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 musical score is included, along with 29 more dances and songs, in the 36-page edition entitled "Ellinikoi choroi kai tragoudia" (Greek dances and songs), transcribed by Grigoris Konstantinidis. It contains (page 16) the intrumental song "Tsirigotikos".

The monochrome cover features the title of the publication in three languages (Greek, English and French) and the name of the transcriber. "30 Ellinikoi Choroi kai Tragoudia" (30 Greek dances and songs), the title of the publication in four languages and the dedication "Ston Ethniko mas Mousourgo Manoli Kalomoiri" (To our National Musician Manolis Kalomoiris) are written on the first page. The contents are listed on the second page, along with the titles of the 30 songs and dances in Greek and French. The black and white back cover features the publisher's logo.

The musical score for this particular song is included on page 16 of the publication. The title of the song in Greek and French is also mentioned. The musical text consists of a system of two staffs for piano.

The tune also inspired the British composer John W. Duarte. As stated on his personal website (see here), the "Greek Suite (Greek meets Greek") Op. 39 for two guitars was written in 1968, following a letter from guitarist Evangelos Asimakopoulos, in which he asked Duarte for a work based on Greek themes, attaching relevant musical material. Some movements of the "Greek Suite", which is dedicated to the Athenian Greek Duo of Evangelos Asimakopoulos and Liza Zoi (for more information see here, here and here), were presented for the first time by the Greek guitarists in January 1969 at the Wigmore Hall in London. It consists of movements I - Zagoresios, II - In The Valleys, III - Tsirigotikos, IV - Karagouna, V - Kalamatianos. In the third movement, that is, "Tsirigotikos", the composer used the tune we are interested in. The work was recorded by the Italian guitar duo Liliana Pesaresi and Luca Trabucchi in 2002, in Milan (CD "John W. Duarte. Variations on a French Nursery Song, Op. 32", MAP Lira Classic LR CD 086), and by the Athens Guitar Duo (Dusty Woodruff and Matthew Anderson) in June 2013 in Brighton, United Kingdom CD "Magellan's Playlist, Vol. 1: On tour in China", Claudio CR-60192).

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis