He sang his version of Misirlou in the accent of that area, so that it sounds like "Mousourlou". Mike Patrinos, a rebetiko singer, was originally from Smyrna (the former name of Izmir, Turkey). In 1965, he retired to Greece, where he died three years later.ĪBOUT THE PHOTO: This photo shows Nicholas Roubanis. Roubanis also composed liturgical music for the Greek Orthodox church in America. and became a professor at Columbia University in New York. At age 25, he went to Egypt to work as a music conductor, in the service of its king. Nicholas (Nikos) Roubanis was born in 1880. He moved to the United States in 1921, which is where he was living at the time he recorded "Misirlou." He died in New Jersey in 1971 from throat cancer. He was born in Constantinople (the Greek name for Istanbul). Theodotos Demetriades, nicknamed Tetos, was a rebetiko singer, the original artist to record "Misirlou", which he did in 1927.ĪBOUT THE PHOTO: This photo is of Tetos Demetriades.
Griechische musik instrumental download#
If you like the song, please purchase either the album or a download from an authorized source. Song lyrics are provided for educational purposes. In the United States, many tsifteteli performers (belly dancers) incorporate this song into their routines, often using a large scarf (sometimes called a veil) as a prop.įor more information about the laiko and rebetiko styles of music, see Introduction to Laiko / Rebetiko Music elsewhere on this web site. Over the years that followed, many versions of the song have arisen, including Dick Dale's surfer guitar version, Jewish klezmer, Turkish, English lyrics, and more. The title is a Greek pronunciation of the Turkish word "Mısırlı", which means "Egyptian girl" in Turkish.Īlso included is a transliteration of the Greek lyrics into the Roman alphabet so you can sing along if you like. The differences between the lovers in both race/ethnicity and religion make the story risqué by the standards of its time. The lyrics tell of forbidden love between a Greek (Christian) man and an Egyptian (Muslim) woman. Nevertheless, this new genre led the history of music in a new, promising direction.This page contains a translation into English of the lyrics to the popular Greek rebetiko song "Misirlou" (Μισιρλού). Of course, musicologists used the new texts for inquiries into important problems and these insights stimulated also the desire of composers for a revival of ancient Greek music, which culminated in the creation of the Opera, which is a prolific misunderstanding of a very limited range of ancient testimonies. These manuscripts gave in the 15th and 16th century access to many previously unknown texts about Greek music, which became available in translations also. Janus Lascaris (1445-1535) brought about 200 manuscripts from the Mount Athos to the Laurentiana, and Cardinal Bessarion in 1468 bestowed 482 Greek manuscripts to the Marciana. This brain drain continued after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453). The Humanism saw the return to the Greek texts, brought together by collectors of manuscripts, which finally found a place in the Biblioteca Laurentiana in Florence and the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. In the Middle Ages only Latin sources were studied, mainly the five books on music by Boethius. About 410-439 Martianus Capella in De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, combining again trivium and quadrivium, treated theory of music. Centuries earlier, Varro of Reate (116-27 B.C.), combining the trivium and the quadrivium, had included into his Disciplinae a book about music, which was the source of many later roman treatises. Moreover, the current theory of the impact of music and its elements on the human soul (theory of musical 'Ethos') obtained in the same period a place within the three sciences (trivium) of grammar, rhetoric and dialectic. During the Byzantine Empire the Ancient Greek theory of music, together with arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, maintained the part of one of the four sciences (quadrivium).