Nikos Xilouris

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

Nikos Xylouris
Background information
Also known as	Psaronikos; in 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 music an essential part of the Great Greek Songbook. This fact, along with his appealing physical features and great personal affability ("noble in both countenance and decorum") earned him the moniker the 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 the village of Anogeia on the slopes of Mount Ida (aka Psiloritis, literally meaning "high mountain") of central Crete, the largest of the Greek islands. He was born to a family and community of herdsmen and farmers who were well versed in Greek traditional music, with many Cretan locals playing multiple folk instruments either as amateurs or in a semi-professional and fully professional capacity. Two of his siblings, Antonis Xylouris or Psarantonis (Greek: Ψαραντώνης) and Yiannis Xylouris or Psaroyiannis (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" (from "Psaro-" meaning "Fish-" and his given name) is derived from his grandfather Antonis, who in the Cretan Struggle for Liberation and Independence from Ottoman Rule 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. 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 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, and were thus slippery as fish and impossible to apprehend" Antonis himself being the most nimble, frustrating the Turks who could not capture him.

At age eight, during World War II, 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 the 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 kidnap of Heinrich Kreipe in May 1944 but escaped with his band of Cretan partisans when the Germans forces approached.

Musical Career

At a very young age, Xylouris discovered his musical inclination (all three male siblings learned how to play the mandolin, alongside their friends in village feasts and 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 insistence and the exhortation of the village teacher who identified his great potential, his father relented 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 generously rewarded, and 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 word of mouth when they were able to please and stir and entertain their audience for the duration of the event, which could sometimes last for days on end. Having earned his good reputation, at age 17 Xylouris decided to move from Anogeia to the city of Heraklion, making nightly musical appearances at the venue "Castron" (literally meaning Castle, which invokes the Medieval name of Heraklion) 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 Heraklion 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 counterparts. In such an environment, all folk musicians struggled to adapt, given among other things their total lack of multilingual capacity, which foreign lyrics seemed to necessitate. By his own account, Xylouris was reluctant to admit to his father that he was facing great hardship 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 make that tough urban audience rediscover Cretan traditional music, and learn to deeply appreciate it. And beyond that, he managed to enthrall the Greek audience as a whole.

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.

Political turmoil

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.

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 being very severe, much more so due to the perceived difference of social status between the two, Ourania being the daughter of an affluent family and Xylouris viewed as an absolutely unsuitable choice, being little more than an itinerant musician, and in the coming months he would play music for her below her balcony at night, in a custom known as a Cantada (aka Cantata in Italian), a practice which all formerly Italian-occupied areas of Greece share (the Ionian Islands being another prime example of that practice) and which numerous male youths of Crete would often perform for the young ladies they were interested in. 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, thus averting the potential for a blood feud (aka Cretan Vendetta) between the two families, