Pontic Greek music
Versions of these songs exist today, accompanied by modern Pontic instruments and singing techniques.
Traditional instruments used today include the lyra, daouli, zurna, dankiyo, tulum, and oud.
Between the 1950s and the 1980s, Pontian clubs used music, dance, and folklore to portray themselves as both patriotic Greeks and as a distinct group unto themselves.
The focus was mainly on assimilation; to this end, Pontian musicians might censor songs with Turkish verses.
Music and folklore became more inclusive; for example, musicians began to openly perform Pontian songs with Turkish verses, such as "Tsambasin.
"[4] A parakathi, or muhabeti, is an important form of social get-together for Pontians in the modern day, describing "a banquet where music is the main activity.
[5] The goal of a parakathi performance is to express emotions through the use of remembered verses, and to share these feelings with one's community.
[7][8] Scholar Ioannis Tsekouras argues that parakathi gatherings first emerged among refugees as ways to discuss their memories of genocide and deportation.
[10] The lyra remains important to the musical traditions of Pontic Greeks, Lazes, and Black Sea Turks, especially those who speak Romeika.
In religious rural areas of the Black Sea, Islamic preachers have decried the lyra as a gavur aleti, "giaour (infidel) instrument."
By manipulating the fingerholes, it's possible for musicians to produce double sounds, which makes it easy to play polyphonically.
Some Turkish artists, including Laz and Hemshin musicians, released albums with touloum music in the 2010s and 2020s.
[24] Pontians also play the ghaval, a six-hole flute similar to the tin whistle of the British Isles or the bansuri of the Indian subcontinent.
However, a young Pontian who had defected to the Turkish side deceived the people living in the castle into opening the gate.
[33] Ioannis Parharidis, a Pontian Greek teacher born in Trapezounta in 1858, did field work studying Romeika-language musical traditions around the Black Sea region.
[35] Greek Orthodox Pontians also typically sang mirologoi, or mourning songs, for the recently deceased.
[35] Additionally, villagers participated in dialogs called atışma, literally meaning "battle of words."
Some love songs include Elenitsam ("My Elenitsa"), I kor epien so parhar ("The girl went to the highlands"), and Serranda mila kokkina ("Forty red apples").
Some love songs, like Kortsopon lal'me ("Girl, call me"), are duets between a female and male singer.
For example, the song "Courageous Men from Pontos" (Παλικάρια α σον Πόντον, romanized as Palikária a son Pónton) centers on legendary folk heroes who led guerrillas to fight against Turkish çetes during the genocide.
Some distichs used in parakathi singing also center on the genocide: "Many Romiyi [Greeks] lost their lives on the way to Erzurum.
As a result, their musical styles naturally diverged from those of the Muslim Pontic Turks, who remained in the area.
Tanrıkulu told a local news outlet that she recorded the lullaby in order to keep the culture of her region alive.
Lermi says he received death threats after including Romeika-language songs on his 2011 album Kalandar ("January," literally the month of caroling).
In 2016, Lermi released an album titled Romeika, composed entirely of Pontic Greek songs.
[50] Some famous lyra players who emigrated from Pontos during the exchange went on to record music while in Greece.
They helped to preserve Pontian musical tradition abroad and publicize it for a larger audience.
The song title refers to the sense of loss many refugees felt after the population exchange in the early 1920s.
The song includes many components of traditional Pontian folk music: vocal vibrato, repetition, and singing with lyra accompaniment.
Kostas Ageris, winner of the second season of The Voice of Greece, performed the Romeika song Tim batrída'm éxasa to lyra accompaniment on Greek national television in 2015.
