September 13-15
Hadjinikos Hall
A pilgrimage from Sicily to Constantinople through the centuries, accompanied by music and people’s stories.
Music workshop and concert
– For:
Students of:
- Recorder,
- Nay,
- Violin (traditional, and/or classical who wish to be exposed to the traditional repertoire),
- Percussion, and
- Ud
&
An (1) acting student up to 30 years old
The three-day workshop will include study of the repertoire and participation in the final concert. Participants will have the opportunity to study alongside accomplished musicians with expertise in traditional and classical repertoire.
The actor will study authentic texts of travelers (see description…) which will be recited during the final concert.
Prologue
The young man, smitten with love, after seeing and hearing his beloved give an account of himself to another, decided to take his own life.
To escape poverty and travel north, where he heard life was better. Perhaps to escape the confines of Italy even, to reach Macedonia, beyond to the mythical Basileus – perhaps even further, to the magical Baghdad. Where they said girls had white skin and black wide eyes, black hair and bright smiles. Like the old pilgrims who used to pull for the Spanish monasteries, I too will arrive in the «City», Stambul that the Ottomans now call it. That’s how he thought.
With his tablet on his shoulder and his beloved recorder, he took to walking endlessly. And wherever he finds a town, big or small, he stops to entertain the people on the streets to see if he can collect a few coins.
To seek out the local musicians to show him their playing, and he of his own land the melodies, for what is life without music? And when he gets hungry and tired, he can play his recorder again in the hania for a plate of food and a corner to sleep in.
It’ll take weeks, months to get there. He will cross the whole country from Palermo in Sicily to Venice, and then from Dyrrachios to Kastoria and then, following the Roman Egnatia, he will reach Thessaloniki and from there to Polis. And he will forget his old indifferent, treacherous love, back in the village, to find another new one.
And if he doesn’t, what does it matter? He will have made the journey…
What music, what instruments, what words and what passions
will our young man meet on this journey?
Let your nobility come around, and let your nobility know it.
as we tell it like a musical game!
Description of the musical program
Pellegrinaggio al levante is a musical performance that combines music and narration. The musical part includes songs and music from all along the route from Sicily to Constantinople, covering the period from the Renaissance to the 18th century. The main body of the programme consists of songs from the “folk” tradition of the region, but also of compositions by famous composers of the aforementioned period. In this musical journey the audience will have the opportunity to listen to tarantellas from Puglia and Naples, compositions by composers such as Stefano Landi and Barbara Strozzi from Rome and Venice, Jewish Romaniote and Sephardic songs from Epirus and Thessaloniki as well as traditional songs in Greek from the wider region of Macedonia and Thrace. The final stop of the journey is Constantinople with scholarly compositions from the region of Fanari, but also Ottoman and Byzantine melodies.
The narrative part includes authentic texts by travellers such as Setton, Raguenet, Ypsilanti Komnenos and Elijah, among others, describing the regions of the journey, thus enabling the listener to travel back in time and space.
Musicians & teachers
Mariantzela Hadjistamatiou, voice-soprano
Vassilis Agrokostas, voice/political lyre/violin
Nikos Panagiotidis, plucked string instruments/musical direction
Jörg Meder, viola da gamba
