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 eight-page musical score is titled "Architsinganos" (The Chief Gypsy) and contains four excerpts (listed as Walzer N. 1, 2, 3 and 4) from Emmerich Kálmán's exotic-themed operetta "Der Zigeunerprimas" (The Chief Gypsy). It is a collection of arrangements-collations in parts of the play, such as arias, duets and orchestral pieces. More specifically:
– Walzer N. 1 includes the chorus from the duet of the heroes Sári and Gaston "Endlich, endlich hab ich Dich - Halt mich Liebster" (Nr. 12. Duett), and the orchestral part that follows
– Walzer N. 2, corresponds to the last part from the Juliska - Laczi duet "Du, Du...!" (Du, du, du, lieber Gott, schaust zu) (Nr. 15. Musicalische Szene)
– Walzer N. 3 includes the couplet from Sári and Gaston's duet "Endlich, endlich hab ich Dich - Halt mich Liebster" (Nr. 12. Duett) followed by the final part of the protagonist Pali Rácz's aria "Manchmal fällt die Wahl mir schwer" - "Meine alte Stradivari" or "Stradivari - Lied", both from the second act.
– Walzer N. 1, includes the last part of "Dorfkinder", which is composed of motifs from the operetta arranged by Gustav Volk.
The lyrics were translated in Greek by Vasileios Vekiarellis.

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 authors and the publisher are also mentioned on the cover. The following promotional statement of the publisher is also written: "The Kazazis music publishing house undertakes the engraving and printing of private editions. Details after special consultation".

This is a musical score with a system of two staffs for piano and song. The song's melody is written on the staff for the right hand of the piano, possibly for reasons of economy, as the musical score is already extensive. The code "Μ.87.Κ" is written at the bottom of the pages of the music text.

For more about the operetta "Der Zigeunerprimas", see here.

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