Mantinades in Cretan Oral Genres and
Song|
Mantinades in Cretan Oral Genres and Song Origins of the metrical structure and emergence of mantinada The metrical structure of a mantinada is based on a fifteen-syllable line that in Modern Greek is normally called ‘dekapentasíllavo’ (= fifteen syllables), or ‘politikós stíhos’ (= the common verse). This verse form is by far the most common metre in Greek folk poetry, as well as in the early literature and art poetry. The verse is based on a syllabic, iambic line, and stresses of the natural words can fall freely on any even syllable, except in the beginning of the half-lines, where an uneven syllable (first or ninth) can be stressed. A line contains two half-lines with the mid-line caesura always clearly marked. The first half-line contains eight syllables, and an obligatory stress either on the sixth or the eight syllable, and the second half-line seven syllables, with an obligatory stress on the fourteenth syllable: Peramató kai diázomai / faíno kai masourízo 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 / 9,10,11,12,13,14,15 ksaíno kai klótho tsi kaimoús / ma dé tzi vtagiantízo[1] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 / 9, 10,11,12,13,14,15 These two dekapentasíllavo lines form a mantinada as the rhyme bounds them together and seals up the couplet format, the unit which in Crete, when independent, is called mantinada. The 12th Chapter returns to the question of the metrical form and other poetic means of the mantinada in detail. The fifteen-syllable dekapentasíllavo line has became established during the Byzantine years as a dominant verse form in Greek folk poetry, as well as in the early vernacular literature, but it’s origins, oral or learned, have not been confirmed unambiguously. In Ancient Greek the metre was based on alternations of long and short syllables, but already in the beginning of the Christian era started to be displaced by an accentual metre. The fifteen-syllable line is regarded either to be derived from the Latin versus quardratus triumphalis (the rhythmic insults hurled at a triumphator by Roman soldiers), or from the octosyllable and heptasyllable at the level of popular poetry (Alexiou & Holton 1976: 22-23). The latter case is supported by Alexiou & Holton on ground of the fact that the “fifteen syllable is not exclusive to Greek but a common and natural rhythm for folk poetry based on metre” (1976: 25). They situate the development somewhere between the 6th and 9th centuries. Neither case, however, can definitely be proved because of the lack of evidence for the actual vital period of formation, before the year 900 (Alexiou & Holton 1976: 23). (For an overview of the problem and bibliography see Alexiou & Holton 1976: 22-34; also Beaton 1980: 75-78; 1989: 94-97.) The verse form is normally referred to in Greek language as "dekapentasíllavo" (= fifteen syllables), or (more rarely) as "politikós stíhos". The Greek adjective politikós here is used in the meaning "koinós" (of common use), prevailing during the Byzantine era and still used in certain expressions (e.g. politikós gámos = civil marriage), and not in its modern meaning "political". The verse form is explained (Alexiou & Holton 1976; Beaton 1989: 94) to have been named thus by Byzantine authors from the twelfth century on presumably contemptuously because of its laic, prosaic nature. Why, then, the Western researchers use the term ‘political verse’, which is a misleading translation, does not become clear from the above bibliography. In this work, I prefer to call the metrical line with its common Greek name dekapentasíllavo. Ruled by Venetians between 1211 and 1669, Crete experienced a literary high season from the 15th to the 17th centuries, influenced by Western European literature models. Crete was already an important cultural centre at least in the 13th century, and a way to the West for the fleeing intellectuals of Constantinople after the Ottoman capture of the City in 1453 (Holton 1991: 3-4). The Cretan Renaissance is described by Holton (1991: 15) as being ”the result of an extraordinary cross-fertilisation of cultures that took place in a society that, by the sixteenth century, had developed a homogeneous character of its own, neither Greek nor Italian, but Cretan. The literature and art of 16th and 17th century Crete owed much to the models of the Italian Renaissance, but they have a distinct quality of their own. Cretan Renaissance literature is not Italian literature translated into Greek, for it was also nourished by a native literary, and folk, tradition which sprang from the Byzantine roots”. This meeting of the East and West in Crete in the period of Venetian rule also had important impact on the development of Modern Greek art and literature (Holton 1991: 16). This Western European literature model brought the use of rhyme that was never systematically used by ancient Greeks, or in the literary forms of the Byzantine Empire. In Greek folk song other than these rhyming couplets rhyme is generally rarely met. The literary poet, having read foreign originals, composed poems in rhyming couplets and in vernacular, according to the new Western literary tastes. According to Beaton (1980: 150), the recitation or singing of these written poems then quickly entered the form to the folk poetry as well. (Beaton 1980: 149-150.) Whether the couplet form in Crete predates the use of rhyme is not sure. An occasional sense-unit of two lines may occur, but there is no systematic use of it before the introduction of rhyme. (Beaton 1980: 149.) The origin of the name mantinada is regarded to be derived from the Italian matinata, morning song (serenade), which may suggest that the rhyming couplet form came to the island with the Venetians as one parcel.[2] The first systematic use of rhyme is found in the late 14th century in the poetry of the Cretan Stefanos Sahlikis, and according to David Holton (1991: 12) the emergence of the couplet form as standard may well have been due to Sahlikis. At the latest by 1500, the form had become standardised in Crete. While written in vernacular the literary works of the Cretan School were provided a powerful means of expression with the themes, metaphors and formulas of the folk poetry traditions. Possibly due to these familiar elements the literary works then entered the popular world. An especially important role has played the romance Erotókritos of Vizenzos Kornaros, a romantic narrative poem of 10010 lines, written in rhyming distichs, around the 1600[3]. Long pieces of verses of Erotókritos, and even the whole book, are told to have been memorised by heart by illiterate Cretan shepherds in all centuries ever after, even today. Parts of the text are sung today to the Erotókritos melody (see page 54) as separated songs, many verse couplets are used as such or little changed as a mantinada, and the principal persons, the loving couple has entered to the folk metaphors especially in the wedding songs. One informant in his fifties described to me how in his childhood in the village his father used to sing the Erotókritos during the evenings at home, like a serial story, which left the children every day in agony to guess what happens next. In his village this was a common habit in many houses. (A5b: 2.) The importance of this work in forming the aesthetics and romantic focus of the poetic expression in Crete seems undeniable. Couplets have a special place in the Greek folk poetry, distinguished from the rest of the tradition by their structure and versatile character. By the early 19th century couplets are found in all Greek speaking area in towns and on islands, but were unknown on the rural mainland, where, according to Beaton (1980:149), the association of rhyme with Westerners and with literature was taken “as proof of sexual deviancy”, followed by a contemptuous dismissal. Later couplets are found spread to the mainland as well. They have nevertheless always been most popular in the southern islands, especially in Crete and the Dodecanese, where they are known with the name mantinada, and in Cyprus, with the name tshiáttisma. In Cyprus singing contests are still held, although generally the international culture has eroded earlier the position of the traditional oral arts. In Karpathos and Kasos, Crete’s neighbouring islands, the tradition has been fertile along with musical traditions similar to Crete. Elsewhere the rhyming distich is known as patináda (Hios), amanés (Asia Minor), kotsáki (Cyclades), or, generally, as lianotrágoudo (Kiriakidis 1947, in Beaton 1980: 148). In Crete, the rhyming couplet mould has developed over the centuries into a natural, autonomous poetic language, but just how, is difficult to trace. There is little information available beyond the time today’s collective memory reaches. The literary roots of the metrical form are unquestionable, and likely this literary model was the reason for its romantic use in kantádes (serenades) and other oral love verses, which are recalled by many older informants. Mantinades as proverbial, communicational speech genre was, not so long ago, a cornerstone of the village life, which is richly described by older Cretans, as well as the collective singing in village feasts and casual get-togethers of men. Improvisational singing of short verses has been common in many oral cultures, as was already remarked in page 7. Konstantínos Romaíos notices in his article (1952-5: 281) on the distich songs of Pontos[4] that the popularity of improvisation of these distichs follows the distribution of the lyra (see Chapter 9) as musical instrument (Crete, Cyprus, the Dodecanese and Pontos). Chris Williams (forthcoming), referring to similar tradition described by Jane Sugarman (1987) among Prespa Albanian men, suggests that the Cretan tradition of men’s gathering for the competitive singing of mantinades may have its origins in the ritual culture widely known in Near East (see also Caton 1990), introduced in Crete by the Bektashi sufi culture. However, just how rhyming couplets become in Crete such a universal language, or register, of a wide variety of oral performances - which will be described in this part of the thesis - will most probably never be cleared out. Mantinades and other forms of
folk poetry in Crete
Most folk poetry genres in Crete make use of the rhyming couplet form. A couplet is called mantinada when independent, containing the message fully in its two lines. But couplets may also be semantically more or less tightly woven into a series forming a lyrical or narrative song. Even though the conversational mantinades are a major register in all Crete, covering many forms and genres of poetical and communicational verbal expression, there are remarkable differences in the (festive) sung performance practices. In central and eastern Crete the concept of ‘song’ is interchangeable with mantinada, and fixed or improvised mantinades are performed with musical instruments (see next Chapter). On the contrary, the main genre in sung performances in western Crete is the vocal male rizítiko song, which, however, may be combined with mantinades (see Amargianakis 1988: 323; Magrini 2000). This chapter will shortly present these forms of folk poetry, and the genres and themes covered by mantinades. Other fixed folk songs, like those associated with yearly feasts and holidays, more popular in the past and known elsewhere in Greece too, are today mainly learned and performed by children at school. Themes and genres of mantinadesMantinades in their thematic contents and context of use cover a variety of speech and folklore genres. Besides the often competitive improvisational singing or saying of thematically connected mantinades in a festive or entertainment event, mantinades were used until recently extensively also conversationally: proverbially, to comment or satirise various aspects of daily life. These communicational practices, even if still maintained by numerous individuals and parées, have generally quickly declined with the rural depopulation and especially with the recent privatisation of life. Today, mantinades recited or composed seldom have an immediate, socially crucial target, like still twenty years ago in many collective village societies (see Herzfeld 1985a); they rather express the individual and esoteric, and are heard (or read) mainly by a small circle of friends, or published as songs or poems. Traditional mantinades are still used extensively as greetings and felicitations for example in baptisms, betrothals and weddings. “Χίλια καλώς ορίσετε, χίλια και δυό χιλιάδεςΟ κάμπος με τα λούλουδα και με τσι πρασινάδες”(traditional) Τhousand (times) welcome, thousand and two thousands Τhe plain with the flowers and with all its greens For describing and comparing scholarly purposes most mantinades may be defined as lyrical or situational songs, proverbs, aphorisms or proverbial sayings. Endogenously, if glossed, the distinctions are variously at the level of content, context, way or aim of use. Thus the main categories mentioned are erotiká, erotic songs, and pismatiká or pirahtiká, teasing songs.The biggest urge for self-expression with mantinades is unambiguously attributed to erotic messages, for communication of which, in traditional patriarchal Cretan village communities, a mantinada was not just a cherished but the only possible way. The erotiká broadly contains poems of love, erotic feelings and admiration of the loved one, which may be metaphorical or straight, in all the tones from secret, covered admiration to direct erotic proposals. The category has been very important as vehicle in the restricted erotic discourse of the old time village life, and similarly predominantly represented in contemporary song production:“Γίνου στον κάμπο λεμονιά, κι εγώ στα όρη χιόνι Να λιώνω, να ποτίζονται οι τριφεροί σου κλώνει” (traditional)
May you become a lemontree on the plain, and I snow on the mountainsSo that I can melt and your tender roots be watered
‘Οντε φιλώ τα χείλη σου, ο λογισμός μου τρέχει Στη μυρωδιά, που βγάνει η γης, τότε που πρωτοβρέχει” (Stavrakákis 1984: 29)
