Music of Crete

For Hindu goddesses representing the constellation Pleiades, see Kṛttikā.

Music of Greece
General topics
Ancient • Byzantine • Néo kýma • Polyphonic song
Genres
Entehno • Dimotika • Hip hop • Laïko • Punk • Rock
Specific forms
Classical • Nisiotika • Rebetiko • Skiladiko
Media and performance
Music awards	Arion Awards • MAD Video Music Awards • Pop Corn Music Awards
Music charts	Greek Albums Chart • Foreign Albums Chart • Singles Chart
Music festivals	Thessaloniki Song Festival
Music media	Difono • MAD TV (MAD World, Blue) • MTV Greece
National anthem	"Hymn to Liberty"
Regional music
Related areas	Cyprus
Regional styles	Aegean Islands • Arcadia • Argos • Crete • Cyclades • Dodecanese Islands • Epirus • Ionian Islands • Lesbos • Macedonia • Peloponnese • Thessaly • Thrace

The music of Crete is a traditional form of Greek folk music called κρητικά (kritika). The lyra is the dominant folk instrument on the island; there are three-stringed and four-stringed versions of this bowed string instrument, closely related to the medieval Byzantine lyra. It is often accompanied by the Cretan lute (laoúto), which is similar to both an oud and a mandolin. Thanassis Skordalos and Kostas Moundakis are the most renowned players of the lyra.

History

Origins

The earliest documented music on Crete comes from Ancient Greece. Cretan music like most traditional Greek began as product of ancient, Byzantine, western and eastern inspirations. The main instrument lyra, is closely related to the bowed Byzantine lyra. The Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh (d. 911) of the 9th Century, in his lexicographical discussion of instruments, cited the Byzantine lyra (Greek: λύρα - lūrā), as similar to the Arabic rebab and a typical Byzantine instrument along with the urghun (organ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre) and the salandj.^[1] Bowed instruments descendants of the Byzantine bowed lyra (lūrā) have continued to be played in post-Byzantine regions until the present day with few changes, for example the Calabrian Lira in Italy, the Cretan Lyra, the Gadulka in Bulgaria, and the Armudî kemençe (or πολίτικη λύρα) in Istanbul, Turkey.

Following the Crusades, however, the Franks, Venetians and Genoese dominated the island and introduced new instruments and genres and in particular the three-stringed lira da braccio. By the end of the 14th century, a poetic form called mantinada became popular; it was a rhyming couplet of fifteen syllables. The introduction of the violin by the end of 17th century was especially important.

Post-Byzantine era

After the fall of Constantinople, many Byzantine musicians took refuge on Crete and established schools of Byzantine music, as did numerous Venetians. A French physician in 1547 (Pierre Belon) reported warrior-like dances on Crete, and Sherley, an English traveler, reported in 1599 of wild dances performed late at night.

The oldest transcription of folk songs in all of Greece can be traced to the 17th century, when songs in the rizitika type (see below) were "recorded" by monks at Iviron and Xyropotamos Monasteries on Mount Athos. Recording secular folk songs was almost certainly forbidden by the monks' code of conduct. However, the connection between music and religion continues in modern Crete; priests are said to be excellent folk singers, including the rizitiko singer Aggelos Psilakis. It was during this period, when modern Cretan folk music was formed, that Francisco Leontaritis was active. Leontaritis is said to be the father of modern Greek music. The explicit musical connection between Cretan music and Byzantine chant was documented in the seminal study "La chanson grecque", by Swiss musicologist and archivist Samuel Baud-Bovy.

After the Turks conquered Crete in 1669, a distinct Cretan Muslim musical tradition developed, tabachaniotika, similar to rebetiko. In the 1810s, Georgios the Cretan helped to revive Byzantine music traditions. Today, most Cretan songs and music have strong eastern influences; some tabachaniotika songs have passed into the contemporary repertoire.

By the early 20th century, the violin was playing a more prominent role in Cretan folk music, and was preferred in Eastern Crete, while the lyra was preferred in Western Crete. The West Cretan highlands also features rizitika; these are heroic ballads without instrumental accompaniment.

