Greek Music

Music of Greece
General topics
Ancient music Byzantine music Opera Greek musical system Greek musical instruments Greek dances Worldwide
Genres
Church music (Byzantine) Classical music Ionian School Greek folk Laïko Rock Hip Hop Punk Greek New Wave (Neo kyma)
Specific forms
Contemporary Entehno Nisiotika Rebetiko Skiladiko
Media and performance
Music awards	Arion Awards MAD Video Music Awards Pop Corn Music Awards
Music charts	Greek Albums Chart Foreign Albums Chart Singles Chart
Music festivals	Athens Festival Epidaurus Festival Olympus Festival Thessaloniki Song Festival
Music media	Difono MAD TV (MAD World, Blue) MTV Greece
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	"Hymn to Liberty"
Regional music
Related areas	Cyprus, Pontus, Constantinople, South Italy
Regional styles	Aegean Islands Central Greece Crete Epirus (polyphonic song) Ionian Islands Macedonia Peloponnese Thessaly Thrace

The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music, with more eastern sounds. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originated in the Byzantine period and Greek antiquity; there is a continuous development which appears in the language, the rhythm, the structure and the melody. Music is a significant aspect of Hellenic culture, both within Greece and in the diaspora.

Greek musical history extends far back into ancient Greece, since music was a major part of ancient Greek theater. Later influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire changed the form and style of Greek music. In the 19th century, opera composers, like Nikolaos Mantzaros (1795–1872), Spyridon Xyndas (1812–1896) and Spyridon Samaras (1861–1917) and symphonists, like Dimitris Lialios and Dionysios Rodotheatos revitalized Greek art music. However, the diverse history of art music in Greece, which extends from the Cretan Renaissance and reaches modern times, exceeds the aims of the present article, which is, in general, limited to the presentation of the musical forms that have become synonymous to 'Greek music' during the last few decades; that is, the 'Greek song' or the 'song in Greek verse'.

In ancient Greece, men usually performed choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual reasons. Instruments included the double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument (like pandura), the lyre, especially the special kind called a kithara.

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Wikipedia