When I kiss your lips, my mind runs To the odour that comes out of the earth, when it rains first time
”Νά’βανα τσι πλεξούδες σου μια νύχτα μαξελάρι Kι ας είχε ’ρθεί την ταχινή ο χάρος να με πάρει” (Hairétis 1996: 22, A3a: 21)
If I could lay your braids one night as pillow No matter if in the morning Charos would come to take me
The other main motive for communication was (and to a lesser degree, is) to tease, satirise, or even mock the opponent. The pismatiká or pirahtiká that were ever popular in the village communities, just like satiriká, satirical songs, contain the core body of conversational mantinades uttered and composed to remark on circumstantial occurrences and interpersonal tensions. Often these were exchanged between women and men too, which can still take place (A3b: 22): “One boy said to a girl who didn’t want him: “Σα μ’άρνηθεις αγάπη μου ίντα θάρρεις πως κάνω? ‘Ενα τσικάλι φαγιτό τρώγω να μην ποθάνω”
When you reject me my dear what do you think I’ll do? A large pot of food I eat in order not to die
The girl says to him (he was a little bit fat): ”Τα μάθια σου είν’σαν τ’αυγά, και κώλοι σου βαρέλια και όταν προβάλλεις και σε δώ, ξερένομαι στα γέλια”
Your eyes are like eggs and your bums like barrels And when you appear and I see you, I fall about with laughter Just like many greetings, wishes and toasts, also mantinádes tou gámou, wedding songs, sung by women while preparing the bride and groom, are usually traditional. These may not be mixed with mantinades sung later in the traditional wedding feast, glénti, where, besides taking notice of the individual character of the glénti in the themes, the singing soon becomes free, himatikó, culminating often to antikristés, reciprocal mantinádes, like in any other glénti with music and dance. (For description of such singing in wedding, see Caraveli 1985; also Herzfeld 1985b.) When asking a mantinadológos or a tradition-bearer for opinion on categories of mantinades, the most common answer is the following: “There are mantinades for all aspects of life”. Only after a further discussion people will imply descriptions of (mainly the above mentioned) classifications. This shows clearly how mantinades are primarily understood in the sense I have called here register. In addition, a wide body of mantinades stating, either seriously or humorously, a philosophical conception of life, bounding the personally experienced to an eternal verity or traditional shared idea, is not separately named indigenously (see discussion in Herzfeld 1981a: 114-116). ‘Οπιος αγαπά αληθινά βάσανα δε φοβάται Μόνο τα στρώνει πάπλωμα και θέτει και κοιμάτει(Aristídis Hairétis, A3a: 15)
The one who loves really is not afraid of worries Only he makes them a quilt and lays down and sleeps
Εμπήκενε η Πρωτοχρονιά και τό’μαθα απο άλλους ‘Αρα λοιπόν και σήμερο έχω καιμούς μεγάλους (Aristídis Hairétis, A3a: 13)
The New Year’s Day arose and I learned it from others Thus also today I have big troubles
This synthesis of the acutely relevant and personal now with the overarching eternal and traditional is of course characteristic to other themes too, and clearly understood to be the very nature of the register. It is even made clear in the local glossing of what a mantinada should be like: It must be a dekapentasíllavo, it must have rhyme, it must be balanced and with beautiful words (the traditional form and idea); it is a part of the life of the composer (the actual and personal). Good mantinades, the ones that are performed over times, are then those in which the personally experienced is moulded into the form in a way that touches or speaks to others again and again. The best mantinades remain in the local poetic reserve, and are uttered again and again both in order to create significance in new contexts and as recollections of significant past experiences. Many have been printed into the memory with a certain melody, sung by famous masters of the Cretan music, such as Skordalós, Mountákis or Xiloúris. These mantinades are often indeed poetically excellent; compact in form, acoustically harmonious and semantically many-layered with rich imagery, like this (already cited) erotic traditional mantinada: “Γίνου στον κάμπο λεμονιά, κι εγώ στα όρη χιόνι να λιώνω, να ποτίζονται οι τριφεροί σου κλώνει”
’May you become a lemontree on the plain, and I snow on the mountainsSo that I can melt and your tender roots be watered’
In printed Cretan collections (e.g. Droudákis 1982; Lioudáki 1936; Pavlákis 1994) the multiformity of mantinades is organised under rubrics of themes: mantinades of marriage, love, admiration, farewells; teasing songs, satirical songs, folk philosophy, proverbs, etc. These are again divided into numerous subcategories. These classifications are criticised with reason by Herzfeld (1981a, 1985b) to be a result of the old scholarly folkloristic interest, neglecting to recognise the village usage of contextually defined meaning. Certainly these definitions as such do not give any right to the local social and performative conceptions. Especially treating a category like proverbs (Herzfeld 1981a: 114-116; 1974) as bare texts is indeed ambiguous, and not just in Greece (see also Briggs 1988: 3-4). With these critics one may condemn any scholarly focus on treating the register, or questions of meaning, from the sole base of textual elements. The collections are, however, at least today mainly written and read by Cretans themselves, by whom they are by no means seen as representatives of performances. Starting from the mixed oral and literal origins, and taking notice of the influence of the widely known Erotókritos romance, and of a parallel narrative composition technic in distichs, rímes, (see later in this Chapter), the oral and literary seem to have lived in Crete in a natural intertextual relation for a long time. From an indigenous point of view, thematic classifications in collections may as well be seen to reflect the importance of thematic connection in performance. In our conversation on the classifications, one known mantinadológos explained the following: (Why do you use these categories in your publications of poems?) “They also exist in life. These that deal with erotic love are erotic, the other that are of separation take the theme of separation. About the loneliness…about the freedom then…here I have put the categories, you can as well…here for example about the desire, because three mantinades have the word desire, I say this category is that of desire, but in here you can find also the erotic, what ever. It’s a little bit technical, it’s for, I don’t know, literary use. (…). But when you say a mantinada and the other laughs, it is a satirical that tells: your face is like that of a pig…it’s not erotic. If you put it in a category: humorous; you call it satirical, sarcastic, or something like that. Compulsory you put it into one of the categories; there are erotic, humorous, then there are philosophical. But by themselves they go into categories. (A5a: 9.)
