At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has 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”.

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. A case that comes from such repertoires is this recording.

Starting from the Turkish repertoire, the tune is found under the title “Bî Vefâ Bir Çeşm i Bî Dâd” as a composition of Hammamizade İsmail Dede Efendi (Istanbul, January 9, 1778 – Mecca, November 29, 1846).
For the musical score see here.

According to the CD “Turkish Classical Music: Tribute to Yunus Emre”, released in the context of the UNESCO Collections, Celebrations series (UNESCO D 8303, Auvidis D 8303, France, 1991), which includes the song entitled “Bî vefâ bir çeşm-î bîdâd ne yaman aldatti beni” by the National Choir of Turkish Classical Music, the lyrics belong to the Turkish poet Yûnus Emre (1238-1320). The information, however, is not substantiated by any source (see CD insert here).

The following recordings have so far been identified in Turkish historical discography:

– “Bî vefâ bir çeşm-i bîdad”, Lale και Nerkis Hanımlar, Istanbul, 1931 (Sahibinin Sesi FQ 0013)
– “Bivefa”, Darülelhan Heyeti, Istanbul, probably 1930s (Columbia 12049)
– “Bivefa”, Müzeyyen Senar, Istanbul, 1940 (Odeon Co 3752 – LA 270369 b)
– “Bivefadir”, Safiye Ayla, Istanbul, 1940 (Columbia CTZ 6448 – BT 22165)

The tune is also found in more modern performances by Sabite Tur Gülerman, Zeki Müren etc.

In the Greek-speaking repertoire, the tune was also recorded by Ka [Mrs] Koula (Kyriakoula Antonopoulou) in New York, in 1920, under the title "Aidinikos" (Panhellenion 8038), and by Amalia Vaka, in New York, on October 26, 1927, under the title "Apo ta mikra mou chronia " (Victor BVE-40519 - 80565-Α).

America, where this recording took place, was a microcosm of the globe: a "successful Babel". Naturally, a unique syncretism also dominated in the field of music. The birth, on the other hand, of discography, built a condition that favored debates and osmosis between the innumerable ethno-cultural groups that made up the population. These processes led to the re-imagining, the update and the renewal of old musical trends arriving in the United States and, at the same time, to their re-exportation to the "old worlds", thus setting up a uniquely multi-layered network. "National" repertoires live a new, parallel life, largely molded by discography, which attended to and "tuned" the overlapping relationships that had already developed in the "Old World". Repertoires communicated with each other once again; a familiar and already dynamic condition in Europe. The circulation of music was already a reality before the 20th century with theatrical and musical performances tours, but also with the networks of music publishing houses. Discography is not only embedded in this context, but also plays a key role in its transformation.

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis