The musical tradition of the island of Crete is one of the most active and vibrant traditions to be found anywhere in Europe today. Despite this fact, however, not many people are aware of it, and even fewer know very much specifically about it. Regrettably ethnomusicologists, both Greek and of other lands, have done painfully little serious research into the subject of Cretan
music, with the result that there is effectively very little reliable
information concerning it readily available in print.

Crete was home to the oldest civilization in Europe and one of the oldest in the world, that of the Minoans.

Ever since that time Crete has been a crossroads where many different great civilizations have met, frequently clashed, and invariably exchanged influences. Amongst these influences the most important would seem to be those
of the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the
Venetians, and more recently the Ottoman Turks.

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately analyze what influences, if any, these various peoples had on the music which we hear today on Crete. It would seem to me to be unlikely that not a trace of the sounds of
antiquity, have survived up until our day and equally unlikely that
ancient music has survived unaltered up until the present. What the reality between these two extremities is, perhaps no one
will ever know. The aforementioned lack of serious research into this
matter certainly does not assist in the process of what can ultimately
only be conjecture.

Knowledge is, of course, available concerning ancient poetry, dance, musical theory, science, and many other aspects of life, but "hard" musical evidence in the form of accurately recorded reproducible
melodic material is regrettably unavailable. This is not only the case with regards to ancient music. Equally we
do not know, in any concrete terms, much about what the music of Crete
might have sounded like during its later historical phases. All we have are recordings of the 20th century, a very few texts
which supply any form of bona fide musical information, the personal
accounts of travelers of different eras, and a myriad of other texts
which testify to the speculative prowess of countless other students of
the subject, each with his own agenda.

Some of these are postulations are serious and many more quite definitely are not. This is not the place to expound on the enormous difficulties incurred by the study of the music of the distant past,
nor is it my place to credit or discredit the work of a large number of
people who have, in some way, breached the subject, directly or
indirectly. It would seem to make more sense here to simply present the Cretan
music which is actually available to us, in the form of 20th century
recordings, and leave the rest to qualified researchers in the hope
that they will actually sort it all out one day.

Cretan music belongs quite squarely in the Eastern Mediterranean family of modal musical traditions and has quite noticeable common traits with other traditions of the region such as Arabic, Turkish, and
of course, the music of other regions of Greece. The principal instruments in use today are the lyra: a small
three-stringed pear-shaped fiddle held upright on the left knee and
bowed horizontally with a bow (which in earlier times had bells on it)
held in the right hand, and the laouto: a large lute closely related to
the Arabic oud with four courses of double strings made of steel, and
movable frets made of nylon filament.

One of the interesting aspects of the lyra has to do with the fingering technique of the left hand. Unlike the violin and most other related instruments, the strings are not pressed by the fingertips of
the left hand; rather they are merely touched lightly from the side by
the back of the nails.

In this respect, the Cretan lyra resembles other lyra types found in the Eastern Mediterranean and Balkan regions such as the Turkish fasil kemence, the Bulgarian Gadulka, as well as the lyras of the Dodecanese
islands, southwest Turkey, Thrace, Macedonia, certain regions of
southern Italy, and much of former Yugoslavia.

Interestingly enough this playing technique is also common to the bowed instruments of northwest India (Rajasthan), such as the sarangi and kamaycha, as well as to some of the bowed instruments of Central
Asia, such as the Tuvan igil and the Mongolian morin khuur -.

Interestingly enough, nowhere in the intermediate region between these very distant lands is this technique encountered. Apart from the lyra and the laouto, other instruments can also be found on Crete.

In the far western as well as the far eastern regions of Crete one would more often than not encounter the violin rather than the lyra.

Indeed, in western Crete, a heated debate has arisen in recent decades concerning which instrument of the two is a more authentic vehicle for Cretan music. Unfortunately this discrepancy is the result of a now obsolete ban
imposed on violin-players by the state radio in the 1950s at the
instigation of a researcher named Simonas Karras. Karras himself was under the sway of extreme nationalist ideologies
and regarded the violin as a European imposition which simply
supplanted the "native" lyra in certain regions. In fact neither instrument is truly indigenous to Crete (the oldest
recorded presence of the lyra dates to 10th century Thrace, in Crete it
seems that it appeared in the early 18th century), and previous to
Karras' intervention, it had never occurred to lyra-players and
violin-players to look upon one another with animosity.

In the mountainous areas of central Crete a small bagpipe known as askomandoura was at one time commonly found, and in the urban centers, a small long-necked lute similar to the saz called boulgari
was prevalent. In the eastern regions around the Sitia area a small
double-faced barrel-drum known as daoulaki was the main instrument
accompanying the lyra. The askomandoura, boulgari, daoulaki, and sfyrohabiolo (a small
flute) are all very near to extinction, although some young musicians
have, in recent years, taken them up and a revival of interest in them
seems, hopefully, to be imminent.

In recent years, the mandolin has gained considerable popularity as an instrument to accompany the characteristic 15-syllable rhyming verses known as mantinades.

Quite commonly a group of people will sit together and engage in something between a dialogue and a competition of mantinades to the accompaniment of a mandolin playing repetitive phrases known as
kontylies which allow considerable freedom for the singers.

The mandolin has been present on Crete for quite a long time (its presence is well-documented in Ottoman times), and in certain areas of central Crete, it has enjoyed relative popularity in older times.

Another instrument which has become popular as an accompaniment to the lyra in recent decades is the guitar.

