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Challenging the Canon:

Towards a history of Neo-Hellenic Music

Kostas Kardamis

The notion that the only musical foundations of Greek society were the so-called Byzantinechant and folksong is a stereotypical pattern that dominates the majority of attempts to provide a

historical narrative of Greeces place in art-music after 1453. This politically-motivated idea has

its immediate roots in mid-19th-century Greek folkloric studies and resulted in a

Hellenocentric approach to Western art-music. In this regard, the diachronic anti-western

views of the conservative Orthodox clergy must be taken into consideration, especially after the

fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. The Orthodox church at this time fell under the

supervision of the Sultan, and it was thus used to form the political foundation of the Ottoman

Empires Christianity. This resulted in a continuous degradation of the importance of Greeces

contribution to Western music, as well as in an immoderate projection of a musically

orientalized noble savage image, which came to be all but universally accepted.

This paper attempts to reassess this stringent canon by documenting the countrys vital

participation in specifically Western art-music, both inside and outside of the borders of todaysGreece. Recent research has demonstrated that not later than the early 15th century, progressive

circles were looking toward the practices of Western music as an integral part of an expanding

Hellenic (as opposed to Byzantine) social consciousness. This objective reached an apex

beginning in the late 18th century which extended to the mid-19th century, when significant

persons established the ideological roots for an independent Greek state. Among the other

unconventional ideas they supported was the adoption of Western music as a legitimate legacy

of Ancient Greece to the West. Based on this reasoning and without ignoring Asian

influences it will be asserted that an assiduous historical narrative of Hellenic art music should

be one of interdependent duality.

In 1850s Greece was a state limited in that part of the Greek world, which profited

the least from the western financial, social and cultural developments and which at thesame time had to forge its unity. The building of national mythologies was

inevitable in this context. These were based on the view a certain part of the newly-

established Greek society had of itself, as well as the way romantic Europe wanted to

envisage new-Greeks.

The Greek historiographic model proposed in mid-19th century by Spyridon

Zambelios and Konstantinos Paparigopoulos further projected an idea of

uninterrupted historical continuity from ancient times to modern era through the

period of the so-called Byzantine Empire. This resulted in a Hellenocentric

approach to history, typical of every nationalistic 19th-century historical narrative.

Regarding the period after the fall of Constantinople (1453) this approach had twobasic axes, one spatial and one temporal. These converged at the beginning of the

1821 revolution in mainland Greece in the establishment of a seemingly independent

Hellenic state in the southern part of what is today Greece.

As is to be expected, this approach left several questions unanswered, such as how

the historical development of the Greeks who lived outside the Ottoman Empire

(Crete, Ionian Islands, Italy, Russia, Austria, etc.) fit into this model. Even the idea of

what was Greek was on shaky ground, since during the Ottoman Empire, this term

included every Christian ethnicity living in its domain. Nonetheless, for several

decades Greek historians looked back to a glorious tripartite past through the

distorting glasses of an outmoded romantic historiography.Kostas Kardamis, Challenging the Canon

Paper presented inSMI and RMA Joint Annual Conference

Dublin, 9-12 July 2009

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With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that since the early 20th century those

few attempts to write a historical narrative of art-music in Greece were almost entirely

characterized by this Hellenocentric and puristic prototype. The unilateral conviction

that the only musical experiences of the Hellenic state resided in what is known as

Byzantine chant and in folksong is a stereotypical pattern that dominates the majorityof attempts at historical narration of Greeces place in art-music. This approach

clearly reflected the myth of continuity, since it took for granted that ancient Greek

music remained unaltered in the hymnology of the Byzantines, as well as in the

folk, who constituted the living past. Those musical compositions, writings or

activities of the Greek society (in its larger context) reflecting the general practices of

Europe in the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries were curtly dismissed as western-oriented

and their Greek legitimacy automatically negated, while Greek works in western

genres from the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries were until recently either unknown or

concealed. The same attitudes can be observed in the place of art-music in the

emerging urban societies of the 19th-century Greek kingdom. Usually, the historical

narratives either mocked or viewed condescendingly attempts of the progressives torelate themselves to 18th or 19th century music in the broader European context. For

early 20th-century music historians, only folksong or monophonic Orthodox chant

were considered the indisputable music of the Greeks. It is useful to see which

internal and external factors forged this one-sided canon.

