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 "Men men mena".

This recording was made in 1926, in Constantinople (Istanbul) or Berlin, by Dârüttâlîm-i Mûsikî (see here) listed on the disc label as Troupe Turque dar er Tsalim et Musiqui (Polyphon Musik 3973 ar-V 40280).

Τhe tune was also recorded between 1923-1926 in Constantinople by Hafız Yaşar Okur Bey under the title "Nevah Canto - Mina Mina" (Odeon xC 2942 - X-46374).

On the label of the above record the song is characterized as "kanto". In other words, it is considered part of the repertoire of the kantolar, a term that seems to have been first used by Turkish-speaking Muslims mainly in large urban centers and especially in Constantinople since the time when Italian troupes performed there. Although initially the kantolar were associated only with theatrical music, they soon became autonomous, when the term "kanto" (singular form of kantolar) came to describe any popular and light secular singing forms (see Pennanen, 2004: 9, O'Connel, 2006: 276, Beşiroğlu & Girgin, 2018: 49).

In the third decade of the 20th century, two other Turkish recordings which may be related to the song in question were found in the record catalogs. However, no audio material of them has so far been found:

- "Mina Mina / Anadolu Havası", Hanende İbrahim Efendi, Constantinople,  probably 1923 (Orfeon 13526)
- "Mina - Tomboul", Hafız Ahmet Bey, Constantinople, 1927 (Odeon RX 131529b)

The song is also known under the title "Çadır kurdum düzlere", the musical score of which was published, in Ottoman Turkish, around the mid-1920s, in Istanbul, by the Armenian Onnik Zaduryan (1888-1968).

Three recordings have been found so far under the title "Çadır kurdum" in Turkish discography, for which, however, no audio material has so far been found:

- "Çadır Kurdum - Gaziantep Halk Türküsü", Darülelhan Heyeti, Constantinople, 1920s (Columbia 12011)
- "Çadır Kurdum - Gaziantep Şarkısı", Darülelhan Heyeti, Constantinople, 1920s (Columbia 12668 - 22193)
- "Çadır Kurdum", Nihal Tevfik - Münire Hanımlar, Istanbul, 1934 (Sahibinin Sesi AX 1779)

Ιn Greek historical discography, the song was recorded four times in Athens, in 1929 and 1930, as a composition by Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis):

- "Eleni, Elenara", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, 1929 (Odeon Go 1375-2 - GA-1431/A 190258 b)
- "Elenara", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, 1929 (Columbia UK 20559 - 18066 & re-issued by Columbia USA, W 294249 - 56244-F under the title "Elenara mou!")
- "Elenara", Antonis Ntalgkas (Diamantidis), Athens, May 22, 1929 (His Master's Voice BG 100 - AO-319)
- "Eleni, Elenara mou", Grigoris Asikis, Athens, 1930 (Pathé 70206 - 80155)

The tune also communicates with the Armenian repertoire. More specifically with the song "Qani Vur Jan Im" (Քանի վուր ջան իմ) composed by the Armenian composer, musician and poet Sayat-Nova (Harutyun Sayatyan, Tbilisi, Georgia, 1712 - Haghpat, Armenia, 1795). The song was recorded in Yerevan in 1945 by Armenak Ter-Abrahamyan with Levon Madoyan (duduk), Gagik Gurdzhyan (duduk), Vache Hovsepyan (dhol) for Aprelevka Plant (Aprelevka Plant 13034/2 РКА-34 - 13034).

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis