This page is part of the author’s set of pages on the Greek language
Some people just can’t swallow music that’s foreign
to their ears. If you are one of those people, I won’t blame you; I am
with you. Perhaps this attitude is genetically determined, so there is
nobody to blame. Other people, however, are more open to kinds of music
that are new to them, and some have told me that they even learn a
foreign language easier with the help of music. I can understand that.
The rhythm, which is almost always present in music, the melody, and
even the rhyme, can help in the memorization of phrases. So I thought, if some people are helped in this way, why not give them pieces of Greek music with their lyrics clearly pronounced and explained (by yours truly) line by line? But before plunging into the implemenation of this idea, some issues must be discussed:
“Greek music” is too general a term, and thus too
vague. According to some members of the youngest generation, it includes
the talentless copying of Western European pop and American rock music,
including such music-less monstrosities as “rap”. No, come on, be
serious... that ain’t music! That’s the equivalent of baby pacifiers for
the ears. But also, another criterion is that the lyrics must be pronounced with exceptional clarity. So, the combination of trying to give you music that is “good” (according to this author’s taste) and lyrics that are clear, doesn’t always result in the best of both worlds. Expect some compromise between good music and clearly pronounced lyrics, please.
Greek singers don’t pronounce always exactly in the way Greek people speak. Often they avoid the palatalization of some consonants, especially in the type of songs that you’ll hear. In such cases I will mark the different pronunciation and let you know how the word is pronounced in actual speech.
That’s particularly true in the kind of music that I
present, the lyrics of which are usually poems, sometimes even of Nobel
laureates. The meaning of such poems is hard to understand, and I admit
that I have no idea what some of those poems are talking about. Never
mind! When the words used are uncommon, or not said like that in actual speech, I’ll be marking them, telling you what the normal word is.
You will enjoy each song better if you have some cultural information about it: who the composer is, who the singer, when it was written, or even under what conditions, what type of Greek music it belongs to, and so on. The more one knows about a new subject, the better one appreciates and enjoys it.
To avoid copyright problems, I will not include whole songs, but pieces only — those pieces that contain whole stanzas, for example. You will not be able to reconstruct the songs by stitching back the pieces — sorry! — due to the way I present the beginning and end of each piece (fade-in, fade-out). I apologize for having to do that, but without such precautions this set of pages wouldn’t exist. With all the above caveats out of the way, let’s now
proceed to the main menu. But since I spoke of a menu, please keep in
mind that, essentially, foreign music is like foreign cuisine; some
people dare to try the new taste and decide whether to accept it or not,
whereas some others never dare. This set of pages is for those who dare.
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List of Songs: |