Greece Culture: Music and Dance

Yvonne Hunt, author of Traditional Dance in Greek Culture, has been teaching and researching traditional Greek dances for more than 25 years. She has taught seminars and workshops throughout Greece, the USA, Canada and Europe. Her research has been presented at many international symposia and conferences, as well as in academic journals. She has taught at several universities and is a research associate of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies in Athens. contact: yhunty@yahoo.com Much of the following is based on Ms. Hunt's book.

Greece has a vast music and dance tradition, which varies from region from region, and sometimes even from village to village. It encompasses not only the music from areas within modern Greece, but also the music of Greeks who lived in parts of what is now Turkey, forced to leave with the 'exchange of populations' between Greece and Turkey in 1923. This event was dictated by the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne, which followed the failed Greek attempt, after the collapse of the Ottoman empire, to reclaim territories in Anatolia which had been Greek during the previous 1100 year Byzantine empire.

Greek music and dance is depicted on the pottery and other artwork of ancient Greece, long pre-dating the adoption of Christianity during Byzantine times, though the Orthodox church since then has played an immense role in the performing of both music and dance, with church paneyiria (saints' day celebrations), yiortes (name day celebrations of individuals, villages and towns), Apokries (pre Lenten festivities), Paskha (Greek Orthodox Easter), or Khristouyenna (Christmas), weddings, baptisms, soil fertility celebrations (obviously pre-Christian, though they may also coincide with saints' days, just as Paskha coincides with the celebration of the resurrection of the earth after the long 'death' of the earth in winter).

Apart from events connected with the church, music and dance in Greece (as in most traditional cultures worldwide) is deeply connected with place -- the local/regional community -- with food, wine, and (most often) with high spirits, these often sufficient cause for instruments to be taken out of their cases; for people to sing and dance. The difference between such spontaneous events and staged musical performances cannot be overemphasized, nor can it be easily 'explained' to those who have not experienced it. Certainly this music comes from the same source as 'religious' feelings, and blurs the boundaries between organized religion and its polytheistic, nature-oriented predecessors.

Sadly, television, radio, the cassette and CD, along with the massive invasion of commercial western music, have lessened the frequency of spontaneous musical events in villages and towns, all over the Balkans, as it has the hiring of bands for live music at weddings and other important celebrations. Perhaps response to all this, a public school program has been established in Greece in recent years , with official musical 'gymnasia' (middle school or junior high schools) and 'lykeia' (high schools), and there are also some higher level schools which are government financed, and are dedicated to traditional music study and instrument making. In addition there are quite a few 'odeia' (conservatories), with very affordable programs of study for both Greek traditional and western classical music, and 'syllogi' (associations) involved in the teaching and performance of traditional Greek music and dance.

In all of the Balkans, as well as in Greece, most songs are in dance rhythms, the songs sung either a cappella, or with one instrument which holds a drone note (the bagpipe known as gaida, for example) and which may also play instrumental interludes between verses, or, alternatively, the singer(s) may be also a musician who plays instrumental breaks between verses, with one or more other musicians (e.g. the island pair who play violin and laouto, with one of the musicians also the singer). Lastly, the singers may constitute an entire chorus (the Greek word 'horos' used in ancient times for both 'dance' and chorus', indicating their close connection). Such choruses, may also dance as they sing, as is witnessed in contemporary performances of singers in traditional costumes dancing while they sing. In the past, costumes sometimes reflected the status of the dancer within her/his community, and also had an influence on what kind of steps were possible.

Before sketching some of the regional kinds of Greek music and dance, a few comments on some common aspects might be helpful to the uninitiated. Besides dance music (both purely instrumental or songs as well), there are many types of songs for various occasions, such as 'nanourismata' (lullabies), 'miroloyia' (laments or dirges sung after deaths), 'epitrapezia' or 'kathistika' (slow, highly embellished table songs), 'kleftika' (historical or epic songs, especially dealing with the 'klephts', or brigand like freedom fighters in the mountains ), 'rizitika' (similar to the 'klephtika', though they can be simple eulogies to the beauty of the mountains or to a table set with finery for ones most beloved friends), 'pedika' (children's songs), 'kalanda' (carols for Christmas, Epiphany and Easter), 'xenitia' (songs of exile).

The music of each region is influenced by that of neighboring regions, and songs migrate from region to region (and often to some very far afield), transformed along the way, 'translated' as it were, into the local style, just as English speakers say 'Athens' instead of 'Athina' (ie. Anglicizing the Greek name). Sometimes the same melody may accompany different lyrics, and vice versa. The same dance names may describe different dances from region to region. Up until recent decades, most village musicians (and singers) had other professions, and played for community events as they came up, supplementing their regular income with music. Most were self taught, and though some of them learned from other musicians, the style of learning was very different from that of formal music lessons. Many have also maintained (as have some seasoned Greek musicians) that one does not learn from 'lessons ' but alone, from listening, watching, and by virtue of one's passion to play. Some of Greece's best musicians made instruments as children out of whatever materials were around, and learned by imitating what they heard (and saw), though some sought out good players and had techniques shown to them.

