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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 the recording “Gkel gkel”.
This is the first recording of the song in Greek historical discography. It was made for Columbia in January 1928, in New York, by Marika Papagkika and Athanasios Makedonas (violin), Markos Sifnios (cello) and Kostas Papagkikas (cimbalom).
Similar lyrics can be found in the songs "Ozman Agas" with Giorgos Vidalis and "Ol' imera paizei zaria" with Giorgos Katsaros (Theologitis).
About eleven years earlier, on January 1917, Ka [Mrs] Koula, with Athanasios Mekedonas (violin) kai Andreas Patrinos (lute) recorded in New York the tune under the title "Karsilamas" (Columbia 44944 – Ε3365).
The song with different lyrics and under the title "Se agapo, Theos to xerei" was recorded in America around 1945 by Marko Melkon Alemsherian for Balkan (Balkan 806 & Me Re 806).
The tune can also be found in the Turkish repertoire. In the late 1940s, the actress and singer Suzan Yakar Rutkay recorded in Istanbul the song "Atımı bagladım ben bir ormana" (Sahibinin Sesi ΑΧ 2327).
The song can also be found in the recording for the meddahlik theatre performance "Davetsiz Düğün Misafirleri" (from 0′ 49″ to 1′ 35″), made by Beşiktaşlı Kemal Şenman and Zehra Bilir in Istanbul, probably in 1940s (Sahibinin Sesi AX 2260).
It should be noted that in the record catalogs other Turkish recordings have been found which may be related to the song in question, and are earlier. However, no audio material of them has so far been found:
- "Atımı bağladım ben bir Ormana", Hafız Âşir Efendi, Constantinople (Istanbul), 1906-1907 (Odeon cx760 - Χ 31978 & re-issued by Fabrication Ottomane İmalat-İ Osmaniye No 23 & Odeon USA 83036-A).
- "Atımı bağladım", Agopos Efendi, probably Constantinople (Istanbul), October-November 1911 (Premier Record 11085).
The song in instrumental form was also performed by the Hungarian band Falkafolk Együttes at the 1997 Táncháztalálkozó, the Hungarian folklore festival (see here) which has been held every spring in Budapest since 1982. It is included under the title "Gkell, gkell" on the CD "Táncháztalálkozó of '97/16th Hungarian Dance-House Festival" (Magyar Művelődesi Intézet, CD MMICD004 and cassette MMI MK 004).
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
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 the recording “Gkel gkel”.
This is the first recording of the song in Greek historical discography. It was made for Columbia in January 1928, in New York, by Marika Papagkika and Athanasios Makedonas (violin), Markos Sifnios (cello) and Kostas Papagkikas (cimbalom).
Similar lyrics can be found in the songs "Ozman Agas" with Giorgos Vidalis and "Ol' imera paizei zaria" with Giorgos Katsaros (Theologitis).
About eleven years earlier, on January 1917, Ka [Mrs] Koula, with Athanasios Mekedonas (violin) kai Andreas Patrinos (lute) recorded in New York the tune under the title "Karsilamas" (Columbia 44944 – Ε3365).
The song with different lyrics and under the title "Se agapo, Theos to xerei" was recorded in America around 1945 by Marko Melkon Alemsherian for Balkan (Balkan 806 & Me Re 806).
The tune can also be found in the Turkish repertoire. In the late 1940s, the actress and singer Suzan Yakar Rutkay recorded in Istanbul the song "Atımı bagladım ben bir ormana" (Sahibinin Sesi ΑΧ 2327).
The song can also be found in the recording for the meddahlik theatre performance "Davetsiz Düğün Misafirleri" (from 0′ 49″ to 1′ 35″), made by Beşiktaşlı Kemal Şenman and Zehra Bilir in Istanbul, probably in 1940s (Sahibinin Sesi AX 2260).
It should be noted that in the record catalogs other Turkish recordings have been found which may be related to the song in question, and are earlier. However, no audio material of them has so far been found:
- "Atımı bağladım ben bir Ormana", Hafız Âşir Efendi, Constantinople (Istanbul), 1906-1907 (Odeon cx760 - Χ 31978 & re-issued by Fabrication Ottomane İmalat-İ Osmaniye No 23 & Odeon USA 83036-A).
- "Atımı bağladım", Agopos Efendi, probably Constantinople (Istanbul), October-November 1911 (Premier Record 11085).
The song in instrumental form was also performed by the Hungarian band Falkafolk Együttes at the 1997 Táncháztalálkozó, the Hungarian folklore festival (see here) which has been held every spring in Budapest since 1982. It is included under the title "Gkell, gkell" on the CD "Táncháztalálkozó of '97/16th Hungarian Dance-House Festival" (Magyar Művelődesi Intézet, CD MMICD004 and cassette MMI MK 004).
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
© 2019 KOUNADIS ARCHIVE