The variance within a poetic register is thus perceived and put into practice, but hardly glossed, by tradition-bearers. Like the contextual meaning, the question of the singer’s poetics has been of little interest during the history of folk poetry collection[5]. Recent emphases and inquiries have been focused on such “thick” corpuses (see Honko 2000), and show that delicate, indigenously perceived rules guide the co-variation of form and stylistic devices with theme or social situation in any oral culture.
Couplets as song unitsBesides the actual self-dependent mantinades, most of the longer lyrical poems and songs, love songs, laments and lullabies, for example, are cast in the form of a series of rhyming couplets. These are not called mantinades, whose primary character is indeed the demand of conveying a full meaning in the two lines. While this opinion is categorical for many tradition-bearers, others do not see any problem in calling larger clusters of couplets mantinades. Often, however, such compositions are called ‘songs’. The demand of thematic connection between successive mantinades in performance is so determining that the borderline between mantinades and mantinades sinehómenes, continued, is not necessarily clear. Many poets are very productive, and even they may write down their verses, they do not exercise any discrimination to the style of a writing poet. Informants often told that verses come in abundance into the mind, “horís na to thélo” (without my own will). In certain conditions mantinades very easily seem to get sinehómenes, thus forming a loose history or a complex of poems on a certain theme[6]. When a composer (especially women) does not have access to social poetic communication, then what in a paréa could be an interpersonal chain of mantinades, now is formed by a single person. The following verses are a part of such a long series of meditative poems composed and written down by my informant Déspina Papadáki, during holidays beside the sea: Σαν το καïκι που τό’χουνε δεμένο στο μουράγιο Βρίσκεται το κορμάκι μου και που θα βρώ κουράγιο
Like the caique that they have tied to the pier Is my poor body and where shall I find courage
Κάθομαι συλλογίζομαι και ο νους μου ντουζουντίζει Τα βάζω με την τύχη μου μα εκείνη μου μανίζει
I sit and think and my mind in wondering I leave it all with my fate but she rages to me
‘Αχι καημένο μου κορμί και πως θα νταγιαντίζεις Τα βάσανα και τους καημούς και δεν παραλαντίζεις
Oh my poor body, how will you bear The pains and the worries and don’t get mad
Τα βάσανα και οι χαρές είναι ανακατωμένα Kαι πρέπει κάθε άνθρωπος να τά’χει μετρημένα
The worries and the joys are mixed And every human being should have them with measure
Τίποτα δε μ’ευχαριστεί ούτε μ’ενθουσιάζει Βλέπω πολλά παράξενα και η καρδιά μου βράζει
Nothing makes me happy, nor fills me with enthousiasm I see a lot of strange things and my heart is boiling
‘Οσα θωρούν τα μάθια μου και η σκέψη όσα φέρνει Θέλει να διώξει η καρδιά μα δεν τα καταφέρνει
All that my eyes see and all that is brought by thought Μy heart wants to turn away, but can’t make it
Σαν ξημερώσει ο θεός και φύγει ο Αποσπερίτης Σκέφτομαι πόσα γίνονται σε τούτο τον πλανήτη
When Gud makes the day and the Evening Star leaves I think how much happens in this planet
‘Οταν βραδιάσει σκοτεινιά και πάλι ξημερώνει Μα ο άνθρωπος είναι θεριό κανείς δεν τον μερώνει
When the night falls it is dark and again the sun rises But the human being is a beast, nobody tames him
Κάθε λεπτό όπου περνά για μένα είναι χρόνος Γιατί δεν έφυγε ποτέ απ’την καρδιά ο πόνος
Every minute that passes for me is a year Since the pain never left the heart
The above loosely connected poems can yet be understood as separate thoughts and mantinades. Similarly - but with narrative emphases and different structural character and means - the compact rhyming couplet form that helps the composition and memorising is used in the composition of rímes, longer narrative, often historical, songs. These poems, however, are not regarded as ‘real’ folk poetry by many researchers, since it is seen that they differ from the demotic tradition in their imitation of a literary style and in being composed, named and dated by half-professional poets (Beaton 1980: 160; Kapsomenos 1979:16-17). These characteristics and the same composition technique are shared as well by the oldest known narrative song ‘Daskalojannis’, which tells the story of a rebellion of the Cretans in Sfakiá in 1770, in an epic of 1034 lines written down shortly afterwards, as by the shorter and more recent compositions. (Beaton 1980: 155-158.) The new compositions are often written down and published in leaflets or in the local newspapers. The decision of whether the rímes are folk poetry or not, may not be that easily solved. The basic difference between the self-expression with the apt, concise proverbial mantinades and the longer narrative compositions seems to me to be rather a question of personal character and competence of the poet. Competence in these genres is born from very different basis and the handling of textual and contextual elements is extremely different, just as is found between the different Mexicano genres by Briggs (1988). Both forms are extremely traditional ways of oral self-expression in Crete, even if writing down the verses has been much more common for rímes, until the last decades. With the experience I have at the moment about various persons’ approaches towards their poetics in Crete, I would like to call rímes another register (introduction as a folk poetry genre is the case in most Cretan publications, e.g. Amargianákis 1988). What could also be seen in the difference of these registers that use the same basic couplet form but are so divergent especially in their contextual orientation, is the kind of continuum found by Foley (see Chapter 6) between purely oral and oral-derived traditions. Here (between mantinades and rímes) the continuum is between orally – communicationally - and contextually orientated verses and those of literally and textually orientated, with a multilevel inter-space of more or less bound clusters of mantinades, songs and mantinades sinehómenes. To research how these different registers and strategies, and competence in them, are distributed among Cretan tradition-bearers, is a challenging long time goal. Rizítika songs of western CreteSeparate by form is the tradition of rizítika songs, which have a more topical popularity in the western part of the island, in the roots of the White Mountains in the prefecture of Haniá. Although different in form, the long coexistence with mantinades is easily seen in the shared formulas and metaphors. These songs contain nearly all the themes of the folk songs of the other Greek areas. The oldest layer refers to the Byzantine epic poem hero Digenes Akrites (the acritic poem came between 961-1210 to Crete, where one of the surviving manuscripts of the poem was written down (S. Alexíou 1969)). Other layers can be distinguished to refer to the periods of Venetian (1211-1669) and Ottoman (1669-1897) occupations, and the