Εκδήλωση
5o Συνέδριο Διεπιστημονικής Μουσικολογίας (CIM09), Παρίσι, Οκτώβριος 2009
Θέμα
Investigating instrumental repertoire following the technique of parataxis: A case study (Χάρης Σαρρής – Μιχάλης Κωστάκης – Τάσος Κολυδάς)

Background in Ethnomusicology.

Organological transformations as well as the study of the repertoire can speak volumes about the interaction between music, and social and historical context. Regarding the music of the Aegean, the organological transformation of the lira fiddle after the violin has been associated with the rapid urbanization of the first half of the 20^th century [5]. However, 'sophisticated' instruments, (i.e. the violin), have 'inherited' the potentials, the repertoire, as well as the aesthetics of their predecessors, such as the tsaboúna bagpipe [6]. The study of the instrumental repertoire combining an insider's and an outsider's perspective, may reveal an enlightening view regarding the interweaving of potentials, techniques and influences [7].

Background in Music Performance

Being a remote and isolated village in the island of Karpathos, Olymbos has retained a lot of cultural elements that delve back in time, such as the predominance of repertoire based upon the tsaboúna. Ghléndi (fest), where dialogical verse singing and dancing takes place, has been brought out by ethnographic research as the symbolical place for communication and interaction between the community's members [2][3]. Páno Chorós ('upper dance'), which is the culmination of the dancing procedure, is of great importance: It offers the opportunity for the re-negotiation of one's social status through skilful dancing or even through tipping the instruments that play for the dance with large amounts of money. Within this context, a musician has not only to be a mere instrument player, but also an administrator of the ghléndi and a 'guard' of its unwritten laws. The late Giannis Pavlidis was one of them. He was an outstanding lira and tsaboúna player, and he was respected by all the musicians and the inhabitants of Olymbos. Living in Rhodes in an urban environment, he got in touch with various music traditions of the Aegean. He introduced elements of Dodecanesian and Cretan tradition in the repertoire of Olymbos, hence innovating regardless of the highly conservative principles of his village.

Aims

In this study we analyze a recording of an instrumental Páno Chorós dance recorded back in 1982 using Parataxis [7]. Systematic analysis under the prism of local musical instrument's potentials, combined with the way musicians from Olymbos perceived this recording in 2009, sheds light on this genre of repertoire.

Main contribution

The piece under analysis has been recorded during a ghléndi, performed by the late Giannis Pavlidis. It consists of a series of dhoksariés ('bowings'). This is the term used in Olymbos for the short, complete, but not autonomous music segments played by the lira, which are placed one after the other in a matter of parataxis.

The recording is analyzed in terms of structure both from the perspective of systematic analysis as well as from the native's point of view using Parataxis. Regarding the native's point, a group of musicians from Olymbos tag and annotate Pavlidis' Páno Chorós, hence providing a present day view of the recording. Metadata is entered in Parataxis' web-based database (www.parataxis.eu). The conclusive analysis is based on the side-by-side commentary of the metadata gathered, as well as to the organological data and playing techniques used in the instruments related to the recording: the lira fiddle, the tsaboúna bagpipe, the violin and the laúto lute. Through systematic analysis we can find three groups of music segments: segments related to the tsaboúna, to the lira and to the violin. Analysis from a native's perspective offers an evaluation of these three groups, in the context of the Páno Chorós' performance. At the same time, it acts as a bridge for the investigation of contemporary performative practices regarding this genre of repertoire.

Implications

Our research can hopefully act as a case study for the multilateral analysis of instrumental music following the technique of parataxis. Data from structural analysis coded with Parataxis project, combined with organological data and performative practices may result to a 'holographic depiction' of the music under analysis.