This is in many ways unfortunate, given that the guitar, with its chordal mentality, necessarily imposes western tempered tonality on an otherwise modal tradition in which microtonal intervals were once one
of its central features.

The contemporary accompaniment to the lyra (which is usually one laouto and one guitar) has entirely negated the use of microtones by lyra-players who are now obliged to adapt to the tempered intervals of
the guitar and laouto (whose movable frets no longer move).

Most of the music of Crete, however, is dance music which is played at local festivals (panigyria), weddings, baptisms and other such festive occasions.

These dances are usually quite fast and require considerable skill on the part of the dancer, but also restraint and finesse. The main dances are the Malevyziotikos, the Pentozali (slow and fast), the Sousta, and the Syrtos.

Other dances do exist, but for the most part they can be considered to be sub-categories of those fore-mentioned. The remainder of the Cretan repertoire is comprised of songs which are not intended as accompaniment to dance.

Perhaps the most important of these songs are those which are referred to by the generic name rizitika.

These songs were originally sung exclusively on western Crete, without the accompaniment of instruments, by a group of men sitting around a table. For this reason they are also known as traghoudia tis tavlas, literally "table songs". Rizitika (sing. Rizitiko) songs are characterized by their very
serious and austere nature, their remarkable verses which reflect a
very developed poetic tradition (frequently allegoric and obscure in
meaning), as well as by their intricate melodies.

The rizitika songs are also the only texts found in Cretan music which do not employ the technique of rhyming verses. Rhyming verses were introduced to Creta during the time of the Venetian occupation of the island (1204-1670), and some researchers suggest that the unrhymed rizitiko lyrics perhaps reflect an older
poetic form, and that, potentially, some of the extant lyrics
themselves could perhaps pre-date this time.

There is clearly a case for suggesting connections between the rizitika songs and Greek Orthodox Church hymnology. Other song-types are those found in urban centers and ports which reflect clearly influences originating from Asia Minor.

Also worthy of special note are the melodies used to accompany the epic poem Erotokritos, which was written in the mid 17th century by Vitsentzos Kornaros. This enormous epic poem holds a very special place
in Cretan culture and, at one time, it was not unusual for even an illiterate person to know it in its entirety by memory.

Cretan discography is quite extensive and recorded examples of Cretan music from the beginning of the 20th century up until today are readily available. In fact, if one merely types "Cretan music" into any search engine,
a very large number of pages belonging to online retailers of Cretan
music will appear. If one listens to the older recordings by players of the early 20th
century, it is immediately apparent that Cretan music has undergone
major changes during the ensuing decades.

My own preference is definitely in favor of the great masters of the past such as Andreas Rodinos ( a legendary lyra-player whose renditions of Cretan music are still today the point of reference, he died in 1937
at the untimely age of 22), Manolis Lagos (a very "classical"
lyra-player from Rethymnon who was active in the early 20th century),
Giorgos Tzimakis (a lyra-player and excellent singer from Hania who is
today in his mid nineties and still playing), Nikolaos Saridakis (a
very sensitive violin-player from Kissamos, western Crete), Stelios
Foustalierakis ( he was the greatest exponent of the rare saz-like
instrument boulgari and also the composer of some of the greatest
classics of Cretan music), Giannis Bernidakis or "Baxevanis"( the
foremost singer and laouto-player of the early 20th century), Kostas
Mountakis (one of the greatest lyra-players of the 20th century and an
extraordinary singer, he was also my teacher), Athanasios Skordalos (A
superb lyra-player from the village of Spili in central Crete.

The friendly rivalry between Skordalos and Mountakis, which extended over a 40 year period, accounts for an enormous percentage of the creative work done in Cretan music during the second half of the 20th
century), Michalis Papadakis or "Plakianos" ( recordings of "Plakianos"
are unfortunately rare, he was the finest representative of the school
of lyra-playing from the region ogf Apokoronas in western Crete), Nikos
Xylouris (from the village of Anogeia in central Crete, he is generally
regarded as the greatest singer ever to have graced Cretan music, he
was also a very fine lyra-player and composer), Giannis Dermitzogiannis
(a lyra and violin player from Sitia in eastern Crete, he was
especially adept in the use of bells on the bow of the lyra) Leonidas
Klados (a very innovative and creative lyra-player from the region of
Messara in central Crete who is still active today).

These are but a few of the great names of the past, there are many more who are definitely worth investigating.

The present terrain of Cretan music often appears a bit bleak in comparison to that of older times. There is, of course, no shortage of lyra-players (indeed there are literally thousands of them!), but the
whole sound is now noticeably affected by contemporary urban Greek pop
music.

There are however definitely some musicians of the younger generation whose work is excellent: Stelios Petrakis (a lyra, laouto and saz player from Sitia who has seriously studied musical traditions
of neighbouring countries and who freely but tastefully employs
elements of them in his own work), Giorgos Xylouris ( the nephew of the
great Nikos Xylouris and son of Psarantonis, he is an exceptional
singer and laouto player whose contribution to Cretan music is destined
to be very important), Dimitris Sgouros ( a lyra-player from Agios
Nikolaos in Eastern Crete who is the best living example of the style
of his region), Zaxarias Spyridakis ( a lyra-player of great creativity
and virtuosity who was one of Kostas Mountakis' foremost students).

Again, these are but a few names, many more exist and they are definitely worth investigating.

Source: http://www.crete-kreta.com/cretan-music-ross-daly