(MUSIC VIDEO) AN OVERVIEW OF TRADITIONAL GREEK INSTRUMENTS

Lovers of Greek music are in for a treat! Our Iranian-Canadian music theorist, Farya Faraji (YouTube channel) is back with more commentary on 'real Greek music' and his usual critique of what we like to call Helletism. He's in Chicago of all places to talk and play a plethora of traditional instruments with Dimitris Dallas (YouTube channel), who is of Greek descent and was able to keep large parts of the culture. Dallas has accumulated any musical instrument you can think of from all parts of the former homeland, be it Thrace, Epirus, the Aegean islands, Crete, the Dodecanese or parts of Asia Minor. 

Sep. 12, 2024 Farya Faraji: Greek Music's Instruments - feat. Dimitris Dallas.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro 

03:09 Bagpipes and reeds 

16:19 Flutes and clarinet 

21:00 Bowed instruments 

35:00 Lutes 

47:20 Kanonaki and santouri 

51:20 Percussions 

55:10 Context of Greek music 

58:55 Regional diversity 

59:46 Rythmic patterns 

1:02:10 It's always changing 

1:03:21 Pitch in the modal traditions 

1:06:20 Westernisation and revival

PDF on Westernization of Greek Music (link). 

As we were commemorating on Sep. 2 the passing of Mikis Theodorakis three years ago (link) and chancing on a playlist of a concert last year conducted by Christos Leontis (link) it occurred to me that the composers of Helletism are a passing generation.

Culture is of course a living thing if it is done in the right way. As Farya and Dimitri also note, there are signs the younger generation is reverting to earlier musical instruments and styles. Here's an example. 

July 4, 2021 Live Stage Web Project: Best of "Νύχτες Μαγικές" | Καραπατάκη, Ελληνίδου, Μαργιόλα, Παπαβασιλείου (The Best of Magic Nights). 

Farya's earlier videos on Greek music are always worth revisiting (link). 

Post on Rebetika (link), including a link to the movie "Rebetiko" with compositions from another famous (semi) Helletist, Stavros Xarchakos (IMDb) (link). 

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