Pontos

Losing Touch with Our Musical Traditions: A Greek-American Disaster

by Evangelos Poneres

There are very few people who will acknowledge that many of the Greeks living in America are being

deprived of a great birthright; the knowledge of our ethnic music which our ancestors grew up with. Here in

the United States we are faced with a diminishing population of Greek-Americans who are currently taking

an active role in upholding the traditional Greek song and dance. For those who want to learn and take part,

it is very difficult, especially when you consider the scarcity of resources America has to offer. What we are

left with are live recordings, satellite TV, films, and Youtube.com to help spread and teach us about our

musical traditions.

In my opinion, I believe that there are three main factors which help keep the traditions of Greek song

and dance alive in America: The Greek Orthodox Churches and the private society’s who focus on their own

specific region of Greek songs and dances. Outside of those two institutions lies the remaining factor, the

parents within the Greek community. It is difficult to express how important those three factors are in

maintaining the traditional song and dance of our ancestors.

The Greek Orthodox Churches of America certainly do their part in maintaining our traditions, some more

than others. The churches typically have dance groups who are taught traditional dances, as well as their

annual festivals which can always promise good pastries. However most of these festivals fail to provide

traditional Greek music, and I don’t mean hiring a disc jockey to mix Pantazeis and Sarbel all night,

although there is a high demand for such entertainment. To see authentic Greek instruments at a Greek festival has become very rare, and at

the most you’ll be luck to hear a good bouzouki. But what happened to rare instruments such as Lyres, Laouta, and Violia, not to mention more

rare instruments such as a Zourna, Ntaouli, Santouri, Clarinet, Trumpet, Oud, Gaida, Tsambouna, Gaval, Flogerra, and Toulum. Year after year

goes by and I have yet to see such instruments being presented at these festivals, and it is quite depressing.

I’m am still trying to understand why it is so rare to see and hear such instruments at these

festivals held by America’s Greek Churches. Luckily we have events such as the East & West

Coast Greek Folk Dance Festivals and Hellenic Dance Festival which are organized as large

scale competitions used to help motivate young Greeks take part in their cultures song and

dance. But still these events are geared towards to competition and fellowship aspect of this

ministry, and do not properly address the educational aspect needed to provide our dance

groups with the knowledge needed to preserve our musical tradition.

In my recent trip to Australia, courtesy

of the Pontian Society “Akritai” of

Philadelphia, I got a chance to experience

the Hellenism which exists throughout the

streets of Sydney and Melbourne. I learned

a lot about our Greek brothers and sisters who live “down unda.” The Greeks are the only

other ethnic group in Australia who are permitted to close off city streets for their annual

Independence Day Parade, just as we do in America. It is fair to say that the Greek culture

runs thick throughout Australia to this day. As for maintaining our culture, the Greek Orthodox

Churches in Australia play a minimal role; the church primary roles is as a place of worship.

However, the private societies previously mentioned are much larger in scale than those of

the United States, and they are the main factor in maintaining the traditions of Greek culture

in Australia. The societies have their own pieces of property and hierarchy of officials who organize the society’s members and events. A large

majority of the Greek-Australian community takes part in the society’s activities than the ones currently active in America. What I was able to

learn and understand from this trip is that you don’t have to live in Greece to experience the Hellenic sights and sounds. With a little bit of

organized effort, strong leadership and additional financing the musical traditions can be preserved for the every generation that follows.

The last factor, our children’s parents, is the most difficult to address. More and more children of our Greek-American community do not have

both parents of Greek Heritage. So it remains difficult to encourage and practice our traditions in general. I am not advocating that we ignore our

non Greek heritage, because in my opinion, intermarriage with other cultures is also a defining characteristic in the Greek Diaspora, it is simply

not acceptable for the youth to be deprived of our cultures beauty.

I dream of a future where we can grow stronger ties in our Greek community and with some strong will, determination, and coordinated effort we

can drastically increase the preservation of our Hellenic musical practices and make our Greek ancestors proud.

Article/phots - Evangelos Poneres

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