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At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.
Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the “conversations” of the Greek-speakers with their Turkish-speaking Muslim “co-tenants”, the Catholic Greek-speakers, the Armenians, the Sepharadi and Ashkenazi Jews, the Levantine Protestants, and the Europeans and the Americans, were more than intense. Very often, the scope of this network extends to the Balkans, to Eastern and even to a part of Central Europe. Especially regarding relations between Orthodox and Muslims, the relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical “melting-pot”, and where everyone may draw from it, as well as redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the “melting-pot”, so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreational and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. It is worth mentioning that the musical exchanges and interactions between the Greek-speaking and Turkish-speaking Muslims continued even after the events of 1922. A case that comes from this type of repertoire is the song "Ozman agas".
In the Turkish repertoire, the song was recorded by Sinem Effendi and Leadet Hanim under the title "Osman Agha" in New York, on September 8, 1915 (Columbia 45994 - E2619).
It should be noted that in the record catalogs other Turkish recordings have been found which may be related to the song in question. However, no audio material of them has been found so far:
- "Osman Ağa / Kanto", Hanende İbrahim Efendi ve Rıza Bey, Constantinople (Istanbul), 1912 or 1913 (Orfeon 12803)
- "Osman Ağa, Neva [Hicaz] kanto", Safinaz Hanim, Constantinople, September 23, 1912 (Gramophone 17411u - 5-13115).
According to the data collected so far, the tune was recorded two times in Greek historical discography, in Athens and New York:
- Giorgos Vidalis, Athens, 1927 (Odeon Gο 362 -GA-1188/A 190018 b), present recording
- Takis Nikolaou [Tetos Dimitriadis], New York, January 9, 1928 (Victor CVE-41530 - 59037).
The first stanza is a variation of the song "Gkel Gkel" by Marika Papagκika and was also used by Giorgos Katsaros (Theologitis) in the song "Ol' imera paizei zaria".
It is mentioned by Ioannis Sideris in the Deltio tis Ellinikis Laografikis Etaireias ("Bulletin of the Greek Folklore Society", vol. IV, issue III & IV, page 566, 1914) in the article entitled "Oi zeimpek (Ethima ton apokreon en Syro)" ("The zeybeks [Customs of the Carnival in Syros]").
Moreover, the song can be found in the Yugoslavian repertoire:
- "Osman Aga", Edo Ljubić & his ensemble, New York, 1949 (Columbia CO 40440 - 1261-F, from 03':21''). On the label of the record it is written that it is a Yugoslav song from Bosnia.
- "Osman Aga (Sire Osman)", Dave Zupkovich and Balkan recording artists, M. Kapugi, J. Matacic, P. Radakovich, J. Pavkovich, J. Krilcic, Chicago, probably in the 1950s (Balkan Records ˢ522-B-1-ₓ III - BAL. 522B)
An album which contained recordings of David Saltiel, a folk-popular singer and cantor (khazn) at the Jewish synagogue in Thessaloniki, was released in 1998. The album is entitled "Jewish-Spanish songs from Thessaloniki", Oriente Musik, LC 3592. In this collection the sexually explicit song "El encalador" (The plasterer) can also be found.
The label on the record reads "Dimodes" (Folk-like), in Greek, while in the French version it is translated as "Populaire".
Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.
Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the “conversations” of the Greek-speakers with their Turkish-speaking Muslim “co-tenants”, the Catholic Greek-speakers, the Armenians, the Sepharadi and Ashkenazi Jews, the Levantine Protestants, and the Europeans and the Americans, were more than intense. Very often, the scope of this network extends to the Balkans, to Eastern and even to a part of Central Europe. Especially regarding relations between Orthodox and Muslims, the relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical “melting-pot”, and where everyone may draw from it, as well as redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the “melting-pot”, so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreational and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. It is worth mentioning that the musical exchanges and interactions between the Greek-speaking and Turkish-speaking Muslims continued even after the events of 1922. A case that comes from this type of repertoire is the song "Ozman agas".
In the Turkish repertoire, the song was recorded by Sinem Effendi and Leadet Hanim under the title "Osman Agha" in New York, on September 8, 1915 (Columbia 45994 - E2619).
It should be noted that in the record catalogs other Turkish recordings have been found which may be related to the song in question. However, no audio material of them has been found so far:
- "Osman Ağa / Kanto", Hanende İbrahim Efendi ve Rıza Bey, Constantinople (Istanbul), 1912 or 1913 (Orfeon 12803)
- "Osman Ağa, Neva [Hicaz] kanto", Safinaz Hanim, Constantinople, September 23, 1912 (Gramophone 17411u - 5-13115).
According to the data collected so far, the tune was recorded two times in Greek historical discography, in Athens and New York:
- Giorgos Vidalis, Athens, 1927 (Odeon Gο 362 -GA-1188/A 190018 b), present recording
- Takis Nikolaou [Tetos Dimitriadis], New York, January 9, 1928 (Victor CVE-41530 - 59037).
The first stanza is a variation of the song "Gkel Gkel" by Marika Papagκika and was also used by Giorgos Katsaros (Theologitis) in the song "Ol' imera paizei zaria".
It is mentioned by Ioannis Sideris in the Deltio tis Ellinikis Laografikis Etaireias ("Bulletin of the Greek Folklore Society", vol. IV, issue III & IV, page 566, 1914) in the article entitled "Oi zeimpek (Ethima ton apokreon en Syro)" ("The zeybeks [Customs of the Carnival in Syros]").
Moreover, the song can be found in the Yugoslavian repertoire:
- "Osman Aga", Edo Ljubić & his ensemble, New York, 1949 (Columbia CO 40440 - 1261-F, from 03':21''). On the label of the record it is written that it is a Yugoslav song from Bosnia.
- "Osman Aga (Sire Osman)", Dave Zupkovich and Balkan recording artists, M. Kapugi, J. Matacic, P. Radakovich, J. Pavkovich, J. Krilcic, Chicago, probably in the 1950s (Balkan Records ˢ522-B-1-ₓ III - BAL. 522B)
An album which contained recordings of David Saltiel, a folk-popular singer and cantor (khazn) at the Jewish synagogue in Thessaloniki, was released in 1998. The album is entitled "Jewish-Spanish songs from Thessaloniki", Oriente Musik, LC 3592. In this collection the sexually explicit song "El encalador" (The plasterer) can also be found.
The label on the record reads "Dimodes" (Folk-like), in Greek, while in the French version it is translated as "Populaire".
Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
© 2019 KOUNADIS ARCHIVE
