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”.

Τhe relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between the Balkan repertoires 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. One such case is this recording.

It includes a tune which, as it emerges from discography, was extremely popular in the Greek-speaking repertoire. It has been recorded many times since the beginning of the 20th century in locations where Greeks had a strong presence, such as Constantinople (Istanbul), New York, Chicago and Athens:

– “M' ekapses”, Estudiantina Athinon (Estudiantina of Athens), Constantinople (Istanbul), probably 1910 (Orfeon S-3175 – 12972).
– “Geitonissa”, Kyria [Mrs.] Eleni (Arapaki), Nikos Relias (clarinet), Spyros Stamos (cimbalom), Chicago, 1920 (Greek Record Company B-503).
– “M' ekapses geitonissa”, Kyria [Mrs.] Koula, New York, 1920 (Panhellenion 8049).
– “M' ekapses geitonissa”, Marika Papagkika, New York, 1923 (Columbia 59804 – E-5280), present recording.
– “M' ekapses”, Panellinios Estudiantina (Panhellenic Estudiantina), Athens, 1925 (Odeon Go 20 – A 154029).
– “M' ekapses”, Antonis Ntalgkas [Diamantidis] – Orchestra, Dimitris Semsis [Salonikios] (violin), Athens, March 4, 1926 (His Master's Voice BJ 242-1 – AO 179).
– “M' ekapses”, Lefteris Menemenlis [Beslemedakis] and Dimitris Semsis [Salonikios] (violin), Dimitris Arapakis (santur), Dimitris Kyriakidis (oud), Athens, 1927 (Columbia UK 8007 – 20003).
– “M' ekapses geitonissa”, Popular orchestra – Giannis Kyriakatis (clarinet), Athens, 1928 (Odeon Go 649 – GA-1345).
– “M' ekapses geitonissa”, Takis Nikolaou [Tetos Dimitriadis], New York, February 14, 1929 (Victor CVE 49953 – 58017 και Orthophonic S-645-A, RCA Victor 38-3038).
– “M' ekapses geitonissa”, Virginia Magkidou – Orchestra Trio, New York, 1950 (Virginia 1-B).
– “M' ekapses geitonissa”, Anna Chrysafi, Stavros Plessas, Niki Florousi, Athanasios Giannopoulos – Popular orchestra, Athens, 1953 (Parlophone LG 1032 – B.74311-I και Liberty 184-B), adapted by Spyros Peristeris.

The recording of “Mekapse Horo” (Five Star Records), made in 1949 in the US by the Kime Nanchoff Orchestra, is of particular interest. As mentioned on the website Библиотека "Струмски", the clarinetist Kime Nanchoff (Киме Нанчов, 1902-1993) was born in the village of Kriveni, located in the Resensko Municipality of North Macedonia, and was a prominent Macedonian-Bulgarian musician and MPO (Macedonian Patriotic Organization) activist. For more about Nanchoff, see here.