Κοντυλιές

In the first part of the video (from the beginning up to 4:20) they seem to be playing a version of 'kontylies' found in Eastern Crete (around Siteia), known for being first recorded by Stratis Kalogerides and thus often referred to as Κοντυλιές Καλογερίδη (see also this earlier post).

A wedding in Cyprus

Not sure where (in the Balkans?) these folks' music is from, but they sure seem to be having fun.

"Hip Hop & Tsiattista"

Note the presence of Makarios alongside Public Enemy on the cover image.

Διαγραφή/καταγραφή/μεταγραφή

Too much to say about this, explains e.g. the process of fabrication of Cypriot music.

Όταν θα πάω κυρά μου στο παζάρι

Sarı Gelin

Another well-known example of a song from the wider region that is shared between neighbours speaking different languages.

Just the melody played with Armenian duduk:

Alim Qasimov Ensemble with the Hiliard Ensemble and Sainkho Namtchylak do their take on the Azeri version:

Hosein Alizadeh from Iran and Jivan Gasparian (again, from Armenia) combine Armenian, Azeri, and Persian versions:

Γκιαούρ Ιμάμης

Here is an excellent article clarifying a lot of the details about this song (also mentioned here):

http://patosmetrypav.blogspot.ru/2015/08/blog-post.html

The article claims that the first recording of the 'Gavur Imam' version of this karjilamas was made by Hamza Irkad (as also mentioned in the Monsieur Doumani documentary), and the lyrics came from some unknown Greek syndicalist in London.

B-boy sousta

Rumi wrote in Greek

Rumi and his son, Sultan Walad, wrote some of their verses in Greek (apart from Persian, Arabic, and Turkish). This page deals with some of these.

One example, from Sultan Walad (Βαλέντ):

Τα μάτια τα είδα μετά σεν τις είδεν;
γοιο σεν, καλούτσικη, εις τον κόσμον τις είδεν;
[ντ] η θέα σου έκαψέ με και σεν πάλι γυρεύγω
εχάθηκα για σεν και κανείς να ήτο να με βρην.
Εις τον πόθο σου επά κλαίγω και κονώνω τα δάκρυα·
φωνάζω και λαλώ σε με 'πατόν πάλι να έρθην.
Άκουγε και θώρει εγώ για κείτην τι 'παθα,
αφρίζει και λαλεί τούτο το θιάμα να μου 'ρτήν.
Βαλέντ χάνει σεν, για σεν ουδέ τρώγει, ουδέ κοιμάται·
εγώ το θέλω έγινεν, κανείς να μη το είπην.

(Not directly connected to Cyprus, but one might suspect that there might be some connections to be drawn here, e.g. to poetry created by Turkish-speaking Cypriots in Greek.)

For a change...

...some Polka from Crete

Plus a couple more traditional approaches to Cretan music that are less than conventional nowadays:

Stratis Kalogeridis' take on Kastrines kontylies:

Charchalis' Chaniotiko syrto:

Χορός του δρεπανιού

or at least a variation of the theme, to be found here starting at 13:08:

Forthcoming, October 2015: Jim Samson, Nicoletta Demetriou (Eds), Music in Cyprus, Ashgate

http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409465737

Limits and complexities

"It's not my fault if I play Azerbaijani melodies. Okay, I don't talk to them but I play their music. As a musician I play their music. And they do the same. Whether they play our music I don't know. But I play theirs. It's not about the music. Maybe it's not their music. Maybe it's them playing our music. It could be that way round. And then, you know, their music and ours comes from the same place: we play it, and they do. [...] And how we are [sic] supposed to know who wrote it? We sing it in Armenian and they sing it in Azeri. And whose music is it? It belongs to us all.What's the war got to do with it?"

A doctor who self-identifies as a 'Linopambakos' reads his poems and plays some baglama saz, singing in Greek and in Turkish in this radio broadcast (from a show titled Emerging Voices on MyCy radio):

http://listenagain.mycyradio.eu/index.php?id=4588

[I looked up wikipedia for an entry on Linopambakoi but unfortunately couldn't find one, maybe it's time someone started one!]

P.S. Thanks to Chris Karpis' comment below, it turns out that we do have a wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linobambaki

Classical Paphos

The by now touristic cliche of Cyprus as birthplace of Aphrodite sometimes figures in works of classical music, such as in the French composer Jean-Joseph de Mondonville's opéra-ballet Les fêtes de Paphos.

[Came across it through this.]

Basil trees etc

at 5:45
'στη σκαλα που ανεβαίνεις ν' ανέβαινα και γω
σε κάθε σκαλοπάτι να σε γλυκοφιλώ'

see also:

Sipsi / μπαντούρα

We were actually surprised to find a video of an instrument like this being played by Cypriots - we're at a loss as to what they call it in Cyprus and whether there might actually be a tradition of playing. It looks like a Turkish sipsi or Cretan bandoura.