latest songs refer to the historical occurrences of the 20th century. These songs are short (on the average just ten lines), mainly composed in the dekapentasíllavo metre, unrhymed and extremely crystallised in their form and poetics. They are performed vocally by a male voice or chorus, without musical instruments, to the melodies of a slow free rhythm. With vocal decorations and repetitions of the verses by the first singer and the chorus, a performance of a song takes a long time. The rizítika songs are divided into two categories: table songs (tis távlas) and journey songs (tis strátas). Table songs are still popular and can be sung around the table in any festive occasion or informal paréa, with good food, wine and raki. Shorter and merrier mantinades are often added in performance in the beginning and in the end. Sometimes, in order to hear more songs only the three first verses are sung (which is common with all songs in all parts of Greece!). The journey songs rarely have a natural context nowadays[7], but were in the older times sung while walking to other villages, especially when fetching the bride, or to fields, or during a night-time serenade, kantáda[8], under the window of the loved one. In these occasions, rizítika were also accompanied with musical instruments, all verses were sung and repeated two or three times, thus making one song last very long, even one hour. (Amargianakis 1988: 323-324; see also Beaton 1980: 160-161; Kaloyanides 1975: 25-27; Magrini 2000.) Even though rizítika songs are known nowadays also in other parts of the island, due to performances in concerts and live music clubs and access to recorded material, their natural performance takes place mainly in the villages of the original area in the prefecture of Haniá. Contrary to the situation elsewhere in Crete, in the rizítika area, where human voice is the basic instrument of folk song, musical instruments are rarely played. Kapsoménos (1979: 21-22) also remarks that the main production of new historical songs (that can take the form of a rizítiko song or a ríma) falls to the same area, where the tradition of narrative song is strong.
Cretan dance music: a vehicle for verbal expression with mantinades Crete has been through its history a part of a wide Eastern and Mediterranean cultural sphere. This is also felt in music, where along with the endogenous Cretan styles can be heard a great variety of Eastern and Western influences from different traditions and time periods. During the 20th century the old rural traditions did not die out with the coming of the new urban popular music styles, but, indeed, the interaction of these two led into new developments and strength. The basis in what today is called Cretan music is the rural lyra (líra)-music, which has been widely played in all the lowland areas of the island, and in the central mountain areas (the mountain areas had in the past also a pastoral wind instrument tradition, died out completely today). During the Ottoman occupation many Cretans converted to Muslim faith, and up to the beginning of the 20th century the small towns were dominated by Muslim Cretan population (see Greene 2000). The Muslim population largely shared the same musical tradition with Christian Cretans (Chris Williams, forthcoming). The refugees from Asia Minor, who replaced this Muslim town population in the forced population exchange of 1922-3, brought a strong musical tradition that during the fertile middle-war period enriched the local music, but later the nationalistic movements viewed these Eastern features with hostility, and most forms of these traditions remained marginal (Zaimákis 2001). Today, the Asia Minor song tradition is rehearsed and performed especially by choirs.
Lyra is the primary melodic instrument used in Crete and it gives the Cretan music its distinctive characteristic. At least during the first half of the 20th century, violin was also widely played in eastern Crete and the district of Haniá. Mandolin is often mentioned by informants both as an instrument for kantádes and accompaniment to informal singing or to lyra, in central and eastern Crete. The pear-shaped (“Cretan“) lyra, a fretless bowed lute with three metal strings, which in Crete underwent an evolutionary process through various forms in the first half of the 20th century, is played in the southern Aegean islands: in Crete, Kasos and Karpathos. The first mentions of this type of instrument called lyra are from the tenth century from Asia Minor. It is known to be played in Crete at least from the 17th century, but its way and date to enter the area are unknown. In the past lyra was played alone, and tiny bells were attached to the bow for rhythmic accompaniment. (Anoyanakis 259-275.) Later lyra or violin was accompanied by other instruments, at eastern Crete especially by a small double-membrane drum, daoúli, and mandolin, and in western presumably by boulgarí, a long-necked plucked lute. In rural Crete an important category of mantinada-poets (mantinadóroi, rimadóroi) always were the amateur lyra (or violin) players. Performing outside their natal village environment they where also an important vehicle for the poems' road from village to village. The main performance arenas up to the 1950’s were rural village feasts, entertainment and dances, which will be introduces in the next Chapter. Urban town areas were yet small, and little is known of the actual musical performance practices in them before the 20th century. But the first half of the 20th century was an active period of developments in Cretan music. Ottoman-Greek popular music influences that arrived with refugees from the Anatolian cities of Constantinople and Smyrna (Izmir) had a huge impact to the development of the Greek urban popular music. Besides the main centres of settlement, Athens, Pireus and Salonica, refugees settled also in Cretan towns, where a number of creative local musicians were already active. Indeed, the active developing of musical forms and the adopting of oriental elements to the Cretan music is according to Chris Williams (forthcoming) mainly a result of the activities of three Rethymniot musicians: Harilaos Piperakis, Andreas Rodinos and Stelios Foustalieris. After the World War II the industrialisation brought an influx of rural population to the Cretan urban centres. Taverns with live music appeared, musical communities were developed, and active borrowing between Cretan musicians and rebétika musicians from Athens and Pireus produced new compositional forms. The laoúto (a large long-necked[9] fretted, plucked lute, with a pear-shaped body, common in all Greece) had already replaced the boulgarí, and this ensemble was identified with the new Cretan urban musical style. (Kaloyanides 1975: 9.) Ever since the most common musical performance ensemble is the líra-laoúto zigiá (pair) consisting of one lyra-player and one or two laoúto players. The lyra-player is responsible for melodic elaboration and variation, and normally he is also the singer, alternating between vocal and instrumental sections. Laoúto is used