Ever since antiquity, music transcription has been the intrinsic way of visual representation of sound, sometimes in detail and sometimes in the form of a guide. Throughout time, the visual capture of music has been the only way to store and preserve it over time, but also the exclusive means of reproducing it. In any case, visual transfer should be considered as an auxiliary tool, since oral dissemination and storage in the memory of artists have been the most timeless techniques for the diffusion of music through time and space. During Europe's so-called "classical" musical period, with its most powerful centers of production, such as today's Austria, Germany, France and Italy, and especially in its path towards Romanticism, music transcription, that is, the musical score, was considered by some composers as the very embodiment of their work.

Understandably, in the modern capitalist world, music transcription, as the primary tool for the substantialization of music, brought under its purview repertoires that were not connected, were not disseminated, and did not function on the basis of their transcription. This offered to the music product sales centers an additional tool to expand their action network: non-scholar musics acquired a convenient way of circulating them, enhancing their popularity, even in places very far from those of their original creation. At the end of the 19th century, however, the phenomenon of sound recording and reproduction rearranged relationships and disrupted the status quo of publishing houses, claiming a share of the market, offering a product that was extremely complete and immediate. The publishing houses tried to react with legal measures, but it became impossible to stop the dynamics of the new phenomenon: the prevalence of commercial discography was now a fact, for most of the 20th century.

As far as non-scholar music is concerned, commercial printed musical scores were publications of the musical texts of songs or instrumental pieces (for the publishing activity in Greece see Lerch-Kalavrytinos, 2003: 4-5). For the needs of musical scores, the songs were arranged mainly (but not only) for piano or for piano and voice, generally without complex performance requirements. Multi-instrumental or technically demanding orchestrations were systematically avoided. The lyrics were printed below the notes of the melodic development of the singing parts and, sometimes, their translations into other languages. For the most part, the musical scores were two or four pages long, and came with a themed front and back cover.

This four-page musical score contains the song "Giati, giati, giati?" with music and lyris by Kostas Giannidis (pseudonym of Giannis Konstantinidis). It comes from the revue "Apergia" by Dimitris Giannoukakis – Kostas Giannidis, which was presented in 1936 by the Synaiterikos troupe.

On the monochrome cover the title of the song, the author, the publisher, the edition, the dedication "Charizetai ston tenoro K. Manataki pou to prototragoudise" (To tenor K. Maniatakis who first sang it) and "Tragoudaki apo tin epitheorisi “Apergia” tou D. Giannoukaki" (From the revue "Apergia" by Dimitris Gannoukakis) are inscribed. There is an advertisement of Gaitanos music publishing house for harmonicas on the monochrome back cover.

This is a musical score with a system of three staffs (two for piano and one for voice).

The song was recorded by Kostas Maniatakis and Drakou-Afentakis-Delta ["Giati, giati, giati?", Odeon Go 2494 – GA 1951, Parlophon Go 2494 – B. 21872-II, Athens, 1936, and reissued by Decca (Go 2494 – 31000A)], by Dimitris Filippopoulos and Tzenny Arseni ["Giati, giati, giati?", Columbia C.G. 1409 – D.G. 6218, Athens, 1936, and reissued by Columbia USA (20253 – 56368-F)] and by Tetos Dimitriadis with choir ("Giati, giati, giati?", Orthophonic BS-02359 – S-358-A and RCA Victor 26-8061, New York, November 4, 1936).

Τhe recording "Iati Iati (Grtsco Koro)", made by the Kosta Orchestra for the record label Makedonia (117KA – 606A), is of particular interest. According to the website chereshnitsa.org, the leader of the orchestra, which was active in the 1940s and until the early 1950s in Gary, Indiana, was clarinetist Kostas Apostoloff. He was born in 1898 in Cheresnitsa, Ottoman Empire (now Polykeraso, Kastoria, Greece) and died in Gary, Indiana, in 1956. In addition to the song "Iati Iati (Grtsco Koro)", seventeen other recordings by the Kosta Orchestra, which were made in Chicago in 1946 or 1947, have survived.