Naxos' Pipes Face Uncertain Future
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Mike Paterson and Piping Today are very grateful to musician and writer Souzanna Raphael for her invaluable advice and assistance with interviews and translation, and to pipers Mihalis Houzouris and Nikolaos Moustakis and their families, in particular, for their warm welcome and generous hospitality. GREEK ISLANDS Naxos’ pipes face uncertain future THE TSAMBOUNA OF THE CYCLADES ISITORS arriving by ferry at the Over the centuries, the island fell variously uncovering the ruins of an ancient Sanctuary Greek island of Naxos are welcomed under Athenian, Spartan, Macedonian, Egyp- of Dionysus a few kilometres from Hora the Vby a tall marble portal called the tian, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and main town. “Portara”, built 2,500 years ago as the im- Turkish rule, before at last becoming a part of Archaeology has also revealed walls and posing entrance of a never-completed temple the modern Greek state in 1830. stone houses, the pottery and art of a well- to the ancient Olympian god Apollo, divine Naxos, says one version of the legend, is developed society that existed here more than patron of music. where the omnipotent god Zeus was raised. It 5,000 years ago. In the south central Aegean Sea, Naxos rises, is where his son Dionysus — the Greek god of Fruit, nut and olive groves, potato cultiva- often steeply, to the 1,004-metre high peak of wine, peace and civilisation, farming, celebra- tion, sheep and goat farming and fishing, Mt Zas. It is the largest of the Cyclades Islands, tion and the theatre — was born, grew up and cheese production, marble and emery mining long envied for its relative fertility and famed for wed the beautiful Ariadne after her abandon- have long been the island’s economic main- its wine. The snowy-white marble of Naxos was ment by the hero king of Athens, Theseus. stays but, over the past 25 years, tourism has widely prized in the classical world and many Her death and rebirth were the focus of a cult surged. Mid-summer peak time holiday-makers of the island’s sculptors and craftsmen became that wildly celebrated the ripening, death and outnumber the island’s resident population of wealthy contractors in the raising of monu- regeneration of nature. An ongoing excavation about 25,000, but hotels, rooms and studios ments and buildings that came to visually define by archaeologists from the University of Ath- then stand vacant through the winter and many the formative era of western civilisation. ens and the Technical University of Munich is shops, cafes and tavernas close for the season. PIPING TODAY • 26 GREEK ISLANDS THE DIONYSUS SANCTUARY on Naxos… an ongoing excavation by archaeologists from the University of Athens and the Technical University of Munich. PIPING TODAY • 27 GREEK ISLANDS Although more than 600 Christian Ortho- MIHALIS HOUZOURIS dox chapels, churches and monasteries now dot the landscape and many islanders are devout in of Koronos… “no-one their religious observations, island traditions can teach you how to still sometimes evoke the ancient gods. One such time is Apokries, a carnival period play the tsambouna; it’s a that falls in the later part of the Greek winter, occupying the three weeks immediately before self-taught instrument. You Lent in the Orthodox Church calendar. This have to feel it inside you. year, it took place 29 January -18 February. And it is only at this time of the year, in a You have to love it first, to season once associated with Dionysian celebra- learn the craft.” tions, that the island’s bagpipe, the tsambouna, is brought out and played in public, invariably really want. But they last many years. accompanied by a small double-headed drum, “They are very sensitive, and more difficult the toumbaki. A consequence of the festival’s to tune with the bridle thread than a laouto timing is that very few peak season visitors to (a lute-like traditional string instrument) or Naxos become aware of the instrument’s herit- violin.” age which, some islanders assert, reaches back He made his own instrument in 1950, us- rather more than 2,000 years. ing a goat’s shin bone for the blow pipe and a The tsambouna certainly has the appear- goat kid’s skin for the bag — “but the bag, of ance of olden simplicity about it, and the bag course, has to be changed from time to time. is held in front of the player’s body rather than We all get old.” under the arm, in a way that is seen in some Mihalis Houzouris places a straw in the early pictures and paintings of pipers. Anthony right pipe, which makes the instrument sound Baines, in his 1960 