A combination of the violin and lyre, the viololyra, was created in 1920. Twenty years later, the modern form of the lyra appeared when a lyraki and violin were combined replacing the lyra drone strings with three strings in succession (d-a-e'). As a result the range of the lyra was increased, and the lyra could start playing dances from the violin repertoire as well. Replacing the falcon bells which had traditionally been used to keep the rhythm was the boulgari (which was used in Tabachaniotika). Nowadays the laouto is used in this role.

Tabachaniotika

The "tabachaniotika" ([tabaxaˈɲotika]; sing.: tabachaniotiko - Greek: ταμπαχανιώτικο) songs are a Cretan urban musical repertory which belongs to the wide family of musics, like the rebetiko and music of the Café-aman, that merge Greek and Eastern music elements. This genre represents an outcome of the Cretan-Minor Asia's Greek cultural syncretism in East Mediterranean Sea. It developed mainly after the immigration of Smyrna's refugees in 1922, as did the more widespread rebetiko.

The most exactly coming of the word tambahaniotika is that they come from the eponymous district area of Greek city of Patras Ταμπαχανιωτικα. Also, various conjectures are advanced to explain the meaning and origin of the term tabachaniotika. Kostas Papadakis believes that it comes from tabakaniotikes (*ταμπακανιώτικες), which may mean places where hashish (Greek: ταμπάκο 'tobacco') is smoked while music is performed, as was the case with the tekédes (τεκέδες; pl. of tekés) of Piraeus. But a quarter named Tabahana (Ταμπάχανα) existed in Smyrna—a name which has the Turkish root tabak: tanner; tabakhane: tannery. In Chaniá too, there was a quarter with the same name, where refugees from Smyrna lived after the 1922 diaspora. Tabachaniotiko was also the name of a song of the amanés genre, which was popular in Smyrna in the period before 1922, together with some other songs called Minóre, Bournovalió, Galatá, and Tzivaéri.^[2] Compare the performance of Greek ballos by a Greek ensemble in New York City in 1928, included in the online article on Mediterranean music in America by Karl Signell.

This detail might be critical for the history of Cretan tabachaniotika, since Cretans frequently had contacts with the people and music of Smyrna during the nineteenth century. Cretan musicians believe that the further development of Cretan tabachaniotika took place mainly after 1922, as a consequence of the Greek refugees' resettlement. The genre was popular until the 1950s.

Music

Major features of the tabachaniotika songs are the following:

• Dromoi (sing.:in Greek dromos - δρόμος), also modal types designated by Turkish names, like rasti, houzam, hijaz, ousak, niaventi, and sabak.
• Instrumental introduction before the song (taximi, pl.:, taximia), where the player explores the Greek dromos.
• Tsiftetéli rhythm, that music example heard in Signell's article.
• Musical instruments like bouzouki, boulgarí (μπουλγκαρί, the Cretan orelse poetry, and music). Similar to the earliest forms of the bouzouki), and Baglamas (Greek μπαγλαμάς) or baglamadaki (Greek μπαγλαμαδάκι).

Poetic text

The rebetiko and tabachaniotika often share the political verse, that is, fifteen syllable lines divided into two hemistichs - ημιστίχια (8+7), generally realized as couplets. In Crete such couplets are called mandinádes (μαντινάδες), as are extemporary texts sung to the music of dances, mainly the syrtós, and the kondyliés (οι κοντυλιές).

They focus mainly on the themes of existential grief and lost love, also common to the rebetiko. Songs making fun of Turks, narrative songs, and other songs in dialogue form also belong to this repertory.

