Music of Cyprus 2

Music of Cyprus

“Music of Cyprus” is an album of traditional Cypriot music composed by Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot musicians. Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, a Turkish Cypriot musician born in Istanbul, and Theodoulos Vakanas, a Greek Cypriot musician born in Nicosia, cooperated with two more musicians from the mainlands Turkey and Greece in this album.
The title “Music of Cyprus” completely reflects the content of this album: traditional music Cyprus. What motivated Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol to create such an album was an attempt to archive Cypriot music with the bi-communal collaboration of musicians.
The colourful diversity in Cypriot music is reflected by the wide variety of instruments used in recording the album such as ud, reed flute, lauto, horn, flageolet, tambourine, violin, fiddle, drums and percussions... Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol who is also an ethnomusicologist says that throughout the last century both Turkish and Greek Cypriots have played the violin as their main instrument. The instruments mentioned above have been played in the album in various arrangements.
The repertoire of the album includes such categories as “Wedding Songs”, “Love Songs”, “Sacred Music”, “Village”, “Reconstruction of Cyprus”, “Folk Dance” and “Music of Cyprus”. This categorization clearly shows that Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol's approach to this album is thoroughly scientific for the purpose of better understanding the Cypriot cultural identity.

“In the morning at sunrise”...
The album opens with “Wedding Songs”. The first song is “Kozan Marşı / Syrtos” sung by both Turkish and Greek Cypriots and in which almost all the instruments mentioned are played. The second track titled “To Tragoui Tou Gamou” is a Greek Cypriot wedding song. The lyrics "May this time be blessed in gold / and this ceremony be powerful / Today the sky and the day are shining bright / Today is the day an eagle marries a dove" depicts a Greek Cypriot wedding ceremony.
The third song is from the section "Love Songs”. “Sabahın Seher Vahdında” is one of the most emotional songs of the album. The lyrics goes as follows: “In the morning at sunrise / She sits reading the Bible / I don’t understand her language / So I thought a nightingale”. The song is sung by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol who also plays the ud. This song highlights the conception of the album quite well by reflecting the view of the “other”, the struggle to understand the different and the joy of living together with the other and the different.
After this emotional love song, the same ud melodies carries us to a more joyful song: “Dolama / Na Sou Goraso Mihanin". Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol sings the lyrics "Dolama dolama / Bring over the bağlama / How did you learn / to dance like this?...”. Theodoulos Vakanas replies in Greek accompanied by violin melodies played by him: “I will buy you a sewing machine / To sew, you proud one / So that you need no one’s help / In this very neighbourhood”...

“The sema is joy, and it is good for body and soul"...
After a short Byzantine sacred music, the Greek Cypriot religious song “Ta’i Giorki” opens the section “Sacred Music in Cyprus”. Dedicated to Aya Giorgis, this epic song tells the story of a religious hero.
The sixth song is an Anatolian chant “Şem-i Ruhuna”. “Listen to what I’m saying, it’s about another way / What a dervish needs is the love of God / What the lover possesses is sacrificed for the Beloved / The sema is joy, and it is good for body and soul...” This mystic chant is important because it represents the importance for the Turkish Cypriots of the Mevlevi belief system.
“The Village” section opens with drums and horns. “Abdal Zeybeği /Aptalikos” is followed by the section “Cyprus Reconstructed”. This section displays the more traditional instruments used before the violin took its place in the Cypriot tradition as the main instruments of the islanders.
The tenth song of the album opens the “Dance Songs” section. The album presents two great dance songs that represent not only the Turkish and Greek Cypriot culture, but also the Aegean culture: "Varys Zeybekikos" and "Sarhoş Zeybeği / Ime Tze Ganomatzis".
The final section which has the same title with the album, “Music of Cyprus", presents more familiar and popular melodies. "Agapisa Tin Pou Karkias", "Feslikan/Syrtos", "Orak/To Mashairin" and "Dillirga/Tillyrkotissa” are the songs in this section that reflect the warmth of a Mediterranean island.

Listen to the music of Cyprus...
“Music of Cyprus” presents the multicultural diversity of identities on this beautiful Mediterrranean island. The name of the album itself is totally reflective of its true message: The music of Cyprus is neither Turkish or Greek. Any cultural and artistic endeavour in the name of “Cyprus” must tell the story of the bicommunal identity of the island. This is what you will hear if you listen to the music of Cyprus.

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Music of Cyprus 1

Listen to the music of Cyprus

A collaboration between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot musicians, the album “Music of Cyprus” sheds a musical light on the cultural identity of the island of Cyprus. This is a very precious piece of work in academic, political and cultural terms. As the songs in the album play one after the other, you can’t escape the feeling that you are sailing toward a wildly different world. A world very close to Cyprus yet so far away from it. A world of both past and present and a world full of hope where self and other identify with each other...


The island of Cyprus is known for its multicultural structure, a historical legacy of thousands of years of inter-civilizational interaction. For long years, Greeks and Turks have lived on this island together, enjoying and disliking similar things. Despite their different religious convictions and different ethnicities, Greeks and Turks of Cyprus were never deprived of a common language that can represent common joys and sorrows. There might not be too many cases of inter-ethnic marriage in Cyprus, but there certainly were recurring cases of common celebrations in which both people shared their folk dances and sang folk songs in both Turkish and Greek.
It is known that this rahter peaceful equilibrium was disrupted. The why and the how of this disruption is the subject of another, perhaps a politically more engaged article. Nevertheless the outcome is obvious: One’s joy becomes the other’s sorrow, and vice versa. Different national flags wave at each other across an entrenched border. The people of Cyprus start looking at each other from distant barricades.
What is fortunate is that this border and different nationalist sentiments did not suffice to destroy the common cultural heritage of centuries. The nearly 40 year separation of these communities could never eliminate the 400 year common tradition uniting Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. Every cultural artifact on this island bear the mark of both communities.
One day, two children of two different historical ancestries, two different religions and languages come together and the common tradition that links them and has blessed the island of Cyprus for so long is brought to surface under the light of musical fervour. "Music of Cyprus” is an album made possible by a historical partnership.
Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, as the child of a Turkish Cypriot family born in Istanbul and Theodoulos Vakanas, a Greek Cypriot born in Nicosia, meet in Boston, Massachusetts and discover their common cultural roots through musical collaboration...

A “bi-communal” album...
It won’t be an exaggerated claim to say that “Music of Cyprus” unites those spiritual elements of the two communities of Cyprus which have been materially separated from each other since the 1960s. Produced with academic concerns in mind and within the framework of an ethnomusicological study, “Music of Cyprus” has been released by “Kalan Müzik”. The project was first conceived when the ethnomusicologist and musician Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, in cooperation with his Greek-Irish colleague Panayiotis League, gave a concert reflecting the Cypriot tradition in Boston in May 2006.
That an album of Cypriot music must be prepared b—communally was the sine qua non of Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol. Sanlıkol believed that music made by either Turkish Cypriots or Greek Cypriots separately never reflects the true nature of the island. Moreover, such a mono-communal album can reflect, consciously or unconsciously, a biased cultural perspective which would be anathema to an academic principle of objectivity.
“As the son of a Cypriot family, I was aware that this project lacked something essential: A Greek Cypriot", says Sanlıkol and starts telling the story of how "Music of Cyprus" was born: "I knew the right person for this project: Theodoulos Vakanas. This friend of mine was also a graduate from the New England Conservatory and I knew him from our collaboration in Boston almost five years ago in a few concerts and recording projects. As we discovered our common love for Cyprus, we quickly and joyously started exchanging stories, memories and also several folk songs. Although Theodoulos was not able to take part in the 2006 concert, this project was first conceived thanks to him.”
Of course, Sanlıkol has a powerful message in this album: Another Cyprus is possible! Sanlıkol hopes that the “Music of Cyprus” project could stimulate some Turkish and Greek Cypriots to engage in a humanist dialogue.

About music...
Despite all the social factors involved, “Music of Cyprus” is essentially about music. It is a great musical achievement. Instrumentation in line with the musical tradition and arrangements that reflect the songs’ historical nature are some of the powerful aspects of this album. It is a musical journey into the spirit of a common history of Cyprus.
Sanlıkol is intent on archiving the common musical heritage of the island. In order to form the repertoire of the album, he brought together a vast accumulation of materials that he collected from both North and South Cyprus. However, it can be safely said that personal experience was a more important ingredient than field work during the formation of this album.
Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol tells it all: "The repertoire of this album first of all reflects the past experiences of the elders of the Sanlıkol and Vakanas families who provided us with a firsthand account of the basic characteristics of Cypriot music. The two most important figures in these families are my grandmother Leman Necati Özkan and Theodoulos’s uncle Polydoris Vakanas.”
Both Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol and Theodoulos Vakanas were brought up in families that loved music. Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol's grandmother is a recognized lute player, whereas Theodoulos Vakanas’s uncle Polydoris is a professional violin player.

Repertoir...
The repertoire shows that this album is the product of a disciplined academic study. The songs in the album are presented under different categories like “Wedding Songs”, “Love Songs”, “Sacred Music”, “Village”, "Cyprus Reconstructed”, “Dance Song” and “Music of Cyprus”. This is therefore a new outlook on the traditional music of Cyprus. As Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol stresses, the common link between the music of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots is not only the Cypriot dance songs. The detailed information about the repertoire is related in Sanlıkol’s thoughts printed in the album booklet. For the most part, the selections under the sections of this album entitled “Wedding Songs”, “Music of Cyprus", “Dance Songs” and “Love Songs” are found exclusively on the island of Cyprus and are performed by Greeks or Turks or both. Some of the songs (such as, “Feslikan/Syrtos” #13 and “Dillirga/Tillyrkotissa” #15) have separate Greek and Turkish versions or are sung in a mix of the two languages.
“Section "Sacred Music from Cyprus” celebrates the great importance of both Greek-Orthodox Christianity and Islam to the history and culture of Cyprus.
“In section “Cyprus Re-constructed” we have taken an imaginative step and attempted to recapture the kinds of sounds that would have been heard in Cyprus a hundred or more years ago. By coupling the small Turkish folk lute cura with the Greek bowed lyra we wanted to bring back the sound of the tambura/lyra duo which most probably was in use in Cyprus before the introduction of the violin.

The “true” music of Cyprus...
A collaboration between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot musicians, the album “Music of Cyprus” sheds a musical light on the cultural identity of the island of Cyprus. This is a very precious piece of work in academic, political and cultural terms. As the songs in the album play one after the other, you can’t escape the feeling that you are sailing toward a wildly different world.
A world very close to Cyprus yet so far away from it. So close, because this music belongs solely to the island of Cyprus. So far away, because it is not all about a geographical location. A world of both past and present and a world full of hope where self and other identify with each other... Listen to the music of Cyprus. There you will find both yourself and your long forgotten neighbour.

‘Kıbrıs’ın Sesi’ (Music of Cyprus)
Kıbrıslı Rum ve Türk müzisyenlerin Kıbrıs adasındaki müzik geleneklerini
birlikte sunduğu bir çalışma
Greek and Turkish Cypriot Musicians Present the Musical Traditions of the
Island of Cyprus

DÜĞÜN MÜZİKLERİ | WEDDING SONGS | TOU GAMOU
1- Kozan Marşı | Syrtos (Turkish and Greek)
2- To Tragoudi Tou Gamou (Greek)

AŞK ŞARKILARI | LOVE SONGS | TIS AGAPIS
3- Sabahın Seher Vahdında (Turkish)
4- Dolama | Na Sou Goraso Mihanin
(Turkish and Greek)

KIBRIS’TA DİNİ MÜZİK | SACRED MUSIC FROM CYPRUS
THRISKEFTIKI MOUSIKI TIS KYPROU
5- T’ai Giorki (Agios Giorgis, Greek Orthodox para-liturgical song)
6- Şem-i Ruhuna (ilahi: Sufi devotional song)

KÖY | THE VILLAGE | TO HORKON
7- Abdal Zeybeği | Aptalikos (Turkish and Greek)

KIBRIS’TA “GECMİŞE YOLCULUK” | CYPRUS “RE-CONSTRUCTED”
KYPROS: “MOUSIKI ANADROMI”
8- Kartal (Turkish)
9- Sousta (Turkish and Greek)

ZEYBEKLER | DANCE SONGS | ZEYBEKIKOS
10- Varys Zeybekikos (Greek)
11- Sarhoş Zeybeği | Ime Tze Ganomatzis
(Turkish and Greek)

KIBRIS’IN SESİ | MUSIC OF CYPRUS | TRAGOUDIA TIS KYPROU
12- Agapisa Tin Pou Karkias (Greek)
13- Feslikan | Syrtos (Turkish and Greek)
14- Orak | To Mashairin (Turkish and Greek)
15- Dillirga | Tillyrkotissa (Turkish and Greek)

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