Lament from Epirus: An Odyssey into Europe's Oldest Surviving Folk Music

Lament from Epirus: An Odyssey into Europe's Oldest Surviving Folk Music

Author: Christopher C. King

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2018-05-29

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 039324900X

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A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2018 In the tradition of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Geoff Dyer, a Grammy-winning producer discovers a powerful and ancient folk music tradition. In a gramophone shop in Istanbul, renowned record collector Christopher C. King uncovered some of the strangest—and most hypnotic—sounds he had ever heard. The 78s were immensely moving, seeming to tap into a primal well of emotion inaccessible through contemporary music. The songs, King learned, were from Epirus, an area straddling southern Albania and northwestern Greece and boasting a folk tradition extending back to the pre-Homeric era. To hear this music is to hear the past. Lament from Epirus is an unforgettable journey into a musical obsession, which traces a unique genre back to the roots of song itself. As King hunts for two long-lost virtuosos—one of whom may have committed a murder—he also tells the story of the Roma people who pioneered Epirotic folk music and their descendants who continue the tradition today. King discovers clues to his most profound questions about the function of music in the history of humanity: What is the relationship between music and language? Why do we organize sound as music? Is music superfluous, a mere form of entertainment, or could it be a tool for survival? King’s journey becomes an investigation into song and dance’s role as a means of spiritual healing—and what that may reveal about music’s evolutionary origins.


Lament from Epirus

Lament from Epirus

Author: Christopher C. King

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2018-05-29

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0393248992

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A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2018 In the tradition of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Geoff Dyer, a Grammy-winning producer discovers a powerful and ancient folk music tradition. In a gramophone shop in Istanbul, renowned record collector Christopher C. King uncovered some of the strangest—and most hypnotic—sounds he had ever heard. The 78s were immensely moving, seeming to tap into a primal well of emotion inaccessible through contemporary music. The songs, King learned, were from Epirus, an area straddling southern Albania and northwestern Greece and boasting a folk tradition extending back to the pre-Homeric era. To hear this music is to hear the past. Lament from Epirus is an unforgettable journey into a musical obsession, which traces a unique genre back to the roots of song itself. As King hunts for two long-lost virtuosos—one of whom may have committed a murder—he also tells the story of the Roma people who pioneered Epirotic folk music and their descendants who continue the tradition today. King discovers clues to his most profound questions about the function of music in the history of humanity: What is the relationship between music and language? Why do we organize sound as music? Is music superfluous, a mere form of entertainment, or could it be a tool for survival? King’s journey becomes an investigation into song and dance’s role as a means of spiritual healing—and what that may reveal about music’s evolutionary origins.


That Greece Might Still be Free

That Greece Might Still be Free

Author: William St. Clair

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1906924007

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When in 1821, the Greeks rose in violent revolution against the rule of the Ottoman Turks, waves of sympathy spread across Western Europe and the United States. More than a thousand volunteers set out to fight for the cause. The Philhellenes, whether they set out to recreate the Athens of Pericles, start a new crusade, or make money out of a war, all felt that Greece had unique claim on the sympathy of the world. As Byron wrote, 'I dreamed that Greece might Still be Free'; and he died at Missolonghi trying to translate that dream into reality. William St Clair's meticulously researched and highly readable account of their aspirations and experiences was hailed as definitive when it was first published. Long out of print, it remains the standard account of the Philhellenic movement and essential reading for any students of the Greek War of Independence, Byron, and European Romanticism. Its relevance to more modern ethnic and religious conflicts is becoming increasingly appreciated by scholars worldwide. This new and revised edition includes a new Introduction by Roderick Beaton, an updated Bibliography and many new illustrations.


A History of the Greek Language

A History of the Greek Language

Author: Francisco Rodríguez Adrados

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2005-10-01

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9047415590

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A History of the Greek Language is a kaleidoscopic collection of ideas on the development of the Greek language through the centuries of its existence.


On Heroes

On Heroes

Author: Philostratus (the Athenian)

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9789004127012

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This English translation, with introduction and notes, an extensive glossary, maps, and topical bibliographies, explores religious authority and revealed knowledge and is indispensable for the study of Homer, heroes, literature, religion, and culture in the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).


Hyperion, Or the Hermit in Greece

Hyperion, Or the Hermit in Greece

Author: Friedrich Hölderlin

Publisher:

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9781783746552

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Friedrich Hölderlin's only novel, Hyperion (1797-99), is a fictional epistolary autobiography that juxtaposes narration with critical reflection. Returning to Greece after German exile, following his part in the abortive uprising against the occupying Turks (1770), and his failure as both a lover and a revolutionary, Hyperion assumes a hermitic existence, during which he writes his letters. Confronting and commenting on his own past, with all its joy and grief, the narrator undergoes a transformation that culminates in the realisation of his true vocation. Though Hölderlin is now established as a great lyric poet, recognition of his novel as a supreme achievement of European Romanticism has been belated in the Anglophone world. Incorporating the aesthetic evangelism that is a characteristic feature of the age, Hyperion preaches a message of redemption through beauty. The resolution of the contradictions and antinomies raised in the novel is found in the act of articulation itself. To a degree remarkable in a prose work of any length, what it means is inseparable from how it means. In this skilful translation, Gaskill conveys the beautiful music and rhythms of Hölderlin's language to an English-speaking reader.


The World of Homer

The World of Homer

Author: Andrew Lang

Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag

Published: 1910

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13:

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In the perpetual running fight about the Homeric Homer, Mr. Andrew Lang has been for some years a most prominent champion. In his latest return to the fray, " The World of Homer " (Jazzybee Publishing), he lays about him in a very joyous and triumphant mood. His foemen are all those who hold, in some form or other, that " the Iliad is a mosaic produced by a long series of Ionian additions to an Achaean ' kernel.' " Against them he maintains that '' the Iliad is, in the main, the work of a single poet, as is shown by the unity of thought, temper, character and ethos " ; that it is " a work of one brief period, because it bears all the notes of one age, and is absolutely free from the most marked traits of religion, rites, society, and superstition that characterise the preceding Aegean, and the later ' Dipylon,' Ionian, Archaic, and historic periods in Greek life and art" Homer is an Achaean poet, composing for Achaean auditors at a time when "the glow of Aegean (late Minoan, Mycenean) culture still flushed the sky." In support of his contention he writes nearly three hundred pages under such captions as "The Homeric World in War," "Homer and Ionia" "Bronze and Iron," "Burial and the Future Life," and "The Great Discrepancies." It goes without saying that the argumentation is serious. Some historians have long been in accord with Mr. Lang's principal views, while differing from him about many details ; but from friend and foe alike the book deserves attention.


Doomed to Fail: The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal

Doomed to Fail: The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-Metal

Author: J. J. Anselmi

Publisher:

Published: 2021-04-13

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9781644281659

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Doomed to Fail explores the heaviest music the world has ever heard, tracing doom, sludge, and post-metal as their own distinct (and incredibly loud) traditions. Anselmi covers the bands and musicians that have impacted those styles most--Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Melvins, Eyehategod, Godflesh, Neurosis, Saint Vitus, and many others--while diving into the cultural doom that has spawned such music, from the bombing of Birmingham and hurricane devastation of New Orleans to glaring economic inequality, industrial alienation, climate change, and widespread addiction. Along the way, Anselmi interweaves the musical experiences that have led him to proudly identify as one of the doomed.


The Cambridge Guide to Homer

The Cambridge Guide to Homer

Author: Corinne Ondine Pache

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-03-05

Total Pages: 974

ISBN-13: 1108663621

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From its ancient incarnation as a song to recent translations in modern languages, Homeric epic remains an abiding source of inspiration for both scholars and artists that transcends temporal and linguistic boundaries. The Cambridge Guide to Homer examines the influence and meaning of Homeric poetry from its earliest form as ancient Greek song to its current status in world literature, presenting the information in a synthetic manner that allows the reader to gain an understanding of the different strands of Homeric studies. The volume is structured around three main themes: Homeric Song and Text; the Homeric World, and Homer in the World. Each section starts with a series of 'macropedia' essays arranged thematically that are accompanied by shorter complementary 'micropedia' articles. The Cambridge Guide to Homer thus traces the many routes taken by Homeric epic in the ancient world and its continuing relevance in different periods and cultures.