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 in the collection "Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient" (Thirty Popular Melodies of Greece and the Orient). The collection contains transcriptions of thirty Greek songs collected by the French composer Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray in Smyrna and Athens during his research trip to Greece and Asia Minor in 1875. The harmonization and piano accompaniment of the melodies were done by the composer himself (see in detail the extremely interesting text by Giorgos Kokkonis, 2017d: 13-47). The black and white cover also mentions "traduction italienne en vers adaptée à la musique et traduction française en prose de M. A. de Lauzières" (Italian verse translation adapted to music and French prose translation by M. A. de Lauzières), the edition number and the publisher. The edition contains a preface, introduction, translator's note and reference by Bourgault-Ducoudray to the lyrics of the songs (pp. 7-24).

The song is included on pages 19-21, bears the number 7 and is untitled. Mme Laffon - Smyrne" is written below the numbering. Madame Laffon was the second wife of the French diplomat Gustave Laffon, an interpreter at the French Consulate in Izmir. Madame Laffon was Ada Bargigli, an Italian born in Larnaca, Cyprus, and Bourgault-Ducoudray's main source of information and musical material, since she sang to him 21 of the 30 songs in the collection recorded in Izmir.

The musical text of the song is included in a musical score with a system of three staffs (two for piano and one for voice). At the end of the musical text there is the French translation of the lyrics and an explanatory note by Bourgault-Ducoudray.

A contemporary recording of the song is included in the CD "Melodies tis anatolis, Tragoudia tis Smyrnis (19os aionas)” [Melodies of the East, Songs of Smyrna (19th century)] ("Varia pou s' agapo", The Hellenic Music Archive – FM Records – FM 800, Athens, 1997), which contains 20 of the melodies collected by Bourgault-Ducoudray, with different harmonic - rhythmic accompaniment and orchestration. Eirini Derempei sings it.

Manolis Kalomoiris [Smyrna (Izmir), December 14, 1883 – Athens, April 3, 1962] would use the melody of the song in the opera "O Protomastoras" (see here), in his own libretto (see here) based on the tragedy of the same name (see here) by Nikos Kazantzakis. The opera (see here for handwritten and autographed musical scores and spartiti of the opera) premiered on March 11, 1916, at the Municipal Theater of Athens (see here). The melody is initially sung by the Old Man, followed by the Chorus of Harvesters, consisting of both women and men, who sing and dance along (see here).

The song, entitled "Vareia pou s’agapo", with serial number 1 and catalog number 431, is included in the collection "Eikosi dimotika tragoudia" (Twenty folk songs) with piano or orchestral accompaniment, harmonized by Manolis Kalomoiris. It was published in 1922, in Athens, by the Zacharias Makris publishing house. Giorgos Sakallieros mentions the following in this regard (2005: 27): "Publisher Z. Makris asked M. Kalomoiris to harmonize 20 folk songs. The composer completed only ten in total, with a promise to finish the remaining ones later (according to information from Foivos Anogeianakis), something he ultimately did not fulfill. The work was published under the above title and this particular inaccuracy remained.".

Additionally, autographed and handwritten musical scores of the song in an arrangement for voice and orchestra as well as voice and keyboard instrument are uploaded to the Great Music Library of Greece "Lilian Voudouri", where the Manolis Kalomoiris Archive is kept (see here).

Between 1881-1884, the Russian composer Alexander Glazunov [Saint Petersburg, July 29 (August 10) 1865 – Paris, March 21, 1936] completed two works for symphony orchestra based on Greek melodies. These are the "Overture No. 1 on Three Greek Themes, Op. 3" (see here, here and here), which was probably completed in 1881 or 1882 and is dedicated to Bourgault-Ducoudray, and the "Overture No. 2 on Greek Themes, Op. 6", a composition he probably wrote in 1883-1884 and dedicated to the Russian composer Mily Balakirev. The musical themes from which Glazunov draws material for both overtures come from the collection "Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient". In the "Overture No. 2 on Greek Themes, Op. 6", the composer arranged melodic phrases from three songs, including the song in this musical score. Specifically, in the order of their appearance in the work, these are: recording number 5 (see here), the present recording, that is, number 7 and recording number 24 (see here).

Approximately sixty years later, in 1940–1941, the German-Jewish composer Berthold Goldschmidt (Hamburg, January 18, 1903 – London, October 17, 1996) completed the "Greek Suite" for orchestra. The eight-movement suite consists of arrangements of Greek popular melodies which come from the publication "Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient". The melody of this song is included among them. The following are the movements of the work and the corresponding songs from Bourgault-Ducoudray's collection, which the composer worked on:

– Alla marcia: number 27 and this song, under number 7.
– Andante: number 15 and 21.
– Allegretto. Scherzando: number 4.
– Allegro marziale: number 23.
– Allegretto grazioso: number 30 entitled "To filima" and number 20.
– Lento: number 9.
– Allegretto: number 28 and 1.
– Allegretto moderato: number 25.