Ever since antiquity, music transcription has been the intrinsic way of visual representation of sound, sometimes in detail and sometimes in the form of a guide. Throughout time, the visual capture of music has been the only way to store and preserve it over time, but also the exclusive means of reproducing it. In any case, visual transfer should be considered as an auxiliary tool, since oral dissemination and storage in the memory of artists have been the most timeless techniques for the diffusion of music through time and space. During Europe's so-called "classical" musical period, with its most powerful centers of production, such as today's Austria, Germany, France and Italy, and especially in its path towards Romanticism, music transcription, that is, the musical score, was considered by some composers as the very embodiment of their work.

Understandably, in the modern capitalist world, music transcription, as the primary tool for the substantialization of music, brought under its purview repertoires that were not connected, were not disseminated, and did not function on the basis of their transcription. This offered to the music product sales centers an additional tool to expand their action network: non-scholar musics acquired a convenient way of circulating them, enhancing their popularity, even in places very far from those of their original creation. At the end of the 19th century, however, the phenomenon of sound recording and reproduction rearranged relationships and disrupted the status quo of publishing houses, claiming a share of the market, offering a product that was extremely complete and immediate. The publishing houses tried to react with legal measures, but it became impossible to stop the dynamics of the new phenomenon: the prevalence of commercial discography was now a fact, for most of the 20th century.

As far as non-scholar music is concerned, commercial printed musical scores were publications of the musical texts of songs or instrumental pieces (for the publishing activity in Greece see Lerch-Kalavrytinos, 2003: 4-5). For the needs of musical scores, the songs were arranged mainly (but not only) for piano or for piano and voice, generally without complex performance requirements. Multi-instrumental or technically demanding orchestrations were systematically avoided. The lyrics were printed below the notes of the melodic development of the singing parts and, sometimes, their translations into other languages. For the most part, the musical scores were two or four pages long, and came with a themed front and back cover.

This four-page musical score contains the song "Mi lismoneis", set to music by E. Di Capua and lyrics by D. Vitalis. It is an arrangement of the Neapolitan song "O sole mio", set to music by Eduardo Di Capua and Emanuele Mazzucchi and lyrics by Giovanni Capurro.

The monochrome cover, probably colored by the collector of the musical score, features a drawing of a man in period dress holding a felt tipped pen and a kind of large notebook, while a stringed musical instrument hangs from his shoulder. The title of the song, the note "Di' asma kai kleidokymbalon" (For voice and piano), the name of the Greek lyricist, the composer, and the publisher are also listed, as well as the stamp "Iliadis & Somos, Chartopoleion, En Piraiei" (Iliadis & Somos, Paper Store, in Piraeus) and the collector's signature in Greek and French.

The musical text consists of a system of three staffs (two for piano and one for singing) and is accompanied by lyrics in Greek. On page 2 there is an indication regarding the key, the vocal range and the tempo (Andantino). The back cover is blank.

The blank back cover features a sketch and the signature of the collector in French.

The song is also found in Greek-speaking discography, characteristically outlining the dialectical, multi-layered relationship between the various "national" repertoires, the subject of the ongoing research "Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography".

For more about the song and its recordings in the Greek repertoire, see here.

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis