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 (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 72-75, bears the number 25 and is untitled. "Mr Skiadaressi - Athènes" is written below the numbering. This is a reference to the person who sang to Bourgault-Ducoudray the song, Mr. Skiadaresis, originally from the island of Lefkada, and the location where the recording took place. The song number 23 [Potame, tzanem, potame mou] is also attributed to him.

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 (page 75).

For more about the song see here.