THE GREEK MUSIC
Urban & modern music
From Linear B to ancient Greek and from there to a multitude of different dialects to today's modern Greek, the Greek language has proven that it is a living dynamic language, one of the few in the world that presents a homogeneous evolution and is a rare phenomenon in the linguistic history of the human race because it is spoken for thousands of years without interruption.
The modern Greek language preserves the ancient writing and spelling of words and 75% of its vocabulary is based on the ancient Greek language.
Approximately 28,000 English words, including keywords such as idea, theory, system, analysis, synthesis, category, hierarchy, method, hypothesis, myth, poetry, drama, music, harmony, politics, democracy, thence, machine, episteme, psyche, Eros, ecclesia, Christ, Europe, theology, etc. are all words of the Greek language
It is a language with unique virtues: it has expressiveness, flexibility, synthetic power, and the productive ability to produce and compose new words according to needs.
Considering that the Greek language evolved and was enriched with words and expressions from the ever-changing everyday life, the history and tradition consist of elements that have been preserved until today, rendering it the most important means of genuine expression of the Greek Culture.
In the spoken language, quotations of popular wisdom are idiomatic expressions, proverbs, proverbial phrases, which were and are widely used by the people, so much so that they have long ceased to be distinguished from the everyday phrases of the basic body of the language or to constitute a criterion of knowledge. They have penetrated deep into the core of the Greek language, were incorporated, assimilated and became one with it.
The contents of the pages of the site concerning the Greek language provide information on learning sounds, words, and phrases for basic everyday oral communication in the modern Greek language, and collections of phrases of popular wisdom, riddles, etc. which are listed with the corresponding historical/laographic information.
All the information provided is the result of personal experience, involvement, research and recording, by a native speaker who is passionate about the Greek language. It is neither a scientific study nor, of course, a complete guide for the systematic and complete learning of the Greek language.
The purpose is enjoyable learning about the cultural aspects of the modern greek language as a communication tool.
Rebetiko
Rembetika is the plural of rembetiko. Rembetiko is beyond a genre of music; rather it is a state of mind. Culture, tradition and expression of social concerns are combined to form the lines and ideas behind the rembetiko song.
The rebetiko song, a kind of urban song, was born in the economically and culturally developed Smyrna of Asia Minor from around the middle of the 19th century.
With a musical style that bears influences from the West and the East, the songs created from the mid-19th century to 1922 spread rapidly wherever there were Greeks.
Thus, focuses were created in Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Alexandria and among Greek immigrants in America.
After the 1922 occupation and destruction of Smyrna, the refugees who sought shelter in Greece, along with their few suitcases and memories, also brought with them their culture and music.
This is the reason why rembetiko started expanding through Greece’s main ports, such as Piraeus and Thessaloniki, Volos and Syros, and around 1930 the dawn of rembetiko had begun.
The history of rebetiko music in Greece goes through 2 phases :
From 1922 to 1945, it is the first phase of the arrival and fusion of the music of the refugees with the local culture.
From 1945 to 1953 is the second phase as a fourth string is added to the bouzouki by the great bouzouki player Manolis Chiotis.
The themes of the first rebetiko songs include mainly love songs (as in all music) but also songs of a more macho nature (e.g. prison songs, drugs).
People would gather in small taverns with a few musical instruments and, along with a glass of wine, would openly express their pain, fears and nostalgia for the past. Although these individuals were homesick, a sense of hopefulness still resonated within their songs which speak about friendship, immigration and fate.
In 1936 Metaxas' dictatorship begins and censorship is imposed. The content of the rebetiko songs necessarily changes. The references to hashish, dive bars and hookahs disappear.
With the declaration of war in 1940, several rebetiko songs were written for the war, while with the German occupation in 1941, the factories of the record companies were closed and recordings stopped until 1946.
With the declaration of war in 1940, several rebetiko songs were written for the war, while with the German occupation in 1941, the factories of the record companies were closed and recordings stopped until 1946.
After the liberation, rebetiko begins to be appreciated as a popular music of wide acceptance and comes out of the margins.
New singers appear and it retains its original form until the mid-50s, when it gives way to a newer form, the so-called archontorebetiko, which paved the way for the wider acceptance of the musical genre and the later folk song.
In the 1960s, the era of the "first revival" of rebetiko begins, where older hits are re-recorded, studies and anthologies of songs are published, as well as biographies of rebetiko, while several new recordings are made.
Musical instruments and orchestra
The rebetiko was played with musical instruments that existed in each region.
In Constantinople and Smyrna it was played by violin and santouri, in Piraeus by bouzouki and baglama and sometimes improvised musical instruments were used (kompoloi, glasses etc)
The rebetiko orchestras included various other instruments such as the guitar and the mandolin but the instrument that characterizes rebetiko music is the baglama. Because of its small size it could easily be carried hidden, in prisons or in places where music and rebetika songs were forbidden.
Rembetis or mangas: a very particular soul
Rembetis refers to a person who embraces the whole lifestyle of rembetiko, also known as a mangas (pronounced [ˈma(ŋ)ɡas]). The rembetis lifestyle included a very particular code: wearing hats and growing mustaches, verbal mannerisms – such as cursing, using short phrases and slang words – and overall having different morals and ethics from mainstream Greek society.
Rembetes, (plural of rembetis) were generally lower working class people with often destructive habits, such as drinking, smoking, gambling and drug use. The following song represents the mangas lifestyle. Its use of language is difficult to understand, even today.
Rembetis refers to a person who embraces the whole lifestyle of rembetiko generally lower working class people with often destructive habits, such as drinking, smoking, gambling and drug use. Its use of language is difficult to understand, even today.
Famous rebetiko performers and songs