Cretan Folk Music in Greek

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Crete is the largest and most populated island in the Greek island and the fifth largest island in Mediterranean Sea. Crete Island is known for its folk music and poetry. Greek folk music shared many melodic, vocal and instrumental structures from many different countries such as French, Genoese and Venetian (Timothy Rice, page 1009). Folk music in Greek are divided into two major classes which are the mainland and music of the island. The mainland of Greek was once controlled by the Ottoman Empire and many influential on music by the empire. Instruments such as aerophones, the zourna, the karamoutza, and the pipiza all double-reed shawms; the gaida, a single-reed, single-drone bagpipe; the klarino; and the brass korneto dominate instrumental ensembles (Timothy Rice, page 1009). The meter of this music is usually asymmetric and the rhythm can be complex. The instruments that are used in the mainland Greek are mostly instruments that are used by the Muslims. The zourna, known as karamoutza and the pipiza in Greek, is a double-reed instrument that is well known throughout the Muslim world. In the Middle East, zourna is known as Mizmar. The structure of the instrument consists of double-reed instrument that held by a metal bridge and inserted into a long cone-shaped body with finger holes; the material used to for this instrument are wood and reed (Dave Fossum). Similarly, the Gaida is well known throughout the Muslim world. It is known as the Tabla. The instrument consists of two drums, small and big drum. The small drum is called Tabla and is played by the dominant hand. The bigger drum, known as Bayan, is played with offhand. Both of the drums are approximately 10 inches in height. The instrument uses goat skin as the drum heads. This instrument has a black dot in the middle of the drum head on each drums, it is called the Siyahi, known as the gob. The Siyahi

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