Book Description

This collection is the third volume of a sheet music book series dedicated to Greek folk music, a very interesting, genuine and compound musical genre of great harmonic and rhythmic value, which is now widely considered as a precious cultural inheritance gaining admirers all over the world. The purpose of this series is to document some of the classical Greek folk musical pieces with as much detail and accuracy as possible (including improvisational -taksimi- parts) instead of presenting just a general view of these songs, something that has already been done several times before. In addition, this book series cover all the usual harmonic and melodic variations of the songs, as encountered in the numerous executions, appeared until today. Everything is written both in English and Greek. All musical scores include both standard notation and tablature. But most important, each book goes with the respective audio material (over 100 rehearsal/backing tracks), which can be downloaded from the book's website after your purchase. This volume is dedicated to Markos Vamvakaris, probably the most important and influential Greek folk composer. The 14 songs of the book are once again based on the traditional 3-string bouzouki and have been arranged for all the instruments of a basic folk band. Particularly, the songs consist of one singing voice, 1st and 2nd bouzouki (whenever it is not redundant), one baglamas and one classical guitar. The musical arrangements presented here are the outcome of a very thorough work, so that they remain devoted to the original compositions and maintain a balance between the beautiful plainness of Markos's music and the rich and challenging playing. Song contents: Oli i rebetes tou dounia, O Markos ypourgos, Kaftone Stavro kaftone, O hasapis, Prepi na kseris mihani, Ta matoklada sou laboun, Mavra matia mavra frydia, Ta dyo sou heria pirane (Vergoules), Fragosyriani, Adilaloun i fylakes, Karavotsakismata, Osi ehoune polla lefta, Alaniaris, Haramata i ora tris