especially for rhythmical accompaniment, and when there are two laoúta in the zigiá, the other may play melodically with lyra. Other instruments used nowadays in bigger ensembles are guitar, mandolin, and sometimes percussions. All these processes allowed new possibilities for musicians, and during various other waves, also politically motivated, of growing interest towards local traditions, the Cretan dance music took a firm position in performance arenas in Crete and got also known elsewhere. Nowadays, local music is performed in concerts and clubs (mainly during the winter season), in village saint festivals, panigíria (that during the summer season are organised nearly daily in different villages), at weddings and other family feasts. The most popular instruments today, líra, laoúto, and mandolin, are played widely, and learned by a new generation in rural and urban settings. However, while the quantity of music performed and recorded, and the number of amateur and professional players today is high, it is generally agreed by professional musicians and layman alike that during the last decades the musical creativity and richness has diminished considerably. Thus also mantinades in many commercial recordings have entirely lost their original meaning and depth. With the transfer of the rural village glénti to the urban - and later also rural - commercial festive centres, kéntra, performance practices have of course completely changed. Whereas in the old days musicians were amateurs, performing acoustically in the centre of the festive area with the dancers forming a circle around them, today the musicians are professionals heightened to a separate stage circled by amplifiers. Improvised oral practices have given way to prewritten songs performed by professional musicians, and made by other professionals. Whereas the old village gléndi was the only entertainment available, and gathered all the villagers together, today it is although popular, just one of many choices. Besides rizítika songs, calendar songs and the like that are traditionally performed vocally without musical instruments, and the separate case of the popular Erotókritos [10] piece, the biggest part of Cretan music is instrumental dance music. This dance music is also a very important vehicle for expression with mantinades. In all Crete, besides of an unimportant number of songs that have fixed lyrics in a metre other than dekapentasíllavo, the lyrics of dance music are mantinades. These lyrics can be fixed to the melody, or the musical form can support extempore verse making (which, as noted, is popular at eastern and central Crete). All Cretan dance music is performed in 2/4 time (sirtá sometimes 4/4). The asymmetrical rhythms, such as kalamatianós (7/8), which are popular in mainland and largely in Balkans, are more rarely part of the program. Five dance forms of the known fifteen have been saved to us and are performed today. Of these the pidihtá, the "leaping" dances kastrinós and pentozális, that are instrumental, and soústa, which has fixed lyrics, have established forms and are no more being developed as musical forms. Instead, the kontiliés (or siganós pentozális) and haniótikos sirtós, the “dragging“ dances, were subjected to a zeal for innovations during the 20th century because of their capability to serve as a vehicle for verbal expression with mantinades. Both dance forms consist of melodic formulas that offer the creative musician a possibility for improvisation by creating new variations as these formulas are repeated many times. (Kaloyanides 1975: 139-140.) The kontiliés or siganós musical form is popular not as a dance, but because it is nowadays the most important vehicle for performing mantinades. It has simple steps and is danced mainly in the weddings as the first dance "horós tis nífis", the bride's dance, after the wedding ceremony while mantinades for the new couple are sung. The formal structure is made up of short melodic formulas called kontiliés that employ an eight beat or four measure rhythmic cycle with some variations (Kaloyanides 1975: 48-50). These kontiliés can be performed with artful elaboration, or simply to give melody, when the main focus is on the verbal side. There are many individual ways to sing a mantinada with kontiliés[11], but by far the most common is the following: the first dekapentasíllavo line is sung to one rhythmic cycle, and repeated by audience during an other rhythmic cycle, then the second is sung alike and repeated by audience. This musical form is especially used when singing in informal paréa, for the conversational, himatikó (free, loose) singing of mantinádes. The haniótikos sirtós has been presented as a local instrumental dance with few melodies in the beginning of the twentieth century in the province of Haniá. But its form was revolutionary reformed in the beginning of the 1930s by adding to the dancing sirtós form a melodic couplet formula to correspond to the couplet form of mantinada, thus making it suitable to serve the vocal expression. The development was originated by the lyra-player Harilaos Piperakis (1892-1981) and perfected by Andréas Rodinós (1912-1934) (Williams, forth-coming). This development was continued later by other musicians, and by the early 1950s this dance form was the most complex and highly developed in Crete, and an important vehicle for poetic verbal expression. Both the old dancing sirtós and the new “plaintive” sirtós (nowadays often called ‘tou Rodinoú’) form, the latter consisting only of melodic couplets, are known and performed today. (Kaloyanides 1975: 98- 106.) The melodic couplet represents a structural correspondence with mantinada, the textual couplet, and not a parallel of one melodic phrase for one textual line. This structure of fitting the poetic text to the melody is analysed in detail by Kaloyanides (1975: 141-150) and will be accordingly presented shortly here. Basically, each four hemistichs are allotted a four measure or eight beats standard melodic couplet phrase as a rhythmic cycle. But the procedure is far more complicated and similar to the musical variations of the melodies: hemistichs are divided into sections, parts are repeated, and digressions, tsakísmata (see below), are added. This variation is done within the standard textual presentation of sirtós in sections:
1) first melodic couplet phrase – hemistich a 2) second melodic couplet phrase – hemistichs a + b 3) first melodic couplet phrase – hemistich c 4) second melodic couplet phrase – hemistichs c + d Corresponding to repetitions of the melodic couplet phrases, the sections 1 and 3, which present only one hemistich each, use a partite structure that expands the textual presentation over more than one rhythmic cycle. These partite structures can be bipartite, tripartite or tetrapartite, presenting a hemistich in a corresponding number of rhythmic cycles, each consisting of various number of syllables of the hemistich or a tsákisma (see below). Sections 2 and 4 are often of the same length as sections 1 and 3, but as they contain the entire line of two hemistichs, they do not use the partite structure. The repetition may have a tsákisma (see below). For an example the first couplet of the sirtós Apokóronas “Ela san éheis óreksi“ from the first record Rodinós - Baxevánis of “The Masters of Cretan music“ serie (Aerakis): “‘Ela san éheis óreksi / to kríma na diplóseis na sou ti dóso tin kardiá / na tin ksanapligóseis“
