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”.

There was no previous management model in the early period of discography. Each company creates their own networks, something that will allow them to take a dynamic lead in the market. New specialties and professions are created and new conditions emerge, or the need to update older facts, with the most serious being intellectual property. The latter, until then, concerned mostly printed commercial musical scores and the publishers’ rights. 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 different terms and via new paths. The circulation of musicians is already a reality before the 20th century with theatrical and musical performances tours, but also with the networks of music publishing houses. Although popular repertoires play a very important part in the vital issue of the movement of musical tunes from place to place, and in their appropriation, recording and often complete incorporation into the repertoires of other ethno-cultural groups, scholar musical forms also participate in this transportation network: symphonic or soloistic pieces, arias, duets and trios from all kinds of operas, but also songs by composers such as Schubert, are translated and recorded in other languages, often with diversified orchestral ensembles. “Classical” music, originating mainly from the German-speaking, Italian-speaking and French-speaking world, through the new diffusion tools offered by discography, seek not only to penetrate international markets as a new medium, but to enter, in fact, into people’s own homes.

This recording is an adaptation with Greek lyrics of the song "Ständchen", or "Serenade", for voice and piano, set to music by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert and lyrics by the German poet and music critic Ludwig Rellstab.

It was included, as the fourth song, in the 14-song cycle "Schwanengesang" D 957, to lyrics by Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine, Johann Gabriel Seidl. It was first published on a musical score in 1829, in Vienna, by Tobias Haslinger.

It has been recorded and arranged countless times in many countries’ historical discography, in various forms, languages and locations.

For the performances, see here, here and here, in the database that emerged from Alan Kelly’s research as well as on Yuri Bernikov's archive website.

Some of the earliest performances are the following:

- Ferruccio Giannini, USA, 1898 (Berliner 1920)
- E. Francisco, USA, February, 1900 (Berliner 01006)
- Пѣснь моя летитъ, М.А.Михайлова, Saint Petersburg, 1905 (Gramophone 2852L - 23475)
- Charles D'Almaine - Darius Lyons, Philadelphia, USA, January 2, 1906 (Victor C-2974 - 31493)

A Greek musical score, arranged by G. D. and lyrics by Dim. I., was published in the magazine "Evdomas", by the Georgios Fexis publishing house in 1900, edited by Dionysios Lavragkas, and by the Stefanos Gaitanos publishing house (see here and here).

In Greek historical discography, it was recorded by Michalis Thomakos, Lysandros Ioannidis, Antonis Kalampousis and Marika Papagkika (present cover).

On the front page of the newspaper “To ellinikon theatron” (The Greek Theater) (Year X, no. 185, September 1934), a vignette by Th. [Theofrastos] I. Sakellaridis was published under the title “Schubert”, which referred to, among other things, the Austrian composer's “Serenade”:

“Aristotle says somewhere that dying in Greece is an enviable woe. However, if Aristotle were alive today, he would certainly write that glorification in Greece is the greatest calamity and the most horrible humiliation. An example is the great composer Schubert. As long as his muse flapped her wings around the world, outside of Greece, she was worshiped. But from the moment the song became known in Greece, it became something of a routine. It was danced as a foxtrot and as a tango, it found its way into revues, and it became an act. A motion picture rendered him a ‘popular composer’ and shook him up. ‘Play some Schubert, brother’, shouts to the fiddler the lad who is partying with his cronies in the roadhouse. ‘Hey, Evdokia, did you hear the new waltz that came out in the cinema?’, refugee Maritsa asks in the area of Podarades, meaning the famous serenade. If Countess Esterházy, who had fallen in love with the great composer out of admiration, heard all of this today, oh, how disillusioned would this poor woman be. It’s no small thing to listen to Schubert's songs in a tavern, especially when those are played with a baglamas. In Europe, his peaceful music is considered an immaculate virgin; in Greece, his music bursts out the throat of a certain Katinara and has become a sort of yearning.

But these alone are not enough. There is also the complement of glory (!). Schubert could never have expected that he would have squeezed into the Athenian barrel organs. The day before yesterday, the writer of these lines sat down to rest a little bit in a small café in a narrow street of Plaka, when a barrel organ arrived and started playing Schubert. ‘Gelekaki’, ‘Kalogeraki’, ‘Mia gynaika perase’ and all the other ‘hits’ had given way to his songs. Afterwards, the organ grinder came to me holding out his saucer in order to get paid. I proudly took out and gave him one franc, given that, in our country, Schubert appears to be in need of my franc, and then watched him go to the adjacent tavern to dine. Schubert's menu was a few picarels, some feta and a bit of wine. These were his earnings. What a poor fellow! Before achieving immortality, he didn’t even have any bread to eat and he pawned his clothes. Now, after having achieved it, he's collecting pennies in the narrow streets of Plaka. What an embarrassment glory is in Greece!”

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis