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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 musical score contains the tango "Tha xanartheis" (You’ll be back), set to music by Kostas Giannidis (nickname for Giannis Konstantinidis) and lyrics by Alekos Sakellarios.
Tango is one of the main musical elements of the national identity of modern Argentina. It is born in the marginalized environment of the port of Buenos Aires, but soon conquers Europe and the USA, where it is carried by traveling Argentine musicians and dancers during the first decade of the 20th century. Its acceptance by the upper and middle classes was due to its transformation from a multicultural musical expression of the underworld to a dance-music one for whites, as well as to its thematic cleansing of its overtly sensual origins. Primarily marginal types and their provocative liminality are replaced by quaint figures who are possessed by unquenchable, but stylized love passions. This is how a “tamed” musical genre emerges that recalls a more romantic Argentina. Tango takes Parisian cabarets by storm, and its initially targeted popularity soon develops into widespread appeal. Record companies, composers and orchestras manage it as an integral part of their business. At the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, Greece succumbs too to this “tangomania”. During the interwar period, tango has a central place in the repertoire of elafro (light music) and enriches discography’s catalogs with hundreds of original compositions which complement the systematic arrangements of popular pieces, mainly of European origin, “dressed” with Greek lyrics.
The monochrome cover, which is adorned with a sketch by an unidentified artist, bears the title of the song, the creators, the publisher, the edition number and the dedication "Charizetai sti Danai pou to prototragoudise" (To Danae who first sang it). On the second page there’s an advertising stamp and on the third page "Rich. Fr." [Richardos Fretsas] is written, as well as the rest of the lyrics of the song. Finally, there is an advertisement of the Gaitanos music publishing house on the monochrome back cover.
This is a musical score with a system of four staffs (two for piano, one for violin and one for voice).
The song was a great success, as evidenced by the nine, at least, versions of the musical score (see here), as well as by the number of covers in Greek historical discography:
– «Tha xanartheis», Danai Stratigopoulou, Athens, 1934 (His Master's Voice OGA 15-1 – AO 2173 and AO 2174).
– «Tha xanartheis», Danai Stratigopoulou, Athens, 1934 (His Master's Voice OT 1759-1 – AO 2152 and ΑΟ 2160).
– «Tha xanartheis», Kostas Kontopoulos, Athens, 1934 (Parlophon 101528 – B. 21782-I).
– «Tha xanartheis», Petros Epitropakis, Athens, 1934 (Columbia C.G. 1033 – D.G. 6003).
– «Tha xanartheis», Christina Efthymiadou, Athens, 1934 (Columbia C.G. 1182 – D.G. 6008).
– «Tha xanartheis», Christina Efthymiadou, Athens, 1934 (Columbia C.G. 1211 – D.G. 6018).
– «Tha xanartheis», Kitsa Korina, Athens, 1934 (Odeon Go 2174 – GA-1822).
– «Tha xanartheis», Tetos Dimitriadis, New York, March, 20, 1935 (Orthοphonic BS-89356 - S-315-A).
The success went beyond the borders of Greece, spread to the other side of the Aegean sea and is also found in the Turkish-speaking repertoire. Around 1936, Fahire Hanim recorded in Istanbul the song "Geleceksin" (Columbia 17302).
The Sephardic version of the song entitled "No me importa" should be noted. The lyrics in Ladino, that is, the Spanish-Hebrew dialect of the Sephardic Jews, belong to Sadik i Gazoz (Sadik Gershon and Moshe Cazes) and come from the pamphlet Los kantes populares de Sadik I Gazoz, a collection of songs first published in 1935 in Thessaloniki by the Jewish satirical newspaper El Rayo. "No me importa" was recorded in 2017 in Istanbul by the band "Los pasharos sefaradis" (The Sephardic birds) and is included in the CD "Tangos Sefaradis del Dip del Baul" (Gözlem Gazetecilik).
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. Discography as well as the musical scores have 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”.
