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.

The song, the title of which could be rendered as “the one that has a blue color”, was recorded very early in Turkish-speaking discography. The first recording seems to have been made in May 1900 in Constantinople (Istanbul) by Sari Onnik under the title "Acem - Mavili" and the sound engineer William Sinkler Darby (Gramophone 1834A – 12007). Other recordings followed in the first decade of the 20th century and later. For example:

– "Mavili", Hafız Aşir Efendi, Constantinople, 1905 (Gramophone 437 r – Χ 102195 και 15-12569).
– "Bir Mavili", Agopos Efendi, Constantinople, May 1906 (Odeon 31929).
– "Mavili", Orik Effendi, probably in Constantinople in the 1920s (Pathé 11056).
– "Mavili", Radife Erten, Istanbul, after 1946 (Columbia CTZ7134 – RT17938).

In Greek historical discography, the song was first recorded in Turkish in 1928, in Athens, by Kostas Nouros under the title "Bir Mavili" (Οdeon Go 752 – GA 1305 / A 190086 b). The following year, on November 28, 1929, it was recorded by Antonis Dalgkas (Diamantidis) under the title "Mavili, Mavili" (His Master's Voice BW 2966-1 – AO 367/30-2788). The third recording was made in Athens, probably around 1929-1930, by Grigoris Asikis under the title "Mavili" (Pathé 70228 – X 80211).

The tune can also be found in the Turkish-speaking Armenian repertoire that was recorded in America. The oldest and present recording was performed in November 1917 in New York by the Armenian violinist and singer Kemany Minas Effendi, whose real name was Minas Chaghatzbanian (for more info see here). It was also recorded under the title "Mavily" between 1945-1950 in the USA, by Armenians Garbis Bakirjian (vocals and qanun), Marko Melkon Alemsherian (oud), Nick Doneff (violin) and someone unknown (darabuka) (Kaliphon 705-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