Unlike rebetiko (which is described below), the tabachaniotika did not considered underground music and was only sung, not danced,^[3] according to Nikolaos Sarimanolis, the last living performer of this repertory in Chaniá. Only a few musicians played the tabachaniotika, the most famous being the boulgarí (a mandolin like instrument) player Stelios Foustalieris (1911–1992) from Réthymnon. Foustalieris bought his first boulgarí in 1924. In 1979, he said that in Rethymnon, the boulgarí had been widespread during the 1920s; in every tavern one could find a boulgarí, and people played and sang lovesongs. He said the boulgarí was then the main accompanying instrument of the lyra, together with the mandola. The laouto began spreading in Rethymnon not before the 1930s. Foustalieris played for years as accompanist to the lyrist Antonis Kareklás (in feasts and weddings) and performed any kind of repertory (syrtós, pentozália, pidihtá (lit.: 'jumping up songs'), kastriná, taxímia, kathistiká (lit.: 'sitting-down songs', i.e. music for listening, not for dancing), and even rebetiko^[4]). Later, he began playing the boulgarí, as a melodic instrument, with the accompaniment of guitar or mandolin. He also played in a group with musicians (refugees from Asia Minor), who played the outi and sandouri. Foustalieris composed also many songs and recorded them in Rethymnon. In the period 1933–1937 he lived in Piraeus and played together with famous rebetes, like Markos Vamvarakis. He may be considered a musician who merged the musics of Crete, Asia Minor, and Piraeus.^[5]

Notwithstanding the dearth of performers, tabachaniotika songs were widespread and could also be performed at domestic gatherings. Notable artists of this genre who were originally refugees from Asia Minor include the bouzouki player Nikolaos "Nikolis" Sarimanolis (Νικολής Σαριμανώλης; born in Nea Ephesos in 1919) as a member of a folk-group founded by Kostas Papadakis in Chaniá in 1945, Antonis Katinaris (also based in Chaniá), and the Rethymnon-based Mihalis Arabatzoglou and Nikos Gialidis.^[6]

Modern music

Some of the earliest popular music stars from Crete were Andreas Rodinos, Yiannis Bernidakis (Baxevanis), Stelios Koutsourelis, Stelios Foustalieris, Efstratios Kalogeridis, Kostas Papadakis, Michalis Kounelis, Kostas Mountakis and Thanassis Skordalos. Later, in the 1960s, musicians like Nikos Xylouris and Yiannis Markopoulos combined Cretan folk music with classical techniques. For the above choices, Nikos Xylouris received the negative criticism of conservative fans of the Cretan music but he remained popular, as did similarly styled performers like Charalambos Garganourakis and Vasilis Skoulas. Nowadays, prominent performers include Antonis Xylouris or Psarantonis, Giorgis Xylouris, Ross Daly, Stelios Petrakis, Vasilis Stavrakakis, the group Chainides, Zacharias Spyridakis, Michalis Stavrakakis, Mitsos Stavrakakis, Dimitrios Vakakis, Georgios Tsantakis, Michalis Tzouganakis, Elias Horeftakis, Giannis Charoulis, etc.

As Magrini (1997) has argued, modern marketing of Cretan music has concentrated on the lyra as the most distinctive Cretan instrument, to the extent that other instruments are seldom heard. This includes the violin, as well as the bagpipes [askomadoura].

Cretan musicians

Main page: :Category:Cretan musicians

• Alekos Karavitis
• Psarantonis
• Antonis Papadakis, or Kareklas
• Giorgis Koutsourelis
• Kostas Mountakis
• Michalis Kounelis
• Nikos Xilouris]
• Thanasis Skordalos

See also

• Music of Greece
• Cretan Greek
• Cretan Lyra

References

1. ^ Margaret J. Kartomi: On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology, University of Chicago Press, 1990
2. ^ Panayiotis Kounadis 1993: 23
3. ^ Eirini Theodosopoulou, "The Greek traditional music as a means of knowledge and Aestheticism"
4. ^ "Foustalieris"
5. ^ Lambros Liavas 1988
6. ^ Cretan Tradition

External links

References

• Cretan Music (in Greek)
• Cretan Music
• The Music of Crete - Biographies of Cretan Music Artists
• History of Cretan Music
• Magrini, Tullia. 1997. Repertories and identities of a musician from Crete. Ethnomusicology OnLine 3

Streaming Audio

• 128kbit/s Windows Media Stream (Internet-only station playing Cretan music)
• 32kbit/s Windows Media Stream (Studio Alpha - Chania, Crete)