Musical Palimpsests: Jewish-Greek Historical Discography from the Kounadis Archive, with Nikos Ordoulidis

Lecture #63 in Joshua Horowitz’s series, The Promiscuous World of Jewish Music

Musical Palimpsests: Jewish-Greek Historical Discography from the Kounadis Archive, with Nikos Ordoulidis

Monday, November 22, 11am California (Please calculate your own time zone)

Length: 1 – 2 hours

Zoom Meeting ID: 967 8901 9038

Password: 156230

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Donations to Josh Horowitz are accepted and appreciated, but not required.

Syncretism, which is observed in the musical implementations of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean, mainly in folk-popular traditions, is monumental. An essential part of this syncretism concerns the relations between Jews (both Ashkenazim and Sephardim) and Greeks, as they are depicted in historical discography. Jews and Greeks constituted key interlocutors in this unique musical world, along with other ethno-cultural groups, and composed a rich musical mosaic consisting of heterogeneous but co-existent palimpsests: a tank to which everyone added and from which everyone received something. In this presentation, some of the most special cases of tunes, which have been identified in the discography of both Jews and Greeks, will be examined. The reference point is the brand-new Virtual Museum of the Kounadis Archive, in Greece. Recent research that was undertaken in the Archive brought at the epicenter these musical works and their fascinating stories.

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