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 network in which the Greek-speaking urban popular song participates, constantly conversing with its co-tenants, is 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 song "O giatros".

Starting from Greek discography, the tune was recorded under various titles in Chicago, New York, New Jersey and Athens. For example:

- “O giatros”, Amalia Vaka, Chicago, 1923-1924 (Greek Record Company 459 - B 505)
- “Ach, giatre mou!”, Marika Papagkika, New York, ca June 1923 (Columbia 89301-2 - E-9065)
- “O giatros”, Giorgos Katsaros (Theologitis), Camden, New Jersey, March 3, 1928 (Victor CVE 40361 – 68980), present recording
- “Ach, giatre mou”, Marika Papagkika, New York, 1928-1929 (Columbia 56166-F)
- “Echo nterti”, Rita Ampatzi, Athens, 1934 (Odeon GO 1941 – GA-1705)
- “Ach giatre mou”, Virginia Magkidou, New York, 1940's (Metropolitan 157B)

Below are some examples from the historical discography of Turkish repertoire:

- “Aman doktor", Hanende İbrahim Efendi ve Rıza Bey, Constantinople (Istanbul), 1912 (Orfeon 12668)
- “Aman Doctor (Sheba canto)”, Tom Stathis (Kirkilissiotis), New York, ca June 1921 (Columbia 87589 - E-7364)
- “Aman doctor kantosu”, Bayan Sarah Behar, probably New York, 1940's (Metropolitan 2009A)
- “Doktor (Mendilimin Yeşili)”, Perihan Altındağ Sözeri, Turkey, 1955 (Sahibinin Sesi OTB 2158 - AX-2598)

The song, however, seems to be also well known in the Turkish-speaking Armenian repertoire:

- “Aman doktor” (Աման տօքթօր), Mgrdich Douzjian (Մկրտիչ Տիւզճեան), New York, ca 1927 (Pharos P. 544)
- “Doktor”, Bogos Kirecciyan (Պօղոս Քիրէջճեան) with Şükrü Tunar (clarinet), Udi Hrant Kenkulian (oud), Ahmet Yatman (qanun), H. Tatliyay (violin), Ali Kocadinc (darabuka), Istanbul, 1953-1954 (Balkan 4018-Β)

Τhe recording of “Aman doktor”, probably manufactured by RCA-Victor (QB-6361-1B-D8 – D8QB-6364 – No. 8), made in 1948, in the USA, by the Kime Nanchoff Orchestra is of particular interest. As mentioned on the website Библиотека "Струмски", where 24 recordings of the orchestra are posted, the clarinetist Kime Nanchoff (Киме Нанчов, 1902-1993) was born in the village of Kriveni, located in the Resensko Municipality of North Macedonia, and he was a prominent Macedonian-Bulgarian musician and MPO activist (Macedonian Patriotic Organization). For more about Nanchoff see here.

In America where most of these recordings took place “national” repertoires live a new, parallel life. This situation is not static and, to a large extent, is molded by discography, which attends to and “tunes” the overlapping relationships that have already developed in the “Old World”. Repertoires communicate with each other once again; a familiar and already dynamic condition in Europe. The circulation of musics is 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. This time, the network is adjusted in a programmatic manner, under new terms and via new paths.

The label of the record reads "Rebetiko". Often, in the glossary of rebetophiles, the term "rebetiko" is identified with very specific specifications. Rebetiko has been identified with the city-port of Piraeus, and its emblem is the bouzouki. On the other hand, rebetiko from Smyrna [Izmir] ("Smyrneiko rebetiko") is also often mentioned, either as a categorization of the genre, or as its precursor. And yet, historical discography, that is, the records that began to be produced from the end of the 19th century all over the world with primitive equipment and techniques, reveals a different reality. The research in this archival material of historical discography reveals that the term "rebetiko" began to be printed on the labels of the records around 1912, in Greek recordings that took place in Constantinople. So far, at least 80 recordings that are labeled with the term have been identified. There are two impressive facts: on the one hand, these recordings took place in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. Markos Vamvakaris started recording in Athens in 1933. So, his own recording career cannot be that easily and exclusively identified with the term. On the contrary, the word "rebetiko" began to disappear from labels after 1933. On the other hand, when listening to the musical works labeled as "rebetika", one might be surprised. None of these recordings contain a bouzouki. In addition, a part of the musical works is not oriented towards the East. Overall, the findings so far concern recordings made in Constantinople, Athens, New York and Chicago. It seems that the term was rather an invention of discography, of that early sound industry, whose decisions determined many times the developments regarding this historical repertoire and the way in which it reached us.

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis