[ALBSA-Info] Albania's polyphony is Greek!?

[Agron Alibali]

Thanks to the "efforts" of Minister of Culture Rama,
who is practically sabotaging the Gjirokaster Folk
Festival, now we are even hearing that the Laberia
polyphonic music is Greek.  The Greek musical event
will be held in Boston this week.  The commentary is
below.  Not only "Via Egnatia" was Greek. Everything
else worth mentioning of Albanians, including
Skanderbeg, Fan Noli, and now the Southern polyphony
is also Greek...and dating back from Ancient Greece.
O tempora, o mores!

===
We've Got the (World) Beat - Traditional Greek music
the focus of America's folk-chic fascination
 
To most Americans, Greek music is typified by the
bouzouki strains heard in movies, radio spots and
television commercials. Some may know Greek music for
the neo-classical compositions of modern greats like
Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis (brought to
world audiences through Hollywood films and the voice
of 70's Euro-superstar Nana Mouskouri). But few
non-Greeks have been exposed to, and understand the
depth and richness of, Greek folk music. As the
interest in "world music" or "world beat" continues to
grow, however, non-Greek audiences are finally
beginning to take notice. An upcoming three-day
festival of Greek folk music scheduled for both New
York and Boston will hopefully mark the beginning of a
process that will earn the many traditional Greek
idioms that fall under the "folk" umbrella a new
(well-deserved) respect on American stages.
In Greece traditional (or folk) music is referred to
as "demotika," or "music of the people." In most cases
demotic music is very regionalized, or provincial.
Epirus has its own form of folk music, for instance,
that differs from neighboring Macedonia, which is, in
turn, different from that of nearby Thrace. In most
instances those varying styles reflect the differences
in topography, geography, customs and history of a
specific place. Island music from the Aegean, for
example, is typically upbeat as its rollicking rhythms
reflect the movements of the sea. But the ocean is
also a source of pain. The bittersweet laments of the
Aegean often grieve over the fact that so many of an
island's sons, fathers and husbands are out to (or
lost at) sea. The differences in the seemingly myriad
divergent demotic idioms are not subtle, as one might
naturally think. Although Greece is a
geographically small country, its lay of the land -
vast mountain regions and scores of islands - lends to
great cultural diversity from place to place. Of
course another reason for the diversity is the fact
that, from ancient times, Hellenes have had very
strong attachments to their specific "city-states"
(evolved today into provinces). That diversity is also
evident in the dialects of Greek spoken, in
traditional clothing and in cuisine.
The festival - produced by the World Music Institute
and Arts, Dance and Music Productions with support
from the Foundation for Hellenic Culture and the
Vryonis Center for the Study of Hellenism - will focus
on three styles of music and will be performed by
individuals and groups that are leaders in those
specific idioms.
Petroloukas Halkias, one of his country's most highly
regarded folk clarinetists, will present a program of
music from Epirus, a large province located in the
northwest of Greece. Halkias is from a family of
famous folk musicians that have shaped Epirotic music
for
generations (spanning centuries). Born in the village
of Delvinaki in 1934, Halkias is, today, the leading
proponent of his region's musical traditions.
Combining long, soulful wails of Epirotic moirologia
(funeral dirges) with slow improvisations (skaros) and
hypnotic dance tunes, Halkias has helped to bring the
music of his homeland to all of Greece, and beyond.
Halkias will be accompanied by his brother Achilleas
on violin, his son Babis on second clarinet, Thanasis
Markos on laouto (fretted lute) and Nikos Kontos on
defi (frame drum).
The program of Epirotic music will also feature the
seven-member Epirus Polyphonic Ensemble, an a cappella
group that carry on the vocal traditions of the
region. Reminiscent of the Bulgarian State Women's
Choir (which drew world audiences in the early
1990's), the Epirus Polyphonic Ensemble combines
sustained bass tones and roaming counter- harmonies to
recreate music from Greece's Albanian frontiers
(especially from the villages of Pogoni, Deropoli,
