GREEK MUSIC WILL FILL THE AIR…
Everywhere in Greece one finds music - old music, new music, sacred music – sounds from traditional instruments such as the santouri, the lyra and everywhere one finds a people entranced by melody and rhythm. The white marble Parthenon, completed in 432 B.C. echoed some of the world’s earliest-known music. Before the days of Homer, solitary shepherds played the gentle floguera - a sound heard even today in the stillness of the lonely hills of Attica. - In rural Greece music virtually fills the air. There are songs for washing, sowing, harvesting –there are love songs, lullabies, laments.

The musical legacy of the Orthodox Church evolved in the great days of the Byzantine Empire - Byzantine chanting is full of melody and harmony. Most of the chants were composed between 300 and 700A.D. by ecclesiastical music leaders such a St. John Chrysostom and St. John of Damascus.

The folk music of Greece claims a history both long and checkered. Popular music commonly known as bouzouki music—possesses unique characteristics and existed in certain parts of Greece and in the vast Hellenic settlements of Constantinople and Smyrna prior to the 20th century. The three-stringed version of the bouzouki brought about the traditional “rembetiko” sound.

The Greeks’ unfailing pride and sense of freedom are so strong that, through the ages, they have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to assimilate any foreign musical influence and make it truly their own. The emotions of the Greek people show through their dances and the music which is “the soul of Greece.”

For centuries, Greek songs with their insistent rhythms have lured listeners to dance – to celebrate happy occasions, to bond together in wartime and even express loneliness. Very few nations in the world have the musical variety of Greece. Every region every island has its own form of traditional music, musical instruments, dances, costumes and customs. There are as many types of music in Greece as there are villages each more colorful then the other.

There are hundreds of traditional Greek folk dances. Cretan dances are proud and vigorous. The dances of the plains of Thessaly are controlled and composed, and some mountain people dance with wide steps and leaps. Every traditional Greek costume is a unity of garment and accessories, characteristic of a group of people who live in a region of Greece.

The following dances are common at Greek/American festivities, our festival included:

• Sirtos – believed to be the oldest dance with many variations.
• Kalamatianos – derived from the sirtos and declared the Greek national dance.
• Tsamikos - “Independence dance” – from the rugged mountains of Northern Greece dates back to the War of Independence in 1821.