Music of Karpathos

Musicians in Karpathos to this day play a major role in the musical life of the island. They are the leaders in the island’s cultural life. There is a cultural continuity and integration between them, especially when time comes for all of them to perform together. Karpathians from all parts of the world return to the island for the summer months and along with the island’s musicians take part in the religious festivals and other celebrations. Musicians have a status which could be defined as "semi-professional"; recognized for their musical talents; they are called upon to play in other villages on the island. This activity can be a source of considerable income in addition to what they earn from their everyday professions.

There are a number of players of the lyra, laouto, and tsambouna, the three main instruments of Karpathos, constructed by local craftsmen, most of the times the musicians themselves. The players span across all ages including young musicians which maintain a high level of interpretation and performance skills. From all the musicians, the tsambouna players, often specialized in the technique of this difficult instrument, are rarer, but still well represented. The kafeneio (coffee shop) often constitutes the natural surroundings for the commencing of festive occasions and popular musical and cultural events. When in the kafeneio, the musicians will start playing in the early afternoon, and from there the singers, most of the times being very good composers of mantinades will start gathering and at the end, they will form a diversified group of meraklides (or ardent enthusiasts), able of arousing the whole village into a celebration which will last until the next morning.

The content and form of mantinades is not specified in advance. Therefore, mantinades do not constitute a repertoire, but on the contrary, they vary and are generally conceived within the framework of a dialogue between several participants in certain tunes, or skopous, in clearly defined social functions and situations. In other words, the context of mantinades is generated by the situation at the moment and is incorporated within the music.

The music of Karpathos includes the use of three instruments: the tsambouna, the lyra, and the laouto. Yet, it must be pointed out that the modern violin has been introduced and used in the southern villages of Karpathos as well as other islands of the Dodecanese and the Aegean in general.

The tsambouna resembles a bagpipe with single reeds, consisting of two parallel cylindrical tubes (made out of carefully selected cane) inserted into a single block of wood through a horn-shaped opening. The bag is made out of goat’s skin which after a certain process well known to the players of tsambouna, is turned inside-out and made waterproof and leak proof. This process involves the use of chemicals as well as natural materials, such as honey, milk, and oil. This type of bagpipe is morphologically similar to the instrument found in Crete and others seen in the Balkans and the Middle East. However, the way in which the notes are produced is more unusual and, in fact, unique to the Dodecanese tsambouna.

As such, it cannot be classified among either a bagpipe with a fixed drone nor those which are solely melodic. In fact, the pipe on the right side completes the hex tonic scale and can, at the same time, find itself in unison with the second degree of the scale, thus covering both melodic and accompaniment functions. The tsampouna’s tuning system possesses qualities which are completely particular, of which the most obvious is the tonal "ambiguity" of the third degree (in relation to the lowest note of the scale).

Given its restrictive characteristics, the tsambouna is a difficult instrument to master, requiring considerable skill to make it musically interesting. In particular, it is necessary to make the bitonal patterns created with the second pipe moving and interesting. These patterns, such as those produced by the trills obtained with the left first finger (index, sixth degree), can create separate acoustic images and more complex rhythmic structures. A similar technique is employed with the lyra through use of trills and tremolos produced by the left fifth finger. Because of the difficulties entailed in playing, pitch and upkeep, the tsambouna is not a widespread instrument, and not even in Karpathos. It is so beautiful of an instrument to hear though, that it excites the listener and introduces a sense of enthusiasm and livelihood in a glendi.

Today players of the tsambouna may be found in all of Karpathos, but are also scattered around the world including Rhodes, Athens, and the United States. They are in great demand, invited to play in other villages for the most important festivities. In Olymbos, the tsambouna continues to play a primordial role in cultural life.

The term lyra seems to correspond to the name given, during the Byzantine era, to the same instrument which is common today, in all its variations, throughout a vast area of the Mediterranean and the Balkans. The lyra is very similar to that made and played in Crete, except that in Crete, instrument-making has been influenced by that of the violin. The traditional lyra of Karpathos, is made from a single block of wood, sculpted into a pear-shaped body. The slightly rounded body of a lyra is prolonged by a neck ending on the top in a block which is also pear-shaped or spherical. In that, are set the pegs facing and extending forward.

Currently, numerous models tend to integrate, for decorative reasons, the shape of the scroll, the finger board and other morphology of some secondary characteristics of the violin. However, one can still see that the lyra played in Olymbos maintains the traditional lyra design, playing, and sound characteristics. This version preserves the proportions of the box and a type of bow-making which give it a sound quite distinct from that of the Cretan lyra. From the organ logic point of view, it is in fact an instrument belonging to the family of bowed lutes (like the rebab from the Middle East), but the designation lyra may constitute a terminological survival relating to the performing method of an ancient Greek instrument. An interesting detail concerns the playing technique: The strings are never pressed from above with the flesh of the finger such as in the violin but touched by the nails laterally.

