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.

The musical score in question is included in the collection "Arion. I mousiki ton Ellinon os diesothi apo ton archaiotaton chronon mechri tis simeron" (Arion. The music of the Greeks as preserved from ancient times to the present day) by Adamantios Remantas and Prokopios D. Zacharias and contains, on page 49 and under number 50, the song "Ta matakia sou ta mavra".

The edition, which has 104 pages, includes, in addition to the musical scores of 62 songs, a foreword, an introduction and a musicological study of 32 pages.

On the color cover, which features a decorative design and a lithography, the following is written: "Lith. G. Chatzi-Savva, Athens", "P. Mathiopoulos", "Typois Epam. Zagkouroglou". There is also the inscription "Timatai Dr. 12" (Cost 12 drachmas), stamps with the authors' signatures, and the back cover is blank.

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.

The melodic material of this musical score matches melody no. 20 from Bourgault-Ducoudray's collection "Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient" (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.

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 song number 1 (see here, here και here), the present song, which which in Bourgault-Ducoudray's collection is untitled and bears number 20, and song 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 [Otan mou eipen eche 'geian] from Bourgault-Ducoudray's collection (see here). Finally, "O your eyes are dark and beautiful" was based on the present song, which as we mentioned above in Bourgault-Ducoudray's collection is untitled and bears the number 20 (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).