Bouphonia: Sunday Music Blogging

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Jazzbumpa said...: Wow, that is hard to listen to. Sitting throught the full 3:51 was more of an act of will than I wanted to take on this late in the day, but I made it.

Do you know anything about this? I sounds very old, and very exotic. Definitely in one of the old modes - Phrygian, maybe?

I know nothing about Greek music. (It is Greek - right?) The modality sounds Middle-Eastern to my ear. My wife asked it was Jewish, which would fit the day.

The combination of violin, and percussive dulcimer-like accompaniment could be characteristically Hungarian - though it doesn't match stylistically.

In short - I'm confused.

JzB the in-the-mode trombonist; 7:11 PM
Phila said...: I know nothing about Greek music. (It is Greek - right?) The modality sounds Middle-Eastern to my ear. My wife asked it was Jewish, which would fit the day.

No, it's Greek. Rebetika, to be precise, which is an urban style that drew heavily on traditional regional folk music, including Turkish music.

I don't know about the modes, sorry...that's above my pay grade. But since it was a music of the urban underclass, associated with port cities, in a region with a lot of cultural influences, whatever you're hearing in it may well be there.

This track was recorded in NYC, for whatever that's worth.; 9:06 AM