Гьдулкови нестинарски мелодии
Nestinar Melodies for Lyra

Summary/Abstract: The panagir of St. Constantine and Helen was performed together by two neighbouring villages in the region of Strandzha mountains in the past – Bulgari/Urgari and Greeklingual Kosti. Panagir/nestinar melodies were performed by bagpipes and by two-headed skin drums. There exists a clear evidence that the musicians from the village of Kosti played the same melodies also by lyra (Bulg. gadulka). According to the Greek anastenari: “…after the emigration from Strandzha it was more and more difficult to find a bagpipe player. That’s why the lyra took the place of the bagpipe”. At present in the panagir of St. Constantine and Helen in Northern Greece, only a few anastenari’s melodies – “On the Road”, “Young Constantine”, “Hope dance, led by the epitrop”, melodies whose performance is not so strongly tied to a definite place and time of the ritual as nestinar melodies performed in the village of Urgari – are played by two lyres in the village of Agia Eleni) or by two bagpipes (in Langada) and by a drum/drums. Although the Greek lyraplayers are treating quite freely the basic musical material (consisting of a sequence of short musical motives – of similar structure and intonation) the musical line sounds stylistically homogeneously as a whole. Most importantly – the difference in musical sounding and ethos of the Northern Greece and Southeast Bulgarian panagirs is, to my opinion, due to the substitution of instruments. This has influenced the melodic style and nature of the Greek playings, as far as the ritual’s line of continuity and adoption by the local people uninformed about the past of the anastenari tradition, is concerned. The Greek anastenari playings are vital evidence for the recreation of the inherited musical and ritual memory in the context of a different time and space, and as a different instrumental ethos and style.

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