Crete Music

Crete traditional folk music with lira

Crete is an island that is a part of Greece. The traditional folk music of Crete is called κρητικά (kritika). The lýra is the dominant folk instrument on the island; it is a three-stringed fiddle similar to the Pontian kemenche. It is often accompanied by the Cretian lute (laoúto), which is similar to both an oud and a mandolin. Thanassis Skordalos and Kostas Moundakis are the most renowned player of the lýra.

Crete is an island that is a part of Greece.

The traditional folk music of Crete is called κρητικά (kritika). The lýra is the dominant folk instrument on the island; it is a three-stringed fiddle similar to the Pontian kemenche. It is often accompanied by the Cretian lute (laoúto), which is similar to both an oud and a mandolin.

Thanassis Skordalos and Kostas Moundakis are the most renowned player of the lýra.

The earliest documented music on Crete comes from ancient Greece. For many centuries, Cretan music was primarily influenced by eastern techniques and styles. The Cretan lyre is almost the same as the lyre of Istanbul. Concerning their roots, we have to deal with two different possible versions: 1) The lyre was brought by the Arabs who where coming from Spain and stayed in Crete as conquerors from 823 A.D. to 961 A.D.

During these years the lyre stayed in Crete continuously; this means that the Arabic rebab of that period is morphologically the same as the lyre of Byzantium. 2)The lyre ‘arrived’ in Crete from Istanbul, probably through the Dodecanese, and "entered" the island through Sitia, which is the neighbour of Kasos and Karpathos.

This must have finished by the 12th century (1101 – 1200 A.D.), since two centuries are more than enough for a musical ‘trip’ from Istanbul to Crete. Following the Crusades, however, the Franks, Venetians and Genoese dominated the island and introduced new instruments and genres. By the end of the 14th century, a poetic form called mantinada became popular; it was a rhyming couplet of fifteen syllables. The introduction of the violin by the end of 17th century was especially important.

After the fall of Constantinople, many church musicians fled to Crete, as did numerous Venetians. A French physician in 1547 (Pierre Belon) reported warrior-like dances on Crete, and Sherley, an English traveller, reported in 1599 of wild dances performed late at night.

The oldest surviving folk songs in all of Greece can be traced to the 17th century, when songs in the rizitika type were "recorded" by monks at Iviron and Xyropotamos at Mount Athos. Recording secular folk songs was almost certainly forbidden by the monk's code of conduct. However, the connection between music and religion continues in modern Crete; priests are said to be excellent folk singers, including the rizitiko singer Aggelos Psilakis. It was during this period, when modern Cretan folk music was formed, that Francisco Leontaritis was active. Leontaritis is said to be the father of modern Greek music.

After the Turks conquered Crete in 1669, Crete went through a dark period of tyranny and poverty. In the 1810s, Georgios the Cretan helped to revive Byzantine music traditions. Today, most cretan songs & music have as their root, strong Turkish influences and modern cretan music is directly related to Turkey and eastern influences.

By the early 20th century, the violin was playing a more prominent role in Cretan folk music. A combination of the violin and lyre, the viololyra, was created in 1920. Twenty years later, the modern form of the lyre appeared when a lyraki and violin were combined by Manolis Stagakis. Replacing the falcon bells which had traditionally been used to keep the rhythm was the boulgari, a smaller stringed instrument that arrived in Greece with refugees from Turkey in 18th century.