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The music of Epirus in the northwest of Greece (present to varying degree in the rest of Greece and the islands[1]. ) contains folk songs that are mostly pentatonic and polyphonic, sung by both male and female singers. Distinctive songs[2] include mirolóyia (mournful tunes) vocals with skáros accompaniment and tis távlas (drinking songs).The clarinet is the most prominent folk instrument in Epirus, used to accompany dances, mostly slow and heavy, like the menousis, fisouni, podhia, sta dio, sta tria, zagorisios, kentimeni, koftos, yiatros and tsamikos. The polyphonic song of Epirus constitutes one of the most interesting musical forms, not only for the east Mediterranean and the Balkans [3], but also for the worldwide repertoire of thefolk polyphony like the yodeling [4] of Switzerland. The origin of this polyphonic form, in spite of the fact that the research has not reached certain conclusions yet, is considered to be very old (possibly, even pre-Hellenic). The melodies of polyphonic songs, including some more songs of Epirus and Thessaly, are the only ones in Greece that have preserved the pentatonic scale without semitones (a scale consisted of five tones without semitones). According to some musicologists, this scale is identified with the Doric way of ancient Greeks, the par excellence Hellenic harmony. Except from its scale, what pleads for the very old origin of the kind is its vocal, collective, rhetorical and modal character.
[edit] References
- ^ World Music: The Rough Guide by Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham - 1999 - ISBN 1858286352,page 127,"The repertoire tends to fall into three categories which are also found further south mirologya or laments (the instrumental counterpart is called skaros); drinking songs or tis tavlas ;and various dancable melodies as noted above common to the entire mainland and the islands also"
- ^ World Music: The Rough Guide by Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham - 1999 - ISBN 1858286352,page 127,"The repertoire tends to fall into three categories which are also found further south mirologya or laments (the instrumental counterpart is called skaros); drinking songs or tis tavlas ;and various dancable melodies as noted above common to the entire mainland and the islands also"
- ^ Engendering Song: Singing and Subjectivity at Prespa by Jane C. Sugarman,1997,ISBN 0226779726,page 356,"Neither of the polyphonic textures characteristic of south Albanian singing is unique to Albanians.The style is shared with Greeks in the Northwestern district of Epirus (see Fakiou and Romanos 1984) while the Tosk style is common among Aromanian communities from the Kolonje region of Albania the so called Faserotii (see Lortat-Jacob and Bouet 1983) and among Slavs of the Kastoria region of Northern Greece (see N.Kaufamann 1959 ).Macedonians in the lower villages of the Prespa district also formerly sang this style "
- ^ Engendering Song: Singing and Subjectivity at Prespa by Jane C. Sugarman,1997,ISBN 0226779726,page 356,A striking counterpart from outside the Balkans is the polyphonic Yodeling of juuzli from the Muotatal region of Switzerland
[edit] See also
[edit] Further Reading
- World Music: The Rough Guide by Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham - 1999 - ISBN 1858286352
- Greek Folk Dances by Rickey Holden, Mary Vouras – 1965
- Engendering Song: Singing and Subjectivity at Prespa by Jane C. Sugarman,1997,ISBN 0226779726
[edit] External links