study, included it among mellower and more balanced. “Without it, it his “primitive” bagpipe types. But the double- doesn’t make the right sound,” he said. chanter playing technique is far from naïve “The songs we play now came from old and the sound produced is complicated and singers and dances. There are Apokries songs acoustically ‘busy’. and there is, for example, a special song in Most players make their own instruments, rhymed couplets that is played and sung for so there are many variations of detail between conscripts who are leaving home to do their instruments. But essentially the tsambouna Army service.” of Naxos consists of two cane pipes, waxed THE REEDS made by Mihalis Houzouris of Koronos for his Mihalis Houzouris worked as a blaster — the tsambouna… “All of us who play tsambouna have made a side by side into a carved yoke which itself fits lot of reeds. To get two good matched ones, you can make Koronos area was an important world source of snugly into a cow horn bell. This assembly, the 100, 200 reeds without finding the ones you really want. emery — and in 1956 he travelled to Australia: But they last many years.” “pipikia”, is tied into a bag of salt-cured goat “32 days and nights from Piraeus by ship. or sheep skin, which has been turned inside “I liked Australia and worked there for three out and with the hair or wool trimmed away. years,” he said. But he returned to Naxos and There is no drone. experienced the harsh times of the 1967-74 Each pipe has five finger holes and is sounded Fascist military junta. He remembers singers by its own single-bladed cane reed. Reed cane, on Naxos being arrested for singing an old Arundo donax, locally called “kalami”, is traditional song that includes the lyrics: “My plentiful locally but of mixed quality, growing old woes come and go, but my new one become wild and commonly planted as windbreaks snakes that devour me.” and hedges. The words were interpreted as referring to “For reeds, it is best to cut cane grown in a the junta, he said, “and officers on Naxos locked dry place, away from water,” said 77 year-old people up for it until they learned that the song veteran player Mihalis Houzouris of Koronos. really was an old one.” Long hair, miniskirts Getting two reeds that match for pitch, qual- and trade unions were banned, and newspapers ity, volume, hardness, and tone can take many were censored so heavily that many shut down attempts. “It is very difficult,” he said. “All of us in disgust. People suspected of leftist leanings who play tsambouna have made a lot of reeds. were arrested and many suffered torture. To get two good matched ones, you can make Playing the tsambouna was discouraged at MIHALIS HOUZOURIS’ ‘pipikia’, showing finger 100, 200 reeds without finding the ones you positioning. this time as “backward”, and had been banned PIPING TODAY • 28 GREEK ISLANDS GREEK ISLANDS “We worry about the tsambouna tradition dying out; it is the only instrument we have that comes from ancient Greece; violins, the traditional instrument of Naxos has been here only the last 150-200 years. The tsambouna has been here since ancient times. “I think many people feel it is important but things have changed. We have changed the style of our life to be more American and more European. If we had no tourists here, this would not be a problem. We have different jobs now and they all want to go to Hora and near to the beaches and the sea; the tsambouna is from the high villages and the mountains, and it is different. “People listen more to the pop music… and THE DIONYSUS SANCTUARY on Naxos… an ongoing excavation by archaeologists from the University of Athens and the Greek music, but not the traditional Greek music.” Technical University of Munich. under the five-year right wing dictatorship of learn; there is no school for teaching this instru- NIKOLAOS Moustakis of Filoti is a player and General Ionnis Metaxas, 1936-41. ment. The younger generation doesn’t want to pipe maker who has made and sold more than But all of the evidence points to the tsam- learn from us, so the tradition will die. People 100 instruments, most of them going to aspir- bouna having once been the most important just want football and easy money; no-one is ing players in expatriate Greek communities in instrument in the Aegean region. It is still interested any more and it is very sad. the United States, Canada and Australia. played, in different characteristic styles, in most “Most of the modern ones are lazy, they want “There is nostalgia in these communities and of the Cyclades, most of the Dodecanese, in easy money; the old footpaths are overgrown. dancing,” he said.