Polyphonic singing from Epirus.
You have to listen to these songs.
There are quite a few videos on YouTube, this is one of my favorites.
This is like nothing I have ever heard before in Greece, very different from other Greeks music styles. It is dirge-like and almost hypnotic. I discovered it while researching music from Epirus. It is sung in the area of Drosopigi, John Adams’ home village.
It’s similar to Mongolian throat singing
My sister Kay says,
“It’s the “trapezou ” that my godfather talked about. He had explained that the men, especially, used to sit around the table and sing songs like in the video.
Even dad had said he remembered the trapezou when he was a child. If I could sing it, I might be able to enjoy it more, because it’s the stories as much as the music that is interesting.”
The following is from Wikipedia.
The origin of this polyphonic form, in spite of the fact that the research has not reached certain conclusions yet, is considered to be very old possibly, even pre-Hellenic.According to some musicologists this scale is identified with the Dorics of ancient Greece.
The melodies of polyphonic songs are the only ones in Greece that have preserved the pentatonic scale without semitones (a scale consisted of five tones without semitones). Because of its vocal, collective, rhetorical and modal character it is considered to be of very old origin. It constitutes one of the most interesting musical forms and is shared with southern Albania.In fact there is some controversy as to it’s origin stemming from the fact that from ancient times the northern border of Greece had extended up into central Albania.
The historical region of Epirus is generally regarded as extending from the northern end of the Llogara mountains in Albania (historically the Ceraunian mountains from Ancient Greek Κεραύνια όρη ‘thunder-splitted peaks) to the Ambracian Gulf (or Gulf of Arta) Greece. Its eastern boundary is defined by the Pindus Mountains that form the spine of mainland Greece and separate Epirus from Macedonia and Thessaly. To the west, Epirus faces the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea. The island of Corfu is situated off the coast but is not regarded as part of Epirus.
Today, polyphonic song is found in northwestern Greek region of Ioannina (villages of Pogoni, Parakalamos and some villages north of Konitsa), in very few villages in northeastern Thesprotia (Tsamantas, Lias, Vavouri, Povla) and, mainly, in Northern Epirus some significant examples are the villages and towns where recognized Greek populations reside in southern Albania (Northern Epirus) (Delvino, Dropolis, Upper Pogoni, Politsani, Vuthroto, Himara and others). Also found in to varying degree in the rest of Greece & the islands.
The music from Epirus has nothing in common with any other genre of Greek traditional music. The clarinets, violins and polyphonic choirs use an endless variety of improvisational techniques. It is sad and mournful, and reflects the hard life in Epirus.
[Wikipedia]