Paradosiaká: Music, Meaning and Identity in Modern Greece (review)

The sociopolitical condition of Greece in the 1970s and 1980s has been the renewed focus of attention, not least because of the recent economic crisis and the fact that many analysts tend to attribute all ills to the so-called period of the Metapolitefsi. Few scholars, however, have concentrated on the relationship between music and identity in post-1974 Greece. Eleni Kallimopoulou's book, Paradosiaká: Music, Meaning and Identity in Modern Greece, does precisely this, showing the linkages between music, (national) identity, and politics. This fine study of the urban folk music revival movement, the paradosiaka, recounts both the formation of its particular musical and professional milieu and its main practitioners, as well as the Greek sociopolitical and musical context since the 1970s. Kallimopoulou's book situates itself firmly within the scholarly literature that deals with issues of Greek identity and, in particular, the construction of discourse regarding the presumed continuities and discontinuities in Greek culture.

Part One focuses on the historical background of the paradosiaka revival, from the late 1960s up to the early 1990s, starting from attempts to highlight the ways in which traditions were mobilized and reformulated as a means of cultural resistance against the Greek military dictatorship. Contrary to the Colonels' use and abuse of dimotika ("folk songs") as the embodiment of the Greek spirit, a variety of artists redefined and gave new meaning to folk music as a source of collective identity, undermining at the same time its purist form. Kallimopoulou mentions Dionysis Savvopoulos and Nikos Xylouris as major exponents of that tendency and surveys well the "rembetomania" of the late 1970s. The book proceeds to discuss the impact of musicologist Simon Karas—including his involvement in Orthodox theology, his deep conviction that church and folk music in Greece were closely related, and the impact this "return" to the Orthodox tradition had on paradosiaka musicians.

Part Two surveys some of the key actors who shaped the paradosiaka scene in that decade: Dynameis tou Aigaiou ("Powers of the Aegean"), which performed and recorded extensively until the early 1990s, and the charismatic Irish multi-instrumentalist Ross Daly who imported to the Greek paradosiaka artistic and spiritual influences ranging from Indian to Afghan and, in general, world music. Lastly, Kallimopoulou focuses on the live performances of the Turkish group Bosphorus in Greece, which inspired an interest in Ottoman instruments (including the "kemence," "ney," and "lavta") and set a powerful precedent for future contacts between Turkish and Greek musicians. All these groups revived and reintroduced folk elements in a "charming package" of exotic instruments, with a more informal and youthful outlook in terms of performativity.

In Part Three, Kallimopoulou deals with the processes of indigenization and professionalization of both the style and the musicians during the 1990s. The creation of Music Schools of Secondary Education where "Greek music" was taught created teaching positions for both paradosiaka musicians and Karas's students. Thus, the "younger generation" of paradosiaka performers of the 1990s had the chance to experiment with the indigenization of the Eastern instruments in a diversified and syncretic repertoire that combined Greek folk and Turkish art and folk music but also jazz or entehno ("art song"). More professional opportunities became available for teaching, performing, and even recording either inside this specific artistic milieu or within the Greek music market in general. The musicians themselves and the audience of the 1990s were more familiar with the Eastern instruments and their repertoire, focusing on virtuosity and personal style, while the ideological discourse of the 1970s and 1980s was progressively fading out.

These processes were confirmed during the 2000s. This is further illustrated in Part Four through the portrait of a professional musician, Sofia Lampropoulou. Her secondary music school background, her trip to Istanbul to study with a Turkish teacher, her eclectic repertoire, and her professional musician profile all render Lampropoulou a representative example of the new generation of instrumentalists. The...