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 six-page musical score includes the duet "Amerikanis - Gallos" from the revue "Polemika Panathinaia tou 1913" in text - lyrics by Bampis Anninos, Giorgos Tsokopoulos and Polyvios Dimitrakopoulos. The revue premiered on May 21, 1913 at the "Syntagma" theater by the Plessas - Rozan troupe.

The title of the revue, the names of the writers, the publishing house and nineteen titles of the songs that come from this particular revue are written on the monochrome cover. The title "Amerikanis - Gallos", pertaining to this musical score, is underlined. This tactic was common in similar cases. Creating a single cover for more than one song significantly reduced the cost of musical scores production. It also features the publishing house's logo. There is an advertisement with the publications of the "Mousiki" publishing house on the second page, as well as on the monochrome back cover.

This is a musical score with a system of three staffs (two for piano and one for singing). The code "M. 181 E." is written at the bottom of the pages of the music text.

The song is an adaptation with Greek lyrics of the Spanish song "Habanera del Pom-pon". It comes from the one-act farce "El pobre Valbuena" written by Carlos Arniches - Enrique García Álvarez and music by Tomás López Torregrosa and Joaquín "Quinito" Valverde Sanjuán. It premiered at the Teatro Apolo in Madrid on July 1, 1904.

The libretto of the play and the Spanish musical score of the song were published in Madrid in 1904 by the Sociedad de Autores Españoles.

In terms of historical discography, the earliest recording that has been found was made on July 27, 1905 in Mexico City by Señoritas Perez and José Torres Ovando under the title "Habanera 'El ponpón'" (Victor 97-Z - 98092-A). About four years later, in 1909, it was recorded in New York by Emilia Vergeri and Felix La Sierra ("Habanera del Pompón", Columbia 4255 - C625). The recording "El pobre Valbuena: Tango del Pompon" made on February 9, 1909 in Madrid by Domingo, Lopez, Moreno, should also be noted (Gramophone 357y - V54196). In 1957 "Habanera del Pompon" was recorded in Spain by Miguel Ligero, Ana María Iriarte, Selica Pérez Carpio, Antonio Alfonso Vidal, the Coro Cantores de Madrid and a symphony orchestra conducted by Nicasio Tejada (see here).

The song is included in the Rollos Victoria piano roll uder the number 6193 and the title "El pobre Valbuena. Potpourri" which contains excerpts from the play and was probably released in 1905. The tune of “Habanera del Pom-pon" can be heard from 4′ 03″ to 6′ 16″.

Three films of the same title were based on the play "El pobre Valbuena". The first is a 1910 Spanish production directed by Segundo de Chomón (see here), the second a 1917 Mexican production directed by Manuel Noriega (see here), and the third a 1923 Spanish production directed by José Buchs (see here).

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis