Ever since antiquity, music transcription has been the intrinsic way of visual representation of sound, sometimes in detail and sometimes in the form of a guide. Throughout time, the visual capture of music has been the only way to store and preserve it over time, but also the exclusive means of reproducing it. In any case, visual transfer should be considered as an auxiliary tool, since oral dissemination and storage in the memory of artists have been the most timeless techniques for the diffusion of music through time and space. During Europe's so-called "classical" musical period, with its most powerful centers of production, such as today's Austria, Germany, France and Italy, and especially in its path towards Romanticism, music transcription, that is, the musical score, was considered by some composers as the very embodiment of their work.

Understandably, in the modern capitalist world, music transcription, as the primary tool for the substantialization of music, brought under its purview repertoires that were not connected, were not disseminated, and did not function on the basis of their transcription. This offered to the music product sales centers an additional tool to expand their action network: non-scholar musics acquired a convenient way of circulating them, enhancing their popularity, even in places very far from those of their original creation. At the end of the 19th century, however, the phenomenon of sound recording and reproduction rearranged relationships and disrupted the status quo of publishing houses, claiming a share of the market, offering a product that was extremely complete and immediate. The publishing houses tried to react with legal measures, but it became impossible to stop the dynamics of the new phenomenon: the prevalence of commercial discography was now a fact, for most of the 20th century.

As far as non-scholar music is concerned, commercial printed musical scores were publications of the musical texts of songs or instrumental pieces (for the publishing activity in Greece see Lerch-Kalavrytinos, 2003: 4-5). For the needs of musical scores, the songs were arranged mainly (but not only) for piano or for piano and voice, generally without complex performance requirements. Multi-instrumental or technically demanding orchestrations were systematically avoided. The lyrics were printed below the notes of the melodic development of the singing parts and, sometimes, their translations into other languages. For the most part, the musical scores were two or four pages long, and came with a themed front and back cover.

This musical score is included, along with 29 more dances and songs, in the 36-page edition entitled "Ellinikoi choroi kai tragoudia" (Greek dances and songs), transcribed by Grigoris Konstantinidis. It contains (pages 28-28) the intrumental song "Karagkouna".

The monochrome cover features the title of the publication in three languages (Greek, English and French) and the name of the transcriber. "30 Ellinikoi Choroi kai Tragoudia" (30 Greek dances and songs), the title of the publication in four languages and the dedication "Ston Ethniko mas Mousourgo Manoli Kalomoiri" (To our National Musician Manolis Kalomoiris) are written on the first page. The contents are listed on the second page, along with the titles of the 30 songs and dances in Greek and French. The black and white back cover features the publisher's logo.

The musical score for this particular song is included on pages 28-29 of the publication. The title of the song in Greek and French and the origin ("Thessalie") is also mentioned. The musical text consists of a system of two staffs for piano.

For more about the song see here.

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis