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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. 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.
These "conversations" are also found in the performing arts. After all, the inextricable relation between music and performing arts is more than vital. The theater, in its various froms, traffics music on its own terms and plays a key role in diffusing it to places that are often far away. It also builds a special network that communicates with discography. Within this network, already existing tendencies and aesthetic currents are often created or integrated, such as exoticism, especially during the period when the phenomenon of sound recording and reproduction takes on commercial, mass and universal dimensions.
"Mousme", a song with an exotic content, characteristically outlines this dialectical, multi-layered relationship between the various “national” repertoires, performing arts and aesthetic trends and currents, as its melody is also found in other nodes of the aforementioned cultural network.
In the era of discography, the advance of exoticism is irresistible and leaves a very strong imprint. However much it seems to be defined by the principle of "locality", exoticism is a global aesthetic constant, a "common" language of the new age strongly marked by modernism and inscribed in a complex and lengthy process of osmosis among "national" musicians, which produces repertoires with "ecumenical" or global characteristics.
Within these contexts the representation of the East gives the composers the possibility to expand the musical language they use, using new timbres, melodic developments and rhythmic patterns. Of course, this is done in the way in which they themselves perceive a musical material that is not easily accessible to them, neither in breadth nor in depth. A key obstacle is the large gap that separates the mindset of the "musical syntaxes" of the Eastern cultures and the culturally hegemonic Central European example.
The main musical features of the representation of the East are rather standardized: the modal entity of Hitzaz, the use of modes such as the Phrygian and Dorian, and the use of vocal melismas and vocalizations. Regarding the instruments, the representation of the exotic is systematically undertaken by the English horn and the oboe and, at the same time, the percussion is reinforced with tambourines, triangles, cymbals, gongs, etc. Regarding the rhythm, rhythmic patterns are chosen that "presage" one of the most important musical characteristics of exoticism: the bolero, called "oriental", which will define exoticism in Greek discography in the post-war period.
At the center of the Eastern stage (which is always represented as Islamic) stands the palace, synonymous with pleasures and opulence, within which every imaginable intemperance is put into practice. Violent and despotic pashas, maharajas and sheikhs enjoy lavishness while indulging in proverbial laziness. The figure that dominates the ethnoscape of the East is certainly the female, an object of desire. Through a series of roles, almost exclusively leading ones, women embody the mysticism, eroticism and sensuality of the imaginary East. The ultimate symbol of lust, a trademark of the East, is none other than the harem (Lewis, 2004: 12-52). The slavery of the female body contributes decisively to the ethnoscape of the East, bringing the narrator face to face with transcendental acts of heroism. In the East, calendar time is polarized, with the atmosphere almost always described as nocturnal. Darkness is a powerful symbol of escalating emotional tension, as it is synonymous with a metaphysical fog.
The song "Mousme" comes from the 1925 revue "Protevousiana" (big-city girl/woman) by Aimilios Dragatsis, Antonis Vottis and Grigoris Konstantinidis, which premiered on June 23, 1925 at the Kentrikon Τheater, in Athens, by the Alekos Gonidis troupe.
In contrast to the operetta plays that are characterized by a complete exotic phantasmagoria, with the libretto, music, sets and costumes contributing to its creation, the revue will differ mainly regarding the plot: the single story is mostly replaced by smaller independent satirical sketches commenting on current affairs, in which exotic characters, such as the oriental girl Mousme of the song in question, also participate.
In no case, however, does this fragmentation lack narrative autonomy and semiotic content: The song "Mousme" is a typical example of exoticism, with its intense romantic element (“Love's temptress and love's enchantress”), the dreamy, nocturnal atmosphere (I see like a dream in the dark and the magic of the Bosphorus in the evenings, the golden evenings) and the presence of the pasha composing the exotic East.
The musical phrase used in the chorus of this song, in the part beginning with the lyrics "Love's temptress", is also found in an earlier operetta. Μore specifically, in the intro and the chorus of the song "I xelogiastra" (The enchantress), which comes from the three-act operetta "I despoinis Sorolop" (Miss laziness) by Theofrastos Sakellaridis, which premiered on July 28, 1924 by the Fotis Samartzis – Nikos Miliadis troupe, at the Alhambra Theater.