Naturally, this myopic attitude does not consider culture as a phenomenon larger

than time periods and geographic limits. It refers exclusively to remote rural

communities of mainland Greece and to the clergy, not to the society as a whole. It

also considers the cultural history of a nation as static and unaffected by external

factors, such as political and social conditions, or by (forced or willing) connections

with other cultures. The fact that Greeks for many centuries had no political existence

and were split between Ottoman rule and influence from the West created a

multifaceted and tolerant musical culture, creatively assimilating trends both from

East and West, while naturally encompassing several contradictions. Nonetheless, the

various Greek regions and societies were able to express themselves by several

musical means during successive periods, without their Greekness being questioned

until the mid-19th century. Within the limits of the Enlightenment, the emerging

urban classes (including Greek scholars and intelligentsia, inside and outside of what

is today Greece) propagated the importance of Western European culture, including

music, in forming the identity of the new-Greeks, as something inherently Greek.

[slide]Nikolaos Flogaites (1799-1867):

Elementary Principles of Music (Aegina, 1830)

... I said earlier and I say now that, as we did with other sciences and arts, most of

which we find [today] in the civilized nations in a state more perfect that which our

ancestors [the Ancient Greeks] knew, we must also do the same for Music; that is to

say, to bring it back in Greece via the learned world together with its scientific [i.e.

systematic] method and the rest of its virtues.

[

This book was probably published for the pupils of elementary and secondary

schools of the newly-established Greek State under Ioannes Kapodistrias (1776-1831)]

Kostas Kardamis, Challenging the Canon



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Despite Flogaitess ideas, from the mid-19th century onward and until relatively

recently, a mythic purity was the historians aim. Orthodox church doctrine and

folklore studies played crucial roles in this orientation. By the mid-15th century, the

Greek clergys anti-western sentiments led to a stance opposed to the neoclassical

approach and to relations with the West embodied by the emerging Hellenic society.

Under the Ottoman conquest, the orthodox fundamentalists also became the politicalleadership of the Empires multiethnic Christianity, fervently supporting Ottoman rule

and projecting diachronically an Ottoman prototype of Greekness. Folklore studies,

on the other hand, were a creation of the 19th centurys romantic notions. It is not a

coincidence that in Greece they emerged almost concurrently with the historiographic

construct of continuity and that they forged canons that unified local cultures, which

actually had many differences.

Moreover, an external factor that further underscored the importance of chant and

folk-music against western music lay within the philosophy of 19th-century

European romanticism. Europe was by this time already looking for the lost

harmony of man and an effective way to reunite with these lost mythic roots was tolook back to primitive man, exoticism, the folk (whatever this might mean) and the

Middle Ages. If one adds to these the Greek Revolution and its French roots, as well

as the diachronic fixation of Europe with Ancient Greece, it becomes more than

evident that the newly-established Greek Kingdom met perfectly the romantic

expectations of the industrial north.

[slide]Hans Christian Andersen:A Journey in Greece [spring 1841]

... There happened to be in Athens two wandering musicians, young Greeks from

Smyrna, who would sing for me the best traditional songs. ... Maybe it was acoincidence that the whole order of these songs represented the history of the Neo-

Hellenes. ... Suddenly, the younger of these musicians grabbed his violin and started

playing a selection from Fra Diavolo,Robert[le Diable] and other French operas. Itwas disgusting! It seemed to me like an omen, that the traditional airs will be silenced

and foreign songs will invade the folk. Already now, Greeks prefer listening to these

melodies of Auber, and not their own songs.

Western travelers interest in Greek folk music, with its exotic and oriental

elements purposely underlined, was already evident in the 18th century and travelers

suspicion toward, not to say total distaste, for the possible relations of Greek to

western music is often obvious. Furthermore, medieval music in Greece wasequated with Orthodox chant, which of course was (and still is) the orientalized

version formulated during the Ottoman conquest. The projection from enlightened

Europe of the medieval practices combined with an interest in folk music and its

alleged relation to the music of Ancient Greece gave mid-19th century conservative

circles a perfect argument to counterbalance the criticism of the progressives, by

uniting with the ideas of European Romanticism. This fact further underlined the

triptych of continuity and forged the almighty canon of Greekness, a canon that

eventually set the primitiveness of Greek music as its most highly praised attribute,

against the supposedly decadent western art music.

The resulting convictions led by the 1850s to a continuous degradation of theKostas Kardamis, Challenging the Canon



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importance of Greek connections to Western music and to the universal promulgation

of a musically orientalized noble savage image. The imposition of this unilateral

approach also on musical historiography led to the suppression of important historical

facts. For example, the vulnerability of Orthodox chant because of its oral

transmission and the infiltration of Ottoman influences were not taken always

seriously in the historical narratives. However, this transformation of post-Byzantinechant, as well as the importance of Western music in Hellenic culture, was a general

understanding among the Greek intelligentsia as early as 16th century.

[slide]Ieronymos o Tragodistes [a Cypriot student of G. Zarlino]:

On the use of the music notation of the Greeks (btwn 1551-1558)

[Because] I have followed these [musical] elements since my childhood and have

exercised the science of music by using this notation, I observed faults, not because of

the carelessness of the earlier [authors], but because of that of our [contemporaries] just

a short time before our days ...

Adamantios Koraes (1748-1833): from a letter dated 3.IV.1815

... Let us consider now our Church Music, ... which, as with language that has been

contaminated with Turkish and Italian words, music was in similar manner mixed in

Constantinople with the music of the minarets, and in other places (like Chios and

Crete) with Italian melodies.

[Koraes suggests books by Rousseau, DAlembert, Villoteau, Forkel, Sulzer and

editions of Ancient Greek literature as means to purify church music.]

Konstantinos Kokkinakes (1781-1831):

General Newspaper of Greece 27.VI.1828

... Current [church] music is one thing and a different thing from that of our [Ancient]

Greek ancestors. This is undeniably true, ... provided that one knows some elements of

European music and history. Current [church] music on the contrary is produced by,

and has its base mainly in a foreign music, that of Arabia. ... We must resuscitate

European music in our homeland.

Now, even if one takes the 1821 revolution as the pivotal point, it is a telling thing

to note that the mass musical expression of the parties revolting resided in the

adoption of French revolutionary melodies adapted to Greek words and not in the use

of church music or folk songs. Greece in 1821 was already looking toward Western

Europe and was seeking to re-import (as the theorists of the Greek revolution

claimed) from the West the culture and the science of their ancestors. This was

already an established belief among the Greek Diaspora and in those parts of todays

Greece then under Western rule.

However, the relation of Neo-Hellenes to western music was continuous and

larger than the confined time and space of the newly-established Greek State. This is

a brief and selective overview. As late as the 15th century, progressive circles were

looking toward the practices of western music as an integral part of an emerging

neo-Hellenic (differentiated from Roman or Byzantine) social consciousness.

The composition of polyphonic hymns based on the descant technique was a practiceKostas Kardamis, Challenging the Canon



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used in the Orthodox chant by the time of the [Paleologian] Renaissance. Ieronymos

o Tragodistes proposed theoretical and practical ways for the reformation of the

rhythmic practices of Byzantine notation in order to facilitate its use for composition

in the manner of the polyphonic music of his time. The organist and organ builder

Isaakios Argyropoulos is a previously neglected figure of the Greek Diaspora

connected with the courts of the Medici and Sforza families. Leone AllaciosDrammaturgia is still one of the major sources of information for opera researchers.Adamantios Koraes proposed in the late 18th century researching Greek church

music through European music treatises, in order to purify it while at the same time

interested himself in operatic and concert performances. During the 18th century too

in the Principalities of Vlachia, Greek aristocrats were listening to Haydns quartets. It

is also worth mentioning that in 18th-century Constantinople the orientalized

mismayias coexisted with songs of western origin. The ideas and activities of the

Constantinopolitan writer and politician Alexandros Rangavis further demonstrate that

19th-century Greeks did not consider their music static or confined within narrow-

minded philosophies. The importance of art music in the European Greek

communities (ranging from London to Odessa) was, until recently, unknown and nottaken into consideration, despite the fact that the return of these migrs to the soil of

classical Greece from the 1820s until the present time decisively affected Greek

society. These communities also showed a remarkable and continuous interest in new

musical composition as early as the Renaissance, and indeed through until modern

times.

This interest in western music did not exist to any lesser degree in the classical

land of Greece itself. The island of Crete, for example, is today known for its folk

music. However, during the Renaissance and until 1669 the islands populace

supported a lively secular and sacred music life and produced at least one composer of

repute, Francesco Leondariti. Apart from that, it gave rise to a distinctive style of

orthodox chanting, which is considered to be a legitimate extension of the pre-1453

tradition. Cyprus until 1572 also demonstrated a creative assimilation in its musical

culture as demonstrated by the Franco-Cypriot music manuscripts of Turin. The

Ionian Isles too were uninterruptedly linked to European traditions no later than the

late 12th century and they became the only part of what is today Greece that followed

all of the trends and the developments of western thought and culture, music

included. Opera flourished there, as well as community music (in the form of bands,

choirs and mandolin ensembles), aesthetic thought and, as early as 1816, organized

music education. The list of composers from the Ionian Islands extending from the

late 18th century through the mid-20th century is impressive given the islands small population, but we will here mention only Nikolaos Mantzaros, Pavlos Karrer,

Spyridon Xyndas and Spiros Samaras. Dionyssios Rodotheatos, a composer who

showed interest in symphonic forms, also came from Ionian Islands.

Despite the obvious practical obstacles, western music also found its place in the

newly-established Greek State as a whole. In 1828, Kapodistrias, the first Governor of

Greece, actively supported the adoption of Russian chanting, since he considered the

enlightened Russian church the perfect model for the Greek clergy. After

independence, the heterogenous society of the small Hellenic Kingdom continued its

connection to art music as a whole. Of course, these attempts were far from ideal, a

fact that can be attributed principally to the lack of organized music education, both inKostas Kardamis, Challenging the Canon



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theoretical and practical terms. The first organized private music school would be

founded in Athens only in 1871, to be followed by many other such schools in 20th

century. However, the existence at this time of operatic troupes composed of Greek

singers and musicians, and the parallel establishment of instrumental ensembles are

not the only indications that society considered its music to be something more than

just chanting and folk songs.

During 19th century, opera houses were constructed in Athens, Syra, Patras and

other cities, and community music became a token of social development in major

Greek urban centers, as well as provincial towns. People in both large and small cities

of 19th-century Greece attended opera and operetta performances. Apart from Italian

and French, Greek melodramatic troupes were active all over the country, as were

amateur choirs, mandolin groups and wind bands. The nationalistic expectations of

the Greeks were expressed through patriotic songs, operas and band music that bore

all the characteristics of western music, and even the performances of ancient Greek

drama used incidental music by Mendelssohn. The cases of the symphonist Dimitrios

Lialios from Patras, and Wagners collaborator, Dimitrios Lalas demonstrate theserious western interests of the Neo-Hellenes in musical creation of the kind

practiced in mainstream Europe.

It is useful to note that in the early 20th century, the so-called Greek National

School proposed a fusion between the Hellenocentric approach and that of art music

by creating works based either on Byzantine chant or folk music, while couching it in

a post-romantic idiom. Of course, this was not the first time that folk music became

the basis of musical composition. Since the 1830s such material was used in operatic

works by Ionian composers. In the early 20th century, proposals of this kind were to

be expected in Greece, if one takes into consideration the historical background of the

era. In any case, the two pillars of musical Greekness were also canonized in the

field of western music, thus leaving no real space for the development of musical

modernism, which as late as 1950s was considered in Greece as an emblem of anti-

patriotism. (The development of avant-garde music in Greece both in pre-war and

post-war years, despite its importance, exceeds the limits of this paper. The same

applies in regard to the survival of the canon of the musical continuity in post-war

years, this time through what was termed Greek popular song.)

In sum, it is clear from the historical evidence that the development of music in

Greece was never confined exclusively to Byzantine chant and folk song. This is a

stereotype forged in mid-19th century, when the unity and the purity of the newlyestablished Greek Kingdom was in question and the western world considered Greece

as the ideal place for the realization of a lost paradise. These two matters forged an

artificial foundation supported by the conservative part of Greek society. However,

progressives within the same society supported with at least equal fervency, the

nations need for further cultivation of the already existing connections with western

art music as part of the new Hellenic culture. Nonetheless, it took several decades for

musicological research to begin establishing the factual groundwork for an acceptance

of the importance of western music in the formation of Greek music history and

aesthetics. This research inevitably leads to a direct opposition to the dominant canon

and asks for a new approach: namely, that one should consider these dual and

seemingly contradictory approaches, not from the point of view of purity andKostas Kardamis, Challenging the Canon



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continuity, but as actions of a society, which sought musical expression within the

confines of specific political, social and historical contexts. Based on the above, a

comprehensive historical narrative of Hellenic art music should be one of interactive

duality, rather than of forged romantic canons.

Kostas Kardamis, Challenging the Canon



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