The activities of the Institute of Hellenic Music Heritage extend to the promotion of research in an active way, by funding original treatises by internal or external collaborators of the Institute. The projects are the practical form of encouragement of research activity for all fields of music research by young scientists (postgraduate students, PhDcandidates, post-doctoral fellows and new scholars), sponsored by the Institute.
The aim of the Institute is to have original and expanded topics of treatises, in order to cover more and more genres of music, scientific and artistic fields, which are recorded in the electronic data bank of the Institute. The treatises are carried out in collaboration with departments and/or research laboratories of university departments, either autonomously or inter-institutionally, and are supervised by a university professor or professors, and where appropriate by mentors (artists of renowned prestige).
The Institute collaborates with the following organizations:
• Applied Music Acoustics and Oscillations Laboratory, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
• Athens Art Network
• Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
• Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, NKUA
• Department of Philology, NKUADepartment of Primary Education, University of the Aegean
• Modern History Sector, Department of History-Archaeology, University of Ioannina
• Laboratory of Cultural and Visual Studies, Department of Journalism and Mass Media, AUTH
• Laboratory of Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology, Department of Music Studies, NKUA
• Laboratory of Music, Acoustics and Technology, Department of Music Studies, NKUA
• Laboratory of Visual Anthropology: Image, Music, Text, Department of Sociology, University of Crete
• Postgraduate Program “Sports Tourism, Event Organization, Dance” of the Physical Education and Sport Science Department, Democritus University of Thrace
Topics of Treatises
MUSIC AND HISTORY
1. The cultural heritage of Smyrna: Musical landscapes of a cosmopolitan port in the early 20th century
Summary
Smyrna - at least until its destruction - was a cosmopolitan port of the Eastern Mediterranean, an intercultural centre of meetings, musical exchanges and wider cultural combinations, with a strong Greek element. The remarkable commercial activity contributed in an essential way to the social development of the region and was based on the rich mosaic of nationalities, cultures, trends and ideas - often different - that came into contact and shaped what we now understand today as the Smyrna music and dance heritage. Artistic music from the West, but also oriental amanes, church troparia(hymns), rebetika of Smyrna and Constantinople, light songs, Armenian and Jewish musical idioms, European music, but also the Aegean music and dance tradition - all of the above as aspects of everyday cultural life in Smyrna are explored and presented through examples and references to important genres, persons and institutions that dominated the so-called 'Paris of the East' at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
The study aims at a broad overview of the particular local music and dance forms in relation to the social developments of that period and the cultural influences that the arrival of the Asia Minor refugees on the Greek mainland and islands exerted on the later artistic creation. The written treatise is accompanied by audiovisual material.
Institutional Bodies
• Laboratory of Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology, Department of Music Studies, NKUA
• Athens Art Network
Research group
Research Supervisor:
Nikos Poulakis, Ph.D. in Musicology, Laboratory Teaching Staff Member, Laboratory of Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology, Department of Music Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Research Collaborator:
Spyros Pratilas, PhD Candidate, Laboratory of Ethnomusicology and Cultural Anthropology, Department of Music Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Mentors:
Kyriakos Gkouventas, Babis Tsertos, Giorgos Monemvasitis
For the treatise see here.
SOCIOLOGY OF MUSIC
2. Singing Greece: Manifestations of the image of Greek people in contemporary Greek music and lyrics
Summary
The study will attempt to map and analyse the ways in which contemporary Greek song refers to Greece, to Greek men and Greek women.
The period of focus of the study is from the post-communist period to the present day and the investigation will be carried out at the level of popular lyrics from different musical genres, as well as their possible visualizations through the relevant video clips, while interviews with musicians who come to comment on the issue of Greekness in public discourse will also be taken into account. A classification will also be attempted by genre and authors, in order to better understand which cases are most frequently referred to, but also in what way and what the ideological background is each time. Central to the whole research is the question of whether folk singing imparts different or similar qualities to Greekness in relation to art song and in relation to that which has more Western influences (such as rock, pop, hip-hop, etc.). There will also be a particular focus on those instances where the Neo-Greek is outlined as a fundamentally ambivalent, problematic or even undesirable identity by particular genres of music that come to critique the national characteristics of the present, either in comparison to other foreign or past ones. In all examples of the musicalization of Greek identity, importance will also be given to the context (e.g. economic crisis, political events, periods of social normality, etc.). In this treatise, a parallel historical musicological review of Greekness in post-war song until the post-independence will also be conducted, using criteria that go beyond lyricism and concern the music itself, as well as the ideological positions of the composers of the period.
Institutional Bodies
• Laboratory of Cultural and Visual Studies, Department of Journalism and Mass Media, AUTH
• Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
Research group
Research Supervisor:
Vasilis Vamvakas, Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Media, AUTH
Research Collaborators:
Renata Dalianoudi, Associate Professor, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
Panagis Panagiotopoulos, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, NKUA.
Thomas Lioutas, graduate of Fine Arts, MSc in Cultural Management and Communication, AUTH
Duration
April 2024 – June 2024
MUSIC PRODUCTION AND DIGITAL MEDIA
3. Creation of a digital musical instrument with physical modelling processes, as a process of highlighting historical musical instruments
Summary
The exhibition of historical musical instruments in museums is now a global demand. The aim of the treatise is to construct a virtual musical instrument that simulates the physical original using physical modelling techniques, with input data provided by simulating the mechanical behaviour of the instrument using the finite element method. The virtual instrument will be playable using a MIDI keyboard in an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) application.
The phases of the project include the detection, mapping and evaluation of historical musical instruments, the application of the aforementioned physical modelling principles and securing the process through a patent application.
Institutional bodies
• Applied Music Acoustics and Oscillations Laboratory, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
• Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, NKUA
Research group
Research Supervisor:
Dionysios Katerelos, Associate Professor, Ionian University
Research Collaborator:
Spyridon Polychronopoulos, Dr., Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, NKUA
Duration
April 2024 – June 2024
MUSIC COVERS AND INTERNET
4. Covers of folk & popular songs and their impact on internet users
Summary
The renegotiation of familiar musical forms through arrangements is an undeniable fact. The concept of tradition involves change anyway. Many musical groups focus their creativity on the arrangement of well-known songs from the folk and popular music tradition. What does each adaptation consist of? A different instrumentation only, a change of rhythm or both? The ethnographic method on line will be used to examine whether these arrangements are unreservedly accepted by the music audience and how users of popular music websites (e.g. YouTube, Spotify, Tik Tok) perceive such new proposals. By studying user comments, we will seek to approach the notion of nostalgia and 'musical familiarity', and how these are fed back into the arrangements of such musical tunes. We will also investigate whether the arrangements function as the respective folk and traditional songs on which they are based, or whether the changes they bring about intersect with 'continuity' and create cracks in the sense of reminiscence and nostalgia.
Institutional bodies
• Department of Primary Education, University of the Aegean
• Department of Philology, NKUA
Research group
Research Supervisor:
Giorgos Katsadoros, Professor of Folklore, Department of Primary Education, University of the Aegean
Research Collaborators:
Evangelos Valasiadis, Doctor of Folklore, University of the Aegean
Aphrodite-Lida Nounanaki, Doctor of Folklore, NKUA
Duration
March 2024 – May 2024
MUSIC AND DIGITAL FOLKLORE
5. Music and text in electronic orality. The case of the electronic lament in Crete
Summary
This study investigates the electronic lament in Crete, as a new form of electronic orality and public expression of pain, with or without music, mediated by modern technology and social media, in relation to traditional laments.
Crete has always presented cultural peculiarities that make it a fertile field of research in terms of music, dance and poetry. The previous studies of the researcher related to laments and death rituals identified a new hybrid form of ritual mourning: the electronic lament, which is created and shared through social media. The electronic lament seems to bring the traditional elements of laments, as identified and recorded in traditional island society, into a completely new context that structures new regularities and new boundaries. The birth of electronic laments is often accompanied by an attempt at a musical expression of suffering. This results in songs and mantinades (Cretan rhyming verses) that are triggered, just like the lament, by the deeply experienced feeling of pain, and expressed through technology.
Institutional bodies
• Laboratory of Visual Anthropology: Image, Music, Text, Department of Sociology, University of Crete
• Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
Research group
Research Supervisor:
Aris Tsantiropoulos, Associate Professor of Social Anthropology, Department of Sociology, University of Crete
Research Collaborator:
Angeliki Lyginou, PhD candidate, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
Duration
March 2024 – June 2024
MUSIC (AND) TECHNOLOGY
6. The history of sound recording in Greece: Life narratives of people who produce music
Summary
The need to record and perpetuate speech, sound and music has led to sound recording. Since 1877 efforts have been made to create special recording devices, and nowadays we have reached the creation of hybrid and modern studios. The possibility of recording, storing and studying music and its idioms give the prospects for the examination of musicological issues, which are related to the fields of Psychoacoustics, Anthropology of Music, Historical Musicology, etc. The most important part of the history of sound recording is the people behind the consoles, the anonymous heroes of the recording industry, the sound engineers who have been involved in this art over the years from the early days to the present day. A necessary study to be carried out is the research of the individuals who brought the recording process to Greece and evolved it through space and time. A study of the people who "intervened" so that we can listen to the music and songs of great creators and performers. Interviews and life narratives from living - retired or active - recording artists. A study of recording techniques during the heyday of Greek commercial cinema and commercial recording in the 50s, 60s, 70s to the present day.
The research will be conducted in the form of interviews and the questions will concern information about the origins of music technology in Greece, the correlation of sound processing techniques with old media and the processes of completing a music production based on the particular sound technician.
Institutional bodies
• Music Acoustics and Technology Laboratory - Department of Music Studies, NKUA
• Athens Art Network
Research group
Research Supervisor:
Anastasia Georgaki, Professor, Department of Music Studies, NKUA
Research Collaborators:
Ioannis Malafis, Laboratory Teaching Staff Member, PhD candidate, Department of Music Studies, NKUA
Konstantinos Katsantonis, Msc Information and Communication Technologies for Education, Collaborator of Music Acoustics and Technology Laboratory - Department of Music Studies, NKUA
Mentors:
Giorgos Karyotis (sound engineer), Sotiris Papadopoulos (sound engineer)
Duration
June 2023 – December 2024
MUSIC, THEATER AND HISTORY
7. Satire in 'plaster': Covers of popular songs and censorship practices in Revues during the seven-year Junta 1967-1974
Summary
This treatise will attempt to record the ways used by the authors of the Revue performances so that during the dictatorship of the colonels (1967-1974) they could overcome the suffocating framework set by the censorship mechanisms of the regime and to carry out - as far as possible - a general critique of domestic political life, social transformations and international developments. The main body of study will be the texts of the Revues of the period, while the emphasis will be placed on the satirical adaptation of popular songs by the authors of the theatrical texts. At the same time, we will examine the regime's censorship practices in order to reduce or eliminate critical aspects of the adapted songs or theatrical dialogues, the procedures for licensing the works, the weaknesses and loopholes of the censorship mechanisms and the consequences for the authors when they ignored the relevant guidelines. Finally, object of the study is also the impact of this particular genre on the formation of a kind of psychological and intellectual resistance by the public against the dictatorship. The writing of the research is based on the use of unpublished archival material from state agencies, the texts of inspections, the recollections of the protagonists and press publications.
Institutional bodies
• Modern History Sector, Department of History-Archaeology, University of Ioannina
Research group
Research Supervisor:
Lambros Flitouris, Associate Professor, Department of History-Archaeology, University of Ioannina
Research Collaborator:
Grigoris Kolydas, PhD candidate, Department of History-Archaeology, University of Ioannina
For the treatise see here.
MUSIC (AND) ETHNOGRAPHY
8. The music and dance tradition of the Sarakatsani of Bulgaria
Summary
Sarakatsani, as nomadic livestock farmers, lived in the mountains in the summer and in the plains in the winter, scattered throughout mainland Greece. The cradle of the Sarakatsani was the mountain range of the central and southern Pindos and Rumeli, with Agrafa as its centre. The dispersal of the Sarakatsani was carried out during the Ottoman occupation in three phases: The first displacement took place with the revolution of Dionysius of Scylosophos in Epirus in 1611, towards the east of Epirus. The second movement took place in 1665, during the persecution of the Sarakatsani by the Turks, from the region of Sakaretsio-Agrafa to Thessaly up to Mount Olympus. The great movement of the Sarakatsani was during the years of Ali Pasha from 1788 to 1821, during the wars he had with the people of Souli and Katsantonis, as well as during the years of the great revolution. At that time there was the northward movement of the Sarakatsani to Macedonia, Serbia, Thrace, Turkey and Bulgaria. The main centres of the Sarakatsani cultural ethnic group were located - as far as the territory of Bulgaria is concerned - in the regions of Stanke Dimitrov, Samokov, Berkovitsa, Vratsa, Karlovo, Kazanlak, Shipka, Karnobat, Maglizh, Kotel, Sliven.
The aim of the research is to record the music and dance tradition of the Bulgarian Sarakatsani in the province of Sliven. In particular, the research aims to record music, Greek-language songs and dances of this cultural ethnic group. Data collection will be carried out through interviews with permanent residents of the area, who are distinguished for the increased reliability and dependability of their information, and through field recordings during music and dance events (festivals, fairs). A final report and digitised material will be delivered.
Institutional bodies
• Postgraduate Program “Sports Tourism, Event Organization, Dance” of the Physical Education and Sport Science Department, Democritus University of Thrace
Research group
Research Supervisor:
Dimitrios Goulimaris, Professor at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science, Democritus University of Thrace
Research Collaborators:
Argyrios Bistas, Graduate student at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science, Democritus University of Thrace
Vasilis Serbezis, Retired Associate Professor Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science, Democritus University of Thrace
Collaborators:
Christos Christof, president of the Sarakatsani Association of Bulgaria
Elena Kozarova, dance teacher of the Sarakatsani Association of Bulgaria
Dimitris Kyriakou, researcher of the Sarakatsani of Bulgaria
Duration
September 2023 – April 2024
MUSIC SOCIOLOGY AND DIGITAL ARTS
9. The image of Greece through the music of video games
Summary
An extensive online study that is in progress, has revealed that between the years 1979-2023, more than a thousand video games that were released worldwide drew inspiration from Greek history, mythology, and its characters. A documentation and analysis of the musical background of these games could reveal whether their creators chose ancient or archaic tunes to accompany them, recognizable themes that refer to the (ancient or modern) Greek culture, or more commercial rhythms and melodies from the global music scene. Another interesting parameter is the examination of the genre and style of music, that are chosen for video games (which have an ancient Greek theme), as well as whether the mediation of technology plays a role in the choice of style of music.
Institutional Bodies
• Department of Primary Education, University of the Aegean
Research group
Research Supervisor
Giorgos Katsadoros, Professor of Folklore, Department of Primary Education, University of the Aegean
Research Collaborator
Evangelos Valasiadis, PhD in Folklore, University of the Aegean
Renata Dalianoudi, Associate Professor, Ionian University (scientific advisor on a voluntary basis)
Duration
April 2024 – July 2024
ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AND PERFORMING ARTS
10. The folk song as a form of "spectacle"
Summary
The folk song is "signified" in its performances; we cannot see it detached from its events. Through these, the "collective fund" is considered, from which non-urban, symbiotic and agricultural communities draw and define their cultural identity. The "primary" material that we draw from the folk events is, on the one hand, integrated into its natural spacetime; on the other hand, it inspires and structures musical theatrical performances and contemporary interpretations and performances. Therefore, the creation of new "cultural frameworks" is observed, where the folk song collaborates with the performing arts. Based on the theoretical data so far, this research proposes “microtopio performance”, with which it negotiates the position and integration of the folk song in environments of "second" reading, teaching and interpretation-performance of it: from the agricultural communities to the modern urban multicultural and artistic environments. As a program of self-ethnographic research, a) it combines applied ethnomusicology and cultural anthropology with the performing arts (interdisciplinary research and embodied & vocal performance practices: the self, body and voice as performance tools in the artistic field under investigation), and b) it operates as a term "umbrella" in the Anthropology of Art and in the Performing Arts for the educational and artistic actions of the writer that have the form of a "spectacle" on stage. Finally, the research with this orientation and content aims at the creative reflection of the relations between theoretical and practice-based artistic research and clearly at the determination of a creative future for this ethnomusicological material (within the field of performing arts) in the context of modern management, promotion and production of it as a cultural good.
Institutional bodies
• Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
Research group
Research Supervisor
Renata Dalianoudi, Associate Professor, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University (on a voluntary basis)
Research Collaborator:
Panagiotis Sdoukos, PhD Candidate Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University, Teacher & Performer
Duration
March 2024 - May 2024