Kleftika

"Kleftika", means kleft-songs. "Kleft" means thief, and

refers to the brave men that lived in the mountains
during the Ottoman occupation, fighting their
oppressors.
These songs originate from Parnassos, the south
Peloponnese and Pindos and were youthful ones about
fighting back, bravity, the klefts lonlieness and the
solitude of shepherds.
To this day, just as then, the songs are sung "kathista",
sitting around a table and they have certain rules:
Each musical turn represents a textline and a half
The beginning of the second textline is thus repeated
twice
eg. "The young lad was yearning freedom, and he said
and he said, let's get together"
Meaningless sounds and consonants are added in the
lyrics
eg. lelele, dididamdamdididididam
Dimotika

The "people's songs", dimotika, are a collective name

for the folksongs sung on the Greek countryside. On
the islands they are called "Nissiotika", island songs.
Something similar you can find in the Italian Cantada
songs, which influenced the people on the Ionian
islands.
Just like in antiquity, these songs have certain dances
and rythms. Even though a Greek may never have
heard the song before, he can tell from the rythm
which dance is appropriate.
Generally, these songs have very strong ancient roots,
and the long dances "syrtos" (long dance) and
"kalamatianos" are to be found on ancient Greek vase
paintings.

Rebetika

Rebetika is sometimes compared to blues music. The

name means "hobo" or "brat" and comes from the
Slavic "rebenok", "youngster".
Rebetika holds elements from all the previous
traditions, and originated amongst unemployed
refugees in the big cities with harbours
Constantinople, Pireus, Smyrna and Thessaloniki.
The songs used to be about drinking and smoking
hash, but this was forbidden during the military
regime in the late sixties/early seventies. Underground
clubs would still go on, but there was always the
danger of getting caught.
During these years the lyrics were slightly modified
and told tales of lost love and a hard life. Today you
can find many rebetika clubs were the old lyrics are
sung once again.
"Outside the gates of Paradise, someone grew two
plants
In time the plants grew, and the angels went wild"

Ancient Greek music

Despite the many recordings that have been made through the years, not much is actually
known of the ancient Greek music. We do know a bit about the musical instruments that
were used, mainly from vase paintings, and from some texts we have descriptions of song
and dance.
Also, in some remote villages there are still songs and dances that have been preserved
through time and tradition.
Music was a very important part of ancient life. At religious ceremonies and other
festivities there were musicians and dancers, and the ancient plays had choirs. The ancient
Greeks said that the dance was invented to honour the goddess Hera. TheNine Muses gave
the gifts of music, dancing and singing to the humans. The muse Calliope gave Man the
most precious instrument: the voice. Apollo was also connected with music, as well
as Orpheus, Pan, Dionysos, Hermes and the Graces.
In ancient Greek education, music was also a main subject, along with reading, writing,
grammar, arithmetic's and athletics etc. Singing was also used as a means of memorizing
and telling odes like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Pythagoras was fascinated with harmony,
and worked out a theory on the math's behind the tones used into modern times.
What must be a characteristic of the ancient music are the Lydian and Phrygian
harmonies, influenced by the eastern civilizations to this very day, as well as the many
half- and quarternotes.
BIZANTINA
During the Byzantine years, the Greek-Orthodox church dominated the music. Even
though the common man still sung and danced, the most prominent feature of this time
was the hymns. No organ but the human voice was allowed, and to this day only singing is
heard in the churches.

The "melos", or tonal and melodic system, was worked out, and now music was put on
paper. The documents with music that have been found from this time are of great
importance for the knowledge of music history.
Many of the melodies used in Orthodox hymns were actually ancient, but the lyrics were
changed and Christian texts replaced the ancient ones. Through this, quite a few ancient
melodies have been preserved.
The Byzantine centre for philosophical and religious studies was in Kappadocia, and here
a special kind of songs were developed. They were folk songs, and are odes about the
Byzantine hero Digenis Akritas. To this day, these oldest living songs in Greece are still
sung on Rhodes and Crete.
The bouzouki was used widely, and in many churches the instrument is pictured.