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. A case that comes from such repertoires is the recording “Zeimpekiko”.

This harmonica recording was made in Constantinople (Istanbul) around 1913 for the label Orfeon (Orfeon X 1258 - 10957). Although there is no information about the performer on the label of the record, according to Hugo Strötbaum (see here), the harmonica is played by Giagkos Psomathianos (or Psomatianos or Psamathianos or Psamatianos or Psamatialis or Pantelonas).

Moreover, one could argue that this tune interacts with the song “Politiko zeimpekiko”, recorded by Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), in Athens, in 1929, three times, twice for Pathé (70013 – X. 80044 and 70017 - 80079) and on November 26, 1929 for His Master's Voice (ΒW-2948 - AO-369).

The tune, however, can also be found in the Turkish repertoire. Specifically, in the 1920s, the Orchestre d'Opérette de Stamboul recorded in Constantinople the instrumental song "Duguah Zeibek Havassi" (Pathé, for Archives de la Parole). In 1927, in Constantinople, Hayretin Efendi (oud), Hassan Efendi (qanun) and İhsan Bey (violin) recorded "Aidin Zeibek Hawassi” (Odeon Cx 3323 - X 131013 a). Several years later, around 1939, Maraşlı Trompet Ramazan and Kemani Haralambo recorded in Istanbul the instrumental song "Elmalı Zeybeği" (Columbia RT 17857).

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis