Notes on the song Iroini ke Mavraki (Prousa) By Sotiris Gavalas 1936

Note on Atakti:
One more important reason behind the selection of the songs is my fascination about the original stories of the lyrics. Rebetiko as a genre was born in the harbours where the Greek labour class used to live – Piraeus, Thessaloniki and Volos – and then moved to other urban centres.
Very often the Rebetika have themes of law-breaking actions and love affairs. Only later on around the 1930s the themes expanded to social affairs and society in general.
ATAKTI is a strong example of a love gone wrong.

• Stage three
  Bringing the original rhythmic pattern with chord progression and basic structure

   

• Stage five
  Finding and bringing the scores for the piece. In this case the scores only helped as a cross-check of the melody and the chords.

• Stage one
  Original Idea recording
  

Examples of 4 songs as an insight to Home process:

1. Atakti / The naughty one - Markos Vamvakaris
2. Iroini ke Mavraki (Prousa) / Heroin and Hash (Brusa) - Sotiris Gavalas
3.  Pos na perasi i vradia / How will the night pass - Giannis Papaioannou
4. Agapo mia pantremení / i am in love with a married one - Spiros Peristeris

NOTES:

In this song the adaptation took a lot more time. In fact, as the adaptation was difficult, we needed to primarily change the feel of the melodic line to become more staccato. Once the song was possible the piano and the bouzouki returned to the original feel of the song. Once again in the lyrics there are wonderful descriptive lines. Apologies, but the direct translation or even the meaning of the lyrics can be unclear from Greek to English, as slang of that time is used.

• Stage one
  Original Idea 
  

• Stage five
  Finding and bringing the scores for the piece. In this case the scores only helped as a cross-check of the melody and the chords.

   

The process of communicating the ideas to the group has been one of the most interesting experiences in the project, but many challenges arose on how to approach the music. The original rebetiko songs where there for us to visit, but listening to them before playing would potentially influence how the music was to be played. Scores would be an effective way for some of the musicians, but did work for others. Also, not having access to original scores made the work a bit more challenging. Additionally, not all the musicians had encountered the time signatures of the songs. It was the analysis of these problematics that brought forth a working plan for communicating the ideas.

Breaking the music into harmony, melody and rhythm, and working separately with each element brought satisfactory musical results. The melody was primarily covered by Ilias our Bouzouki player, who is a virtuoso in the instrument. It was many times up to him and me to explain and teach the melodic lines by ear to the instruments that would need these lines. With continuous exposition and repetition, these lines sooner or later would become very familiar to all the players and would be played in a way very close to the original recording of the songs, but at the same time in a very fresh and unconventional way. For the harmony and rhythm, I would always prepare a sheet with the original rhythm and the chord progressions on top of the rhythm. This was my way of breaking down the rhythm for the players in order to understand the rhythmical behaviour of the song along with the harmony. Revisiting the original would trigger further changes in chords and rhythms. In some cases we would end up with a entirely new sheet, and in sometimes each of us made our own notes regarding the alterations. 

A final way of approaching the music was to actually work with scores for the people who would find them useful. In the case of a few songs, scores were brought to the group. The scales now would turn to the side of the musicians that were more fluent in reading music.
A few clashes would appear in the phrasing of what is written on the paper and how melodies are traditionally played. In good spirit and cooperation between the musicians, these obstacles were easy to overcome. The result was beautiful and the melodic instruments benefited by the use of scores, but over time sometimes so many things would change in how we approached the music that scores were not the most effective way of progressing.

In theory a mixture of approaches would bring the best result. Bringing the lead sheet with the structure of the song, the chord progression and the rhythmical behaviour was the standard. In some cases, scores of the song were beneficial as well and in some other cases writing a single challenging melody would suffice. In other cases, working by ear would bring the most out of our music and in that case, there was an additional benefit. If one player tries to explain a musical issue to the other, it means two things:
i) If the musician succeeds in explaining to another, it means a deeper understanding of the music in question is reached.
ii) There is no way of going on before previous issues are solved. Explaining thoroughly and talking with a musician would ensure that all the issues were solved.

Finally, the most valuable lesson was that everything is possible when there is good communication in the group. Not every rehearsal was the same. Sometimes the ideas that I brought to the group were not completely formed, thus it was problematic how to communicate them. Other times, musicians would be tired from the day’s previous obligations and, very occasionally, there would be just not enough concentration in the group. As the group worked more and more together, we created our own spirit and channels of communication. When one of us was distracted, the group would pick him/her up, we would help each other to understand the music and communicate the new ideas in a clear way so that they could be digested. We would try to be as patient as possible with each other and with the music. Not all music ideas worked straight away but giving time and showing patience would allow the playing to transition from intercultural to transcultural. Overall 
the great personality attributes of each and every musician, and the completely open way we achieved in approaching the music and the group needs, brought the desirable results and make this coexistence possible and enjoyable, exactly like at Home.  

Note on Pos na Perasi i vradia:

Again here, an important reason behind the selection of the song are the stories of the lyrics and also the life of the composers.
Pos na perasi i vradia is another example of what was love like for the composers of the time, personally and generally.
In this sense, a lot of archetypical characteristics can jump out of the song´s lyrics, as follows.

• Stage one
  Original Idea 
  

•   Stage three
  
  Bringing the original rhythmic pattern with chord progression and basic structure

   

Notes on the song Pos na perasi i vradia By Giannis Papaioannou 1950

Note on Agapo mia pantremeni:

This last song remains an experiment until the quarantine period is over. It will be a great experiment to see how written work can be interpreted by a group of musicians with different cultural and musical backgrounds.

