01:489:376 Contemporary Greek Music
Course Description
This course explores the multiple socio-cultural dynamics of contemporary Greek
musical worlds, their historical trajectories and their global interconnections. How do
modern Greeks make and listen to music and for what purposes? Why do some genres
remain popular for long periods of time and get renewed and revived, while others fall
into obscurity? How and why are new sounds and musical styles created, named, and
popularized?
From Byzantine chanting, folk and paradosiakά, to pop-art, laikό, fusion, and
Greek hip hop, music shapes and is shaped by Greek peoples’ social routines,
worldviews, and emotions. By focusing on these diverse genres, on their practitioners,
their lives and ideas, students are encouraged to develop an understanding of Greek
music-making and listening as a form of symbolic social activity invested with multiple
meanings that fulfill different needs and ways of being human.
Through guest performances, the reading of texts, and the use of multimedia,
students will be granted the chance to gain familiarity with different ideas, social
practices, and musical environments across Greek space and time: From ancient
instruments and Greek-Orthodox monasteries, to modern village celebrations and
Athenian night-clubs.
The course serves both as an introduction to Greek music and social history as
well as a useful conceptual tool for participants to make productive cross-cultural
comparisons. Overall, the course will facilitate reflection on the importance of culture in
the shaping of humans’ social and personal experiences.
Requirements & Evaluation
> No knowledge of Modern Greek language is necessary, but provision may be made for
those wishing to read certain texts in Greek.
> Music training and the ability to read music notation is not required for this class.
> Documentaries and films are either in English or with English sub-titles.
> Readings will average 150 pages for the whole semester.
> Evaluation will be based on class participation (15%), a mid-term (35%) and final
exam (50%).
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Proposed Meeting Themes & Readings
Part 1: Human Sounds
Week 1
Society and Music
-Read:
Blacking, J. 1973. How Musical is Man? University of Washington Press. (short
excerpts)
Bowman, W. 1998. Philosophical Perspectives on Music. Oxford University
Press.(short excerpts)
-Documentary Screening:
The Nature of Music, by Marre Jeremy, 1988.
Week 2
Musical Trajectories and Legacies: Ancient Greece, Byzantium and the World
-Read:
Mathiesen, T, 2010. Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the
Middle Ages. ACLS Humanities (short excerpts)
Ricks, D& Magdalino, P. 1998. Byzantium and the Modern Greek Identity. Variorum
(short excerpts)
-Documentary Screening:
A Visit to the Holy Mountain Athos, by CBS
- Music Videos Screening on Contemporary Revivals of Ancient Greek and Secular
Byzantine Music in Greece
-Guest Performance: Greek-Orthodox Chanting
Week 3
A Never Ending Debate: The Modern and the Traditional in Greek Culture
-Read:
Argyrou, V. 2005. Tradition and Modernity in the Mediterranean: The Wedding as
Symbolic Struggle. Cambridge University Press. (short excerpt)
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Clogg, R. 2002. Introduction, p.1-7, A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge
University Press
-Documentary Screening:
What’s Wrong With the Greeks? By Alexandra Paschalidou
Part 2: Hellenic Dialects, Regional Music (Folk Music), and Dance
Week 4
Refugee Memory and Identity: Pontic Greek Music
-Read:
Bryer, A. 1991. The Pontic Greeks Before the Diaspora. Journal of Refugee Studies, 4
(4): 315-334
-Documentary Screening:
In the Footsteps of the Argonauts, by Theodosios Kyriakidis
-Video Screening of Pontic Music and Dance
-Guest Performance: Pontic Greek Lyra
Week 5
Musical Life in the Island of Crete
-Read:
Dawe, K. 2003. Lyres and the Body Politic: Studying Musical Instruments in the Cretan
Musical Landscape. Popular Music and Society (short excerpt)
Interview with Lyra Player Psarantonis (electronic reading)
-Video Screening of Cretan Music and Dance
- Documentary Screening: A Family Affair, an intimate portrait of the Xylouris family.