Delvino, Himarra and Leskoviki), an area known for
this haunting style of singing.
The group, led by Vangelis Kotsou (a professor of
polyphonic music at the Museum of Folk Instruments in
Athens), traces its roots back to Ancient Greece,
maintaining the strict traditions demanded by the
idiom. In performance the singers gather close
together, quite often in a circle, and sing without
musical accompaniment about the sorrows of love, death
and emigrations, or, as is sometimes the case, recall
the deeds and passions of its people.
A program of Cretan music and dance (from Greece's
southernmost island) will be presented by Vasilis
Skoulas and the Anogia Dance Ensemble. In contrast to
the music of Epirus, Crete's folk music tradition is
characterized by fast and fiery improvisations on the
lyre, a small three-stringed pear-shaped fretless lute
that is bowed (rather than plucked or strummed).
Typically the "lyrari" (lyre player) also sings,
playing the lyre (which rests on his knee) between
interspersed vocal passages.
Vasilis Skoulas, whose ancestors played a very
important role in the liberation of Crete from Turkish
occupation, is acknowledged as one of Greece's leading
lyre players. And like Halkias, he is also descended
from a long line of musicians (as well as artists and
politicians). Skoulas has been playing the lyre
professionally since 1957 - when he was just 13 years
old. In dozens of recordings Skoulas has emerged at
the forefront of the Cretan troubadour tradition,
singing of beauty and pain in lyrics that are elegant
in their simplicity ("I greet my pains and celebrate
my sorrows, and if you ask me of my joys, I know
none"). As an instrumentalist Skoulas' supple touch
and lightening-fast
dexterity characterize his style, which is at once
expressive and technically awe-inspiring.
Collaborations with Crete-born symphonic and popular
composer Yiannis Markopoulos have brought his talent
to the attention of all Greeks (in Greece and in the
Diaspora).
Skoulas' ensemble for his festival appearances will
include Kostas Kallergis and Zacharias Mathioudakis on
laouto (fretted lute), Michalis Skoulas on mandolin
and Grigoris Nikolidakis on folk guitar.
As part of the program, the Anogia Dance Ensemble will
perform
traditional Cretan dances - arguably the most spirited
and technically difficult of Greek dance forms. Among
the traditional Cretan dances that the all-male troupe
will perform will be the acrobatic kastrinos, the
stately sighanos, the fiery pentozalis and the elegant
haniotikos syrtos.
The last of the programs will be a presentation of
rebetic music - an urban folk idiom rooted in the
Greek musical traditions of Smyrna - featuring Maryo
and the Toumbourlika Ensemble. Rebetic music - from
which contemporary Greek popular music is largely
derived - came to Greece with the refugees of 1922.
The form first took root in the slums of Piraeus and
Thessaloniki as the musical expression of a socially
marginalized and economically dispossessed group.
Performed in hashish dens, seedy "café aman" joints
and basement clubs, the "rebetes" (as they were
called) first introduced the bouzouki to the Greek
mainland. Like the Afro-American blues, rebetic music
was seen as unseemly by members of "polite" society.
A rebetic revival began in Greece in the mid-70's,
after the fall of the military junta. Since then many
of the country's popular artists have joined with
rebetic revivalists to preserve the form and bestow on
it its importance in the development of Greek popular
music, as well as credit it as a socially significant
artistic movement.
In Greece, Maryo is considered one of the most
authentic interpreters of rebetic music. She has made
- along with the Tambourlika Ensemble that will
accompany her at the festival - several recordings
that recreate rebetic songs as they were originally
performed.
The World Music Institute (WMI) first co-produced a
concert of Greek music last October with Greek marquis
recording artist Eleftheria Arvanitaki. This set of
concerts, produced with Michail Adam of Arts, Dance
and Music Productions, signals an effort by the WMI to
offer American audiences the opportunity to discover
the rich traditions of Greece's folk music scene on a
more profound level, as the sights and sounds of
specific regions take the stage at the country's two
most important cultural capitals.
 
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