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 is included in the collection "Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient" (Thirty Popular Melodies of Greece and the Orient). The collection contains transcriptions of thirty Greek songs collected by the French composer Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray in Smyrna and Athens during his research trip to Greece and Asia Minor in 1875. The harmonization and piano accompaniment of the melodies were done by the composer himself (see in detail the extremely interesting text by Giorgos Kokkonis, 2017d: 13-47). The black and white cover also mentions "traduction italienne en vers adaptée à la musique et traduction française en prose de M. A. de Lauzières" (Italian verse translation adapted to music and French prose translation by M. A. de Lauzières), the edition number and the publisher. The edition contains a preface, introduction, translator's note and reference by Bourgault-Ducoudray to the lyrics of the songs (pp. 7-24).

The song is included on pages 56-57, bears the number 20 and is untitled. "Mme Laffon - Smyrne" is written below the numbering. Madame Laffon was the second wife of the French diplomat Gustave Laffon, an interpreter at the French Consulate in Izmir. Madame Laffon was Ada Bargigli, an Italian born in Larnaca, Cyprus, and Bourgault-Ducoudray's main source of information and musical material, since she sang to him 21 of the 30 songs in the collection transcribed in Izmir.

The musical text of the first stanza of the song is included in a musical score with a system of three staffs (two for piano and one for voice) and of the second stanza in a single staff. At the end of the musical text there is the French translation of the lyrics and an explanatory note by Bourgault-Ducoudray (page 57).

The melodic material of this musical score corresponds to the song "Ta matakia sou ta mavra", included in the "Arion" collection by Adamantios Remantas and Prokopios D. Zacharias (see here). The collectors transposed the melody down by a major second, noting that "it belongs to the Phrygian minor mode with temporary modulations to the Hypodorian major mode".

In Greek historical discography, an instrumental version of the tune is found in the recording “O agapitikos tis voskopoulas II”, which was made by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Municipality of Piraeus in 1907-1908 in Athens (Odeon GX-97 – 65075). It is an instrumental potpourri, which occupies both sides of the record (see here and here) and consists of melodies found in the Bourgault-Ducoudray collection.

A contemporary recording of the song is included in the CD "Melodies tis anatolis, Tragoudia tis Smyrnis (19os aionas)” [Melodies of the East, Songs of Smyrna (19th century)] ("Ta matakia sou ta mavra", The Hellenic Music Archive – FM Records – FM 800, Athens, 1997), which contains 20 of the melodies collected by Bourgault-Ducoudray, with different harmonic - rhythmic accompaniment and orchestration. Eirini Derempei sings it. In April 2023, the Institute for Mediterranean Studies of the Foundation for Research and Technology released the music edition "Smyrna 1875 - Impressions of Melodies". It includes a CD with twelve songs from the trancriptions of Bourgault-Ducoudray, arranged, orchestrated, and performed by the musical ensemble Checkmate in 2 Flats. Among them is the present song (see here).

Between 1881-1884, the Russian composer Alexander Glazunov [Saint Petersburg, July 29 (August 10) 1865 – Paris, March 21, 1936] completed two works for symphony orchestra based on Greek melodies. These are the "Overture No. 1 on Three Greek Themes, Op. 3" (see here, here and here), which was probably completed in 1881 or 1882 and is dedicated to Bourgault-Ducoudray, and the "Overture No. 2 on Greek Themes, Op. 6", a composition he probably wrote in 1883-1884 and dedicated to the Russian composer Mily Balakirev. The musical themes from which Glazunov draws material for both overtures come from the collection "Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient". In the "Overture No. 1 on Three Greek Themes, Op. 3", the composer arranged melodic phrases from three songs, including the song in this musical score. Specifically, in the order of their appearance in the work, these are: the recording number 1 (see here, here και here), the present recording, that is, number 20 and recording number 25 (see here and here). The work was recorded on April 6, 1942 in the USA by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dimitris Mitropoulos (Columbia MX-228 and CD "Mitropoulos, Maestro Spiritoso", Documents 220831-303).

The melody of the present score is also used by another Russian composer. In 1910, Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (Saint Petersburg, May 12, 1855 – Polynovka, Borovichevsky, Novgorod Oblast, August 28, 1914) completed the orchestral work "Dance of the Amazon, Op. 65", which is based on the musical theme we are examining (see here for the musical score).

Approximately thirty years later, in 1940–1941, the German-Jewish composer Berthold Goldschmidt (Hamburg, January 18, 1903 – London, October 17, 1996) completed the "Greek Suite" for orchestra. The eight-movement suite consists of arrangements of Greek popular melodies which come from the publication "Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient". The melody of this song is included among them. The following are the movements of the work and the corresponding songs from Bourgault-Ducoudray's collection, which the composer worked on:

– Alla marcia: songs number 27 and 7.
– Andante: number 15 and 21.
– Allegretto. Scherzando: number 4.
– Allegro marziale: number 23.
– Allegretto grazioso: number 30 entitled "To filima" and this song, under number 20.
– Lento: number 9.
– Allegretto: number 28 and 1.
– Allegretto moderato: number 25.

In 1942, the Hungarian composer Mátyás György Seiber (Budapest, May 4, 1905 – Kruger National Park, Johannesburg, South Africa), who had lived and worked in the United Kingdom since 1935, would use the melody in his work "Four Greek folk songs". It is a composition for high voice and string orchestra or string quartet with English lyrics by Peter Carroll. The musical material on which the composer based three of the four songs of the work is found in the collection "Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient", which was probably its source, while two of them are also found in the "Arion" collection. The first song entitled "O, my love, how long" has not yet been identified in a musical score or a recording. The song "Have pity on me" that follows is based on song number 8 (see here), which is included in the "Arion" collection under the title "Ta mavra matia" (see here). "Each time, my love, you say farewell", third in order, is based on song number 19 from Bourgault-Ducoudray's collection (see here). Finally, "O your eyes are dark and beautiful" was based on the present song, which is found as "Ta matakia sou ta mavra" in the "Arion" collection (see here).

In 1983, the Dutch composer Henk van Lijnschooten (The Hague, March 27, 1928 – Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, November 1, 2006) wrote the work "Suite on Greek love songs" for wind orchestra. The four-movement suite is based on melodies from an equal number of Greek songs. More specifically, in the first movement, Vivace ironico, the composer elaborates on the melody of the song "Eicha mian agapi" (see here), in the second, Andante espressivo, he draws musical material from the song "I voskopoula" or "To filima" (see here), in the third, Allegretto Patetico, from this song, and in the fourth, Presto, from the song "Pera stous pera kampous" (see here).