- Paperback: 190 pages
- Publisher: Denise Harvey; 4th Revised edition edition (Sep 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 9607120078
- ISBN-13: 978-9607120076
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 13.6 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 729,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The rembetika, songs that were sung in the poor quarters of Smryna, Istanbul and the ports of Greece in the late nineteenth century, and became the popular bouzouki music of the 1930s to 1950s, have many parallels with American blues. Like the blues, the rembeika were the music of outsiders, who developed their own slang and their own forms of expression. Road to Rembetika was the first book in English to attempt a general survey of the world of the rembetes who smoked hashish and danced the passionate, introspective zembekiko to release their emotions. An enthusiastic introduction to the subject, it was written by an Australian musician and writer who first came to Greece in 1965 and who has continued to perform and write about Greek music ever since. Gail Holst describes her own initiation into the rembetika, outlines its historical and sociological background, its musical characteristics and instrumentation.
The second part of the book is a collection of rembetika songs translated into English. The text is illustrated with photographs of the period, musical examples and some original manuscripts of the songs.
This fourth edition has been retypeset and amended, and has a new introduction and further song lyrics, and the bibliography and discography have been updated.
The second part of the book is a collection of rembetika songs translated into English. The text is illustrated with photographs of the period, musical examples and some original manuscripts of the songs.
This fourth edition has been retypeset and amended, and has a new introduction and further song lyrics, and the bibliography and discography have been updated.
About the Author
Gail Holst-Warhaft was born in Australia but has spent most of her life involved with Greece. She has been, at various times, a journalist, broadcaster, writer, academic, musician, poet, and independent scholar. In the 1970s, while carrying out research for two books about Greek music, she performed as a keyboard-player with Greece's leading composers, including Mikis Theodorakis and Dionysios Savvopoulos. She is a Professor at Cornell University where she directs a program of Mediterranean Studies. In addition to Road to Rembetika her many publications include Theodorakis: Myth and Politics in Modern Greek Music (1980), Dangerous Voices: Women's Laments and Greek Literature (1992), The Cue for Passion: Grief and its Political Uses (2000), and I Had Three Lives: Selected Poems of Mikis Theodorakis (2005). She has also published translations of Aeschylus, and of a number of well-known modern Greek poets and prose-writers including Nikos Kavadias, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Iakovos Kambanellis, and Alki Zei. Her poems have appeared in journals in the US, the UK, Australia and Greece. Her first collection of poems, Penelope's Confession, was published by Cosmos Books in 2007.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent account of Greek popular music,
By A Customer
This review is from: Road to Rembetika: Music of a Greek Sub-Culture - Songs of Love, Sorrow and Hashish (Paperback)
This book desctribes in historical and musical terms the development of Greek popular music between the 1920s and c. 1950, with the coming together of the sophisticated syle brought by refugees from Asia Min or in 1922 and the music of the urban toughs, or "rembetes". Excellent reading and very informative.A book with a specialist theme like this will go out of print irretrievably one day: buy it before it does.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
athannasis athanassiou,
By charlie.ulyatt@diamond.co.uk (Nottingham England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Road to Rembetika: Music of a Greek Sub-Culture - Songs of Love, Sorrow and Hashish (Paperback)
A really incredible book that gets to the heart of what rembetika is about without the intellectualising which so often spoils books of this type. Well written and with an obvious passion for the subject, Gail seems to maintain a closeness with the people she talks to. I actually met Thannassis from Aegina a few times who is mentioned in the book, and can verify what a truly unique character he is.. mind you... I never did properly learn the baglama which I bought from him... READ THIS BOOK....
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