Huws Jones, Edward - Greek Fiddler

The latest addition to the best-selling Fiddler series focuses on the rich, diverse and pure folk tradition of Greece. A wide variety of styles is presented, featuring music from Crete, the Peloponnese, the Balkans, Asia Minor and mainland Greece. Exciting rhythms and interesting modes combine to produce high spirited pieces, some of which will already be familiar to lovers of Greek culture world-wide. Flexible arrangements for violin and piano with optional easy violin, violin accompaniment, and chord symbols.





"The violin is one of the most popular and long-established instruments for Greek folk music. It is found in many traditional ensembles, often in the company of clarinet, hammer dulcimer or guitar. Its close cousin is the lyra: pear-shaped, tuned in fifths like a violin but played down on the knee, the lyra is extraordinarily popular in Crete as well as in some of the music which came from Constantinople. One of the stock images of Greek music is the longnecked, wire-strung bazouki but this is actually a fairly recent arrival and is often less appropriate in rural folk music.



"It is fascinating to explore the musical continuum which runs from Greece up through the Balkans to central and eastern Europe, and there are strong musical links – in rhythms, modes and more indefinable musical flavours – with other books in the Fiddler series. We find many affinities between Greek music and the Bosnian music in Sevdah, the Jewish music of The Klezmer Fiddler and the gypsy music of Hungary and Romania in The Gypsy Fiddler." -Edward Huws Jones