Search - Hellenic Music Archives Ensemble, George Constantzos, Christos Sikkis :: Guardians of Hellenism 12: Cyprus

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Cinna the Poet | Zeeusche Uytkyk, Svalbard | 07/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an excellent series and the best by far that I know of for anyone interested in Greek folkmusic. I own all fourteen discs and each one gets five stars. Some of the especially good things about this series are:



1) They are all new recordings (1990s) with very clear sound, better than some of those old ones from the 30s you can barely make out.



2) They're recorded by professional Greek musicologists and the performers are from each locale highlighted (except, for example, Cappadocia, where the singers are descendants of Cappadocian Greeks). The language ranges from pretty close to standard Athenian to fairly heavy dialect.



3) There's a nice introduction and a full text of all the songs (including even some alternate lines), and there's a complete English translation of all of this, which is extremely handy for anyone learning Greek.



4) The aesthetic quality of the songs is very good and they've picked the best versions to record. True, many of the songs are very strange to western ears, but you can get into them if you give them a chance, and you'll be glad you did.



I have all the volumes in this set and I'm very very pleased with every one of them. Not only is the music excellent, but the singing and the words are great and often quite moving. It's good to know that Greek folklorists are finally getting on the ball and recording the great wealth of songs (and stories) that this brilliant people produces."