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 network in which the Greek-speaking urban popular song participates, constantly conversing with its co-tenants, is 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.

This is one of the most popular musical tunes of the Greek-speaking repertoire. Today, this tune is considered inextricably linked to the Greek shadow theater, that is, Karagiozis. According to the findings so far, the tune appears six times in historical discography:

- "Chasapiko politiko", Trio Vrouva, Columbia W 205485 – 56046-F, New York, December 1926
- "Galatiano - Chasapiko", Dionysis Pongis' orchestra, Columbia W-205522 - 56064-F, New York, January 1927
- "Chasapiko tatavliano", HMV BF 1659 – AO 265, Athens, 1928. It is one of the recordings made by Gramophone in Athens between June 11–30 1928, with sound engineer Edward Fowler (this record)
- "Karavlachiko", Giorgos Kasaras, Columbia W 205886–1 – 56122–F, New York, March 1928
- "Serviko politiko grigoro", laiki orchestra, HMV OW 95 – AO 1012, Athens, May 12 1931. This is one of the recordings made by Gramophone in Athens between May 11 – June 14 1931, with sound engineer Arthur Douglas Lawrence.
- "Galatiano chasapiko", Kostas Papagkika’s Orchestra, RCA Victor BS 038450 – 26-8354, New York, September 11 1939

The main motif of the introductory phrase seems to appear in variations, both in the scholar and popular Ottoman as well as in the Jewish repertoire. Specifically, in the Ottoman repertoire, it is used in the composition of Sadi Işılay (1899–1969) under the title "Sultânîyegâh oyun havasi" or "Sultânîyegâh sirto" (sultani yegah, beginning of B section). Işılay married Deniz Kızı Eftalya (Athanasia Georgiadou), an orthodox singer.

In March 2021, a new volume of the "Secret Museum of Mankind" series was published. Its theme is "Guitars Vol. 1: Prologue to Modern Styles", from Pat Conte’s archive (Jalopy Records). The first track of the album is entitled "Oudi Jorghi – Vlach Longassi". This is Giorgos Batzanos (Yorgo Bacano),who is performing a work that includes parts from Sultânîyegâh. The word "Vlach" in the title refers to the historical region of Wallachia. Judging by the melodic and harmonic form, in combination with the rhythmic references to the chora, the tune is probably related to that region. In addition, the title given to Kasara's recording in America ("Karavlachiko") further reinforces this theory. Gypsies coming from the region of Wallachia were considered "Karavlaški" (see also Achim, 2004: 123 and Kokkonis, unpublished).

The book Jewish Instrumental Folk Music – The Collections and Writings of Moshe Beregovski by Mark Slobin, Robert Rothstein and Michael Alpert (2001) includes two freylekhs (number 146, 147 pages 170-1), as well as one sher (number 188, page 193), that is, tunes associated with Ashkenazi dances. The tune 146 was transcribed by the violinist G. Gershfel’d, in the Tiraspol region (today Moldavia), in 1937. The tune 147 was transcribed by G. Barkagan, a klezmorim clarinetist and the leader of an orchestra in the Nikolayev region of southern Ukraine, in 1936. The tune 188 was transcribed by Beregovski from G. Barkagan. The beginning of the two freylekhs varies the original motif of the Sultânîyegâh / Vlach / Chasapiko. The sher presents even more similarities, as it largely references the Chasapiko.

The two freylekhs, which are variations of the same tune, also entered historical discography, originally as Jewish songs. For example: "Ch Sidem", Frank Seiden, Columbia 896, around 1905 (visit also klezmerGuide.com). Between 1912–1914, the tune was amateurly recorded on a cylinder under the title "A skarbover khsidisher nign" by Reb Avrom, in the city Turiis'k, in the Volyn region of present-day Ukraine, on the border with Poland. The word "nign" in the title testifies to the religious function of the tune from the Hasidic tradition of Eastern Europe. Later, the tune appeared in the Jewish theater, probably by Aaron Lebedeff, and became known under the title "Lebedik Yankel" (or Yankl).

The main motif of the introductory phrase can also be found in the Armenian repertoire. Specifically, in 1930s, Haygagan Nuakakhump recorded in USA, probably in Boston, the instrumental piece "Kasab" (The Orient - Armen Vahe Radio-Record Co AV-629-B).

The motif under consideration was also heard in the cinema. More specifically, in the Soviet film "Искатели счастья" (Seekers of happiness), which was released in 1936, the composer Isaak Dunayevsky used this motif in a composition which he recorded also independently in 1937, in Moscow, under the title "Еврейский танец" (Jewish dance).

Syncretism, which is observed in the musical actualizations of the areas where Greeks lived and recorded, mainly in the area of folk-popular traditions, is monumental. It only takes one to listen to historical discography, which begins in New York, Smyrna (Izmir), Constantinople (Istanbul), Athens and Thessaloniki since 1900. An essential part of this syncretism concerns the Jews, who constitute one of the main conduits in the uniquely diverse cultural heritage of the Greek-speaking world. They borrow and lend, but they also carry more distant traditions from the places where they have previously lived and the places they have traveled to. They are the central interlocutors in the Greek and Ottoman ecumene, and compose a rich musical mosaic which consists of heterogeneous but co-existent palimpsests: a great musical melting-pot.

The sources show the timeless existence of a Jewish element, at least since the Hellenistic period, in areas that millennia later formed the modern Greek state. After the “Edict of Milan” in 313 AD and the gradual Christianization of the Eastern Empire, the Jewish element found itself in a difficult position. The Jewish populations that have since been established in these lands became known as Romaniote Jews (or “Romaniotes”’ Rome – Romios). Their historical geographical center of reference was the city of Ioannina, and they speak Greek with various linguistic mixtures. After 1492 and the “Alhambra Decree” by the joint Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, those Jews who did not accept to embrace Christianity were expelled from the Iberian peninsula. They became known as the Sepharadi Jews (or “Sepharadim”), one of the largest Jewish ethno-cultural categorizations (Sepharad in Jewish texts is referred to as the region of present-day Spain). Thessaloniki was one of the main destination points of this displacement, as the ties with the city were older and already close. Apart from the role played by the Greek Jews in the musical developments on the Greek peninsula, there were also important mutual influences between the Greek-speaking Orthodox and the Jews in various other areas where the two communities lived together. As, for example, in Odessa, with the Eastern Ashkenazi Jews, who mainly speak Yiddish, a sui generis Semitic-Slavic language (in Jewish texts, the Kingdom of Ashkenaz, a descendant of Noah, is connected with north-eastern European territories). Their orchestral repertoire is often called klezmer. In other words, apart from the geographical limits of the modern Greek state, the cultural conversations between the Greek Orthodox and the Jews also concern other parts of the world, both in Europe and America, where they met as immigrants.

Research and text: Nikos Ordoulidis