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Category: Music
What are the best Greek Rebetika songs?
Hm. I’m bypassing the obvious answer, Frangosyriani, because that’s a song that in a sense ended the Classic Rebetika period, and marked the start of the taming of the tradition that brought about laika music. Songs that I have a lot of time for myself include: Πέντε Χρόνια Δικασμένος (1934). Music & Lyrics: Vangelis Papazoglou. […]
What is a touching love poem in Greek?
A lot of these are going to be Modern Greek. This included. Nikolaos Politis’ 1914 collection of Greek folk song was defining, not only for Greek folklore studies, but for the formation of Modern Greek identity. Generations learned how to be Greek from the songs published in the collection; and generations missed out on hearing […]
Are there similarities between Turkish and Greek Music?
There are underlying similarities between Turkish and Greek music at a deeper level, and there are clear similarities between Greek pop and Turkish pop at a more proximate level. At a deeper level, the scales and instruments used by Turks and Greeks are related, through close to a millennium of coexistence. The tunings and modes […]
What do Greeks think of the song of Çelo Mezanit?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachak Greeks don’t know the song. Most Greeks barely know about Chameria. And nationalist Greeks who know how the song has become a rallying point for Çam identity may well react with hostility. God knows I read a couple of shitfights on YouTube. But given the translation and someone who’s not nationalist (e.g. Dimitris Almyrantis: […]
Two versions of Haidari: A Lost Original resurfaces
I find this fascinating. You may not find this fascinating. It involves Greek music of the 40s. I’ve been listening to Dalaras’ 1980 recording of wartime rebetika. I realised that one of the songs, Haidari, I had already heard before, and loved it. It’s a chilling song about someone about to be executed, in the […]
What is your favourite Zeibekiko song and why?
My fellow Greeks have made excellent choices. So I have to choose another one. My choice fails Achilleas Vortselas’ criteria. They are the right criteria, they are what makes a zeibekiko such a joy to dance to. But I’m choosing a zeibekiko which isn’t as danceable, isn’t as heavy, isn’t as underworld, but is just […]
What are the top 5 best Greek Songs of all time?
I’m going to give one for each decade from the 30s through the 70s. I’m going to put up, not necessarily my favourite songs, but the songs I think have had the greatest cultural impact. 1935. Φραγκοσυριανή (Frangosyriani): Catholic Girl from Syros. Lyrics: Markos Vamvakaris. Music: Markos Vamvakaris. Markos was the master of the Peiraeus […]
What were the musical notes’ names in Ancient Greece?
The notes of the Ancient Greek musical system were organised into tetrachords, groups of four notes. Two tetrachords made an octave. The central octave went: {Hypate, Parhypate, Lichanos, Mese}, {Paramese, Trite, Paranete, Nete} It gets rather more complicated than that; the paramese, for example, is an interstitial note, and the tetrachords keep going above and […]
What are some really nice songs, music, from your country?
I am unable to shut up about the songs I love from Greece. There was a while last month when that was all I could write about. Nick Nicholas’ answer to What’s the most recent song you’ve cried to? Nick Nicholas’ answer to What are your favourite lyrics? Nick Nicholas’ answer to What is that […]
Which Greek island is the best for traditional music and culture?
You want an island that’s a little out of the way of mass tourism, so you can see some local music and culture. Or an island that’s big enough that not every part of it is soaked with mass tourism. You won’t see much, this is 2016 after all. And as I posted here (Nick […]