Multipart singing in the Ionian Islands: preliminary results of an extensive fieldwork

The Ionian Islands (especially Corfu, Kefalonia and Zakynthos) have played a crucial role in the Mediterranean Sea due to their geographical position throughout history. Among the various dominations that have ruled there, the influence of Italian culture is still predominant today. “Ionian” secular musical practices are nowadays mainly represented by the urban vocal repertoire of kantàdes (transmitted in all three islands), the arekies of Zakynthos and the ariettes of Kefalonia. These repertoires are featured by a homophonic chordal idiom, developed by ear from three or four vocal parts, unlike the monodic vocal repertoires found in the rest of Greece. The same occurs in the case of the Byzantine liturgical repertoire. In reviewing the state of the art, an important scientific gap has been noted, since research in the academic field had so far focused on the analysis of the spread of Italian opera (in Corfu, in particular) in the 18th-19th centuries. Some notable works – exclusively in Greek – have been carried out in the field of “Ionian” Byzantine chant, while only a couple of non-academic Greek publications concern the urban vocal repertoire of Corfu and Zakynthos only. This essay thus offers the first results of an ethnomusicological investigation conducted on all three of the aforementioned major islands of the Heptanese. The audiovisual material collected in the field, i.e. musical performances and interviews, is partly presented here in order to provide a preliminary analysis of the ritual spaces, contextual occasions, socio-symbolic functions, and the singers’ behaviour, all elements characterising their musical practice today.