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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”.
The relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between the Balkan repertoires 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. One such case is this recording.
Aristomenis Kalyviotis, in his book Ta tragoudia tis Smyrnis 2 (The songs of Smyrna 2, 2023: 277-283), documents fifteen recordings of the tune in Greek-interest discography. Eleven of these are found in the 78 rpm discography. The first recording appears to have been made in Athens in 1907 by a Chorus and P. Zormpanis' Orchestra (Zonophone 10707b – X-14615 and Concert Record Gramophone 4-14632). Beyond Athens, it was also recorded in Istanbul, New York, and Chicago. The appearance of the tune in multiple performative environments, which determine its performative and, ultimately, overall aesthetic identity, is of great interest. For example:
– “Loulouka”, Estoudiantina Smyrnaiki (Smyrnaean Estudiantina), Constantinople (Istanbul), 1908 (Odeon CX-1883 – 58580).
– “Loulouka”, Estoudiantina Christodoulidis, Constantinople, July 11, 1910 (Favorite 4013-t – 1-59050 and Columbia USA E6129).
– “I Loulouka”, Michail A. Magkos, New York, January 10, 1918 (Victor B-21185-3 – 72099-B), attributed as a composition by N. Kokkinos.
– “Loulouka”, Ioannis Kyriakatis Trio, New York, January 18, 1922 (Victor 26042-2 – 73280-A).
– "Loulouka mou", by Great Choir and Mandolinata, Athens, 1929 (Columbia UK 20646 – 18089), attributed as a composition by Platseos.
– “Loulouka”, G. Fillis – V. Kolatos & Co. [Konstantinos Fillis (clarinet)], Chicago, November 1934 (Columbia USA W 206628 – 56349-F), present recording.
The melody was published as a musical score by the Georgios Fexis publishing house in Athens, as a transcription by Nikolaos Kokkinos, and by the Rallis publishing house in Izmir as a composition by G. Platseas.
The song, in a parody adaptation with different lyrics, was included in the revue "Kinimatografos 1908", written by Polyvios Dimitrakopoulos with music by Nikolaos Kokkinos. The revue, which premiered on June 24, 1908, at the "Syntagma" Theater by Rozalia Nika's troupe, features the song performed by a heroine also named Loulouka. Thodoros Chatzipantazis and Lila Maraka (1977: 221) note the following:
"Dimitrakopoulos borrowed the name Loulouka from the immensely popular love song of the time, which is satirized in the following scene. In the newspaper Akropolis, on June 15, 1908, we read: 'Now is Loulouka’s time of glory. The Zappeion echoes with prima, seconda, and tertia voices praising Loulouka. Guitars and mandolins wear out their strings to soften Loulouka’s heart a little. Even a barrel organ, battered by its owner, age, and the insects nesting inside, attempts to reproduce Loulouka’s melody.'".
The instrumental recording "Luluka (Grtsco Koro)" (Kalyviotis: 2023, 279), made by the Kosta Orchestra for the record label Makedonia (116KA – 605B), is of particular interest. According to the website chereshnitsa.org, the leader of the orchestra, which was active in the 1940s and until the early 1950s in Gary, Indiana, was clarinetist Kosta Apostoloff. He was born in 1899 in Cheresnitsa, Ottoman Empire (now Polykeraso, Kastoria, Greece) and died in Gary, Indiana, in 1957. In addition to the song "Luluka (Grtsco Koro)", seventeen other recordings by the Kosta Orchestra, which were made in Chicago in 1946 or 1947, have survived.
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”.
The relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between the Balkan repertoires 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. One such case is this recording.
Aristomenis Kalyviotis, in his book Ta tragoudia tis Smyrnis 2 (The songs of Smyrna 2, 2023: 277-283), documents fifteen recordings of the tune in Greek-interest discography. Eleven of these are found in the 78 rpm discography. The first recording appears to have been made in Athens in 1907 by a Chorus and P. Zormpanis' Orchestra (Zonophone 10707b – X-14615 and Concert Record Gramophone 4-14632). Beyond Athens, it was also recorded in Istanbul, New York, and Chicago. The appearance of the tune in multiple performative environments, which determine its performative and, ultimately, overall aesthetic identity, is of great interest. For example:
– “Loulouka”, Estoudiantina Smyrnaiki (Smyrnaean Estudiantina), Constantinople (Istanbul), 1908 (Odeon CX-1883 – 58580).
– “Loulouka”, Estoudiantina Christodoulidis, Constantinople, July 11, 1910 (Favorite 4013-t – 1-59050 and Columbia USA E6129).
– “I Loulouka”, Michail A. Magkos, New York, January 10, 1918 (Victor B-21185-3 – 72099-B), attributed as a composition by N. Kokkinos.
– “Loulouka”, Ioannis Kyriakatis Trio, New York, January 18, 1922 (Victor 26042-2 – 73280-A).
– "Loulouka mou", by Great Choir and Mandolinata, Athens, 1929 (Columbia UK 20646 – 18089), attributed as a composition by Platseos.
– “Loulouka”, G. Fillis – V. Kolatos & Co. [Konstantinos Fillis (clarinet)], Chicago, November 1934 (Columbia USA W 206628 – 56349-F), present recording.
The melody was published as a musical score by the Georgios Fexis publishing house in Athens, as a transcription by Nikolaos Kokkinos, and by the Rallis publishing house in Izmir as a composition by G. Platseas.
The song, in a parody adaptation with different lyrics, was included in the revue "Kinimatografos 1908", written by Polyvios Dimitrakopoulos with music by Nikolaos Kokkinos. The revue, which premiered on June 24, 1908, at the "Syntagma" Theater by Rozalia Nika's troupe, features the song performed by a heroine also named Loulouka. Thodoros Chatzipantazis and Lila Maraka (1977: 221) note the following:
"Dimitrakopoulos borrowed the name Loulouka from the immensely popular love song of the time, which is satirized in the following scene. In the newspaper Akropolis, on June 15, 1908, we read: 'Now is Loulouka’s time of glory. The Zappeion echoes with prima, seconda, and tertia voices praising Loulouka. Guitars and mandolins wear out their strings to soften Loulouka’s heart a little. Even a barrel organ, battered by its owner, age, and the insects nesting inside, attempts to reproduce Loulouka’s melody.'".
The instrumental recording "Luluka (Grtsco Koro)" (Kalyviotis: 2023, 279), made by the Kosta Orchestra for the record label Makedonia (116KA – 605B), is of particular interest. According to the website chereshnitsa.org, the leader of the orchestra, which was active in the 1940s and until the early 1950s in Gary, Indiana, was clarinetist Kosta Apostoloff. He was born in 1899 in Cheresnitsa, Ottoman Empire (now Polykeraso, Kastoria, Greece) and died in Gary, Indiana, in 1957. In addition to the song "Luluka (Grtsco Koro)", seventeen other recordings by the Kosta Orchestra, which were made in Chicago in 1946 or 1947, have survived.
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