International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance

A Non-Governmental Organization in Formal Consultative Relations with UNESCO

Appendix to Greece country report, Bulletin of the ICTM 126 (October 2014)

Below is an appendix to the country report for Greece found in the Bulletin of the ICTM 126, written by Irene Loutzaki.

Research programmes, archives, and websites

Learning Culture through City Soundscapes – An Educational Tool

Coordinator: Eleni Kallimopoulou, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki.

The website created in the context of the research programme "Learning culture through city soundscapes - An educational tool", funded by the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, Research Projects 2012 programme. Coordinator: Eleni Kallimopoulou, University of Macedonia. Partners: Panagiotis C. Poulos (University of Athens), Kostis Kornetis (New York University), Spyros Tsipidis (independent scholar).

The website contains all the material of the research project, including a Teacher Handbook  (digital publication in PDF format) that forms the main reference for the teacher who runs Learning Culture through City Soundscapes - An Educational Tool in class and is available for download.

Vertiskos 

This is University Project (University of Macedonia Department of Music Science and Art). Coordinator teacher: Athena Katsanevaki and 25 students.

It included ethnomusicology research in a central locus and three other related communities in the area of central Macedonia, Northern Greece, its digitalization and the creation of a local digital archive including music and dance, linguistic, historical and ethnographic data and an ethnographic map. The archive is already offered to the community and is opened to the public. A video presentation summarizing the research and a concert were also kindly offered to the community by the students and both are also available to the public.

The project and research (2010-2013) is the first attempt of other similar projects. It aimed at the development of relationships between the University and the students with the local communities around. It also aimed at a research which would help the re-evaluation of oral tradition by the members of the community and which would help the economic development of the little communities of the area.

W.D.E. Coulson & Toni Cross Aegean Fellowship, American Research Institute in Turkey, Istanbul, 2011-2012

Research grant for the project entitled: ‘Ottoman cultural heritage and Turkish modernity: a study of Ottoman music house gatherings in Istanbul in the twentieth century’. Coordinator: Panagiotis Poulos Department of Turkish Studies-Ethniko and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The research project led to the following publication:

Poulos, Panagiotis C. 2004. ‘Özel Mekanlar, Kamusal İlgiler: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Son Dönemlerinden Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’ne İstanbul’daki Müzikli Ev Toplantıları (meclisleri)’. Toplumsal Tarih 242: 82-89.

In 2013, Panagiotis Poulos was awarded for the article entitled: ‘Rethinking Orality in Turkish Classical Music: A Genealogy of Contemporary Musical Assemblages’ (Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 4, 2011). Ömer Lütfi Barkan Prize (Honorable Mention), Turkish Studies Association, 2013

Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology Laboratory

Director: Pavlos Kavouras, Prof. & Head of the Department of Ethnomucicology and Cultural Anthropology (Faculty of Music).

The laboratory was found by the Department of Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology of the Faculty of Music, at the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2007. Its objective covers three distinct yet interrelated areas of ethnomusicological and cultural anthropological interest: a) research and education b) archival and library work and c) scientific publications and musical/cultural performances. The lab’s scientific personnel consist of the faculty members of the Department of Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology and a group of advanced Ph.D. students specializing in the related fields. The lab seeks to establish international relationships with other institutions of similar purport in the areas of its interest.

2014: Western Art Music at the Time of Crisis: An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Greek Culture and European Integration

Funded by the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs - Operational Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning” - “Aristeia II” UOA (leader) - Royal Holloway, University of London (partner)       

Scientific Director: Pavlos Kavouras. Collaborating Professor: Anastasios Hapsulas

2013: Performigrations: People Are the Territory

Coordinator: Pavlos Kavouras, University of Athens.

Each immigrant is a performer: no matter the reason for the move, relocation forces one to adjust to a new territory and to play a new role. Therefore, the visible map is not the real territory; people are the territory, and they are mobile. They are an intricate territory made of stories and experiences.

For this reason, EU is more than a geographical space: it is a space of storytelling transcending visible borders. Each time Europeans relocate inside or outside EU, they change their inner and outer landscapes because they are performing changes. Similarly, every time newcomers join the EU, the EU territory changes, too. Together, ICT & performative arts can help us to develop new ways to express our mobile selves/belonging, in turn mediating among different cultural heritages. Expanding this idea, Performigrationss develops aninteractive & performative art-installation to make visible the mobile territory created by the movements of people across EU, and between EU & Canada (see http://www.performigrations.eu/).

2012-2013: Video Life Stories of Migrants

Coordinator: Pavlos Kavouras, University of Athens.

