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 "I tsingana" (The gypsy woman), set to music by Giannis Oikonomakos and lyrics by Timos Moraitinis. It comes from the 1919 revue "Panorama".

The song falls within the scope of exoticism, under the ethnocentric lens of which the Gypsies are represented as permanently stateless and uprooted, as a primitive wandering otherness that transcends all kinds of borders. The meaning of exoticism concerns, on the one hand, the characteristics of that which is outside the sphere of identity and, on the other hand, the attraction exerted by that which has such characteristics. The widespread acceptance of the phenomenon is obvious: the multidimensional linguistic, musical and visual wealth accumulated around and within exoticism created a common stock of knowledge that perpetually feeds the collective and individual imaginary. The locations represented in exoticism, that is, the East, Latin America, Spain, Hawaii, are par excellence imaginary, disconnected from the real world. They are revealed like a theatrical stage, with alternating scenes, where fantasies are dramatized, overwhelm the senses and release intense emotions, offering the "visitor" an ideal experience, outside the limitations of the conventional world.

The cover of the musical score is black and white, features a photograph of an unidentified woman, and has been painted over, probably from the collector. Five titles of the songs that come from this particular revue are also listed. The title "I tsigkana", pertaining to this musical score, is underlined. This tactic was common in similar cases. Creating a single cover for more than one songs significantly reduced the cost of musical scores production. The cover also bears a stamp that reads "Iliadis & Somos, Chartopoleion, En Peiraiei” (Iliadis & Somos, Paper Store, Piraeus) and the collector's signature.

This is a musical score with a system of three staffs (two for piano and one for voice). The code "Σ. 26 Γ" is written at the bottom of the pages of the music transcription.

There is an advertisement of the "Piana – pianoles – mousika temachia – chordes – kartes stou Gaitanou" (Pianos - player pianos - pieces of music - strings - cards by Gaitanos) musical publishing house on the back cover.

The same musical score was also released with a different cover by the Christidis publishing house in Constantinople (Istanbul) (Edition S. Christidis, Grand Rue de Péra No 215, Constantinople, see here).

See more about the song here.

Research and text: George Evangelou, Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis