Have you ever wondered what the music of the southern Balkan islands is like?

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Janosh_Poha@reddit

I'm not a fan of this style of music. I don't understand any of the Balkan languages, so I have no idea what she is singing about, but during my few travels in the Balkans I found sevdah style music to be my favorite.

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Early-Show2886@reddit

sounds turkish for me

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puzzledpanther@reddit

sounds turkish for me

You mean Turkish music sounds like this.

Also check what music sounded in Byzantine times.

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Early-Show2886@reddit

and now?

This question has nothing to do with the Balkans anyway. Why don't you ask that in a Greek or Turkish subreddit? That isn't our music from the Balkans, regardless.

this is a balkan song: pomak (muslim bulgarians)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6LzkPyH5jM

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puzzledpanther@reddit

and now?

and now what? Are you surprised current Greek music has been influenced by Byzantine, Ottoman, etc music?

This question has nothing to do with the Balkans anyway.

What does that have to do with anything?.. you said a Greek song sounded Turkish.

this is a balkan song: pomak (muslim bulgarians)

Cool

This is a song from Ikaria and people dancing/enjoying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edwvUO9GquM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnwNmuLPVMk

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Early-Show2886@reddit

I thought this was an Ask Balkan sub?

Now Greek islands geographically belong to the Balkans too?

This just keeps getting more interesting.

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puzzledpanther@reddit

I've no idea why you willingly chose your argument to be so pedantic.

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Early-Show2886@reddit

Im a dobrujan turko-tatar descendant

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Consistent-Sun-354@reddit

lol the pomak song you sent in particular ironically sounds a lot like Cycladic and Dodacanese music that traditionally also used a form of bagpipe similar to Gaida in which they danced around in circles. The islands are much, much closer to the Balkans culturally than you want to make it out to be.

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Consistent-Sun-354@reddit

Umm what? Greek traditional music is quintessentially southern Balkan and most similar to Macedonian, Bulgarian and Aromanian traditional music. I’m saying this as someone very well versed in the traditional culture of Greece. The irony is that the same goes for the islands whose music is significantly closer to the Balkans than Turkish music which has significant Persian and central Asian influence.

https://youtu.be/qSl7bfd882k?si=eJLGpX_1AqNaA7Zr -traditional song from Kalymnos

Is it closer to this : https://youtu.be/PEmXtJ3c_Gc?si=BSNLNhnhXnX_3Qkl

Or this: https://youtu.be/LgQju-8rHkU?si=H7smJj9gUYi4S09h. Or this https://youtu.be/Ca5HAUv9NQw?si=eLA_0M1NhNSF8sn5

Turkish traditional music has significant Central Asian and medieval Perso-Arabic influence which Greek rural traditional music lacks instead deriving most from historical substrates and Romano-Byzantine music. Similar to Macedonian traditional music that I sent above.

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bruhmanbruuh@reddit

It is a traditional Greek song from Asia Minor, no wonder it reminds you of something.

>(yes greeks still live in Turkey, some claimed they do not)

The Greeks of Imvros and Tenedos, two Greek inhabited islands that were given to Turkey in 1923, have been almost ethnicaly cleansed from these islands in the last 100 years.

Imvros has 700 Greeks as of now , there were 8000 there in 1923, although many of those ousted by the Turkish state in 1964 now visit every summer(like in the Panigyri you just linked).

Nobody claimed there are no Greeks left there, all we ''claimed'' is that the Turkish state ethnicaly cleansed 2 Greek inhabited islands in 100 years, to the point the Greeks there are a minority.

Stop downplaying the actions of the Turkish state against the Greeks of Turkey.

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Early-Show2886@reddit

You misunderstood me. Don't attack me. I'm a paternal side a Balkan Turk, I don't even live in Turkey. Many foreigners keep claiming and writing here and there that there are no Greeks left. I don't want to get involved in your Turkish-Greek disputes. I have absolutely nothing to do with you People.

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bruhmanbruuh@reddit

If you have ''nothing to do with you people'' and ''dont want to get involved'' , then it is better to not speak about matter you know nothing about.

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Early-Show2886@reddit

This is a Ask Balkan sub. not greek or turkey

ok?

and you both are blocked.

hadi ordan...gavular

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Lonely-Sunbed-2508@reddit

We call it “Smyrneika”. Refuges from Asia Minor brought the music from there. I don’t think it’s Turkish or Greek, our lives were so intertwined for so long that it doesn’t make sense. I once saw a band with half the members being Turkish and half Greek singing half the verses in Turkish and half in Greek. It was magical.

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treba_dzemper@reddit

It's Byzantine or even older than that, Pythagorean.

But the fact that some scales were called Lydian and Phrygian even back in ancient Hellenic times (they were not the same scale as modern church modes of the same names which were derived from byzantine Octoechos) points that at least some of that culture harkens back to ancient Anatolia and old Anatolian peoples maybe as back as the Hitites that dwelled there.

Who knows, we may be listening to echoes of the beats that were hip for partying in the streets of Illias (Troy) BITD

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Early-Show2886@reddit

I am also interested in the music of the Cretan Muslims and the Vallahades from Greek Macedonia. They have managed to preserve their dances—and their language, too (to some extent). Look—these are descendants of Cretan Muslims living in Turkey; they still perform their traditional dances:

This are cretan muslim dance in Turkey from the Karantina Island (small Island)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOEEAxOxmhE

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Consistent-Sun-354@reddit

This isn’t a great representative of Cycladic or Cretan folk music. It’s not that th music isn’t “Aegean” but there’s nothing specific about this song that screams Aegean.

A much better example of traditional music of the Aegean islands would be this:

https://youtu.be/qSl7bfd882k?si=iPp8WCHA2kIT7etk

https://youtu.be/CB3uJ7dTC6g?si=Z4pkpylNoLQUgUTv

https://youtu.be/fkqFPNEBySc?si=FLiDB8e5DKm8FHW5

Usually includes some kind of string instrument which is important in Aegean music. Also traditionally a bagpipe known as Tsambouna. The music i sent is very Aegean and cannot be confused for anything else unlike the above.

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Rexxittr7889@reddit

What is the name of the musical instrument? Like a baglama?

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noisensured@reddit

we literally have the same instrument in our culture, how come you claim turkey and think an ud is a bağlama? wth man

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treba_dzemper@reddit

Oud

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Rexxittr7889@reddit

Thanks bro

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anon58588@reddit (OP)

Uti

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Orthodox-Paradox@reddit

Oh no I hear fasaies coming here with beer cans and rolled cigarettes. Quick summon a klarino to disperse them!

(I really like island music, but the past 10~20 years I feel like it is coopted by the fasaioi subculture)

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P-l-Staker@reddit

fasaioi subculture)

What the hell is that?

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Orthodox-Paradox@reddit

Honestly it is better experienced . I would describe them as faux hippies, lib prog , faux anarchists, upper middle/high class, anti capitalist, anti establishment, snobs who try to virtue signal all the time. They act as if they are culturally enlightened but are basic af and fester music festivals,and islands where camping is legal.

In the end it as all about youngsters trying to be different and wanting to get laid, who once they get a 9-5 and/or become 30 yo either do a 180 and become neocons or they double down and become liberal left spammers.

There are some actually informed and politically educated people amongst the fasaioi rabble, but they are the exception.

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Technical-Actuator12@reddit

Glad to see these lovely sisters here! Because of this video, I bought myself an oud and learned to play this tune

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Barbak86@reddit

It sounds very East Mediterranean

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puzzledpanther@reddit

Look into Byzantine music.

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treba_dzemper@reddit

Greece/Balkan/Byzantine is the actual homeland and origin of "arabic" and "turkish" music, according to the worlds utmost experts on the subject, Farya Faraji being the most outspoken of them, and what the west is being sold as Greek is really the Ionian music that developed under Venetian influences:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8goAOiz7Zvs

This is why southern Italian and Sicilian music often has oriental elements:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO_frlQsfZU

It has nothing to do with Moor conquests, it is the heritage of Magna Graecia.

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janc008@reddit

Correct !

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smeidkrp@reddit

Isn't the instrument "uti" from Arabia?

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Kitsooos@reddit

It's from Mesopotamia actually and it's thousands of years old. It's one of the oldest recorded musical instruments in history.

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Vaseline13@reddit

The Levant.

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treba_dzemper@reddit

It's Oud and it's from Sumer, predates the concept of Arabia by millenia or so

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Barbak86@reddit

Our music leans this way too, especially the stuff that we categorize as "old city music", but not to this extent. Our folklore stuff from villages (the more original stuff) is more hillbilly if that makes sense. Kinda like "East Med" meets Banjo swinging Appalachian people.

Here are samples of East Med influenced style music:

https://youtu.be/z4xIyxiiKWo?is=o-4CqnKstfnWzlVI

https://youtu.be/y14aMW0aAvA?is=0c1v6xtQdc-8Bnvf

And the North Albanian (including Kosovo) original source code north Albanian folklore:

https://youtu.be/8qwuu_wtvm8?is=vMx8ELoigncYt2XD

https://youtu.be/r53s_bWUisY?is=VWEOnMZsfPlOoH0l

https://youtu.be/CCGGPmGA3lg?is=Ko-xDeqiktUBEZNq

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treba_dzemper@reddit

In other words, historically, the music of Persia and much of middle east, sounderd much more "western" (minor and major pentatonic ruled the roost, and major scale/rast was and still is the dominant mode/maqam in much of that world) before Alexander conquered them, than it did after it.

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