Payment at such important events as weddings or baptisms often came in the form of an advance from the family hiring the musicians, in addition to sizeable tips from the lead dancers during the course of the evening, the total 'fee' having been agreed to the family beforehand. Professional musicians working at tavernas or music clubs, especially in the cities, would typically be paid a stated amount, but in many cases, especially in villages, tips from the lead dancers have often been the only payment offered musicians, in addition to food and drink. Such musicians would need to know the local repertoire very well (along with some pieces from other regions if requested), and be responsive to the demands of the dancers if they wanted to make any money.

Many musicians on the Greek mainland have been (and are) gypsies, especially in the regions of Ipiros and Macedonia, and many of these are members of large extended families where all the males play instruments, either one or several.

It is probable that much Greek folk music would have been lost without these musicians, who were expected to have a large repertoire that included the varied local requirements within a large area, where they would be hired to play. They were/are often brought in from outside of the village where the music was/is happening, as the locals didn't learn to play these instruments, some of them considering music a low profession. The role of gypsies in preserving ancient dances and styles of both singing and playing extends to all of the Balkans. They were (and still are) especially known for virtuosity on instruments such as the zournas, klarino (clarinet), and daouli (large two headed drum) , and number among the most famous players of these instruments. Gypsies were so closely connected with music in these northern regions of Greece that the word 'gypsy' meant 'instrumentalist'. In other parts of Greece the locals do in fact learn instruments and perform.

One very important aspect of traditional music played anywhere in Greece is the emphasis put on the ability of musicians to embellish (ornament) the pieces played in the local repertoire, which demands a high level of skill and deep knowledge of the music. After having played certain much loved melodies for decades (some musicians performing at events by or before the age of ten) a good musician shapes the melodies in a highly individual way to make it his own (the masculine pronoun used here because up until recently, most instrumentalists in Greece were always boys and men, though this finally changing, though more so in the cities). The ability to play an unmetered, improvised kind of solo known as 'taximi' (from the Turkish 'taxim') is also required of any good musician in most areas, a high art form requiring some knowledge of the complexities of the shared modal systems of Greek and Turkish music.

The dynamic relationship between the dancers and the musicians is at the heart of any music and dance event, with musicians observing the dancers movements closely as they play and gearing their playing to those movements, in order to inspire the dancers, and also to be ready for increases in tempo (or, conversely, the need to stop before the dancers drop), or changes to an alternative rhythym determined by the musical convention. Dancers thus inspired also improvise, the sign of a good dancer also being the ability to embellish the steps rather than simply perform them.

Dance rhythms in Greek music, as in the music of the Balkans in general, are quite varied , though more so in northern Greece than in other regions, and especially in the largest Greek 'nomos' (prefecture) of Macedonia, where asymmetric rhythms such as 3/8, 7/8, 9/8, 11/8/ 12/8 are used. This area is also extremely rich in numbers of dances. Thrace also has a good number of such complex rhythms include 9/8/ 7/8, 5/8, etc, as does the music of the Pontic Greeks from the southeast shores of the Black Sea (a region now in Turkey).

Despite the kinds of special Greek schools dedicated to the learning of traditional kinds of Greek music mentioned above, the emphasis in most public schools (and in local private 'odeia' where children are sent for private lessons) is very much on western musical notation. Not only does this approach mean that children are learning to read from notes rather than by ear (as has been the case with traditional music everywhere), but that the essential knowledge of the modes is being lost, the modal systems on which older Greek music is based not conveyed by western musical notation.

There is also a negative attitude among many Greeks towards traditional music, which is part of the larger turning towards western Europe (and the west in general) as a model of culture, accompanied by a general rejection of traditional village life as backward. Electrification of previously unamplified music, as well as the use of electric instruments (such as electric bass guitar), has had a huge effect on the performance of 'traditional' music in Greece during the last twenty years, as well as the increasing use of such instruments as guitar or the drum set. On the subject of amplification, it is not just the increase in volume that has altered the music, but a typical increase to ear-splitting levels, the use of poor quality sound systems, and excessive 'reverb', all of which alter the sound of many instruments often to the point of being almost unrecognizable. Playing styles have also become increasingly flashy and commercial. Children growing up hearing these sounds inevitably try to imitate them, many never hearing anything else. All of these factors have heavily contributed to the disappearance of the older sounds and playing styles that belonged to traditional music played by Greeks, and also to the disappearance of instruments and repertoire.