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 “I sevntalou”.

This recording, re-released on February 5, 1932 in the US from Columbia Greece (record DG 148 with matrix number WG 236), is the only recording of the song in Greek historical discography. The recording took place in Athens around 1931 by Dimitris Atraidis with the accompaniment of an orchestra with a zurna, a drum and an oud.

A tune from the Greek-speaking repertoire of Pontus (Pontians), called "omal Kars", shares common characteristics with this tune.

Ιn the Turkish repertoire the tune was recorded in the 1940s, in Istanbul, by Avanoslu Selahattin Ercan under the title “Yürü yürü” (Sahibinin Sesi 2308).

The tune, however, can also be found in the Turkish-speaking Armenian repertoire. Around December 1923, Vahan Boyajian recorded in New York the song “Martinim Oumouzoumda” (Columbia 89572-1 - 32000-F).

About twenty years later, in the 1940s, Marko Melkon Alemsherian (vocals and oud), Victoria Hazan (vocals) and Nick Doneff (violin) recorded in New York the song “Martinim Omüzümda” (Metropolitan 2001-B).

The tune can be found in the Armenian-speaking repertoire that was recorded in the USA. More specifically, in the 1940s-1950s, in Fresno, California, an unknown singer with the accompaniment of a violin [probably Hagop (Jack) Aslanian or Oscar Kevorkian (Օսկար Գէորգեան)], a clarinet (probably Mesrob Takakjian) and a goblet drum recorded the song "Ounkeri gamari bes" (Kevorkian Record Company A-8854 - 1939-A).

America, where the aforementioned recordings were released, 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