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 this recording.

According to the findings so far, the tune appears six more times in Greek historical discography under the following titles:

– “Choros chasapikos”, Giannis Dragatsis [Ogdontakis] (violin), Nikos Relias (clarinet), Kostas Karipis (guitar) Kostas Tzovenos (santur), Athens 1927 (Polydor 5469 ar – V-50235).
– “Choros Servikos Politikos”, Folk Orchestra, Athens 1927 (His Master's Voice BF-928 – AO-190).
– “Chasapikos”, Dimitris Semsis [Salonikios] (violin), Dimitris Arapakis (santur), Dimitris Kyriakidis (oud), Athens 1927 (Columbia UK W 20027 – 8003).
– “Servikos choros”, Popular Orchestra with harmonica [Antonis Amiralis or Papatzis], Athens or Berlin, 1928 (Odeon Go-577-2 – GA-1245/A 190072 a).
– “Kassapiko”, Unknown performers, Berlin, September 25, 1928 (Homocord TM-860 – G-4-32065).
– “Chasapiko - Serviko”, Giannis Kyriakatis (clarinet) - Popular Orchestra, Athens 1930 (Odeon Go-1600 – GA-1441/A 190281 a).

Ιn the winter of 1930, Hubert Pernot organized, in collaboration with Melpo Logotheti-Merlier, founder of the Musical Folklore Archives, and a Greek-French group of musicologists and linguists, a phonographic mission to Greece (for more see here), with the aim of collecting traditional Greek music, folk and religious, with particular emphasis on that of the Greek refugee populations of Asia Minor. Among the 573 songs recorded on 222 78 rpm records is "Choros Servikos" (Σύλλογος Δημοτικών Τραγουδιών 141α – 3191), one of the five recordings featuring music from Sifnos. It took place on November 20, 1930 at the Alambra Theater in Athens. The performers were Ioannis Antilavis on the violin and Dimitrios Vlachopoulos on the santour. Nikos Skalkottas transcribed the performance from the record into music score (see here).

The tune is also found in the Bulgarian repertoire recorded in the United States. Specifically, in 1919 or 1920, the accordionist Mr. D. Stoyanoff recorded the instrumental song "Bŭlgarsko kasapsko khoro 1 (Българско касапско хоро 1)" in New York for Columbia (82357 – E4708). It is a compilation of chasapika tunes, covering both sides of the record [see also "Bŭlgarsko kasapsko khoro 2 (Българско касапско хоро 2)"]. Apart from the musical theme of interest, which can be heard starting at approximately 2′ 09″, Stoyanoff also plays another tune at the beginning, up until 2′ 00″, which appears in Greek discography primarily under the title "Chasapiko Politiko".

The tune, however, can also be found in the Turkish repertoire. Specifically, between 1930-1935, Trompet Bay Maraşlı Ramazan recorded in Constantinople (Istanbul) the instrumental song “Bando İle Kasap Havası” (Columbia CTZ 5614 - RT 17382).

(Many thanks to Cemal Ünlü for the data of the Turkish recording as well as to Stelyo Berber).

As far as historical discography is concerned, the recording of “Kasapsko #2”, made in 1948-1949, in the USA, by the Elia E. Kalkoff Orchestra, for Elinden Records (114), is of particular interest. The clarinetist Elia E. Kalkoff or Elo Calcoff was born in the village of Visheny (today Vyssinia or Vyssinea of the Municipality of Kastoria, in Greece), in 1891, and died in 1962 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the USA (see here). In addition, on the website Библиотека “Струмски”, where 14 recordings of Kalkoff's orchestra are posted, it is mentioned that he was a member of the MPO (Macedonian Patriotic Organization). For more about Kalkoff see here.

The tune, however, can also be found in the Jewish (klezmer/Yiddish) discography recorded in Argentina. In the 1950s the clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and conductor Sam Liberman [Safed, Palestine, Ottoman Empire (now Israel), 1894 – Buenos Aires, 1975) with his orchestra and D. Picholis (Grivas) on the santouri, recorded in Buenos Aires  the instrumenatal song "Viejos recuerdos" (Odeon Argentina C 21867 – 52131 A). The label on the record reads in the Greek language "Παλιές αναμνήσεις" (Old memories) and "Jasapiko [Hasapiko] (Folklore Griego)". Also, according to the same source, Michael Dertilis is mentioned as the composer, and next to Liberman's name, Arapáki is written in brackets. Sam Liberman (Rubin, 2015: 129) settled sometime after World War I in Buenos Aires, where he led Argentinian Jazz bands as well as Jewish orchestras and became well-known from his recordings with Brunswick, Odeon, RCA-Victor (see for example here).

We should note that “Sîrba” (in Moldavian spelling, sârba in Romanian) is the name of the dance in 2/4, which literally means “Serbian”, and is found in the regions of today’s Romania and Moldova. It is also part of a geographically and culturally wide network in which the respective dances with common rhythmic characteristics from the repertoires of other ethnocultural groups participate, in their previous or evolved forms (hora, chasapiko, bulgar, sirto, longa, serviko and chasaposerviko, kasap, polka, etc.). See in detail the extremely interesting text by Giorgos Kokkonis, 2017b: 133-161).

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis