Monday, 16 May 2011

Konyalim / Κόνιαλης / Η βράκα / D4 \/r4k4m4n

This one has variations in Anatolia, Cyprus, the Aegean islands and even in some regions of mainland Greece.
It's original title suggests a relation to Konya in central Anatolia, though even its Turkish recordings seem to be considered 'rumca', e.g.



The following is a variant sung in Greek. It is preceded by a Cappadocian song whose melody is at times quite similar.



The following three are Cypriot variations:





This one is played with Zurna and Dumbek at a Maronite beach party, sung in both Greek and Turkish and followed by a medley of Cypriot songs. As far as I can tell, none of these are in the Cypriot Maronite Arabic dialect, which is close to extinction (but, for anyone interested, I think this partly is in Cypriot Arabic, though it could be Turkish):



Part of the Greek lyrics of the Cypriot version made it into G. Seferis' 'Στα περίχωρα της Κερύνειας' ('Θα ήθελα να προλάβω ν' αγοράσω πανί, / σαράντα πήχες δίμιτο, για τον περιβολάρη μας τον Παναγή· / απίστευτο! τόσο, λέει, του χρειάζεται για μια βράκα ... ').

A funk(y) version of the song was made by Mariza Koch. Sadly I could only find this link to a sample (anyone who knows of a better link, please let me know)!

It was later made into the first Cypriot rap hit:

4 comments:

  1. They're singing mostly in Turkish at the beach party, as much as I can tell, and then they go into the popular Turkish song Leylim Ley, sung in Arabic, I think.

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  2. I love the version you posted by Socratis Sinopoulos, on lavta and then Politiki lyra, and Katerina Papadopoulou on vocals.

    Thanks for posting all of these - I'm trying to do some research on this song and just ran across the Cypriot version, which I didn't know existed until today.

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  3. Glad this blog helped in your research! Leylim Ley is in Greek.

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  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXKXQ1Zo6Fk

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