The tune is also found in Turkish discography. In February 1911 Udi Karenkin & Kemancı Mike recorded in Constantinople (Istanbul) the song "Jaleli" (Favorite 4423-t – 1-53217 και επανέκδοση Columbia USA E6133). Around 1930, in Istanbul, Karındaş Mahmut Bey recorded the song "Ya muallim ya muallim" (Sahibinin Sesi AX-1191). The tune is also found in the recording "Lalanın Eğlenceleri" (Columbia W.T. 2121 - 18545 and Columbia G.G. 1024), which contains an excerpt (from 1′ 00″ to the end) from a Turkish play. It took place in Istanbul, in 1930, by actor Komik Hasan Efendi (Kel Hasan Efendi) and E. Dedeoğlou, accompanied by an İnce Saz (Turkish style orchestra). It was also recorded under the title "Ya muallim", in Istanbul, between 1947–1956, by Şükrü Tunar (clarinet), Ahmet Yatman (qanun), Şerif İçli (oud), Ali Kocadinç (darbuka) for Balkan (Balkan 4025-B – 4025-B). We should point out that in “Mousme’s” commercial musical score, the song is labeled as "blues-fox on an oriental motif" (Blues fox sur un motif oriental).
The tune can also be found in the Armenian repertoire that was recorded in America. Around 1927, Edward Bogosian (Եդուարդ Պօղոսեան) and the Gulazian Orchestra recorded "Pessan Zokanchin Kove" (Փեսան զոքանչին քովը) in New York for the label Pharos (P 322 – 549). The phrase in question can be heard after 2′ 20″.
The tune can also be found in the Arab repertoire that was recorded in America. More specifically, in the 1940s, an unknown orchestra recorded, probably in New York, the song "Raks el Badou" (رقص إل بدو, Dance of the Bedouins), for of Alamphon (A-2020-1 - A-2020), owned by the Syrian Farid Alam al-Din (فريد علم الدين).
In addition to this recording, four other covers of the song can be found in historical discography:
– "I Mousme", by Soso Chalkiopoulou and G. Stone with his orchestra, recorded in Chicago in 1927 (Greek Record Company 4942-1 – A-533)
– "Mousme", by a choir and an orchestra under the direction of Angelos Martino, recorded in Athens in 1927 (Polydor V 45162)
– "Mouzme", by the Athinaiki Estudiantina (Athenian Estudiantina), recorded in Athens in 1928 ((Homocord Τ.Μ. 775 – G. 4-32023)
– "Mousme", by Maria Karela and Spyros Stamos with his orchestra, recorded in New York on October 23, 1941 (Columbia CO4028 – 7217-F).
Research and text: George Evangelou, Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
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. 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.
These "conversations" are also found in the performing arts. After all, the inextricable relation between music and performing arts is more than vital. The theater, in its various froms, traffics music on its own terms and plays a key role in diffusing it to places that are often far away. It also builds a special network that communicates with discography. Within this network, already existing tendencies and aesthetic currents are often created or integrated, such as exoticism, especially during the period when the phenomenon of sound recording and reproduction takes on commercial, mass and universal dimensions.
"Mousme", a song with an exotic content, characteristically outlines this dialectical, multi-layered relationship between the various “national” repertoires, performing arts and aesthetic trends and currents, as its melody is also found in other nodes of the aforementioned cultural network.
In the era of discography, the advance of exoticism is irresistible and leaves a very strong imprint. However much it seems to be defined by the principle of "locality", exoticism is a global aesthetic constant, a "common" language of the new age strongly marked by modernism and inscribed in a complex and lengthy process of osmosis among "national" musicians, which produces repertoires with "ecumenical" or global characteristics.
Within these contexts the representation of the East gives the composers the possibility to expand the musical language they use, using new timbres, melodic developments and rhythmic patterns. Of course, this is done in the way in which they themselves perceive a musical material that is not easily accessible to them, neither in breadth nor in depth. A key obstacle is the large gap that separates the mindset of the "musical syntaxes" of the Eastern cultures and the culturally hegemonic Central European example.
The main musical features of the representation of the East are rather standardized: the modal entity of Hitzaz, the use of modes such as the Phrygian and Dorian, and the use of vocal melismas and vocalizations. Regarding the instruments, the representation of the exotic is systematically undertaken by the English horn and the oboe and, at the same time, the percussion is reinforced with tambourines, triangles, cymbals, gongs, etc. Regarding the rhythm, rhythmic patterns are chosen that "presage" one of the most important musical characteristics of exoticism: the bolero, called "oriental", which will define exoticism in Greek discography in the post-war period.
