Travellers, Philhellenes and visions of Greek music

It displays a combination of musical influences, primarily following the model of the French Marseillaise, and employing elements of Italian opera (then in vogue in Corfu).

While admired by King Otto, it was not adopted as the official national anthem until 1862.

The early 19th century also gave rise to musical works that constructed Greece as Western in opposition to Turkey as Oriental. This was especially the case in Vienna, an important centre of philhellenism.

It was achieved through reference to the alla turca style (evident in Mozart’s popular classic, ‘Ronda alla turca’), which appeared after the 1683 Siege of Vienna by the Ottomans, and is meant to evoke the Turkish military Janissary bands.

Works such as Beethoven’s The Ruins of Athens (1811) began evoking the struggle for Greek independence as a contrast between the Turks, as represented by this alla turca style, and a Greece represented by the most exalted of European choral and symphonic styles (without any reference to any form of contemporary or historical Greek music).

In the his famous Nineth symphony, Beethoven weaves this struggle into the fabric of the famous choral Finale, with his setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy acting as the ultimate representation of this style of “Greek” philhellene music.

However, in the aftermath of the War of Independence we also see the start of Greek music being viewed as Oriental, and this coincides with the rise of musical exoticism in Western music. From the 1820s the increasing number of foreigners in Greece saw the rise of musical souvenirs of the Orient penned by these such visitors.

These musical works tried to approximate some elements of the melody, rhythm or accompaniment of Greek folk music, that differentiated it from Western music of the time.

Felicien David, the recognised pioneer of Romantic musical exoticism, actually had his first encounter with ‘Oriental’ music among the Greeks in Smyrna in 1833.

His first piano pieces from this period, included in his Oriental Melodies of 1836, were based on the music he heard in Smyrna.

Music initially provided great challenges for Europeans trying to construct an identity for the Modern Greeks.

The arguments over Greece’s classical heritage and the exotic-Western dichotomy set up in the early decades of the 19th century continued to resonate in European depictions of Greek music for decades, and presented challenges for Greek composers well into the 20th century.

Michael Christoforidis is a senior lecturer in musicology at the Faculty of the VCA and Music at The University of Melbourne.