Come when you like / to double the injury So that I can give you the heart / to hurt it again
“Aíntes amán amán Aítes áman éla san éheis na sou ti dóso éla san éheis óreksi na sou ti dóso tin kardiá
Éla san éheis óreksi áhi to karvounáki (tsákisma) to kríma na diplóseis pou na sou ti dóso ti kardiá to kríma na diplóseis na tin ksanapligóseis ah na tin ksanapligóseis
In performance this structure of textual presentation is interrelated with the instrumental presentation of melodic couplets with presentations, repetitions and transitions, a full realisation of both consisting of sixteen steps (Kaloyanídes 1975: 141-150). A tsákisma, a digression or a refrain, used extensively in all Greek folk song performances, can be anything from a word or a syllable long exclamation like “amán, aínte, éla, áh, moré“, or a noun of address, to a group of words or even a whole line long extratextual component. These are important particles in the performer-audience co-operation, and general metonyms, as analysed by Foley (see page 32), used to heighten the focus on the performance mode and on the register as the traditional language of it. Anna Caraveli (1978: 18-38, 1982) has analysed the use and meaning of tsakísmata in the performance of Greek lyrical folk songs, and found them to be also an important way of personal variation Main performance contexts The traditional performance situations can be roughly divided into three domains: first, collective festivities, such as life cycle festivities, village saint festivals or yearly holiday feasts; second, celebration or entertainment between a group of friends, paréa; and third, mantinades proverbially embedded into speech and improvised in a variety of every day life contexts. Besides these traditional first hand domains, mantinades are recited as recollections as such or as contextualised stories. Today, mantinades are extensively available through the modern literary and record industry domains. In this Chapter the aim is to describe these performance contexts and their development from the past days to the present. As an introduction, I loan here a longer description of one interviewee: “Today, a lot of people are engaged in mantinades. But they are not engaged with the same artistry (feeling) like before. Because all has changed: the way people behave, the way they love, the way they fall in love; the way they communicate has changed completely. That is, when I was at the village (…), the only way you could communicate with the other, with the other sex of course, because mainly the motives to make mantinades were the erotic motives, first of all! That is, when young, the way you could communicate was, either you played mandolin and sung old mantinades that you liked, mantinades for your eyes, the one…or you made your own ones; when the existing mantinades did not satisfy you, you made a personal own one. And this way you little by little understood if you had in yourself this poetic talent, which here they say, the most of us have. That is, in the old days, parées were formed with the slightest opportunity, they would drink one rakí – bring the mandolin! Bring the líra! And they got started. Then, they went around the whole village, from house to house, this was the only way of entertainment, the only way, there was not even a radio. In the small villages, there was not even a radio, so it was the only way. Now what comes to the quality of the verses, this differed from person to person. That is, somebody caught senses that others would not catch, or made a mantinada and decorated it with such beautiful words that you admired it, so. The basic thing I want to underline is that this way of self-expression was the only one possible to you, there were no other convenient ways to express yourself than making, thus, mantinades, and in succession, singing them in paréa. But in the old days the feasts did not take place like now, that is, the lira-player gets above on to the stage with the microphones and the others down gaping, the things were very different. The líra-player would sit here, the laoúto-player here, and around them the circle of dancers, and around the dance the people who sit, chairs, and so on. That way, all was in circles. Now, the artist gets above to the stage, microphones, amplifiers… all so different. The paréa, then again, that was formed those days, paréa, let’s say… five persons, with mandolin, or with líra, or with both. And the singing, one said his own words, other said his ones, and so on, and it became a dialogue. And the quality of the mantinades was quite good. Because now we have overburdened the mantinades with make-up… just like today a woman makes up herself very much, we have done the verses of a mantinada laic. They are not as pure, as spontaneous, as they were before. (A4a: 14-22.)
Common arenasIn a traditional village community the annual and seasonal celebrations, such as village saint festivals and carnival time, as well as life cycle feasts, especially marriages, formed the main ground for common entertainment, and an important possibility for communication between the opposite sexes. These were the arenas for self-expression with mantinades that were sung with the accompaniment of music and dance. All members of the village participated in these festivities. Dances were organised in some areas also outside the big feasts, according to my informants only at eastern Crete. María Lioudáki (1936) describes these dances in the foreword to her collection of mantinades (referring to eastern Crete): “Mantinades were sung [footnote: I say were sung, because in the after-war period all this is very rare] in serenades, in feast, in company, on fields during work, but most often in dances that took place regularly during Sunday afternoons or big feast days, or in the many dances and big feasts organised during carnival time. In carnival time when all relatives gathered in the same house, when old women stayed at home to prepare the Lenten food, the young ones went to put up the dance. Later old men and women went there also, and the glénti livened up. Everybody was singing and dancing together. (…). Sometimes the older folk participated also in the dances that took place on Sundays and during big feasts, although much more there were dancing just the young. From the morning two young men got around the village and informed girls. The afternoon the most spacious house was selected and dance put up. But often it was put up also on squares, in the courtyard of a church, or in shade of a big tree near a well. (…). In these dances young boys in love always found an opportunity to declare with mantinades to the loved one their love or pain, sorrow or joy, even anger to the unfaithful.”
