|
 In fact, the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments, or
MELMOKE, contains barely any bouzoukis, the quintessential Greek
instrument that often accompanies the smashing of plates in
overseas Greek restaurants.
Instead, visitors are treated to rows of wood and bone flutes,
pottery drums called toumbeleki, and gaida - bagpipes made of
sheep or goat skins.
On a recent Saturday, the basement was echoing to the sounds of
students learning to sing and play old-style, including using a
santouri, a type of hammer dulcimer.
"Traditional music was live until recently," said Petros
Moustakas, a musicologist at MELMOKE, which is designed to
protect the heritage and keep the old way going.
Modern Greek music is very popular in Greece and unlike many
European countries the local fare tends to outnumber English and
American imports in music shops.
It is more like pop and disco, but Moustakas says it still uses
the "modes" of traditional music, albeit in a far more urban
way.
Other forms of Greek music do too, such as rembetika, nearly
always called "Greek blues" because it was first played by the
poor around the Piraeus docks.
[to top of second column] |
But the MELMOKE is primarily about raw, rural sound from Greek's
mountainous mainland and scattered islands.
Most of the roughly 1,200 items owned by the museum come from the
collection of critic and musicologist Fivos Anoyanakis, who died in
2003. They date from the 18th century to the present day, although
there is scant sign of anything commercial - and certainly not
electric.
The oldest item, according to Moustakas, is a 1743 lyra from Crete,
a small teardrop-shaped, three-stringed instrument with a head
carved with various symbols. It is played by a bow with bells on it.
One of the more magnificent objects on display, meanwhile, is a 19th
century laghouto, or lute, inlaid with ivory and tortoise shell.
It is said to have been made by luthier Manolis Venios of
Constantinople (present day Istanbul), a master craftsman whose
works now sell for many thousands of dollars.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
