Halkiopoulos, Anastasios Halkias - Vasilarhontissa (1950) 3:17
14. Yorghos Gagas - Konstantis (1955) 3:31
15. Fotis Halkiopoulos - On the flowers of oleander (1955) 3:28
16. Elias Letos - Rebels from Veltsista (1926) 3:16
17. Pávlos Bekiáris, Pávlos Bekiáris, Vasilis Besiris - My blond girls (1949) 3:16
18. Nikos Halkias - Leonidas tsamiko (1954) 3:29
0 comments:
Post a Comment