The lyra is played held in vertical position with the base set on the knee. The short bow, whose horsetail hair is somewhat slack, is covered with small bells which provide an additional rhythmic interest, particularly if the instrument is played alone. And that is the reason why bells were installed on the bow. The laouto accompaniment of the lyra in Karpathos didn’t take place until the beginning of the 20^th century. Up to that time, the lyra was played alone or along with the tsambouna during the dancing portions of the events, therefore the lyra player provided some additional means of rhythm by adding those bells on the bow.

There are three strings which are tuned to the notes LA-RE-SOL (or A3-D3-G3), but the tuning is variable and generally higher. The central chord, serves mostly as a drone but not in all cases. The first is touched to produce the highest five notes, and the third is played empty, so as to complete the basic hexachord. Thus, along with the tsambouna, it shares a certain conceptual analogy, but in its case, it is possible to distinguish between three modal scales which alternate in accordance with different blocks of melodic phases. It suffices to note that with the lyra, the "neutral" third of the tsambouna subdivides into two distinct thirds (minor and major), and that, if the first two scales can be used in a concomitant way with the tsambouna, the last, which allows for the augmentation of the fourth degree excludes this possibility.

The performance of the dance Sousta, which is more complex, also includes the inversion of roles between strings in the playing of the drone and melodic line, as well as the addition of a melodic seventh degree of the scale, thus making it impossible to perform on the tsambouna.

Among the musical instruments found in Karpathos, the laouto is that whose use is most recent, if we exclude the violin as a substitute for the lyra in the southern part of the island. This goes back to the years around World War I. A large lute with a long, fretted neck, its strings plucked with a plectrum, the laouto was imported from Crete was more complicated to conjstruct and, as opposed to the other instruments, it is not constructed by local craftsmen mostly because this instrument was introduced to the cultural life of Olymbos later, compared to lyra and tsambouna.

The laouto has four double metal strings. Its role, in the framework of music which is fundamentally melodic, is both rhythmic and harmonic. However, it occurs that the laouto may join in the playing of the lyra’s melodic part. The rhythmic foundation (with all possible variants) of this accompaniment consists of a dactylic rhythm in binary time.

With the exception of the first of the three phases of Syrmatikos which responds to a ? rhythm, and that of Kalamatianos which is in 7/8 but not native to the island all of the music of Karpathos rests on binary rhythm. The basic rhythm figure is common to a part of Cretan music and especially to that of other islands. In this rhythmic role, the laouto seems to have replaced the drum, still present in Crete, although quite rare. Chords can be obtained, not solely by pressing the strings, but also by muffling those which are foreign to them. Very often, in the absence of the third, these chords are made up of fourths and fifths.

The younger musicians are virtuosos on this instrument and indeed specialized in the technique of playing it. Their style expresses an evolutionary trend in playing practices, more particularly oriented towards the creating of the melodic-style fioritura.

Glendi is the heart and soul of the music of Karpathos. Every festivity, entertainment, and private or public celebration begins with a glendi and the people involved in it. It is a musical and in many cases spiritual gathering of a company of men who converse using mantinades and musical accompaniment. Those mantinades are composed instantly, and on-the-spot. It is considered an insult and inability of the singer if a previously sang mantinada is used again. Mantinades are to be used only once in a glendi even though many of them survive for many-many years as examples of fine poetic skill and transfered through generations using the "word-of-mouth". Since it is a musical gathering, all instruments can be playing depending on the moment but mostly the lyra and laouto are used for the reason that a certain quietness is sought, needed, and achieved in this manner. This quietness is absolutely necessary because (as previously mentioned) mantinades are composed and sang instantly, and for that, a certain degree of concentration and tranquility for the composers/singers must prevail. This glendi often took place in the center of the villages of Karpathos. At the end of most of the glendi it will be followed by dancing of all participants. A type of public celebration, that will last until early morning. Later, during the dancing the tsambouna will enter the celebration and excitement will drive the dancers and most of the crowd into the steps of ‘Pano Horos’, a remnant of an ancient war-dance. Literal translation of the words will give us "Up Dance", which implies its faster, more exciting rhythm and character.

Click on the PLAY button below to hear a sampling of traditional Karpathian music. Move to other selections by using the double arrow forward or back buttons.