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Writer and musician John Phillpott travels to Cyprus and discovers a music that has played a crucial part in healing the ethnic divides of that troubled eastern Mediterranean island.
For those of us who firmly believe that music is the glue that binds people in this troubled world together, there is arguably no better example of that universal harmony than the island of Cyprus.
Occupied by the British in 1878 in response to growing concerns about imperial security in the eastern Mediterranean, the country was first torn apart by anti-colonial resistance in the 1950s, and then subsequently by ethnic strife between Turkish and Greek populations two decades later.
To this day, Cyprus is sadly still ethnically divided. Yet, hands of friendship and shared humanity have still managed to cross the so-called ‘green line’ that separates the north and south.
Women from both Turkish and Greek communities have formed joint arts and crafts groups, but perhaps the greatest symbol of friendship – and therefore the hope for a more peaceful future – is a form of music that is commonplace across the island. It is called rembetika [also transliterated as rebetiko and rembetiko].
Bouzoukis are heard all over Cyprus. It is a mandolin type of instrument similar to the Turkish saz and baglama, and is the principal component of rembetika, which on an emotional level many might regard as being the Greek equivalent of American Blues.
Greek bouzouki – CC BY 2.5, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=859656
And dominating the sound is the bouzouki. It is an instrument played with a plectrum, producing sharp and percussive metallic sounds. Players use techniques such as tremolo, vibrato, slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs to play in the rembetika style. It has come to define the distinctive sound of the island.
The name itself may come from the Turkish rembet, which means ‘outlaw’. Opinion differs as to the origins of rembetika, but it is probably a hybrid of several types of music.
Like the Argentine tango and American jazz, it originated during the 19th century in low-life cafés called Tekedes (hashish dens) in urban areas, especially in large seaports such as Piraeus in Greece.
Stylistically, rembetika appears to be mainly played in minor keys, featuring much note slurring, which is not only reminiscent of other music forms of the region, but also of western African styles, echoes of which can be found today in American country and the successive city blues forms.
Lyrics-wise, the songs tend to take the form of narrative, with storytelling being the main format, rather than employing just straight displays of purely expressed emotion.
In this regard, it follows the manner of many other forms of folk music throughout the world, such as that found in Mexico, where the words are improvised as the song progresses.
Musical poetry, or setting poetry to music, is a common practice in Cyprus, both with traditional and contemporary Cypriot poetry. Examples include works by Elias Andriopoulos.
There will be no surprises then that another component of rembetika was the Arabian-Persian music played in sophisticated Middle Eastern Amanedes (music cafés) during the same period in the 19th century.
Once this metamorphization was complete, Rembetika became very popular in Greece with refugees from Asia Minor, and then later brought to Cyprus.
Unlike as is the case in much of Western Europe, today’s young people seem to be equally as happy with Demotic (folk songs) as they are with modern-day rock music, and Rembetika plays a crucial role in this liberality of taste.
For example, artist Pelagia Kyriakou’s two albums Paralimnitika 1 and 2 feature a superb collection of Cypriot Demotic songs, all sung in Cypriot dialect, testament to the fact that the preservation of cultural identity remains paramount among successive generations of Cypriots.
Mihalis Violaris is an exponent of folk-tinged modern songs and was especially popular during the 1970s and 80s. Two songs he made famous were “Ta Rialia” (Money) and “Tyllirkotissa” (The Girl from Tylliria), both sung in Cypriot dialect.
Meanwhile, Anna Vissi’s style veers towards more contemporary Greek music, and Georgos Dalaras, although not a Cypriot, sings about the trials and tribulations of modern-day Cyprus.
But the pain of the past is never far away, and other musicians refer to the ethnic divides that have so beset the country. Singer and lyricist Evagoras Kavageorgis’ album Topi Se Hroma Loulaki (Places Painted in Violet) is a nostalgic and painful look at the lost villages in Northern Cyprus, sung in a mixture of Cypriot dialect and Greek, accompanied by traditional and contemporary instruments.
In the north of the country, musical trends tend to mirror those of mainland Turkey. Nevertheless, both Turkish and Greek cultures overlap in sounds and instruments, with Turkish Cypriot Yiltan Tasci perhaps leading the way in bringing about the musical fusions that have had such a positive and healing presence in the cultural life of the island.
Tasci has played in various bands. His first recording Bana Seviyorum, released in 1995, contains several songs he composed, and which he has performed at his regular and popular concerts.
Cyprus, though having experienced much bitter conflict down the centuries, right up until the recent present, is hopefully now slowly but surely healing the wounds suffered in the past.
And this provides yet more evidence that while global politics so often tears people apart, music – that great unifier down the ages – always, without fail, brings people together in brotherly and sisterly harmony.
Author: John Philpott
Author and journalist John Phillpott has written for many newspapers and magazines during a career that spans more than 50 years. His latest book Go and Make the Tea, Boy! is a memoir of his days as a young reporter.
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