Video life stories of migrants was the product of a collaboration between migrants and Greeks. It consisted of 20 short films which presented the everyday reality in Greece in a way that combined the actually lived experience and the perceptions of both migrants and Greeks. By following the methodology of participatory video, migrants and Greeks contributed actively to the design and execution of the project throughout the stages of its production. After being trained to use modern equipment for audiovisual recording and to the theory of filml narrative, with an emphasis placed on life stories and observational documentary, 20 migrants and 20 Greeks working in pairs filmed life stories of 5 migrant groups (Efyptions in Thessaloniki, Albanians in Crete, Indians in Attica, Nigerians and Ukrainians in Athens. The film narratives are focussed on 4 fundamental aspects of daily life (family, work, art and the idea of ‘here and there’) http://www.videolifestories.org/

2014: Musician’s Museum at Loussakies (Kissamos)

Scientific Directors: Pavlos Kavouras and Irene Loutzaki [funded by the Region of Crete and the Municipality of Kissamos (Chania, Crete)].

The project aims to create an innovative thematic museum, which abandoned the old folklore perspective and followed modern aesthetic, technological and scientific museum perspectives. At the heart of the project are cultural networks, oral histories and life stories with emphasis on the relationship between music and society, as well as between art and culture.

2014: Western Art Music at the Time of Crisis: An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Greek Culture and European Integration

Funded by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs - Operational Programme “Education and Lifelong Learning” - “Aristeia II”. UOA (leader) - Royal Holloway, University of London (partner). Scientific Director: Pavlos Kavouras, University of Athens. Collaborating Professor: Anastasios Hapsulas.

2012-2015: Comprehensive Design and Implementation of a Networked Music Performance System MusiNet

The project belongs to the programme “THALES”, which has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program “Education and Lifelong Learning” of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) – Research Funding Program: THALIS –UOA.

The MusiNet research project aims to provide a comprehensive architecture and a prototype implementation of a complete Networked Music Performance (NMP) system. The objective of the proposed project is to advance the current state-of-the-art in Networked Music Performance (NMP) systems. These systems allow geographically distributed musicians to collaborate in real-time through computer networks. NMP systems have the potential to advance music creativity, education, and cross-cultural interaction. Studies of actual NMP scenarios will be used to assess practical aspects of collaboration. This will be achieved by defining a suitable protocol to facilitate assessment of distributed collective practice on the grounds of actual work performed.

Participants: University of Crete (Computer Science Department) – Coordinator, University of Athens, Athens University of Economics and Business, Technical Educational Institute of Crete.

Paper: “The MusiNet project: Towards unraveling the full potential of Networked Music Performance systems” (see online http://musinet.aueb.gr/papers/PID3311441.pdf)

A Moiroloi (Lament)

Trilogy of three (3) electroacoustic compositions by the composer Dimitris Bakas composed for contemporary voice (Athena Katsanevaki) and electroacoustics, including 1. original field recordings (ethnomusicology field research by Athena Katsanevaki two lament –songs and a funeral lament) 2. soundscape field recordings by Dimitris Bakas 3. mixed media 4. electroacoustics 5.sound art 6. contemporary voice
(A. Katsanevaki).

Hellenic Folklore Research Center

Over the past few years the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre of the Academy of Athens has collaborated with regional associations and with local authorities in order to collect preserves and promote through its academic publications, information on the traditional culture of various areas of Greece. For this reason it has established the series of publications entitled “Sources on Greek Folk Culture” containing original ethnographic material collected mostly by its researchers. Seven works have already been published in this series and more works are being prepared for publication.

The Museum of Popular Instruments - Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (MELMOKE) 

It comprises a collection of about 1200 Greek popular musical instruments dating from the 18th century to the present day, the fruit of a half century of research and study by the musicologist Fivos Anoyanakis. The Museum is housed in the historical Lassanis Mansion, which was built in 1842 close to the Roman Agora. 

The main building of the Lassanis Mansion contains, apart from the exhibition space, the reception area, the Director's office, the secretariat and the library of the Museum (also donated by Fivos Anoyanakis). The out-building is converted into an annex that now houses the Research Centre and the archives, storerooms, a hall of lectures, educational programs and seminars, and the Museum shop. In summer, in the garden of the Museum are given recitals of Greek traditional music (see http://www.instruments-museum.gr/products6.php?wh=1&lang=1&the1id=9&theid=9&open1=9&open2=)

Books and selected articles

Listed below are a selection of publications and articles covering an extraordinarily rich and diverse scholarship that focuses on music and dance as their subjects in English, Greek, or German language. Ranging from new methods of historical inquiry to multiple theoretical perspectives, these volumes answer a growing demand for works that provide new analytical perspectives on music making, dancing, musicians, and dancers in an international or national context.  

  • Kallimopoulou, Eleni and Alexandra Balandina, eds. 2014. Introduction to Ethnomusicology. Athens: Asini. (In Greek).

