Nikos Xylouris, Psarantonis (Antonis Xylouris), Thanassis Skordalos, Kostas Moundakis, Ross Daly, Nikos Zoidakis and Vasilis Skoulas are among the most renowned players of the lýra. It is often accompanied with laouto (which is similar to both an oud and a lute), guitar, violin and (Cretan) mandolin. The Cretan lyra is the dominant folk instrument on the island it is a three-stringed bowed instrument similar to the Byzantine Lyra. The island of Cyprus and several regions of Turkey are home to long-standing communities of Greeks in Turkey with their own unique styles of music. Greek folk music is found all throughout Greece, Cyprus, and several regions of Turkey, as well as among communities in countries like the United States, Canada and Australia. Some notable instrumentalists include clarinet virtuosos like Petroloukas Chalkias, Giorgos Gevgelis and Yiannis Vassilopoulos, as well as laouto and fiddle players like Nikos Saragoudas, Vasilis Kostas and Giorgos Koros. The lyrics are based on dimotiki (folk) poetry (usually by anonymous lyricist) and popular themes are love, marriage, humor, death, nature, water, sea, religious, about klephts, armatoloi, various war fighters or battles etc. Klephtic music is monophonic and uses no harmonic accompaniment.ĭimotika tragoudia are accompanied by clarinets, tambourines, laouto, violins and lyras, and include dance music like syrtó, kalamatianó, tsámiko and hasaposérviko, as well as vocal music like kléftiko. Following the end of the Byzantine period, klephtic music arose before the Greek Revolution, developed among the kleftes, warriors who fought against the Ottoman Empire. Akritic music comes from the 9th century akrites, or border guards of the Byzantine Empire. There are said to be two musical movements in Greek folk music (παραδοσιακή μουσική): Acritic songs and Klephtic songs. Greek folk music traditions are said to derive from the music played by ancient Greeks. This period also brought in the Rebetiko movement, which had local Smyrniote, Ottoman and Byzantine influences.įolk music (dimotiká or demotic) Greek musicians of this period included Marika Papagika, Rosa Eskenazi and Rita Abatzi. The improvised songs typically exclaimed amán amán, which led to the name amanédhes ( αμανέδες amanédes, singular αμανές amanés) or café-aman (καφέ-αμάν). The bands were typically led by a female vocalist and included a violin. īy the beginning of the 20th century, music-cafés (καφέ-σαντάν) were popular in cities like Constantinople and Smyrna, where small groups of musicians from Greece played. They were forms of a mono music that had many elements of ancient Greek origin but also, they had nothing to do with Western polyphonic music. These genres have certainly reached a high degree of evolution. The Greeks were familiar, in this period that stretched from the 15th century to the time of Greek war of independence, with the traditional Greek folk music, elements of the Ottoman music, such as with surviving Byzantine music and more specifically, hymns: Church music. Greek playing tambouras, 18th-century painting Ottoman era However, the diverse history of art music in Greece, which extends from the Cretan Renaissance and reaches modern times, exceeds the aims of the present article, which is, in general, limited to the presentation of the musical forms that have become synonymous to 'Greek music' during the last few decades that is, the 'Greek song' or the 'song in Greek verse' In the 19th century, opera composers, like Nikolaos Mantzaros (1795–1872), Spyridon Xyndas (1812–1896) and Spyridon Samaras (1861–1917) and symphonists, like Dimitris Lialios and Dionysios Rodotheatos revitalized Greek art music. Later influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire changed the form and style of Greek music. Greek musical history extends far back into ancient Greece, since music was a major part of ancient Greek theater. 3.1 Greek operetta and early popular songs.