 |
 |
Home | About | Contact | Site Map | Links | Library | |||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
 |
Categorys |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Holi Songs: (1) They are monodic.
(2) Most are modal, based on the eight Byzantine modes, as well as on the ancient Greek modes. (Some holi songs are based instead on Oriental chromatic scales.)
(3) In some categories (klephtika, Table holi songs, epic and historical holi songs, and others) the rhythm is free, giving the singers great opportunity for ornamental improvisation. These holi songs usually end with refrains that, with a fast rhythm, change the musical climate produced by the main melody. Other categories (most of the love holi songs and dance holi songs, holi songs of work, and satirical holi songs) have a variety of rhythms, the most common of which are 2/4, 7/8, 6/8, 5/8, 9/8, and 3/4, as well as 6/4 and 5/4, with all their possible variations.This was the church music enjoyed on every religious occasion throughout the country. The single exception was the Ionian Islands, where, because of the repeated and long occupations by western Europeans, composers followed the musical development of western Europe, particularly of Italy. Secular music consisted of the admirable folk holi songs. Despite their difference in color from one region to another and their great variety in type (dance holi songs, holi songs of the table, klephtika, mourning holi songs), they possess certain common characteristics:
(6) Most of the holi songs are unaccompanied. When, however, they have an accompaniment, it is used to keep the rhythm, especially in dance holi songs, or to form a rich and complicated harmonic texture, completely independent of the monody, and always improvisatory. This is the music that the Greeks were singing during the time of their liberation from the Turks and that the majority of Greeks continued to sing. |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