Research and text: George Evangelou, Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
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 musical score contains the tango "Tha xanartheis" (You’ll be back), set to music by Kostas Giannidis (nickname for Giannis Konstantinidis) and lyrics by Alekos Sakellarios.
Tango is one of the main musical elements of the national identity of modern Argentina. It is born in the marginalized environment of the port of Buenos Aires, but soon conquers Europe and the USA, where it is carried by traveling Argentine musicians and dancers during the first decade of the 20th century. Its acceptance by the upper and middle classes was due to its transformation from a multicultural musical expression of the underworld to a dance-music one for whites, as well as to its thematic cleansing of its overtly sensual origins. Primarily marginal types and their provocative liminality are replaced by quaint figures who are possessed by unquenchable, but stylized love passions. This is how a “tamed” musical genre emerges that recalls a more romantic Argentina. Tango takes Parisian cabarets by storm, and its initially targeted popularity soon develops into widespread appeal. Record companies, composers and orchestras manage it as an integral part of their business. At the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, Greece succumbs too to this “tangomania”. During the interwar period, tango has a central place in the repertoire of elafro (light music) and enriches discography’s catalogs with hundreds of original compositions which complement the systematic arrangements of popular pieces, mainly of European origin, “dressed” with Greek lyrics.
The monochrome cover, which is adorned with a sketch by an unidentified artist, bears the title of the song, the creators, the publisher, the edition number and the dedication "Charizetai sti Danai pou to prototragoudise" (To Danae who first sang it). On the second page there’s an advertising stamp and on the third page "Rich. Fr." [Richardos Fretsas] is written, as well as the rest of the lyrics of the song. Finally, there is an advertisement of the Gaitanos music publishing house on the monochrome back cover.
This is a musical score with a system of four staffs (two for piano, one for violin and one for voice).
The song was a great success, as evidenced by the nine, at least, versions of the musical score (see here), as well as by the number of covers in Greek historical discography:
– «Tha xanartheis», Danai Stratigopoulou, Athens, 1934 (His Master's Voice OGA 15-1 – AO 2173 and AO 2174).
– «Tha xanartheis», Danai Stratigopoulou, Athens, 1934 (His Master's Voice OT 1759-1 – AO 2152 and ΑΟ 2160).
– «Tha xanartheis», Kostas Kontopoulos, Athens, 1934 (Parlophon 101528 – B. 21782-I).
– «Tha xanartheis», Petros Epitropakis, Athens, 1934 (Columbia C.G. 1033 – D.G. 6003).
– «Tha xanartheis», Christina Efthymiadou, Athens, 1934 (Columbia C.G. 1182 – D.G. 6008).
– «Tha xanartheis», Christina Efthymiadou, Athens, 1934 (Columbia C.G. 1211 – D.G. 6018).
– «Tha xanartheis», Kitsa Korina, Athens, 1934 (Odeon Go 2174 – GA-1822).
– «Tha xanartheis», Tetos Dimitriadis, New York, March, 20, 1935 (Orthοphonic BS-89356 - S-315-A).
The success went beyond the borders of Greece, spread to the other side of the Aegean sea and is also found in the Turkish-speaking repertoire. Around 1936, Fahire Hanim recorded in Istanbul the song "Geleceksin" (Columbia 17302).
The Sephardic version of the song entitled "No me importa" should be noted. The lyrics in Ladino, that is, the Spanish-Hebrew dialect of the Sephardic Jews, belong to Sadik i Gazoz (Sadik Gershon and Moshe Cazes) and come from the pamphlet Los kantes populares de Sadik I Gazoz, a collection of songs first published in 1935 in Thessaloniki by the Jewish satirical newspaper El Rayo. "No me importa" was recorded in 2017 in Istanbul by the band "Los pasharos sefaradis" (The Sephardic birds) and is included in the CD "Tangos Sefaradis del Dip del Baul" (Gözlem Gazetecilik).
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. Discography as well as the musical scores have 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”.
Research and text: George Evangelou, Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
© 2019 KOUNADIS ARCHIVE