• Stage five
  
  

  Finding and bringing the scores for the piece. In this case the scores only helped as a cross-check of the melody and the chords.

   

• Stage three
  Bringing the original rhythmic pattern with chord progression and basic structure

   

• Stage six
  
  Producing notated matterial and recording the patterns at home.

Lets now have and isnide look on thoughts of some of the members of the project

Not being able to find scores for the piece and lack of possibility to meet with the musicians, due to the pandemic of Nuovo Coronavirus Covid-19, I had to go through these three steps (3, 4, 5) on my own and from home. I was called to approach this song in a completely different way. Luckily, before the suggested and necessary lock down and quarantine, I was able to collect material on Maracatu through the Afro Brazilian percussion group Karakatum, and for the first time try to introduce all the percussion instruments involved as an addition to the music. I researched on my own for the patterns of Colombian Cumbia in the same way. Following this, I worked with a score writing program and came out with a result that would combine all three styles in the song. The result was not a completely satisfactory way of putting the song together, as this ran against my idea of interacting musicians and cultures, but it was the only way. On the other hand, it was really useful to work on my own with a notating application because we had already pitched some great ideas during our last rehearsal, so I only needed to assemble the puzzle, adding my own aesthetics to the piece.

• Stage one
  Original Idea recording
  

During one of the rehearsals our drummer, Christopher, played us a rhythmical sample of the song.
On top of that I wanted to introduce the rhythm Aptalikos to the group. We tried to fit one rhythm to the other and we started to explore the combination.  

Four levels of Tumba

Prousa open and closed try

In this song I could not retrieve the score, so we worked by ear and also according to the melodic lines of bouzouki.

This song has always had a tight pull on me. I fell in love with the lyrics, the desperation, the ´´immoral morality´´ of the story and of course the beautiful melody.
I really wanted to work with this song. For some time, I had been exposed to Colombian Cumbia and Brazilian Maracatu and the rhythmical world of these traditions in my head fitted like a glove to the musical but also social aspect of this song.

Back to the Introduction

• Stage four
  
  Researching the rhythmic traditions and getting deeper in them.

TRANSLATION

I would like to meet you
to tell you couple of words
And if my words would not change your mind
ah... they should cut my tongue

I don’t want you, I don’t want you
I don’t love you no more
I don’t want you and take you way
go run away

The witches told me
And all the fortune tellers 
And one woman from Egypt
Ah.. with the thick braids

I don’t want you, I don’t want you
I don’t love you no more
I don’t want you and take you way
go run away

What didn’t I do for you
to correct your ways
But you are so naughty (Atakti)
Ah.. hit the road to save myself from you

I don’t want you, I don’t want you
I don’t love you no more
I don’t want you and take you way
go run away

• Stage two
  Finding the song

• Stage four
  
  

  In this case the rhythm is 9/8. The idea of the rhythm alteration came from the 6/8 Aruban Rhythm of Tumba. Bringing the tempo of Zeibekikos down, we made it a 9/4.
  Now each of the quarter notes fits an 8th note triplet. So, every quarter note of Zeibekikos would fit the 6/8 of Tumba. So, in 4 patterns of Tumba we have reached 8/4. To complete the 9/4 we added a 4th note that would not only complete the pattern, but would also reset the pattern for the group to make the rhythmic cycles clearer to follow.

   

• Stage two
  Finding the song

• Stage two
  Finding the song

•      Stage four
  
  Writing on the new rhythmic pattern the chord progression.
  In this case the rhythm is 9/8. The idea of the rhythm alteration came from the pattern of a 3-2 clave. In this case the 3-2 clave would exactly fit into 4/8. In total, two patterns of the 3-2 clave would be needed, and an extra beat to complete the total of 9 beats.

• Stage six
  
  Going through the song enough times so that the new rhythm feels natural. Getting rid of the feeling of the odd meter and try to make the music flow.

   

• Stage five
  

  Notating the new rhythmic pattern and chord progression along with comping for few instruments.

   

• Stage six
  
  

  Going through the song enough times so that the new rhythm feels natural. Getting rid of the feeling of the odd meter and trying to make the music flow.

   

   

   

Being in communication with our singer Chrysa and our bouzouki player Ilias,
we started searching for Aptaliko songs. Soon the song Pos na prasei i vradia of Giannis Papaioannou popped up and was chosen. Not only for the beauty of the song but also due to my personal admiration for the artist.

• Stage four
  
  

  • Recording on the new rhythmic pattern and chord progression.
    In this case the rhythm is a 9/8 Aptalikos. The idea of the rhythm alteration came from the 4/4 Rhythm of Songo. Bringing the tempo of the Aptalikos down we made it a 9/4. The three first quarter notes remain unaltered and as a compass for the rhythm.
    Now each the 6 remaining quarter notes fits part of the Songo pattern. 

    . 

   

   

• Stage six
  
  Going through the song enough times so that the new rhythm feels natural. Getting rid of the feeling of the odd meter and try to make the music flow.

   

In this case the idea about the alteration came at the same time with the rhythm. Our drummer Christopher comes from Aruba. One of the Rhythmic traditions of Aruba is a rhythm called Tumba. After spending time with him explaining it to me and getting me into it,
I find its beauty so strong that it was self-evident that i need to introduce this strong tradition of a 6/8 rhythm to another string tradition from Rebetiko, called Rebetiko’s, in 9/8

 In this case a song like Atakti was picked because of its original strong rhythmic pattern, with the hope that the change will be equally strong.

In the case of this song, steps one and two were reversed and occurred almost at the same time. The song was first picked, and then I started working on the rhythms behind it, getting deeper into the music and the rhythms.