Instruments: The tamboutshia (frame drum)

Frame drums exist in most cultures worldwide. Variants with different playing styles can be found e.g. in Irish, Native American, North African, Central Asian, Persian, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Indian, Siberian, Hungarian, and other cultures (the list could possibly go on indefinitely).
They are often associated with various trance-inducing rituals (e.g. in Shamanism or in Kurdish Sufism).
Apparently, ancient Cypriot women played them, and this had some relation with ritual worship (see Doubleday, V. (1999). The Frame Drum in the Middle East: Women, Musical Instruments and Power. Ethnomusicology, 43(1), 101-134.)

The Cypriot tamboutshia (ταμπουτshιά) is a kind of frame drum. Usually the same structure was made in order to construct a sieve, and tamboutshia is also the name of the sieve that results when one pierces the frame drum's skin.
The tamboutshia was usually played together with pithkiavli, or also according to some sources with the tambouras (before it became extinct around the mid-20th century). According to Anogianakis, some time in the late nineteenth century it was coupled with the violin, and later with the violin and the laouto which is currently the usual setup for 'traditional' cypriot bands.

Crossroads

There's this legend about music making that, interestingly, is to be found in African tribal mythology, blues urban legends, and instructions about learning to play the Cretan lyra. It is most well known in relation to the great blues artist Robert Johnson, who was rumoured to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his mad guitar skills. The legend goes that the bargain with the devil took place at a crossroads, and is commemorated in Johnson's 1936 'Cross Road Blues':

Hollywood seems to have thought it interesting enough, and made a movie about it titled 'Crossroads' (1986).

Though the actual lyrics of the song don't say much about bargains with demons, commentaries have sometimes linked the tale of Johnson's crossroad adventures with the Yoruba trickster god/spirit (Orisha) Eshu (who also goes by the names Elegba, Elegbara, or Legba), who governs over crossroads. (See e.g. Cheeseborough, S. Blues Travelling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues, Missisipi: University Press of Missisipi, p. 84; but see Pearson, B. L. & McCullough, B. Robert Johnson: Lost and Found, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, p. 50.)

A version of the legend somehow found its way to Crete. See for example Psarandonis' retelling of it:

Or Ross Daly's version:

"Ένας νέος μουσικός που θέλει να μάθει να παίζει λύρα, πρέπει να πάει το σούρουπο σε ένα σταυροδρόμι, να χαράξει έναν κύκλο στο χώμα, να καθίσει μέσα του κρατώντας το όργανο και να περιμένει να νυχτώσει. Μόλις σκοτεινιάσει, εμφανίζονται δαίμονες μπροστά του που προσπαθούν να τον σαγηνέψουν και να τον πείσουν να βγει από τον κύκλο του. Αυτός όμως δεν πρέπει να το κάνει γιατί αν βγει αυτοί θα τον φάνε αμέσως μόλις εγκαταλείψει τον κύκλο. Όταν οι δαίμονες καταλάβουν πως δεν μπορούν να τον πείσουν, του ζητάνε να τους δώσει τη λύρα του για να παίξουν γι' αυτόν. Τότε αυτός τους δίνει τη λύρα γιατί ξέρει ότι οι δαίμονες είναι απαράμιλλοι λυράρηδες και θέλει πολύ να τους ακούσει. Ο ένας μετά τον άλλον παίρνουν τη λύρα και παίζουν τις πιο θαυμάσιες και μαγικές μελωδίες όλη τη νύχα για το νέο. Όλα αυτά που θα ακούσει ο νέος πρέπει να τα θυμάται καλά, γιατί αυτό το μάθημα γίνεται ειδικά γι'αυτόν και δεν θα επαναληφθεί. Μόλις χαράξει το πρώτο φως, οι δαίμονες του δίνουν πίσω το όργανο και ετοιμάζονται να φύγουν . Όμως, πριν εξαφανιστούν, ο νεαρός μαθητής της λύρας θα πρέπει να βγάλει έξω από τον κύκλο την άκρη του μικρού του δαχτύλου για να το φάνε οι δαίμονες σαν πληρωμή για το μάθημα. Έπειτα, αυτοί εξαφανίζονται και ο νέος επιστρέφει στο χωριό του έχοντας όλα τα εφόδια για να γίνει ένας καλός λυράρης."

From http://www.rossdaly.gr/el/projects/74-circle-crossroads

[Note: Having started writing this, I found out that these guys had already stumbled across this in this forum. They even take it a step further (though maybe we're already a few steps away from reality) when someone relates Hecate as goddess of crossroads to the story.]

R.I.P. Demis Roussos

 Once again, from the beginning

post-traditionalist music from Greece named after places in Cyprus

yes, surprising coincidence though it might be, there are at least three tracks from bands from Greece that 1) are inspired by traditional music (paradosiaka, whatever that means)* or include traditional musicians in their lineup, and that 2) have tracks that are named after places in Cyprus.

[1) and 2) combined may be considered good reason for their being appropriate for inclusion in a post in this blog.]

There's 'Morfou' by Harris Lambrakis Quartet:



'Pentadaktylos Dub' by Pallyria, and also 'Λευκωσία' in Achilleas Persides' Νοτιος Ήχος (which, however, isn't online).

* See e.g. Kallimopoulou, E. (2009), Paradosiaka: Music, Meaning and Identity in Greece, Surrey: Ashgate.