Mail Archive sponsored by
Chazzanut Online
jewish-music
Greek influences on Israeli Mediterranean music
- From: Eva Broman <eva.bromanassouchidis...>
- Subject: Greek influences on Israeli Mediterranean music
- Date: Mon 04 Nov 2002 09.52 (GMT)
Hi everyone,
I've been reading the digests for a while, and now I thought I'd jump into the
discussions with a few questions!
I am Swedish, but I lived for five years in Greece in my youth, and I now teach
Greek and do research at the university of Stockholm. Greek music has been a
great love of mine for some 20 years now, and I'm especially attached to
Eastern flavoured "laika" tunes, although I like the "entechno" ("serious")
laiko style as well (as represented by composers such as Theodorakis,
Hatzidakis and others). The first time I heard Israeli Oriental/Mediterranean
music was when I spent a few months in Israel in the early 80's, and I remember
that much of it sounded so distinctly "Greek" to my ears, both the singing and
the instrumentation (especially the bouzouki)! From a few articles I found on
the Net, I have understood that it wasn't just my impression-it seems as though
many Mizrakhi (sp?) tunes are actually covers of popular Greek songs. I also
learned that there were/are quite a few artists in Israel who actually sing
Greek songs in Greek (Aris San, Shlomo Sarangi), something which I find utterly
fascinating! And apparently it's not only Israeli Jews of Greek origin who
listen to this music, but people from many different ethnic origins.
I have also understood that Greek music served as a kind of compromise for the
Jewish immigrants from Arab countries who couldn't listen to and enjoy the
music that they were accumstomed to in their new home country...Greek music was
sufficiently "Oriental" in its style, but didn't carry the negative
connotations of the Iraqi or Moroccan musical styles. Which leads to the
interesting question-maybe the Mizrakhi singers/musicians were really
"importing" Oriental (Turkish, Arabic) music by way of Greece, rather than
being specifically influenced by "Greek" music?
The reason I'm asking is that lately I've been downloading Mizrakhi tunes and
it struck me that the Israeli "appropriation" of Eastern musical styles in many
ways resembles the Greek one-because however odd it may seem (in view of the
common assumption that Greece belongs to the West), so much of both older and
contemporary popular Greek music is very heavily influenced by Turkish, Arabic
and Indian music-much Greek music is really a hybrid of various Western and
Eastern styles, with a sometimes heavy Eastern dominance (Oriental scales,
singing with a lot of melisma). One explanation for this might be that a large
part of the Greek population, just like the Israeli one, have their roots in
Moslem, Estern countries-in 1922, Greece received approx. 2 million Christian
orthodox Greeks from Turkey who brought with them Eastern music and customs,
and this influence is still very present in modern day society. And then there
is of course hundreds of years of Ottoman rule...
One difference between the Israeli oriental style and mainstream Greek laika,
is that laika, however eastern-flavoured, is a style that nowadays has few
negative or lowbrow associations in Greece. In fact, most Greeks would regard
this music as a part of their common national/cultural heritage, and artists
like Kazantzidis are considered national icons. Of course, in Israel there is a
whole ethnic and socio-economic dynamic that, from what I have understood,
influences musical tastes as well, which is really not the case in Greece any
longer. However, up until the fifties, when highly regarded serious composers
like Theodorakis started incorporating popular elements and using popular
instruments like the bouzouki, most of the rembetika and laika music was
considered decidedly lower class and lacking in real quality (by the
middle-class cultural elite)-a stance that resembles the (early?) Israeli
attitudes towards the Mediterranean style.
Since there seems to be many very well-informed members in this group, I would
very much appreciate your opinions on this matter, and also end with a few
questions:
Why did Greek music (as opposed to, let's say, Turkish music) become so popular
in the 60's and 70's? Which Greek artists were/are the most popular (I know
Glykeria is very popular)? Has there been any research done on the extent of
the adaptions of Greek music-like catalogues of Israeli "covers" of Greek
songs? I'm thinking of something similar to a recent Greek book which lists
all the Greek adaptations/covers of Indian film tunes from the 50's and
onwards. Finally, could you recommend any particular albums/artists in the
Mediterranean/Oriental genre?
All the best, and thanks in advance, Eva Broman
- Greek influences on Israeli Mediterranean music,
Eva Broman