Greek song in the 19th and 20th century

This collection of songs for voice and piano contains approximately 6000 titles, with almost half of them purchased from a single collector, while the remaining 3000 songs have been embodied from many different sources such as donations, flea markets and secondhand bookshops. The important element of this collection is that through its content we can observe the evolution of Greek song from the 19th century until today, something that closely relates to the historical outline of Greece.

This resulted to a closer connection with the western spirit and the ability to absorb western influence. In the field of music, one can observe that there has been a close connection with the Italian popular element that was mainly expressed in the genre of melodrama. Melodramatic companies toured in the Ionian Islands and audiences had the opportunity to listen to popular arias from Italian operas.

Athens, on the other hand, was small and poor, with limited artistic life. However, with the enthronement of King Otto and the establishment of various cultural societies something seemed to be changing. He proclaimed Athens as the capital of Greece and established a university, a bank and a military band. The new capital was struggling to transform from being a small town into a metropolis according to Western Europe standards.

The only disadvantage was the language that did not allow the Greek public to fully identify with the sound. The adaptation of Greek verses to well-known arias by important poets of the time came as a rescue to fill the gap.

The musical cultivation of the Heptanese composers combined with the creation of the Athens Conservatory, which first laid the foundations for the domestic production of professional musicians, formed the backbone on which the Athenian song was later based.

Composers such as Dimitrios Rodios, Timotheos Xanthopoulos and Nikolaos Kokkinos, wrote melodies that were loved by the world, while poets such as Ioannis Polemis, George Drosinis and Alexandros Rangavis wrote original Greek lyrics, praising joy, love and nature.

For the first time the Greek song, combining Italian influences with folk elements, began to shape its own identity and became popular. The two main types were an italian canzonetta-style and the “kantada”, which actually was a polyphonic song.

This “light music” was comprised of songs in styles that were only found in foreign countries and in genres such as tango, fox trot, rumba, etc. Greek composers started writing their own melodies on patterns that did not have much resemblance to folk or other popular music types. Light music moved from  theatre to nightclubs, bars and tavernas with music.

In later years, the musical elements introduced to the Athenian Variété, were described as “light” or even “European music” in order to significantly differentiate from other genres such as rebetiko, the urban songs of lower class people, a genre that was heavily influenced by the populations arriving to Greece just after 1922 and the Minor Asia Destruction.

Along with the Athenian Variété, operetta was one of the most popular types of music. It is a fact that the variété was eventually taken over by the operetta world and during the 1920s operetta conquered and extinguished it.

Unfortunately, the reign of the Greek operetta was meant to be short and the nadir point seems to be around 1928. Nevertheless, composers seemed to be rather productive since It has been estimated that around 1000 operettas have been composed through these years. The most popular songs deriving from these operettas were heard in unconventional places such as tavernas and these were printed in sheet music form. 

From 1930 onwards, one can observe a significant change. Now music could be diffused through the new technologies available. The new developments in discography brought a change to the music world.

Composers of that time, and especially those writing light music, had to move towards a new genre called “arhontorebetiko” which was a mixture of Rebetiko music but with lyrics and meanings that did not hesitate with the ones used in authentic Rebetiko, which were thought to be decadent. 

This means that types like: laika (urban popular music) and elafrolaika (light urban popular music where bouzouki is the primary instrument) are being introduced. Even art music composers venture to write these types of music, for example Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hadjidakis and others.