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Music moments from Vroukounta, Karpathos, Greece |
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Audio samples from Saint John's Church Festival in Vrikounta, near Olympos. All of them are small excerpts from live recordings done in August 28-29, 1995 during the 24 hour music & dance performance at the festival. If you are visiting Karpathos around that time in August, this is an occasion you should not miss. |
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6:00 PM:
Mantinades
sung on the ship on the way to Vrikounta.
Even if you do not know Greek, you should be able to sense the excitement
of the participants, as they approach the church in the middle of
the calm Karpathian sea and while the sun sets...
In the first segment, you will hear the voices of Manolis Sofillas, Yannis Gergatsoullis and a few others. In the second segment the ship's captain is praised for his smooth sailing, ``a fine way to start this night''. Last, Michalis sings to Saint John for the blessing of the faithful. |
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| Aug 28, 7:00 PM: Saint John's Vespers recorded live inside the cave that houses the church. Most of the Byzantine music chants will also be singing later during the festivities, in a way that shows clearly the links between the church tradition and the everyday life in Karpathos... |
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| Aug 28, 9:30 PM: Father John commences the festivities; ``... you honor Saint John with your presence...'' sings to the faithful, under the sounds of lyre, lute, and bagpipe. |
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| Aug 29, 2:00 AM: Pano Choros (dance) after midnight, when the lyre and lute and bagpipe players from Olympos are at their best. Please notice the intense and yet accurate tempo produced by tapping their foot on the wooden tables where they are sitting. |
The original recording (stereo PCM/48Khz) was made with minimalist recording equipment by Manolis Tsangaris of Apella Nota. Please note that due to Audio compression, those audio files have lost some of their clarity.
As usually, you may need a Real Audio Decoder to listen to those clips.