ISBN10: 9607120078, ISBN13: 9789607120076, [publisher: Denise Harvey (Publisher)] Softcover with flaps, 190 pages, with flaps, printed 2013. The rembetika, songs that were sung in the poor quarters of Smyrna, Istanbul and the ports of Greece in the late nineteenth century, and became the popular bouzouki music of the 1930s to 1950s, have many parallels with American blues. Like the blues, the rembetika were the music of outsiders, who developed their own slang and their own forms of expression. Road to Rembetika was the first book in English to attempt a general survey of the world of the 'rembetes' who smoked hashish and danced the passionate, introspective 'zebekiko' to release their emotions. An enthusiastic introduction to the subject, it was written by an Australia musician and writer who first came to Greece in 1965 and who has continued to perform and write about Greek music ever since. Gail Holst describes her own initiation into the rembetika, outlines its historical and sociological background, its musical characteristics and instrumentation. The second part of the book is a collection of rembetika songs translated into English. The text is illustrated with photographs of the period, musical examples and original manuscripts of the songs. This classic book, now in its 10th printing, has been revised and updated by the author, and retypeset.
[Limni, EVIA, Greece] [Publication Year: ...
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