Nikos Xilouris

For the Greek swimmer (born in 1982), see Nikos Xylouris (swimmer).

Nikos Xylouris
Background information
Also known as	Psaronikos (Greek: Ψαρονίκος)
Born	(1936-07-07)7 July 1936 Anogeia, Crete, Greece
Died	8 February 1980(1980-02-08) (aged 43) Piraeus, Greece
Genres	Cretan folk music
Occupation(s)	Singer, Composer
Instrument	Cretan Lyra

Nikos Xylouris (Greek: Νίκος Ξυλούρης, 7 July 1936 – 8 February 1980), Cretan nickname: Psaronikos (Greek: Ψαρονίκος), was a Greek singer, Cretan Lyra player and composer, who was and remains to this day among the most renowned and beloved Greek folk musicians of all time. Xylouris' outstanding vocal ability and diverse discographic repertoire managed to capture the essence of the Greek psyche, ethos and demeanor, rendering him extremely popular among the youth of his day, and making his work an essential part of the Great Greek Songbook. This fact, along with his appealing physical features and enormous personal affability ("noble in both countenance and decorum") earned him the moniker Archangel of Crete which is still in use, especially in Athens. His songs continue to be played on Greek radio stations regularly, and his legacy is held in the highest regard throughout the Greek Nation and the Greek Diaspora alike.

Early Life

Xylouris was born in Anogeia, a Prefecture of Rethymno village perched on the slopes of Mount Ida (aka Psiloritis, literally meaning "high mountain") of central Crete, the largest of all the Greek islands, to a family and community of herdsmen and farmers, who much like other Greek Islanders, were well versed in Greek traditional music, with many locals adept at multiple folk instruments, either as amateurs or in a semi-professional and fully professional capacity. The village of Anogeia has produced several musicians who rose to island-wide and later nation-wide promimence over the years and, as pertains to affairs of culture, it continues to exert significant influence. Two of Xylouris' siblings, Antonis Xylouris or Psarantonis (Greek: Ψαραντώνης) and Giannis Xylouris or Psarogiannis (Greek: Ψαρογιάννης) are accomplished and celebrated figures of Cretan music in their own right, and members of their extended family continue to walk in the same footsteps.

Xylouris' nickname "Psaronikos" (the prefix "Psaro-" meaning "Fish-" plus his given name) is derived from his grandfather Antonis, who during one of the many instances of the Cretan Struggle for Liberation and Independence from Ottoman Rule displayed great valor, and was said to "consume Turks as if they were fish" in an account provided by Xylouris' brother Giannis. The nickname was passed down along the male line of the family, with each person's given name substituting the inaugural one respectively, and the prefix being retained intact. In a slightly different origin story, it was said that Antonis kept company with a group of men who exercised guerilla warfare tactics against the Turks, with deliberate dispersal and reunification at predetermined locations after engagements and skirmishes. Antonis would "catch up to the rest of them as if they were a school of fish that broke up and then coalesced again, with the group being "as slippery as fish in waters they know all too well, and thus impossible to apprehend" and Antonis himself being the most nimble, frustrating the Turks who could not capture him. The use of such nicknames bestowed for specific traits or actions is prevalent throughout the Greek countryside, and its familial aspect is often maintained on purpose, to distinguish between clans, branches and unrelated families with identical surnames. Conversely, some nicknames may be unique to specific individuals, and may reflect a notable incident of their lives which warrants extraordinary praise, attention or condemnation.

At age eight, when World War II was still raging, the Nazis razed and burned his village to the ground in reprisal for acts of Cretan Resistance against the Axis Occupation, as well as the great number of casualties the Germans had sustained during their initial assault on Crete some three years prior, when German paratroopers, descended upon the island, only to be decimated by locals. The mayor and citizens of Anogeia would support and harbor Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents and Cretan Resistance fighters in their village. In addition, they ambushed a detachment of German soldiers, under the direction of Captain W. Stanley Moss. The legendary SOE operative Captain Patrick Leigh Fermor had also been ensconced in Anogeia during the kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe in May 1944 but escaped with his band of Cretan partisans when the Germans forces approached. Such acts of defiance caused Germans to target specific villages and retaliate against them, sometimes regardless of villager involvement. The earlier destruction of Kandanos was such an example. In the aftermath of the devastation, the Xylouris family along with the rest of the citizens of Anogeia were forced to flee to other villages of the Mylopotamos region until the Liberation of Crete, which came with the Allied Advance and the German Surrender. Upon their return to Anogeia, the villagers had to rebuild their homes from scratch and the harshness of the undertaking imbued them with a sense of purpose, dedication, self-reliance, solidarity and pride. Due to the fact that village archives had perished in the flames, some ambiguity still exists as to the exact birth dates of all children who had yet to produce additional official documentation (such as marriage and/or military service certificates), Xylouris included. This is the reason why some sources may offer conflicting birth dates, although the one presented herein is considered to be the most probable and accurate by consensus. Archives were recreated based on village elder and relative testimony, to the best of the inhabitants' ability. The unique cultural climate of Crete left lasting impressions to all Allied personnel who served there. In the years following the war, Patrick Leigh Fermor so often sang what would later become one of Xylouris' most popular singles Filedem (Greek: Φιλεντέμ) that his friends attached it to him permanently as a sobriquet reminiscent of his war years.

