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”.

Historical sources underline the close relations between Italian-speaking and Greek-speaking music. The conversations that developed with specific places, such as the Ionian Islands, the Dodecanese and Patras, as well as their results, are enough to highlight the strong ties between the two ethno-cultural groups. Furthermore, relationships were forged in places where the two ethnicities lived together, such as, for example, in the case of cosmopolitan Smyrna (Izmir) in the Ottoman Empire, or that of New York, where Italians and Greeks immigrated. When researching the historical material, it seems that one particular city in the Italian peninsula developed special relations with the large urban centers where Greek-speaking musicians played a leading role: it was Naples, with its famous Canzone Napoletana. This recording belongs to a corpus of songs from which the Greek protagonists borrowed music and/or lyrics from pre-existing Neapolitan-speaking songs. In many cases, the appropriations concern not only Neapolitan-speaking songs but the Italian language as a whole, since, often, the original Neapolitan-speaking songs were translated into Italian, from which the loan arose. These songs arrived at the Greek-speaking world either directly or indirectly, through other repertoire networks. In any case, the circulation of musics is already a reality before the 20th century with theatrical and musical performances tours, but also with the networks of music publishing houses. Discography is not only embedded in this context, but plays a key role in its transformation. The appropriation by Greek musicians is twofold: on the one hand are the lyrics, which are now in Greek (often, in fact, they have nothing to do with the original ones), and, on the other hand, are the performance practices: different instrumentation, different singing style, often differences in melodic and rhythmic forms but also in the harmonies. Greek musicians adapt what they hear to their own condition, based on their own capabilities. After all, the mandolins, the guitars, the marches, polyphonic song and the bel canto singing style are characteristics that reveal the influences of the Canzone Napoletana on the Greek-speaking urban popular song. It should also be noted that, in various cases, often due to the great international success of the songs, the network that is finally formed is extremely complex and does not only concern Greek-Italian relations.

With the findings so far, the song "Ta mavra sou matia" has been recorded four times:

– Elliniki Estudiantina (Greek Estudiantina), Constantinople (Istanbul), 1911 (;) (Orfeon 446 – No 10112), this recording.
– Stamatis Voias, Constantinople, September 15, 1911, (Favorite 5973-t – 1-59070 and reissue by Columbia [E 6081]).
– Petros Zounarakis, Constantinople, 1910's (;) (American Record 3127).
– Chatzilakos - Estudiantina (Vasilaki), Smyrna, December 1911 (Gramophone 2358y – 3-14300).

The Greek musical score was published by the D. K. Rallis publishing house in Smyrna under the bilingual title (French and Greek) “A ses yeux noirs - Στα μαύρα της μάτια”, as an adaptation by Vasileios D. Sideris with lyrics by A. Laskaris.

This is an adaptation of the Neapolitan song "Bolero d'amore", set to music by Rodolfo Falvo (1873 – 1937) and lyrics by Giovanni Ermete Gaeta, the real name of poet and musician better known as E. A. Mario (1884 – 1961). The Neapolitan musical score of the song was probably published in 1907, in Naples, by the Capolongo-Feola publishing house.

So far, more than ten recordings have been found in Italian historical discograhy. For example:

– Raimondo De Angelis, Naples, 1908 (Favorite 5715-O - 1-35194).
– Figli di Ciro, Naples, October 8, 1909 (Gramophone 620y – V 92496).
– Francesco Daddi - Teresa de Matienzo, New York, ca. August 1910 (Columbia 4845 – E1891 and E3240).
– Giovanni Colamarino, New York, 1917 (Rex x437 – F-4318-A)
– Clara Stella, New York, late 1940s (Harmonia CA 29 – H-2080 B).

The song is also found in Russian-speaking discography. More specifically, in 1940 the soprano Irina Lebedeva (Ирина Лебедева) with the accordionists Yakov Khaskin (Я. А. Хаскин) and Igor Gladkov (И. И. Гладков) recorded in Moscow the song "Болеро" (Noginsk Plant 10382 – 10382).

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis