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The Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments provides an in depth look at the traditional musical instruments of Greece.
Whether you’re a music lover or not, this museum is an excellent introduction to the instruments used to produce Greek folk music.
History of the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments
The Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments is comprised of 1,200 Greek folk musical instruments dating from the 18th century to the present. They were collected over a period of 50 years by musicologist Fivos Anoyanakis (1915-2003). Anoyanakis donated his collection, library, and archives to the Greek State in 1991 to establish the museum, and for the research of Greek musical traditions “through scientific, educational and artistic activities”.
Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments Building
The Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments is housed in a Neoclassical mansion built in 1840 by General Georgios Lassanis (1793-1870), a hero of the Greek War of Independence. He was a member of Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends), a scholar, and served as finance minister in 1837.
Visiting the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments
The museum is located a few steps from the Roman Agora in the Plaka neighborhood in Athens. General admission is €3, and upon presentation of a passport or valid travel document: all visitors up to the age of 5 and EU citizens from age 6-25 are admitted free of charge; and EU seniors over age 65 and non-EU citizens from age 6-25 are admitted for €2 (as of September 2024). The museum is open daily except Tuesdays. Visit the official website for more info.
The exhibits at the museum start on the ground floor, which includes displays containing wind instruments. String instruments are upstairs, and percussion instruments are in the basement. There are videos and soundbites allowing visitors to see and hear examples of the instruments being played as well as historic photos and other information. Give yourself at least an hour to thoroughly experience the museum.
Wind Instruments at the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments
The ground floor of the museum contains the first exhibition. It covers wind instruments.
Kompanía
First is a display containing instruments used by the kompanía. This is the traditional instrumental ensemble of mainland Greece. The kompanía is typically made up of a klaríno (folk clarinet), violí (violin), laghoúto (lute), défi (tambourine) and santoúri (dulcimer).
The klaríno was introduced to Greece by the Gypsies in the mid-19th century, spreading from Epirus and Western Macedonia to the rest of the country. It replaced the floyéra (flute) and the zournas (shawm), and achieved the status of a national instrument during the inter-war years.
Flutes
Flutes called floyéra, sourávli, and madoúra. They’re the principal musical instruments used all over Greece. They’re made by the players themselves from materials such as cane, wood, bronze, and bone, and differ in size. The difference between the three is in the way the sound producing part is constructed.
The floyéra is mostly played in mainland Greece. It’s a tube open at both ends and can range from about 50 centimeters to 85 centimeters. The longer ones are called zamára in Epirus and kavali in Thrace.
The sourávli is a ducted flute played mostly on the Greek islands. The mouthpiece is cut diagonally in the short versions and vertically in the long versions. It’s “closed with a plug (tápa) that leaves a thin slit through which the stream of wind passes”.
The madoúra is a clarinet-type pipe mainly played in Crete and is strictly made with cane. The mouthpiece resembles that of a clarinet. It’s held in the mouth, and the reed vibrates as wind is blown into it to produce sound.
Zournás
Next is the zournás (shawm). It’s an oboe-type instrument with a double reed ranging in size from 22 to 60 centimeters. The pípiza is the shorter version typically found in Western Roumeli and the Peloponnese. The longer version is the karamoúza, which is found in Macedonia. Two zournás are usually played together, one for the melody and one for the drone. When combined with the daoúli (drum), they make up the ziyiá, which is the traditional ensemble of mainland Greece. The aulós, which was the principal wind instrument of ancient Greek music, belongs to the same family.
Bagpipes
Finally are the tsamboúna and the gáida, which are bagpipes. The bagpipe (áskavlos) was introduced to Greece from Asia in the 1st or 2nd century. The tsamboúna is played on the islands and the gáida is played in Macedonia and Thrace. They’re made by the players themselves, with the bag (ask) made from specially-treated goat skin. The mouthpiece is made of cane, wood, or bone.
The tsamboúna is played solo or paired with a toumbi (small drum) or a lira (pear-shaped fiddle). The gáida is played solo or with a toumbeléki, daoúli, or dakharés (tambourine).
String Instruments at the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments
String instruments are covered on the first floor of the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments. The string instruments section is the largest and for me personally the most interesting section of the museum.
Lutes
The first display at the top of the stairs includes examples of the tambourás (lutes). Tambourás is the general term used to describe instruments of the lute family, regardless of size or number of strings and tuning. The first lutes date to the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamia and Egypt. They have a small pear-shaped sound-box and a long neck. They’re played using a plectrum (péna) or the fingers.
The lutes of ancient Greece were known as the tríchordon or pandoúra. During the Byzantine period, they were known as the thamboúra, and in modern Greece as the tambourás, sázi, or boulgarí. The bouzoúki and baglamás, the typical instruments of the rebetiko music developed in Aegean seaports between the end of the 19th century and the 1950s, belong to the same family.
From Lute to Guitar
The laghoúto (long-neched lute) combines the long neck of the ancient Greek pandoúra and the large pear-shaped soundbox of the Arabic oud. It has four double strings tuned in fifths, and provides rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment of the kompanía (clarinet, violin, lute, dulcimer, and tambourine).
The oúti (Short-necked lute) belongs to the same family as the Arabic oud. It has a short neck without frets and five double gut strings tuned in fourths. It’s played solo or with other instruments in the musical tradition of the Greeks of Asia Minor and Thrace.
After World War II, the kithára (guitar) gradually replaced the laghoúto in the kompanía. During the inter-war period, the laghoutokithára was developed. It had the shape and number of strings of the guitar and the tuning of the laghoúto.
Mandolináta
Next are the instruments that make up the mandolináta. This is the instrumental ensemble accompanying the cantádha, which has been the urban musical tradition of Athens and the Ionian Islands since the late 19th century. The mandolináta is mad up of the mandolíno (mandolin), the mandóla, the mandolocéllo (mandocello), and the guitar. In Crete, the mandolíno is played solo or accompanies the lira (pear-shaped fiddle).
Líra
Continuing along is the líra (pear-shaped fiddle). It originated in Central Asia, with the bowing technique developed in the Byzantine Empire as early as the 10th century. The líra is similar to the Arab rebab and the rebec of the Western troubadours. The ancient Greek líra (lyre) has the same name but is a different type of instrument.
The líra has three strings that are pressed from the side by the fingernails and played with a bow. In the past, it was played throughout Greece but has been replaced by the violí (folk violin). Today, it’s restricted to Crete, the Dodecanese islands of Kassos and Karpathos, the cities of Drama and Serres in Macedonia, and descendants of refugees from Eastern Thrace. The violí was introduced to Greece in the 17th century and is now one of the main instruments in the kompanía in continental Greece and the ziyiá on the islands.
In the early 1930s, alterations converted the traditional líra to the violólira and the modern Cretan líra, which resemble the modern folk violin. This offered greater technical possibilities to líra players. The violin bow has also replaced the traditional short and curved bow.
Líras of Asia Minor
Further along are the kementzés and kemanés (bottle-shaped fiddles), which developed in Asia Minor. The líra of the Pontic Greeks, the kementzés, has three strings tuned in perfect fourths. It has a small bridge allowing the bow to move over while the fingers press two strings simultaneously.
The kemanés was the líra of the Greeks of Cappadocia. It has “six principal strings tuned in fifths and fourths, and six “sympathetic” strings tuned in unison or an octave higher or lower than the principal ones”.
Dulcimers
Finally, in the center of the gallery are the dulcimers. First is the santoúri, which was made popular in Greece by refugees from Asia Minor after the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. It quickly became an important component of the kompanía in mainland Greece and the ziyiá on the islands.
The kanonáki is named after the kanon, which is a single-stringed experimental instrument made by Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC). It was around in ancient Greece as the tríghonon or epighoneion, and was known in the Byzantine Empire as the psaltérion. It’s plucked using two plectra (pénes) attached by metal thimbles to the forefinger of each hand. Movable bridges (mandália) under each string raise the pitch.
Percussion Instruments at the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments
The final section of the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments covers Percussion instruments. This section is located in the basement.
Bells
The first instrument covered in this section of the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments are bells, which were known to ancient civilizations in China, India, Egypt, Greece, and others. The koudhoúni (bell) was originally hung around the necks of animals to protect them from evil spirits. They were also used for the protection of sanctuaries.
Bells became a tool to assist shepherds, call the faithful to church, or announce the arrival of a visitor. Eventually, shepherds began to use bells for their listening enjoyment. They would carefully select the right combination of sounds and harmonize their flute with the sound of the flock’s bells.
Greek bells are forged with sheet-iron or cast with bronze. Large bells “are accessories of zoomorphic disguises during the 12-day period of Christmas and during Carnival”. They’re related with fertility rituals for warding off evil spirits.
Pellet Bells
Pellet bells were used by the Greek Orthodox Church against evil spirits. They were attached to vestments, censers, and holy icons. They also function as musical instruments on the traditional bow of the pear-shaped líra on Crete and the Dodecanese Islands. Pellet bells were attached to a toumbeléki (pottery drum) or a daoúli (drum), as well as a chelichóna, a swallow-shaped sound-producer that accompanies carol singing on March 1 to celebrate the arrival of spring.
Singing and Dancing
Coins are worn on some traditional Greek costumes as a musical instrument, giving a rhythmic accompaniment to the dancing. Massoúr-plexídhes are spool-bound braids worn on women’s costumes in Attica, Salamis, Megara, and other areas. The sourghoút is a headband worn by the Kapoutzidhes of Thessaloniki, functioning as rhythmic instruments accompanying their dance steps.
Zilia (metal cymbals), wooden koutália (spoons), potirakia (small wine glasses), and kombolói (worry beads) rubbed against a wine glass, are used as instruments to accompany singing and dancing. The trighono (triangle) and massiá (fireplace tongs with cymbals played in Thrace) accompany the singing of Christmas carols.
Sound Producers
Sound producers at the Museum of Greek Folk Musical Instruments include children’s whistles, conch shells, water whistles, wooden gongs, and other objects. They’re used for magic and religion to everyday life and games. Ethnomusicology experts study these objects as they would musical instruments because they often lead them to the very origins of sound production.
The símandro (semanterion) is narrow length of wooden planking or sheet metal. It’s still used in monasteries along with bells to call monks to various services. The tzamála (wooden clapper) accompanies the Christmas carol singing in Thrace. Finally, the rokána (wooden ratchet) is used especially during Carnival. It was also used at times to announce church services.
