Babo-Vagia Grammenidou

(1903-1987). Babo-Vagia (old woman Vagia) Grammenidou came from the village of Karoti in Didymoteicho. Domna Samiou met her in 1976, and babo-Vagia gave her information on the local customs. She sang the songs Saint John, One Easter day one Sunday, Alexander and the king.

In the TV program Musical Travelogue with Domna Samiou – Thrace, Evros (ΕΡΤ – 1977), babo-Vagia sang the song Alexander and the king.

Songs

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  • SongThraceEvros, KarotiHistorical Song, National Legends and Laments

Alexander and the King

  • Αλέξαντρος κι βασιλιάς ⬥ Alexander, bré amán amán, Alexander and the king, Alexander brave and strong and little Constantine. They ate together, bré amán amán, they ate and drank together, Alexander brave and strong, and feasted and revelled together. And as they ate and as they drank and as they revelled they [...]
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  • SongThraceEvros, KarotiFable Song (Ballad)

One Easter Day, One Sunday

(The Sinner)

  • Μια Πασχαλιά, μια Κυριακή ⬥ One Easter Day, one Sunday, on a holy day, my little bird, a mother was adorning her son one Saturday from dawn to dusk, readying him for church on Sunday morn. Everybody went, hands reverently crossed, and I went, too, eyes tight shut. The congregation [...]
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  • SongThraceEvros, KarotiFor Saint John of Kledon, Ritual Song

Saint John

  • Αγιόγιαννης ⬥ Saint John’s herb Saint John’s herb with its short black leaves. Two herbs fell out over which smelled the finest. Basil smells fine which grows in ditches and the rose, too, that sprout from thorns, and the stinkweed, too, its stench fills the plains. Get thee back, stinkweed, [...]
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Records

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  • AlbumCD, Digital release2008Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Folk Fables in Song

In fables, fragments of ancient myths are preserved. On this CD, Domna Samiou & her collaborators sing tales of the fabulous and the fantastic combining the real world with the supernatural and narrating stories, often tragic, which might once have occurred – or could do so one day – however […]
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  • AlbumCD, Digital release2006Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

Of Nature and of Love

Through these songs, Domna Samiou pays tribute to how man, in years gone by, worshipped nature as the measure of ultimate beauty, order and harmony, and treated it with awe rather than with the destructive fury of today. The down-to-earth love of nature in these folk songs doesn’t derive from […]
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  • AlbumCD, Digital release2007Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association

The Great North Wind and Other Traditional Songs for Children

‘The Great North Wind ….’ is Domna Samiou’s second CD dedicated to her ‘young friends’. One of Domna’s main concerns is that, unless children are initiated in music, these songs will gradually disappear as time goes by. This CD is a good companion to those who want to offer their […]
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