Music
Traditional Greek music is referred to as demotika. It includes the traditional folk music heard in mainland villages and on the Greek islands for centuries. Most Greek Australians grew up with demotika and have continued to listen to it in Australia.
Traditional Music
Demotika songs can be divided into the traditional island songs (nisiotika) and the songs of the mainland. Based on a strong oral tradition, it varies from the islands to the mainland in both style and use of instruments. Island songs feature the violin, percussion instruments, the lyre and the laouto, a pear-shaped eight-string instrument. On the mainland demotika songs are sung to a clarinet, violin and percussion instruments.
Each region and village also has its own way of singing, performing and dancing to traditional folk songs. Their themes are usually love, marriage, war, courage, death, nursery rhymes and, of course, migration.
Greece’s geographical location has resulted in a fusion of Greek and Eastern traditional songs and dances, music styles and instruments. The music and songs of the Greeks of Asia Minor, characterised by eastern instruments and ornamental songs, have become a special part of Greek musical tradition.
Eastern and Western Influences
The repertoire of musical styles commonly referred to as ‘Greek music’ is today a mix of demotika folk songs and the music of Asia Minor. When over one million Greek refugees from Asia Minor arrived on the mainland in 1922, the traditional instruments of demotika songs were replaced by the bouzouki, baglamadaki and the guitar of the rebetika songs. The rebetika are often referred to as Greek blues. In the decades following the 1930s especially, rebetika was the music of people who lived on the fringes of urban Greece.
Rebetika paved the way for the laika songs of the 1960s and 1970s. Laika is a popular idiom with a richer, tighter orchestration than the rebetika, emphasising vocals and lyrics about the trials of love. During this same period more Western sounds were introduced. Many songs had strong political messages. For the first time the verse of some of Greece’s best-known poets became popular, thanks to composers like Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis.
These genres are integral with modern Greek identity. They connect people through songs and dances to important historical eras and events: to centuries-old oral tradition, the refugee experience, life on the fringes of urban society, life under dictatorship, world wars and civil war, and the migration experience. Learn more about these experiences in the History section.
How to Access Greek Music
Greek Australian immigrants listen to and enjoy different styles of Greek music as a matter of personal taste. Many elderly people enjoy traditional folk music (the demotika songs) reminiscent of village festivals. Before migrating to Australia they would have listened to laika and rebetika on the radio or experienced it live if they lived in urban centres. For Greek elders listening to Greek music is a sentimental reminder of their cultural heritage.
If you are interested in accessing Greek music for your client/s, the easiest way is to do so is by tuning into Greek radio or television programs. You could also organize a shopping trip with your client/s to buy music from Greek specialty stores in Lonsdale Street Melbourne or Oakleigh. Look for Greek shopping precincts in Directory of Greek Services.
Musical Activities
If you want to arrange a group activity for Greek elderly clients you may consider organizing live musicians and entertainment. There are many musicians in Melbourne’s Greek community who provide performances and live entertainment for community-based groups and organizations.
