Arriving at Igoumenitsa is always fun. The town isn’t much more than a strip along the coast. Everything seems tuned in to the daily ferries arriving and leaving, mostly loaded with trucks and just a handful of adventurous campers eager to explore the Greek mainland, some of which are on their way further east. A few years ago, we discovered the town’s interesting archaeological museum. We like museums where the curator is sincerely happy that at least someone finds their way to its interior, but this museum definitely deserves better. So, don’t miss it out if you ever happen to (dis)embark in this town.
Igoumenitsa is the door to the old Epiros, the northwestern part of the Greek mainland and the southwestern part of Albania. It’s a mysterious, mountainous and sparsely populated region. The Vikos gorge in the Pindos mountains is regarded as the deepest in the world, at least taking into account the relationship between depth and width. Another mystery that runs deep and wide, is the traditional music of Epiros, featuring the miroloi. A miroloi is a lament, its history probably reaching back till pre-Homeric times. This music is said to represent the oldest living tradition of European folk music.
A traditional miroloi performed by Petros Loukas Chalkias and his band.
A miroloi can be vocal or instrumental, or a combination of both. It features a drone, a continuous and often transforming bass tone, above which capricious melodies develop free of metre. The second, metrical and often shorter part of the miroloi is a dance. Originally a miroloi was sung as a lament for the dead. Nowadays it can be instrumental, it can be sung, or a combination of both. An instrumental version mostly consists of clarinet, violin, guitar and hand drum. The melodies seem reminiscent of the voices of women, keening at a funeral wake in ancient times. And yes, listening to a miroloi whilst taking abstraction from these ‘modern’ instruments really feels like being confronted with something deep and ancient.
The Nekromanteion of Acheron – Mesopotamos, Greece (Photo: Michael Nicht)
(License: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nekromanteion_of_Acheron.jpg)
Another site that feels deep and ancient is the Nekromanteion, an ancient temple dedicated to Hades, god of the Underworld. This site marked one of the Underworld’s entrances. It was a place where people were able to receive prophecies from the dead. The Nekromanteion is the only known oracle of the dead in Greece. Nearby is the river Acheron, one of the five rivers that flow into the Styx, the swamp where the ferryman Charon, against payment of a coin, transported the souls of the dead to the other side. No wonder the Nekromanteion appears to be related to the history of the miroloi.
Although sites like Igoumentsa’s Archaeological Museum and the Nekromanteion themselves keep silent during one’s visit, they increasingly intrigue me about the music of the past.
This beautiful and child-friendly museum covers the era from the Middle Palaeolithic (100,000 years before present) until the period of the Ottoman rule (19th century AD).
Recommended listening:
Miroloi Trilogy for Traditional Voices and Tape, three electroacoustic compositions by Dimitris Bakas and a fascinating modern interpretation of the tradition of the miroloi, interwoven with field recordings
Rediscovering Ancient Greek Music:
A recent scientifically based reconstruction of the music of Greek antiquity by Armand d’Angour
In case you want to dig deeper, check out the European Music Archaeology Project.