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 this type of repertoire is the song "Tha spaso koupes" or "Tsifteteli".

So far, the following recordings have been found in Greek historical discography:

- "Tschifté Telli", Odeon CX 1901 – 58583, Smyrnaiki Estudiantina (Smyrnaean Estudiantina), Constantinople (Istanbul), 1908 (this record).
- "Tsifteteli", Gramophone 12802b – 2-14647 (re-issue by Victor 63534-B), Elliniki Estudiantina (Greek Estudiantina), Smyrna (Izmir), April 1909.
- "Tsifteteli – Echtes to vrady", Odeon XSC 68 – 54734, Smyrnaiki Estudiantina (Smyrnaean Estudiantina), Τhessaloniki (?) 1909.
- "Tsifte teli Tha spaso koupes", Favorite 7058t – 1-59086, Giannis Tsanakas – Lefteris Menemenlis, Smyrna, June 7 1912.
- "Tha spaso koupes", Polydor 5439 ar – V 50254, Kostas Karipis, Athens, 1927 (?).
- "Tha spaso koupes", Columbia USA W 205806 – 56100-F, Marika Papagkika, New York, February 1928.
- "Tha spaso koupes", Orthophonic BS 062853 – S557 (and RCA Victor 26-8161), Antonis Sakellariou, New York, March 18 1941.

The recording with the title "Giamo", HMV OGA 163 – AO 2232, with Roza Eskenazy in Athens, in 1934, "converses" with the main tune of the song.

The tune was also known in the Sephardic, the Armenian and the Muslim repertoires. To a large extent, these repertoires were formed within the condition of the Ottoman Empire. The coexistence with Turkish-speaking Muslims allows us to speculate that they also played a role in the co-shaping of the tune.

In Sephardic discography, it was originally recorded by Ibrahim Efendi under the title "Satchlar perichan", in Constantinople, on February 27, 1909 (Gramophone 1229b – 6-12254, re-issued by Victor 63060). It was also recorded by Ovanes Effendi under the title "Tchifté telli", in Smyrna, in March 1909 (Gramophone 12829b – 6-12856, re-issued by Victor 63066).

In the Armenian repertoire, the song was recorded by Karekin Proodian under the title "Chifte Telly Canto", in New York, in 1916 (Columbia 44161 – E3127).

Panagiotis Kounadis mentions the following about the song (2010, 1: 34): "One of the most popular songs in Asia Minor. It is a traditional melody that was used by the Turks, probably by other minorities as well. It is mentioned in collections of lyrics, but it had "disappeared" for many years from discography until it was brought back to light in 1984 by Eleftheria Arvanitaki (see here, LP "Ελευθερία Αρβανιτάκη", Lyra-3375), with great success.

Stella Epifaniou-Petraki mentions the song in the book Laografika tis Smyrnis (Folklore from Smyrna) with the addition of one more couplet (1964: 17 and 1966: 19):

I’ll break beers for the living widows
I’ll break glasses for the heartbreaks

It has also been catalogued by Ilias Petropoulos and Tasos Schorelis. Angela Papazoglou mentions in her accounts another especially interesting couplet:

From Tabachana to Miltis’ café
Thodoraki left me without a penny."

More than a century after its first recordings, in 2016, the song experienced another life cycle with Marina Satti's cover under the title "Koupes" (Self-Release, AAC, Single 256 kbps).

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis