 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Music of Cyprus" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Themusic of Cyprus includes a variety of traditional, Western classical and Western popular genres. Cypriot traditional music is similar to thetraditional music ofGreece, it is most similar toNisiotika the songs and dances of theAegean islands, and includes dances likesousta,syrtos,ballos,tatsia,antikristos,arabiye,karotseris,sinalik,çifteli,zeimbekiko and themandra dance.
Cyprus changed hands numerous times prior to the medieval era, and was an important outpost ofChristianity andWestern European civilization during theCrusades. The island's peak as a cultural capital of Europe occurred from 1359 to 1432. During that peak,Pierre I de Lusignan made a three-year tour on Europe, bringing with him an entourage of musicians that impressedCharles V inRheims so much that he donated 80 francs in gold to them. On his return to Cyprus, Pierre I brought with him the FrenchArs Nova and, later, theArs Subtilior.French musicians became well established in Cyprus, and the city ofNicosia became a capital of the Ars Subtilior style.Janus I de Lusignan saw Cypriot music evolve into its own variety of music. His daughter,Anne de Lusignan, brought a manuscript after her marriage toLouis, Count of Geneva, which contained 159 folios with over two hundredpolyphonic compositions, both sacred and secular. The manuscript is now a part of the collection of theNational Library of Turin.
A key-figure of that era was Ieronimos o Tragodistis (Greek: Ιερώνυμος Τραγωδιστής, Hieronymus the Cantor), a Cypriot student ofGioseffo Zarlino, who flourished around 1550-1560 and, among others, proposed a system that enabled medieval Byzantine chant to correspond to the current contrapuntal practices via the cantus. One of his manuscripts is located in the library ofSaint Ignatios Monastery in Lesbos.[1]
The music of the island is influenced also by theByzantine music. Athanasios Demetriadis, also known as Kasavetis, was a Cypriot deacon inConstantinople whenEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople was his uncle Yerasimos (1794–1797). A secular song lamenting Death's preference for the young, written and set to music by him survives in a collection by Nikiforos Naftouniaris.Chrysanthos of Madytos, Gregory the Protopsaltes, andChourmouzios the Archivist were responsible for a reform of the notation of Greek ecclesiastical music. Essentially, this work consisted of a simplification of the Byzantine musical symbols which, by the early 19th century, had become so complex and technical that only highly skilled chanters were able to interpret them correctly.
Cypriot Greek traditional song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHRFRRjcLwU
Traditional music on Cyprus is similar to the traditional music of Greece and includes dances like thetatsia,sousta,syrtos,ballos,zeibekiko,karotseris,sinalik,chiftetteli,arabkyes,mandra dance and thekarsilama suites. Note that unlike Greece and Turkey, there are suites of fivekarsilama dances, different for men and women some of them other than the standard9/8 rhythm. The fifthkarsilama dance is also known asballos for both men's and women's suites. Traditional Cypriot music – similar toGreek and Turkish traditional music – ismodal, based on the musical systems of the Byzantineechos / Turkishmakam. Both Greek and Turkish Cypriots use the violin as the main solo instrument, accompanied by the lute. Thetamboutsia and thepithkiavlin are also used. Until the beginning of the 20th century, thedavul and thezurna (daouli and zournes in Greek) were used by both communities (although mostly by Turkish Cypriots) in village festivals and weddings, but these instruments were later excluded from the Greek Cypriot soundscape. Another instrument that was played earlier in Cyprus wastambouras, which is known in Greece as 'pandoura' or 'trichordo' (a three-stringed instrument). Notable performers of Greek Cypriot folk music include singersTheodoulos Kallinikos, Michalis Tterlikkas, Christos Sikkis, Michalis Hadjimichail and Ilias Kouloumis. Thechiatistá (Cypriot Greek: τσιαττιστά, "spite [song]") is improvisedantiphonal singing akin to theCretanmantinada, to express a range of themes be it satire, love, mourning etc. Greek-Cypriot folk music is most closely related to theNisiotika (the folk music of theAegean Islands) and especially so to the music of theDodecanese. The traditional music of Cyprus is also greatly influenced from the music of the Greeks of Asia Minor.
