The Cretan music through history
The intimate relationship of the Cretans with music and dance is rooted in its history and its mythological past. Crete was described as a land where music and dance played an important role in everyday life, in religious rites, in human events, in birth, in marriage, in death, in war. Typical is the legend of the Kourites who danced by tapping their shields to cover the cry of Zeus when he was born at a Cretan cave. Homer describes in the Iliad the shield of Achilles depicting a musical feast in Knossos and from excerpts from an ancient drama, we learn that “Minos ordered that his son Glafkos be buried together with his flutes, which he loved while he lived”.
The historical texts about the evolution of Cretan music from the first Christian centuries until the time of Venetian rule place its origins back to a very long time, from the rich musical tradition of antiquity, since the presence of indigenous Greek-speaking populations in Crete has been continuous and uninterrupted.Many are the artifacts excavated throughout Crete depicting the strong presence of music and dance in the island during the Minoan times, such as the sarcophagus from Agia Triada which displays the first representation of a seven-stringed lyre and numerous statuettes of musicians and dancers who, much like today, the musician plays his lyre in the middle and the dancers dance around him in a circle. In the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, a flute is on display with ringlets that move to cover the holes to give the notes.
Often, we see flutes, double flutes, conches and trumpets. The Minoans played the ancient lyre, as can be seen from representations on murals and seals. Claudius Aelianus, known as the “Sophist”, in his work “Varia Historia” (“Various History”) states that the Cretans instructed their children to learn the laws accompanied by a melody, on the one hand to be entertained with the music and on the other hand to impress (the laws) better in the memory”.
The Cretan music in recent times
Cretan music was influenced by the Byzantine ecclesiastical compositions and was shaped to a great degree during the Venetian occupation of the island. The Venetians brought with them musical and poetic forms such as rhyme, and musical instruments such as the violin that will play an important role in Cretan music. Music schools were established in both Catholic and Orthodox churches, and along with the ecclesiastical music, secular music is developed which accompany the processions, the liturgies and the ceremonies in the nobles’ courts as well as in the entertainment of the common people.
The dominance of the rhyme from the end of the 14th century and beyond played a role of the greatest importance in the musical tradition of Crete. It shaped the poetry of the island and was finally assimilated by the local element, combined creatively with the 15-syllable ancient Greek verse.
This combination is the well-known Cretan mantinada that continues to be even today one of the most important ways of artistic expression of the Cretan people.
One type of Cretan music consists of melody and mantinades, it is lively and on its various rhythms are danced the numerous Cretan dances. It sings about love, affection, feelings, happiness, sorrow, and the island of Crete itself. The second type of music is the songs of the tavla, the so-called rizitika. They come from Chania and more specifically, from the villages located in the Lefka Ori, the White Mountains. These songs are more like a recitation and less like a song with music and rhyme. They usually refer to heroic achievements and historical events, but also to erotic love.
The Cretan music tradition is considered the most alive in Greece, because not only does it continue to evolve and incorporate creative contemporary musical elements, but at the same time it manages to express everyday life in a lively way. Improvisation is one of the characteristics of Cretan artists. The musicians are not limited to the typical repetition of the basic melodies but enrich their playing with their personal style, according to their mood and sentiments.
The Cretan traditional musical instruments
There is no social event or festival in Crete today that is not accompanied by live traditional Cretan music and song, The musicians are seemingly tireless, feeding on the energy of their music and the dancers that dance in front of them.
There are many musical instruments contributing to the sounds and melodies of the Cretan music, some of which are rarely used today. The four main musical instruments used today are the lyra, the lagouto, the violin and the mandolin, their popularity varying according to region.
Even though the lyra is the queen of Cretan Music, this does not make the other instruments inferior.
The lyra
The main instrument of Cretan music, the lyra has its roots in Crete from antiquity and began to appear in various forms around the 17th century. In the 1940’s the lyra settled in its present shape, a combination of two predominant styles and has been the preferred instrument of choice.
The lyra is a pear shaped, three-string bowed instrument, held vertically against the thigh, rather than being placed under the chin of the player like a violin. The strings are stopped by pressing the fingernails of the player’s hand against the side of the string, rather than by pressing the string against the fingerboard. Sometimes the bow is decorated with small round bells, the gerakokoudouna, creating a playful sound accompanying the melody of the instrument.
The lagouto
The lute, lagouto, is the accompanying instrument to the lyra, even though great lute players can turn it into an instrument of musical improvisation and melody.
The lute is a well-known musical instrument throughout Greece, has a long, fretted neck and four pairs of strings, and is always played with a quill.
It rhythmically and harmoniously accompanies the lyra or the violin, sometimes playing the basic sounds of the melody, sometimes offering a simple or double drone and sometimes taking over the melody for a short time in order for the lyra player or violinist to rest. The lute is often used as a solo instrument.
The violin
It is the same widely known instrument with a global impact, whose presence in Crete among the musical instruments used, is noted from the end of the 16th century in various sources.
The violin remained until the 1960s the most popular instrument in most areas of the prefectures of Chania, Lassithi and Heraklion.
However, after the WWII, the easier, less expensive construction of the lyra and the appearance of the great master lyra players, the lyra slowly began to dominate the musical consciousness of the island and replace the violin as the instrument of choice.
The mandolin
The mandolin first appeared in Venetian Crete, and it has been used by Cretan folk musicians mainly as an instrument of melody or accompaniment of the lyra in central Crete and the violin in the east. Until the first quarter of the 20th century, the mandolin was the main accompanying instrument of the lyra in the prefecture of Rethymnon.
Special mentioned merits the askomantoura, the descendant of ascavlos, an ancient wind instrument referenced in Aristophanes’ Lysisstrata. It looks like a primitive form of the bagpipes, consisting of an askos, an animal skin sack and a mantoura, a reed flute. The playing technique is the same as the bagpipe.
The instrument was very widespread in Crete until the beginning of the 20th century. It was characterized as a musical pastoral instrument as its use was widespread in the Cretan countryside.
Today it is an endangered instrument. Existing askomantura players are now few, as are reports, recordings and photographs. The decline seems to have begun after WWII, when this highly traditional musical instrument slowly began to be displaced.