The traditional format of a collective glénti was generally as described in the beginning by one of my informants: musicians and the best singers, as well as anybody willing to perform occasionally, gathered and sat in the centre. Dancers formed a circle around musicians. People sitting and standing were placed around them. First mantinades would be bearing on to the reason of festivity and were often traditional. Later themes were developed according to the personal and communal aims, although always in succession thematically connected one to the other. Exchanging mantinades easily took a form of competitive verse duel between two or more villagers. These duels could be a discourse with erotic nature between a woman and a man, in the villages and areas where women were free to participate. They could be a domain of competitive and offensive male discourse, which in a traditional patriarchal Cretan pastoral society often dominated the public performance practices. (Examples of such duels can be found in Herzfeld 1985a: 142-146, with an extended discussion in Herzfeld 1985b, and among a parallel tradition in Karpathos in a wedding in Caraveli 1985 and in glénti in Kávouras 1991.) A traditional wedding feast went on for several days and consisted of a huge repertoire of mantinades sung before and after the ceremony and in the glénti. Still today, in some villages, mantinades are sung when preparing the bride and groom, and in the metaphorical game when the escort of the groom comes to fetch the bride to church. These mantinades are mainly traditional and sung by women. Also, the first dances are traditional and have fixed lyrics. Later, when the wedding glénti goes on in the village square - and huge amounts of alcohol, wine and rakí, are consumed by men - the topics of mantinades will get free, even wild indeed; it is not odd at all to hear stories about menacing conflicts in weddings (see Herzfeld 1985b). Today, these festivities may still take place in a village square setting, but more and more rarely. Panigíria, village saint festivals, and especially the celebration of marriages that in Crete still gather a large audience, anything from many hundreds to a thousand guests, are often nowadays transferred from village squares to special permanent or seasonal centres of entertainment, kéntra (sing. kéntro). These were built first in the urbanising centres, and on the whole island from the 1970s along with the reinvigorating wave of interest towards the endemic musical tradition (Kapsoménos 1987: 15). During summer season, panigíria with well-known Cretan musicians take place nearly every day, and these are advertised with posters all around the commune. In these festivities, today, musical and singing activities are left to professional musicians. Mantinades performed either are traditional, fixed to the melody, or new ones, pre-written by a mantinadológos (mantinada poet), or very seldom written or improvised by the lyra-player himself. Creative audience participation may most often take place only through dance.
Entertainment between friendsUntil recently, informal gatherings of a paréa, a circle of male friends or relatives, took place regularly in a kafeneíon or village square, or during yet older days, by turns in the houses of a village. These encounters were the most common arena for singing or reciting verses. All my informants witness that a paréa was formed for the tiniest reason in the lively village communities. Although already wartime and the following social change cut down collective manifestations, the sharpest privatisation of habits in Crete has advanced since the beginning of the 1980s, when television conquered a permanent place in every kafeníon and living room, and car came to be a common possession. Commercial entertainment has replaced to a big part the self-made local collective culture. Even today, however, and according to many informants increasingly among the young (boys), traditional parées are in favour. Especially during the summer months, feasts and holidays people interested in Cretan music and mantinades gather together to perform. Musically active parées gather to play and sing in towns. Besides the traditional Cretan instruments, lyra and laoúto, mandolin is often played in these occasions. Mantinades are sung in turns by fluent singers, while the paréa repeats the verses as chorus, or if possible, by all present one by one in a circle, the following always thematically connected to the previous one. Still twenty years ago, these parées gathered also to perform night-time serenades, kantádes. Even today, a paréa may in some villages visit singing and playing the houses of the celebrating heroes of the day, during name days, when traditionally a banquet is organised home for friends, relatives and passers-by. Male relatives in many villages also get together during the night after a wedding to sing mantinades. Villages vary enormously in their liveliness, which is in immediate relation to the activity in keeping the traditional, collective forms of feasting. In a declining village, traditions typical to young generations die out quickly. In a vital village or in musically active circles in towns, where the young generations have possibility to entertain in their age group, the young learn to enjoy and thus continue the traditions. According to my own perception, the age group that is today 25-40 years old (the ones who passed their teenage years and early adulthood in the quickly broadening horizons of the 80s and 90), has generally been reluctant to adopt the traditional ways of entertainment, whereas today the pull of the traditional musical parées is again high especially among boys. The high status of the local musicians as admired idols and the intermingled rural-urban character of the tradition guarantee that the activity in music and mantinades is not conceived as an old-fashioned remnant of the village life. From the other hand, these traditions provide to a still high number of practitioners of the traditional profession of shepherding an important arena to negotiate their conflicting identity between the rural and the modernising world.
“Στη πιο ψηλή ψηλή κορφή μ’αρέρει να καθήσω Nα βγάλω το ποκάμισο σε φλόγες να ποδίζω”
In the most high mountain top I like to sit (I like) To take of the shirt, to walk on the glow of the sun
“Εγώ γεννήθηκα βοσκός και το βοσκό θα κάνω Και αν δε σ’αρέσει διάλεξε ένα προτευουσιάνο”
I was born a shepherd and shepherding will be my trade And if you don’t like this choose a metropolitan(mantinades recited by Níkos, 11 years, A1a: 10; A1b: 11)
”Δεν πάω μπλιο σ |