-Guest Performance: Cretan Music
Week 6
Soundscapes of the Mediterranean: Music in Cyprus
-Read:
Giorgoudis, P. 2000. Cyprus, in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Rice,
T&Porter, J&Goertzen, C (eds). Garland Publications
-Video Screening of Cypriot Music and Dance
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-Guest Performance: Cypriot Songs
Week 7
The Revival of Paradosiaka (Traditional Music) in Athens
-Read:
Life stories of two protagonists: Simon Karras and Domna Samiou (electronic
reading)
Kalimopoulou, E. 2009. Paradosiakά: Music, Meaning and Identity in Modern Greece.
Ashgate Publications (short excerpts)
-Video Screening of the Paradosiaka Musical Scene
Part 3: Sounds of Marginality, Class, and Political Activism
Week 8
From Asia Minor to Greece: The Rebetiko Music
-Read:
Holst Gail, 1994. Road to Rembetika: Music of the Greek Sub-culture. Denise Harvey
Publications (short excerpts)
-Film Screening: REMBETIKO
Week 9
New Greece and the Music of the “Masses”: The Laikό (Pop) Genre
-Read:
Kalimopoulou, E&Poulos, P. 2009. ‘Laikό’, in Shepherd, J, Horn, D, and Laing, D (eds)
Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Part 3: Genres. Continuum Publications.
Life stories and interviews of major Laikό Musicians (electronic readings)
-Music Video Screening.
Week 10
Imported Revolutions: From Greek Rock to Hip Hop
-Read:
Elafros, A. 2013. Greek hip hop: Local and translocal authentication in the restricted
field of production. Poetics Journal (excerpts)
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-Documentary Screening: Open Mics by Skarentzos Nikos
-Video Screening of Greek Rock and Hip hop samples
Part 4: New Musical Cosmopolitanisms
Week 11
Poetry, Folk, and Musical Creativity: The Work and Life of 20th Century Composers
Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis
-Read:
Miralis, Y. “Manos Hadjidakis: The Story of an Anarchic Youth and a ‘Magnus
Eroticus.’ International Journal Philosophy of Music Education Review (1), No.12,
Spring 2004.
Holst-Warhaft, Gail. 2004. I Had Three Lives: Selected Poems of Mikis Theodorakis.
Livanis (excerpts)
Interviews with the composers (electronic readings)
- Video Screenings of the composers’ works
-Documentary Screening: Biography of Mikis Theodorakis and
Manos Hadjidakis: Reflection in the Mirror
Week 12
1978-2011: New Sounds and the Impact of the “Thessaloniki School” in Modern
Greek Music
-Read:
Papanikolaou, D. 2007. Singing Poets, Literature and Popular Music in France and
Greece. Legenda Publications (short excerpt)
Clogg, R. 2002. A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge University Press (short
excerpt)
Interviews with the protagonists: Nikos Papazoglou, Nikos Xydakis, Manolis
Rasoulis, Dionysis Savvopoulos, and Sokratis Malamas (electronic readings)
-Music Video Screening
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Week 13
Greek Diasporas, Cosmopolitans and International Audiences: Greek Sounds in the
World
-Read:
Clogg, R. 199. The Greek Diaspora in the 20th Century. Palgrave Publications (short
excerpts)
Interview with fusion artist Christi Stasinopoulou (electronic reading)
Interview with fusion group Annabouboula at www.annabouboula.com
-Video screening of music samples of fusion, new sounds, revivals.
-Documentary Screening: The Journey, The Greek American Dream, by Iliou Maria.
Week 14
Globalization and the Fate of Musical Cultures
-Read:
Stokes, Martin. Globalization and the Politics of World Music, p.107-116, in Clayton,
Herbert, Middleton, 2003. The Cultural Study of Music, A Critical Introduction.
London:Routledge
Aubert, Laurent, 2007. The Music of the Other, New Challenges for Ethnomusicology
in a Global Age, p.53-57.
-Wrap-up, Final Concert, Guest Performers.
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