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. 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 this type of repertoire is the recording "Jaleli", a re-release of the record 1-53217 by Favorite.

Starting from the Turkish-speaking repertoire, we also found the tune in the song "Ya muallim ya muallim" (Sahibinin Sesi AX-1191), which was recorded around 1930, in Istanbul, by Karındaş Mahmut Bey. The tune found in the recording "Lalanın Eğlenceleri" (Columbia W.T. 2121 - 18545 and Columbia G.G. 1024), which contains an excerpt (from 1′ 00″ to the end) from a Turkish play. It took place in Istanbul, in 1930, by actor Komik Hasan Efendi (Kel Hasan Efendi) and E. Dedeoğlou, accompanied by an İnce Saz (Turkish style orchestra). It was also recorded under the title "Ya muallim", in Istanbul, between 1947–1956, by Şükrü Tunar (clarinet), Ahmet Yatman (qanun), Şerif İçli (oud), Ali Kocadinç (darbuka) for Balkan (Balkan 4025-B – 4025-B).

However, the tune can also be found in the Armenian repertoire that was recorded in America. Around 1927, Edward Bogosian (Եդուարդ Պօղոսեան) and the Gulazian Orchestra recorded "Pessan Zokanchin Kove" (Փեսան զոքանչին քովը) in New York for the label Pharos (P 322 – 549). The phrase in question can be heard after 2′ 20″.

The tune can also be found in the Arab repertoire that was recorded in America. More specifically, in the 1940s, an unknown orchestra recorded, probably in New York, the song "Raks el Badou" (رقص إل بدو, Dance of the Bedouins), for of Alamphon (A-2020-1 - A-2020), owned by the Syrian Farid Alam al-Din (فريد علم الدين).

In the Greek historical discography, the tune is found in two songs of exotic content, under the titles "Xelogiastra" and "Mousme", which come from the same number of operettas presented in the 1920s.

The song "Xelogiastra" (see here) from the three-act operetta "I despoinis Sorolop" (Miss Laziness) by Theofrastos Sakellaridis. The play premiered on July 28, 1924 (and not on the 27th, as stated in the musical score, see I vradyni newspaper, Year A', issue No. 279, 28/8/1924, page 3) by the Fotis Samartzis - Nikos Miliadis troupe, at the Alhambra Τheater. Initially, the lead role of Miss Sorolop (that is, Miss Laziness) was performed by Afroditi Laoutari and from September 18 onwards by Olympia Kantioti-Ritsiardi.

Seven covers of the song have been released:
– "Xelogiastra", by Mrs Zafeiropoulou and the Karatzas Orchestra, recorded in Athens, 1925 (Odeon Go-116 – A 154095)
– "Xelogiastra", by Giorgos Vidalis, recorded in Athens, 1925 (Odeon Go72-2 – A154063)
– "Xelogiastra", by Tetos Dimitriadis, recorded in New York, October 1925 (Columbia 105964 – 7023-F)
– "I xelogiastra", by Eleni Vlachopoulou, O. Kokkinos and an orchestra, recorded in Athens, March 11, 1926 (HMV BJ 307-1 – AO-133/7-14222)
– "I xelogiastra", by Eleni Vlachopoulou, O. Kokkinos and an orchestra, recorded in Athens, March 11, 1926 (HMV BJ 307-2 – AO-134/7-14223)
– "I xelogiastra", by a choir and an orchestra conducted by Angelos Martinos, recorded in Athens, probably in 1927 (Polydor V-45154)
– "Xelogiastra", by Antonis Delendas, recorded in Athens, probably in 1934 (Odeon GA 1723)

The other song, "Mousme" (see here), comes from the 1925 revue "Protevousiana" (big-city girl/woman) by Aimilios Dragatsis, Antonis Vottis and Grigoris Konstantinidis, which premiered on June 23, 1925 at the Kentrikon Τheater, in Athens, by the Alekos Gonidis troupe.

Five covers of the song can be found in historical discography:
– "Mousme", by Giorgos Vidalis Trio and Jazz Band, recorded in Athens in 1925 (Odeon Gο 83 – GA-1006/A 154065)
– "I Mousme", by Soso Chalkiopoulou and G. Stone with his orchestra, recorded in Chicago in 1927 (Greek Record Company 4942-1 – A-533)
– "Mousme", by a choir and an orchestra under the direction of Angelos Martino, recorded in Athens in 1927 (Polydor V 45162)
– "Mouzme", by the Athinaiki Estudiantina (Athenian Estudiantina), recorded in Athens in 1928 ((Homocord Τ.Μ. 775 – G. 4-32023)
– "Mousme", by Maria Karela and Spyros Stamos with his orchestra, recorded in New York on October 23, 1941 (Columbia CO4028 – 7217-F).

The number of covers of the above songs undoubtedly reflects the tune's popularity.

We should mention that the "conversations"  between “national” repertoires are also found in the performing arts. After all, the inextricable relation between music and performing arts is more than vital. The theater, in its various froms, traffics music on its own terms and plays a key role in diffusing it to places that are often far away. It also builds a special network that communicates with discography. Within this network, already existing tendencies and aesthetic currents are often created or integrated, such as exoticism (see here), especially during the period when the phenomenon of sound recording and reproduction takes on commercial, mass and universal dimensions.

The above recordings characteristically outline this dialectical, multi-layered relationship between between the various “national” repertoires, the performing arts and aesthetic trends and currents, as their melody, or part of it, is also found in other nodes of a complex and wide cultural network.

Research and text: George Evangelou, Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis