AmbroseBierce
31-05-2006, 22:42
These days I got the wonderful 1997 Rounder CD "Great Voices of Constantinople 1927-1933" featuring the two singers Andónios Dalgás and Hafiz Burhan (s. also the Turkish section). Here I want to feature two fine songs by Dalgás, accompanied by Lámbros Leondarídhis (lyra) and Agápios Tomboúlis (oud).
The booklet gives some biographical notes:
"Andónios Dhiamandídhis, or "Dalgás," was born in Arnoutkoi on the Bosphorus in 1892. The son of a prosperous tailor, he became interested in music at an early age and learned to play the oud. By his late teens he was already well-known, and at this time is said to have acquired his nickname "Dalgás" - in Turkish, wave or undulation - because of his astounding vocal variations.
After moving to Greece in ca. 1922, he became the mainstay of HMV's Greek catalogue and cut over 400 sides for them between 1926 and 1933, as well as hundreds more for other companies. The amané was his forte, but he was as at home in the light opera and Demotic idioms as in the Rembetic.
After 1933, Dalgás turned his back on Rembética and concentrated on singing in a more Western style for a high society clientele. Overcome by melancholy when Axis forces occupied Athens in 1941, he virtually retired from music and died in 1945, shortly after their withdrawal."
The booklet gives some biographical notes:
"Andónios Dhiamandídhis, or "Dalgás," was born in Arnoutkoi on the Bosphorus in 1892. The son of a prosperous tailor, he became interested in music at an early age and learned to play the oud. By his late teens he was already well-known, and at this time is said to have acquired his nickname "Dalgás" - in Turkish, wave or undulation - because of his astounding vocal variations.
After moving to Greece in ca. 1922, he became the mainstay of HMV's Greek catalogue and cut over 400 sides for them between 1926 and 1933, as well as hundreds more for other companies. The amané was his forte, but he was as at home in the light opera and Demotic idioms as in the Rembetic.
After 1933, Dalgás turned his back on Rembética and concentrated on singing in a more Western style for a high society clientele. Overcome by melancholy when Axis forces occupied Athens in 1941, he virtually retired from music and died in 1945, shortly after their withdrawal."