The book contains a comprehensive introduction by the editors on the history, theory and methods of ethnomusicology, followed by a selection of key ethnomusicological texts, translated into Greek, which are aimed especially for the teaching of ethnomusicology in universities.

  • Kallimopoulou, Eleni. 2011. "Locating the 'Mediterranean' in Music: the Medi-Terra Festival". In Contested Mediterranean Spaces: Ethnographic Essays in Honour of Charles Tilly, edited by Maria Kousis, Tom Selwyn and David Clark, 55-73. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books.
  • Kavouras, Pavlos. 2010 (ed.). Folklore and Tradition: Issues on the Re-presentation of Music and Dance. Athens: Nissos.
  • Papapavlou, M. 2014. From the Greek indignados to the Experience of Syntagma Square: Music, Emotions and New Social Movements, Athens: Editions of the Collegues (in Greek)
  • Papapavlou, M. 2013. “Music and Trance in Morocco: A Critical Literature Review” in Ethnologia 15: 227-242 (in Greek)
  • Papapavlou, M and Stigga 2013. Le ‘sacré’ et le ‘profane’ dans les musiques marocaines et kabyles, in Music: Function and Value, eds. Malecka, T. and Pawlowska, M. Krakow: Akademia Muzyczna Krakowie, pp.719-737.
  • Papapavlou,M. and Lalioti, V. 2013. “Street performances of an ‘occupy movement’: Syntagma Square as a cosmopolitan stage”, in The Viewing of Politics and the Politics of Viewing: Theatre Challenges in the Age of Globalized Communities (in press)
  • Papapavlou, M. 2013. 'Mediterannean Music' or 'Musics of the Mediterannean'?. Ethnomusicological debates in the age of globalization, in Memoriam G. S. Amargianakis, 1936-2003) 245-260 University of Athens, Faculty of Music Studies. Pp.
  • Pennanen, Risto Pekka, Panagiotis C. Poulos and Aspasia Theodosiou (eds). 2013. Ottoman Intimacies, Balkan Musical Realities. Helsinki: The Finnish Institute at Athens. 
  • Katsanevaki, Athena. 2010-2011: “Musical contests: A Contribution to a technical Development or a Dissolution of the “Lofty and Hellenic Style”? Approaching Historical Sources in the field of Ethnomusicology”, in Poesia, musica e agoni nella Grecia antica, Poetry, (Music and Contests in Ancient Greece), Proceedings of the IVth International Meeting of MOISA, Lecce, 28-30 October 2010, Rudiae, Ricerche sul Mondo Classico, 22-23 Vol.1 published by Universita degli Studi di Lecce, Dipartimento Di Filologia Classica e di Scienze Filosofiche, Editors: D.Castaldo-E.G.Giannachi- A.Manieri, Congedo, Editore,167-192,2011.
  • Katsanevaki, Athena. 2009-2012: “Archaic Pentatonic Melodies in Pindus Mountain-Range in Northern Greece. The hemitonic and anhemitonic pentatonic tunings in Greece and their contribution to the interpretation of early Ancient Greek musical forms” In: III Annual Meeting of MOISA: International Society for the Study of Greek and Roman Music and its Cultural Heritage” 1-3 October 2009, Ravenna, Dipartimento di Storie e Metodi per la Conzervazione dei Beni Culturali, Published in electronic form by Acta- Alma DL Universita di Bologna, http://amsacta.cib.unibo.it/cgi/latest_tool,2012.
  • Katsanevaki, Athena. 2012: “Traditional Singing: Field Research or a Performing Art? Combining research methods and Teaching methods in one field (an introductory note)”, in Musical Practices in the Balkans: Ethnomusicological Perspectives, Proceedings of the International Conference held from November 23 to 25 2011, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute of Musicology, Academic conferences volume CXLII Department of Fine Arts and Music Book 8,149-166.
  • New edition: Sotirios (Sam) J. Chianis, Folk Songs from Vytina, Arcadia (bilingual publication in Greek and in English) (Music collection 1959), Study-trascription [in Greek and English], Scholarly Supervision, Aik. Polymerou-Kamilaki, editing, Vassiliki I. Chryssanthopoulou, (Music collection 1959), Sources for Greek Folk Culture 8, Hellenic Folklore Research Centre, Academy of Athens, Athens 2013, pp. 286, ISBN: 978-960-404-277-7 [+ 2 CD]

This publication containes original folklore material deriving from Vytina, under the editorship of the Hellenic Folklore Research Centre which makes this material accessible both to scholars and to the broader public of the area of Vytina and to Vytiniots everywhere. Musical recordings, in particular, besides rescuing folk songs from oblivion, contribute to their survival through the work of associations, some of which have their own musical and dance groups, organize festivals and, generally, endeavor to promote traditional culture.