Attempts to either popularize or fuse traditional music with other genres have taken place since the 1970s. For example, the famous singer and composer, in Cyprus and Greece, of traditional Cypriot and popular music isMihalis Violaris. Another example includesMonsieur Doumani, a Cypriot band fromNicosia which focuses on developing Cypriot traditional music and reworking traditional Cypriot folk songs.[2]
TheRepublic of Cyprus has its ownsymphony orchestra, the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, a professional, full-time symphonic orchestra which was established in 1987 (as the Cyprus Chamber Orchestra) along with the Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra and itsmusic school which provides education and musical training to young musicians of all levels. These institutions are under the umbrella of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra Foundation which is fully subsidised and supervised by theMinistry of Education and Culture.[3][4]
Cypriot musicians and performers of classical music include thepianistsCyprien Katsaris andMartino Tirimo and the pianist andmusicologistSolon Hadjisolomos.
Notablecomposers include:
The history of Cyprus' rock andheavy metal music begins a few years after the war of 1974, during the late 1970s. This period is known as theFirst Rock Era of Cyprus. One of the pioneers of the rock/metal scene in Cyprus isKim Nicolaou founder of the band known asKimstyle TR (TR standing for Teenage Revolution). This band was the first to bring and introduce live rock shows to the Island. The band's first pop/rock single was called"The Lady & The Parrot" which was so ahead of its time, for the standards of Greece and Cyprus, that the lyrics were found offensive; therefore, it was banned byCyBC TV and copies of the single were burnt by the customs authorities. This spawned many teenagers to start forming bands & that brought competitions amongst them in the movie theatres.Kimstyle andKim Nicolaou's Rock & Reggae show (first of its kind broadcast by CyBC), who later influenced the groupArmageddon in the mid-1980s, with their traditional heavy metal sound are considered to have taken rock music on the Island one step further. The longest-running band to date, they have managed to be synonymous to the Cyprus metal scene throughout the years, with quality releases and a few visits abroad. Nowadays, they have moved more into the progressive side of metal.
In the early 1990s,Godblood started the localBlack metal scene, acting firstly as a school-band, and later on continuing with their small record label 'Throne Productions'. They have disbanded and only some can recall some shows they had in Cyprus with bands from theGreek scene likeRotting Christ and an international festival in Israel in the late 1990s. In Heavy/Power metal there were bands of great quality such asDiphtheria and laterArryan Path leading the genre.
There were also a couple of activeThrash metal bands during that era giving great live shows such asRegicide (supportingEpidemic) and thenScotoma. Eventually, the 1990s were a very active period for the scene in general.
Some popular rock bands in Cyprus wereAkoustikoi Epivates (founded by lead singer Vyronas Potsos), lopodytes, savvas isovitis(solo singer/guitar), by accident, Katadotes (Καταδότες), Full Volume, Quadraphonic, Johnny & the Liars (Punk/Alternative rock), Maenads, Forty Plus, Triple Jam and Krokes (both areGreek rock bands), Ophiochus (Instrumental Funk/Rock), Isaac's Cello (Psychedelic/experimental).
Active bands, with releases and/or live shows of the 2000s (some appeared also in magazines and websites around the globe):[6]
During this decade, there was an uprising of concerts of different sizes and musical directions across the island. This led to number of greek metal bands like Rotting Christ, SepticFlesh, Crossover, Nightfall, Ravencult, and W.E.B., as well as international acts like Anathema and Sepultura visiting and performing in Cyprus.
One of the most successful and recognised world music groups in Cyprus isMonsieur Doumani. The group was formed inNicosia in 2012 and has released two albums, Grippy Grappa (2013) and Sikoses (2015). The band focuses upon the unique character of Cypriot folkloric music, enriching traditional songs with new arrangements, melodies, rhythms and sounds and crafting a style distinctively their own. The band's music is a blend of the traditional element with modern genres. Their repertoire also includes their own compositions in theCypriot Greek dialect, which are inspired by contemporary Cypriot society, as for example the recentfinancial crisis that hit the island and the corrupted political system. Monsieur Doumani was nominated for "Best Newcomer" in Songlines Music Awards 2014 and participated in acclaimed festivals around the globe such asWOMAD Charlton Park[12] 2014, Sommarscen Malmö, Songlines Encounters Festival etc.
In 2008 the electronic/world music group Mikros Kosmos ("small world") arrived in Cyprus and recorded their first album inNicosia. Their first performances presented live remixes for laptop and voice of classic Greekrebetika, with performances atNew York City's Golden Festival and elsewhere in the United States. Mikros Kosmos's full-length original album moves away from the classic rebetika with an affection for minimal arrangements and a lyrical abstraction which is uncommon in the history of Greek music.