At the center of the Eastern stage (which is always represented as Islamic) stands the palace, synonymous with pleasures and opulence, within which every imaginable intemperance is put into practice. Violent and despotic pashas, maharajas and sheikhs enjoy lavishness while indulging in proverbial laziness. The figure that dominates the ethnoscape of the East is certainly the female, an object of desire. Through a series of roles, almost exclusively leading ones, women embody the mysticism, eroticism and sensuality of the imaginary East. The ultimate symbol of lust, a trademark of the East, is none other than the harem (Lewis, 2004: 12-52). The slavery of the female body contributes decisively to the ethnoscape of the East, bringing the narrator face to face with transcendental acts of heroism. In the East, calendar time is polarized, with the atmosphere almost always described as nocturnal. Darkness is a powerful symbol of escalating emotional tension, as it is synonymous with a metaphysical fog.
The song "Mousme" comes from the 1925 revue "Protevousiana" (big-city girl/woman) by Aimilios Dragatsis, Antonis Vottis and Grigoris Konstantinidis, which premiered on June 23, 1925 at the Kentrikon Τheater, in Athens, by the Alekos Gonidis troupe.
In contrast to the operetta plays that are characterized by a complete exotic phantasmagoria, with the libretto, music, sets and costumes contributing to its creation, the revue will differ mainly regarding the plot: the single story is mostly replaced by smaller independent satirical sketches commenting on current affairs, in which exotic characters, such as the oriental girl Mousme of the song in question, also participate.
In no case, however, does this fragmentation lack narrative autonomy and semiotic content: The song "Mousme" is a typical example of exoticism, with its intense romantic element (“Love's temptress and love's enchantress”), the dreamy, nocturnal atmosphere (I see like a dream in the dark and the magic of the Bosphorus in the evenings, the golden evenings) and the presence of the pasha composing the exotic East.
The musical phrase used in the chorus of this song, in the part beginning with the lyrics "Love's temptress", is also found in an earlier operetta. Μore specifically, in the intro and the chorus of the song "I xelogiastra" (The enchantress), which comes from the three-act operetta "I despoinis Sorolop" (Miss laziness) by Theofrastos Sakellaridis, which premiered on July 28, 1924 by the Fotis Samartzis – Nikos Miliadis troupe, at the Alhambra Theater.
The tune is also found in Turkish discography. In February 1911 Udi Karenkin & Kemancı Mike recorded in Constantinople (Istanbul) the song "Jaleli" (Favorite 4423-t – 1-53217 και επανέκδοση Columbia USA E6133). Around 1930, in Istanbul, Karındaş Mahmut Bey recorded the song "Ya muallim ya muallim" (Sahibinin Sesi AX-1191). The tune is also found in the recording "Lalanın Eğlenceleri" (Columbia W.T. 2121 - 18545 and Columbia G.G. 1024), which contains an excerpt (from 1′ 00″ to the end) from a Turkish play. It took place in Istanbul, in 1930, by actor Komik Hasan Efendi (Kel Hasan Efendi) and E. Dedeoğlou, accompanied by an İnce Saz (Turkish style orchestra). It was also recorded under the title "Ya muallim", in Istanbul, between 1947–1956, by Şükrü Tunar (clarinet), Ahmet Yatman (qanun), Şerif İçli (oud), Ali Kocadinç (darbuka) for Balkan (Balkan 4025-B – 4025-B). We should point out that in “Mousme’s” commercial musical score, the song is labeled as "blues-fox on an oriental motif" (Blues fox sur un motif oriental).
The tune can also be found in the Armenian repertoire that was recorded in America. Around 1927, Edward Bogosian (Եդուարդ Պօղոսեան) and the Gulazian Orchestra recorded "Pessan Zokanchin Kove" (Փեսան զոքանչին քովը) in New York for the label Pharos (P 322 – 549). The phrase in question can be heard after 2′ 20″.
The tune can also be found in the Arab repertoire that was recorded in America. More specifically, in the 1940s, an unknown orchestra recorded, probably in New York, the song "Raks el Badou" (رقص إل بدو, Dance of the Bedouins), for of Alamphon (A-2020-1 - A-2020), owned by the Syrian Farid Alam al-Din (فريد علم الدين).
In addition to this recording, four other covers of the song can be found in historical discography:
– "I Mousme", by Soso Chalkiopoulou and G. Stone with his orchestra, recorded in Chicago in 1927 (Greek Record Company 4942-1 – A-533)
– "Mousme", by a choir and an orchestra under the direction of Angelos Martino, recorded in Athens in 1927 (Polydor V 45162)
– "Mouzme", by the Athinaiki Estudiantina (Athenian Estudiantina), recorded in Athens in 1928 ((Homocord Τ.Μ. 775 – G. 4-32023)
– "Mousme", by Maria Karela and Spyros Stamos with his orchestra, recorded in New York on October 23, 1941 (Columbia CO4028 – 7217-F).
Research and text: George Evangelou, Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
© 2019 KOUNADIS ARCHIVE
