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”.

Based on Martin Schwartz’s extremely interesting comments in "Klezmer Music, Early Yiddish Intrumental Music, The First Recordings: 1908-1927" (Arhoolie Folklyric CD 7034), the tune of the recording comes from the Ashkenazis' (Yiddish) Jewish repertoire of Eastern Europe, and is probably known as sirba in Western Moldavia but also in Western Ukraine, where it was often played together with the dance tune "Khosn-kale Mazltov" (see for example here).

The recording was made in Constantinople (Istanbul) around 1912 by the Orfeon Orchestra, about which little information is known. The orchestra recorded Greek pieces, such as "Kalamatianos" (Orfeon 623 – 10428), Turkish marches and operettas, such as "Ismir Marche" (Orfeon 10439) and the instrumental songs "Leblebidji Horhor I" (Orfeon 617 – 10424) and "Leblebidji Horhor IΙ" (Orfeon 618 – 10425), Jewish tunes, like the one of the present recording. We should also note that in the 1912-1913 catalog of the Turkish company Orfeon, in which it is listed as a "Greek orchestra" with eighteen recordings in nine records, the orchestra's repertoire includes other musical genres, such as the Neapolitan song "Ta mavra matia sou (Waltz)" (see here) and the French "Karolina (Polka)" (see here) on record under number 220. Also note the songs "Voskopoula A!" (Orfeon 214/10420), "Voskopoula B!" (Orfeon 214/10421) and "Sirmpa Voulgariki» (Orfeon 626 – 217/10440).

The earliest recording of the tune in question is entitled "Konstantinopolish". It was made in Hanover, probably in January 1911, by the Russisch-Jüdiske Orchester (Favorite 2383-b – 1-72083 and reissue by Columbia USA 72083 – E6024). On April 4, 1913 it was recorded in New York by the Abe Elenkrig's Yiddish Orchestra as "Yidelakh briderlakh (אידעלאך ברידערלאך)" (Columbia USA 38755 – E1391).

The tune seems to communicate with the song "Evraiopoula" by Panagiotis Tountas. It was recorded in Athens, on December 9, 1929, by Dimitris Christodoulou ("Evraiopoula", His Master's Voice BW 3070 – AO 599), and in 1930 by Giorgos Vidalis ("Evraiopoula", Odeon Go 1633 – GA 1461 / A 190286b). The Odeon recording includes a dialogue between Giorgos Vidalis speaking Greek and Roza Eskenazy responding in Ladino, that is, the Spanish-Hebrew dialect of Sephardic Jews.

The recording "Bulgarsko", made in 1948-1949, in the USA, by the Elo Kalkoff Orchestra for Elinden Records, is of particular interest. The clarinetist Elo Kalkoff or Elia Calcoff was born in the village of Visheny (today Vyssinia or Vyssinea of the Municipality of Kastoria, in Greece), in 1891, and died in 1962 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the USA (see here). In addition, on the website Библиотека "Струмски", where 14 recordings of Elo Kalkoff's orchestra are posted, it is mentioned that he was a member of the MPO (Macedonian Patriotic Organization).

In addition to discography, the tune is also found in historical music recordings. In particular, Wolff Kostakowsky included it in the book International Hebrew Wedding Music, published in New York in 1916. Title of the registration: "Bulgar #8" (page 29). In addition, in 1920, it was handwritten in a musical score by Joseph Frankel as "Konstantinopolish" (see here).

The choice of the Greek language on the label of the record reveals both the audience to whom the recording is addressed and the cultural relations of the Greek-speaking world with the Jewish element. Syncretism, which is observed in the musical actualizations of the areas where Greeks lived and recorded, mainly in the area of folk-popular traditions, is monumental. It only takes one to listen to historical discography, which begins in New York, Smyrna (Izmir), Constantinople (Istanbul), Athens and Thessaloniki since 1900. An essential part of this syncretism concerns the Jews, who constitute one of the main conduits in the uniquely diverse cultural heritage of the Greek-speaking world. They borrow and lend, but they also carry more distant traditions from the places where they have previously lived and the places they have traveled to. They are the central interlocutors in the Greek and Ottoman ecumene, together with Turkish-speaking Muslims, Orthodox but also Catholic Greek-speaking and Armenians, Levantine Protestants, Europeans and Americans, and compose a rich musical mosaic which consists of heterogeneous but co-existent palimpsests: a reservoir to which everyone contributes but from which also everyone receives.

The sources show the timeless existence of a Jewish element, at least since the Hellenistic period, in areas that millennia later formed the modern Greek state. After the “Edict of Milan” in 313 AD and the gradual Christianization of the Eastern Empire, the Jewish element found itself in a difficult position. The Jewish populations that have since been established in these lands became known as Romaniote Jews (or “Romaniotes”’ Rome – Romios). Their historical geographical center of reference was the city of Ioannina, and they speak Greek with various linguistic mixtures. After 1492 and the “Alhambra Decree” by the joint Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, those Jews who did not accept to embrace Christianity were expelled from the Iberian peninsula. They became known as the Sepharadi Jews (or “Sepharadim”), one of the largest Jewish ethno-cultural categorizations (Sepharad in Jewish texts is referred to as the region of present-day Spain). Thessaloniki was one of the main destination points of this displacement, as the ties with the city were older and already close. Apart from the role played by the Greek Jews in the musical developments on the Greek peninsula, there were also important mutual influences between the Greek-speaking Orthodox and the Jews in various other areas where the two communities lived together. As, for example, in Odessa, with the Eastern Ashkenazi Jews, who mainly speak Yiddish, a sui generis Semitic-Slavic language (in Jewish texts, the Kingdom of Ashkenaz, a descendant of Noah, is connected with north-eastern European territories). Their orchestral repertoire is often called klezmer. In other words, apart from the geographical limits of the modern Greek state, the cultural conversations between the Greek Orthodox and the Jews also concern other parts of the world, both in Europe and America, where they met as immigrants.

The recording was released by the record label Orfeon, for which Aristomenis Kalyviotis mentions the following (2002: 109-110): "Orfeon (Blumenthal Record and Talking Machine Co Ltd), owned by brothers Herman and Julius Blumenthal, began its recording production in late 1910 and early 1911 in Constantinople (Istanbul), where it also owned a record factory. The Blumenthal brothers, before opening Orfeon, were Odeon's representatives in Constantinople (Istanbul). On the labels of the company's records, the brand 'Orfeos Record' or the Greek 'Orfeion' appears many times instead of 'Orfeon Record'. Its repertoire included many Greek songs."

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis