Spyros Peristeris

[vkioulaphides]

Greetings, all.

Here is my translation of an article on Greek Wikipedia, on this notable Greek mandolinist of yesteryear. (By way of disclaimer, I can neither confirm nor refute any of the content; I only offer a hopefully readable English equivalent.)

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Spyros Peristeris was a Greek musician and composer from Asia Minor. He was born in Smyrna in 1900, the son of a Greek father and an Italian mother. He started learning to play the mandolin since childhood and, after his family's relocation to Constantinople (around 1915), he managed to finish the Scuola Italiana, having learned both Italian and German.

After Siderís' death (1918), he returned to Smyrna and, at the age of 18, succeeded him in the leadership of the Smyrnean Estudiantina, which had become known across Europe and remained known as "Ta Politakia". That is the name he used in the early '30s when, playing in the orchestra of the ocean-liner Alexander the Great, he recorded some instrumental pieces in the USA, under the stage-name S. Georgiades.

His discographical debut actually began in 1934 with a series of rebetika, such as "The knight", "The Bohemian", "Oh, aman", "Ta belederia", "O teketzis", and "O magas tou votanikou" with Zacharias Katsimatis.

Spyros Peristeris was the one who, almost by force, got Markos Vamvakaris to record his own voice when, in 1933, the first commercial recording of bouzouki-music was made on vinyl. Peristeris is a member of the orchestra in many recordings by Vamvakaris, where the triumvirate of Markos and Peristeris on bouzoukis and Kostas Skarvelis on guitar was incomparable.

Some of Peristeris' songs became hits, as sung by Vamvakaris. ("O Antonis, o varkaris, o seretis", "Maria Madalena", "To minore tis avgis") Some extant songs under his name as composer, and that of Minos Matsas as lyricist are actually works of others, yet without any proof of deliberate infringement on his part.

Peristeris played all fretted instruments excellently, and also piano, accordion, and double bass. He married in 1921 and had two sons. He died in April of 1966 in Athens.

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I would be happy to offer contextual commentary, if needed. All I can say for now is that, yes, those songs are not only well-known; they were iconic in 20th-century Greek culture.

Cheers,

Victor

[onthefiddle]

Thank you very much Victor! My greek is extremely basic, especially when it comes to reading, so I could only translate the occassional word in the article that you linked to!

Do you know of any CDs dedicated to his music?

Efharisto poly!
Jon

[vkioulaphides]

In general, Jon (and bearing in mind the shenanigans of Greek record-labels), I would bet 100:1 that you will find Peristeris' songs most readily under the performer's discography, not under his own name as composer. In other words, search under "Vamvakaris" instead, looking for some of the aforementioned song-titles.

Then, as now, composers were largely the Lowest Form of Life. Believe me, I know...

"To minore tis avgis", i.e. "The Song-in-Minor-Mode of Dawn" is probably THE most widely recorded among the sentimental variant of rebetika; there must be HUNDREDS of issues of it. If you've heard ANY 20th-century Greek music, that's probably it. "Maria Madalena" is also famous, as is "O Antonis, o varkaris, o seretis", although the last one is more connoisseur-domain, relatively speaking. But even a non-expert like myself could easily hum or whistle the tune of each of any of these songs in a heartbeat. Memorable, all of them.

Cheers,

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

I found THE first issue, of 1947, with an appropriately suggestive video!

Now... if this doesn't bring tears to one's eyes, well... OK; un alma senza cuore non sa capir dolore, as Gesualdo's madrigal goes. Heartless souls do exist.



Enjoy!

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

And here is "O Antonis..." sung by Markos himself, incomparably gritty.

[vkioulaphides]

I am no scholar in this field, and cannot enter into the argument(s) whether Peristeris wrote such songs for the artistic character of Markos, or (as others suggest) whether some of these songs were actually by Markos himself. I leave that for others to argue, or prove, if they can.

To my non-expert ear, Markos' own style is distinctive, several notches slinkier, snarkier, and grittier than anything around him. Here's one of his gems, his Spicy Brunette.



You be the judge...

Cheers,

Victor

[onthefiddle]

Thanks Victor - great music!

I have heard all three before, I also love the music of Markos Vamvakaris, but wasn't aware of the role of Peristeris, or that he played mandolin!

The CD featuring a recording of him playing mandolin, accompanied by a pianist, is called "Authentic Recordings of Rebetika and Smyrneika - The Greek popular song in America". The cover features three mangas playing cards, with a mandolin and guitar in the foreground:



You can find it at http://www.falireas.com/product_info...60huh01qe6e904

Cheers!
Jon

[onthefiddle]

I've found, with a bit of searching, that Spiros Peristeris is actually represented on Youtube in his own right. There are a couple of recordings on guitar, possibly from the same recording session as the Beikos mandolin recording, and the following really caught my ear, though sadly it is incomplete:



It appears that there has been at least one collection available dedicated to him at some point, but I haven't found it yet.

Geia sou!
Jon

[onthefiddle]

I just found the recording of Beikos that prompted my question. As you predicted Victor, Spyros Peristeris doesn't appear to be credited, even though he's the soloist! Anyway, here he is:

[vkioulaphides]

Fascinating! That is actually a VERY famous image, one I must have come across HUNDREDS of times! Fascinating, magical, how it all comes "full circle"... Wonderful playing, too.

OK, I must be off to Carlo Aonzo's workshop in a few minutes. Fortunately for the readership of the Café, all will be spared my torrential verbosity and inane cultural trivia— at least until Monday.

Cheers,

Victor

[Giorgos]

Here's another one in the same style as Beikos, Antonis Diamantidis (aka "Dalgas") is credited as the composer, if it's not him playing the mandolin, then it could be Peristeris.

[vkioulaphides]

Μάγοι της πεννιάς, έ; Τι χρόνια, τι εποχές, τι μουσική...

These guys made magic with their picks...

Cheers,

Victor

[Margriet]

Thank you for sharing !

Here come my love for the mandolin and the Greek music together.

Margriet

[Alex Timmerman]

Wonderful!

Thanks Giorgos for sharing!

Alex .

[onthefiddle]

Thank you for the Dalgas recording Giorgos!

I've been exploring Greek music of this era recently with another instrument - also with a bowlback, but with a rather longer neck - a trixordo bouzouki ( a lowly Matsikas 1a which is predictably developing issues with it's neck, so I'm hoping to step up from it soon, possibly involving a visit to Athens - but I'll PM you about that or we'll get too far off topic!)

These recordings have really opened my ears to Greek music on the mandolin - this is something that Victor has been championing for some time, which is why he came to my mind as soon as I heard the Peristeris recording!

I'm going to enjoy exploring further - with both instruments.
Jon

[Ed Goist]

Wow. The clips posted to this thread feature some incredible playing!
Thanks for posting.

[vkioulaphides]

I am delighted to have performed the "eggbeater effect", namely stirring things up a bit. As I was chatting over lunch with Carlo Aonzo the other day, we came to precisely this topic: that the mandolin is not so much "disliked" as it is ignored. Much of it, and/or much about it is simply not widely known. It is too unknown to be appreciated.

Now... I'm no musicologist, less yet ethnomusicologist, but the simple, hard fact is that I am fifth-generation Greek mandolinist— I leave aside any qualitative attributes. Clearly, those uncles, grand-uncles, godfather, grandfathers, etc., etc., etc. existed, and they just as factually played the mandolin. It only stands to reason that they would have played something, no? Much of it I remember; much, MUCH more I do not, or probably never knew to begin with.

So there is fertile ground for research and, most importantly, for bringing this wonderful music to life, NOT simply as some footnote in a dissertation, but before live audiences. That, at least, is my fondest hope...

Cheers,

Victor

[TKlein]

Sorry I'm a beginner and I replied to the wrong post!

[TKlein]

Hi Jon

It's a great piece! Had you however been able to read Greek, you would have found out that the recording in this video is a contemporary home-made multi-tracked "cover" of a piece called To Servikaki which was originally recorded in 1937, with Peristeris on mandolin sharing the stage with the accordionist Antonis Amiralis "Papatzis", accompanied by the the composer and guitarist Kostas Skarvelis. Here's the original!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIlnBBe06w8&noredirect=1

Greetings

Tony Klein

[A.K.Strigidae]

Greetings, all.

Here is my translation of an article on Greek Wikipedia, on this notable Greek mandolinist of yesteryear. (By way of disclaimer, I can neither confirm nor refute any of the content; I only offer a hopefully readable English equivalent.)

---------------

Spyros Peristeris was a Greek musician and composer from Asia Minor. He was born in Smyrna in 1900, the son of a Greek father and an Italian mother. He started learning to play the mandolin since childhood and, after his family's relocation to Constantinople (around 1915), he managed to finish the Scuola Italiana, having learned both Italian and German.

After Siderís' death (1918), he returned to Smyrna and, at the age of 18, succeeded him in the leadership of the Smyrnean Estudiantina, which had become known across Europe and remained known as "Ta Politakia". That is the name he used in the early '30s when, playing in the orchestra of the ocean-liner Alexander the Great, he recorded some instrumental pieces in the USA, under the stage-name S. Georgiades.

His discographical debut actually began in 1934 with a series of rebetika, such as "The knight", "The Bohemian", "Oh, aman", "Ta belederia", "O teketzis", and "O magas tou votanikou" with Zacharias Katsimatis.

Spyros Peristeris was the one who, almost by force, got Markos Vamvakaris to record his own voice when, in 1933, the first commercial recording of bouzouki-music was made on vinyl. Peristeris is a member of the orchestra in many recordings by Vamvakaris, where the triumvirate of Markos and Peristeris on bouzoukis and Kostas Skarvelis on guitar was incomparable.

Some of Peristeris' songs became hits, as sung by Vamvakaris. ("O Antonis, o varkaris, o seretis", "Maria Madalena", "To minore tis avgis") Some extant songs under his name as composer, and that of Minos Matsas as lyricist are actually works of others, yet without any proof of deliberate infringement on his part.

Peristeris played all fretted instruments excellently, and also piano, accordion, and double bass. He married in 1921 and had two sons. He died in April of 1966 in Athens.

---------------

I would be happy to offer contextual commentary, if needed. All I can say for now is that, yes, those songs are not only well-known; they were iconic in 20th-century Greek culture.

Cheers,

Victor

Does anyone know where to find scores of his music?