Youth and Early Career in Crete

At a very young age, Xylouris discovered his musical inclination (all three male siblings learned how to play the mandolin, alongside their friends at village feasts and peer gatherings) and besought his father to purchase him a Cretan Lyra, (the three-stringed Cretan fiddle analogue, which is played upright, supported on the knee), a significant investment at the time. Between his entreaties and the exhortations of local teacher Menelaos Dramountanis who identified his great potential, his father acquiesced and Xylouris acquired his first instrument at the age of twelve. Aften an apprenticeship under the tutelage of lyra player Leonidas Klados, Xylouris started performing at social functions and local festivities throughout the region and later across the entire island, usually accompanied by his brother Giannis who played the lute. In those events, gifted musicians were being generously rewarded, not just by one single organizing party, but by all participants to the celebration who, if affluent enough, as per custom, would present musicians with banknotes for every single song or tune they requested be played. A musician's reputation grew by crowd acclaim and word of mouth, once they were proven able to please, stir and entertain their audience for the duration of the event, which could sometimes last for days on end. Having earned the reputation of a capable musician, at age seventeen Xylouris decided to move from Anogeia to the city of Heraklion, making nightly appearances at the venue "Kastron" (literally meaning Castle, which invokes the city's older, Medieval name) and aspiring to become an established professional musician with full financial independence. At first, little was gained in terms of headway, and making ends meet in the city was challenging. The audience, mostly urban and somewhat upper class, had moved away from Cretan traditional music, Xylouris' own turf, and had become much more accustomed to European rhythms and tunes, looking down upon the "old people's music" of their rural contemporaries and counterparts. In such an environment, folk musicians struggled to adapt and survive financially, not least due to their utter lack of multilingual term familiarity, which foreign lyrics seemed to necessitate. By his own account, Xylouris was reluctant to admit to his father that he was facing great hardships and instead assured him that things were going very well. In the course of time, he not only managed to find acceptance as a musician in Heraklion, but he was also able to turn his demanding audience around, causing them to rediscover, appreciate and preserve Cretan traditional music for future generations. Eventually, he managed to enthrall the Greek national audience in its entirety.

The turning point in Xylouris' career came with a recording in 1958. He first performed abroad in 1966 and won First Prize at the Sanremo Music Festival. The following year, he established the first Cretan music hall — Erotokritos — in Heraklion, Crete. The recording of Anyfantou followed in 1969, which became a huge success. Shortly thereafter, Xylouris began performances in Athens at the Konaki Folk Music Hall. Eventually, Athens became his new permanent residence.

Later Life and Career in Athens

During the early 1970s, Xylouris' voice became identified not only with Cretan music but with the youth of Greece rebelling against the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, which came to power after a coup d'état. He embodied a new kind of popular, folk-music style which adapted verses of famous Greek poets, incorporating well-known poems into the music genre of the particular artist in the mantinada style. The emergence of this music, based on renowned Greek poets such as Nikos Gatsos, Yannis Ritsos, Giorgos Seferis, Kostas Varnalis, and Dionysios Solomos, was uplifting and inspiring to the Greeks, much like Sofia Vembo had galvanized the Greek populace during the Second World War. Other Greek singers had also embraced this style, such as Yannis Markopoulos, Stavros Xarhakos, Christodoulos Halaris, and Christos Leontis. Xylouris' music was as much a thorn in the side of the Greek military junta and its colonels, as it was a beacon of hope for liberation and return to Democracy to the Greek people.

Public and Critical Acclaim

Perhaps the most famous of all the poets adapted by Xylouris was Vitsentzos Kornaros, the 16th-century Cretan of Venetian roots, best known for his epic poem Erotokritos. In 1971, Xylouris was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque by the Académie Charles-Cros in France for his performance of the Cretan Rizitika album with Yannis Markopoulos. Although widely regarded for his many songs that motivated and encouraged his and other generations alike, Xylouris' signature accomplishment became his rendition of the traditional Cretan song, Filedem. This song is accompanied by captivating scenes of his beloved island and epitomized Cretan hospitality. Xylouris' unique voice embodied the struggle of the Cretan people and burned his name in their hearts and minds forever.

Personal Life

He met his wife, Ourania Melampianakis, at a festival in her native village of Venerato, nearby Heraklion, where he was called to perform. The pair only exchanged glances from afar, the local flirtship customs and norms being extremely austere, much more so due to the perceived difference of social status between the two, given that Ourania was the offspring of an affluent family while Xylouris was seen as an itinerant musician. Although Cretan society did not enforce strict class segregation, pairings viewed as socially unequal were frowned upon and public opinion was certain to object to such a union. In the following months, Xylouris would nonetheless serenade Ourania regularly (perform a Cantada in the local vernacular), a custom almost all medievally Italian-occupied areas of Greece share (the Ionian Islands being another prime example of the same practice) and which numerous male youths of Crete would often perform to woo the young ladies they admired. Eventually, Xylouris managed to approach Ourania at a social event and propose to her, and the pair eloped heading for Anogeia where the wedding would occur. Due to the lack of prior consent on her family's side, and although her father did assent to the marriage and sign off on it, thus averting a potential blood feud (aka Cretan Vendetta) between the two families, Ourania was ostracized by her family, and by her own account, that would create a lifelong psychological wound that the extremely warm reception she was given at Anogeia could never compensate for. Xylouris and Ourania had two children, a son named Giorgis (George) and a daughter named Rinio (Irene), and remained together until his untimely passing. As Greek custom ordains, she has maintained her grief (aka "penthos" in Greek) ever since. The love story between the two is often recounted in Greek Media, and it echoes in part the great Cretan poetic (epic-lyric) work Erotokritos by Vitsentzos Kornaros, an all-time Cretan folk classic, select verses of which were sung by Xylouris in one of his best-known records, bearing the name of the literary work itself.

Illness and Death

Nikos Xylouris succumbed to lung cancer and metastasis to the brain after a long battle on 8 February 1980, in Piraeus, Greece. He was buried in the First Cemetery of Athens.

Discography

• Mia mavrofora otan perna — Μια μαυροφόρα όταν περνά (1958)
• Anyfantou — Ανυφαντού (1969)
• O Psaronikos — Ο Ψαρονίκος (1970)
• Mantinades kai Chorοi — Μαντινάδες και χοροί (1970)
• Chroniko — Χρονικό (1970)
• Rizitika — Ριζίτικα (1971)
• Dialeimma — Διάλειμμα (1972)
• Ithagenia — Ιθαγένεια (1972)
• Dionise kalokairi mas — Διόνυσε καλοκαίρι μας (1972)
• O tropikos tis parthenou — Ο τροπικός της Παρθένου (1973)
• O Xylouris tragouda yia tin Kriti — Ο Ξυλούρης τραγουδά για την Κρήτη (1973)
• O Stratis Thalassinos anamesa stous Agapanthous — Ο Στρατής Θαλασσινός ανάμεσα στους Αγάπανθους (1973)
• Perifani ratsa — Περήφανη ράτσα (1973)
• Akoluthia — Ακολουθία (1974)
• To megalo mas tsirko — Το μεγάλο μας τσίρκο (1974)
• Parastaseis — Παραστάσεις (1975)
• Anexartita — Ανεξάρτητα (1975)
• Komentia, i pali chorikon kai vasiliadon — Κομέντια, η πάλη χωρικών και βασιλιάδων (1975)
• Kapnismeno tsoukali — Καπνισμένο τσουκάλι (1975)
• Ta pou theemoumai tragoudo — Τα που θυμούμαι τραγουδώ (1975)
• Kiklos Seferis — Κύκλος Σεφέρη (1976)
• Erotokritos — Ερωτόκριτος (1976)
• I simfonia tis Gialtas kai tis pikris agapis — Η συμφωνία της Γιάλτας και της πικρής αγάπης (1976)
• I eleftheri poliorkimeni — Οι ελεύθεροι πολιορκημένοι (1977)
• Ta erotika — Τα ερωτικά (1977)
• Ta Xylourika — Τα Ξυλουρέικα (1978)
• Ta antipolemika — Τα αντιπολεμικά (1978)
• Salpisma — Σάλπισμα (1978)
• 14 Chrises epitichies – 14 χρυσές επιτυχίες (1978)

Posthumously Released Material

• Teleftaia ora Kriti — Τελευταία ώρα Κρήτη (1981)
• Nikos Xylouris — Νίκος Ξυλούρης (1982)
• Pantermi Kriti — Πάντερμη Κρήτη (1983)
• O Deipnos o mistikos — Ο Δείπνος ο μυστικός (1984)
• Stavros Xarchakos: Theatrika — Σταύρος Ξαρχάκος:Θεατρικά (1985)
• O Yiannis Markopoulos ston ellinikon kinematografo — Ο Γιάννης Μαρκόπουλος στον ελληνικό κινηματογράφο (1988)
• I synavlia sto Irodeo 1976 (1990) — Η συναυλία στο Ηρώδειο 1976 (1990)
• To chroniko tou Nikou Xylouri — Το χρονικό του Νίκου Ξυλούρη (1996)
• Nikos Xylouris — Νίκος Ξυλούρης (2000)
• I psichi tis Kritis — Η ψυχή της Κρήτης(2002)
• Itane mia fora... — Ήτανε μια φορά...(2005)
• Tou Chronou Ta Girismata — Του Χρόνου Τα Γυρίσματα (2005)
• Itane Mia Fora... Ke Emine Gia Panta! — Ήτανε Μια Φορά... Και Έμεινε Για Πάντα! (2017)

See also

• Music of Crete

External links

• Documentary traces the musical legacy of the great Nikos Xylouris
• Thirty Two Years After the Death Of Cretan Singer Nikos Xylouris
• Nikos Xilouris (Νίκος Ξυλούρης) — The Archangel of Crete
• Nikos Xilouris on YouTube
• Happy Birthday Filedem! Born 100 Years Ago Today