Kaneloriza

This CD includes songs and tunes in ‘7 beats to the bar’ (the rhythm of kalamatianos dances) and in ‘9 beats to the bar’ (the rhythm of zeibekikos and karsilamas dances) with lyrics and melodies both erotic and sorrowful.

Production: Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association
Year of release: 1995
Type: CD, Digital release

Texts

The idea of producing this collection has been running through my mind for some time. It contains tunes and songs in 7/8 rhythm, to which all syrtós and kalamatianós dances are performed as well as songs in 9/8 rhythm, that accompanies zeimbékikos and karsilamás dances.

The songs that are sung and danced throughout Greece to those two rhythms are indeed beyond numbers. Not surprisingly, therefore, that most of the eleven songs recorded for this collection are generally unknown. The verses are old and about erotic love, the sore at heart, the sensitive lover, and so on. I thought, what a pity it would be if they were lost and young people would not learn of them.

I was concerned to present in their entirety the songs, whose many verses relate a story, in contrast to the regrettable habit commonplace today of singing only the first two or three verses and thus destroying the unity and sense of the song. For I believe that through the verses of our demotic songs we can turn back the pages to another age and get to know the poetry, the deeper feelings of the people of those times, and so understand their way of living and their way of thinking.

Also, I have tried to render the songs in their original form with the musical characteristics of the region where they first were sung.

I fervently entreat those who wish to sing those songs to show the respect they deserve.

Domna Samiou December 1995

Translated by John Leatham

Collaborators

Production team

Domna Samiou (Research, Collection, Musical supervision)Socrates Sinopoulos (Assistant musical supervisor)Tasia Papanikolaou (Production assistant)

Sound team

Kostas Prikopoulos (Sound engineer)Yannis Smyrnaios (Sound engineer)Petros Siakavellas (Sound editing)Yannis Smyrnaios (Sound editing)

Booklet team

John Leatham (English translation)Dimitra Toulatou (Text Editing)Lika Florou (Design and layout)

Singers

Domna Samiou (So, I Decided I’d Become…, There Are Hearts That Laugh, Do Not Nurture Any Doubts, Kanelóriza, Vassilo Kalamatiani, My Aching Breast, Sokiani, To Whom Then Shall I Tell My Woe, This Lovely Summer…, )

Choir

Domna Samiou Greek Folk Music Association Choir (D’You Hear the Water-Mills, You, Sweet Lass, )

Musicians

Clarinet

Nikos Philippidis (Sokiani, D’You Hear the Water-Mills, Vassilo Kalamatiani, You, Sweet Lass, Kanelóriza, There Are Hearts That Laugh, Karsilamas Dance, Karsilamas Dance, Dance Tune, )Petros Athanasopoulos-Kalyvas (Do Not Nurture Any Doubts, )

Flute

Nikos Philippidis (Mandilatos, )

Violin

Stathis Koukoularis (Sokiani, D’You Hear the Water-Mills, Kanelóriza, Karsilamas Dance, Karsilamas Dance, )Yiorgos Marinakis (Vassilo Kalamatiani, You, Sweet Lass, There Are Hearts That Laugh, Dance Tune, Mandilatos, )Nikos Oikonomidis (Do Not Nurture Any Doubts, )

Constantinopolitan lyra

Socrates Sinopoulos (To Whom Then Shall I Tell My Woe, So, I Decided I’d Become…, )

Kanun

Thanassis Stergiou (To Whom Then Shall I Tell My Woe, Kanelóriza, Karsilamas Dance, So, I Decided I’d Become…, )

Tambouras

Pericles Papapetropoulos (To Whom Then Shall I Tell My Woe, So, I Decided I’d Become…, )

Constantinopolitan lute

Socrates Sinopoulos (This Lovely Summer…, Sokiani, D’You Hear the Water-Mills, My Aching Breast, You, Sweet Lass, Kanelóriza, There Are Hearts That Laugh, Karsilamas Dance, Karsilamas Dance, Dance Tune, Mandilatos, )

Saz

Pericles Papapetropoulos (This Lovely Summer…, My Aching Breast, )

Santur

Vassilis Soukas (Do Not Nurture Any Doubts, )

Oud

Haig Yazdjian (To Whom Then Shall I Tell My Woe, So, I Decided I’d Become…, )Joanna Andrews (Do Not Nurture Any Doubts, )

Lute

Kostas Philippidis (This Lovely Summer…, Sokiani, D’You Hear the Water-Mills, Vassilo Kalamatiani, You, Sweet Lass, Kanelóriza, Do Not Nurture Any Doubts, There Are Hearts That Laugh, Karsilamas Dance, Karsilamas Dance, Dance Tune, Mandilatos, )

Goblet drum

Yiorgos Gevgelis (This Lovely Summer…, Sokiani, D’You Hear the Water-Mills, Vassilo Kalamatiani, You, Sweet Lass, Kanelóriza, There Are Hearts That Laugh, Karsilamas Dance, Karsilamas Dance, Dance Tune, Mandilatos, )Andreas Pappas (Do Not Nurture Any Doubts, )

Bendir (frame drum)

Vangelis Karipis (To Whom Then Shall I Tell My Woe, My Aching Breast, So, I Decided I’d Become…, )

Informant (source of the song)

Stratis Chiropaídis (This Lovely Summer…, To Whom Then Shall I Tell My Woe, )

References

  • PublicationsVassilis Angelikopoulos01/03/1996MagazineDifono

When they used to build with the materials from the ruined temples

  • Restoration or renovation? ⬥ Publication on the occasion of the release of the album Kaneloriza, extracts Restoration or renovation? It is probably a false dilemma. Not that there is no dispute as to how we should treat our traditional music and songs. There is, and at times it acquires the [...]
  • PublicationsLambros Liavas16/12/1995NewspaperEleftherotypia

‘Kindly be respectful to them…’

  • Publication on the occasion of the release of the album Kaneloriza, extracts It is twenty five years since Domna Samiou, the 'great lady' of Greek folk singing, recorded her first LP as an interpreter of our musical tradition in 19711 (she had already been involved in record production since 19582). At [...]