AAWM CONFERENCE

Ordoulidis, Nikos. Deconstructing dipoles: the term ‘Minor’ in Smyrna. Fifth International Conference on Analytical Approaches to World Music (AAWM 2018) & Eighth Folk Music Analysis Workshop (FMA 2018), Thessaloniki, Greece, June 26–29, 2018.

The term ‘Minor’ appears in Smyrnean discography circa 1910. It concerns a manes, performed by Giorgos Tsanakas with the Smyrnean estudiantina. Since then, the very same musical matrix is recorded at least another 20 times, in Smyrna, in Constantinople, in Athensand in New York. The titles on the labels vary. Despite this, the word ‘Minor’ is always present. From historical sources it is understood that the term is not only active in the Greek-speaking glossary of Smyrna, but utilized more as an entity, rather than a musical theory reference. The proposal is structured on two central axes: on the one hand, all socio-historical components shall be examined, in order to map the network from which the term stems and the context in which it functions. On the other hand, transcriptions of certain recordings shall be cited. The comparative and analytical methodology used aims to solicit the modeness detected in the musical matrix in question. The extensions of which concern popular musical idioms in general; mainly those which thrived in historically influential cosmopolitan centres. These centres are characterized by a dialogical reciprocity among the ethno-cultural groups of which they are composed, with Greek-speaking musicians playing a determining role in this ecumene.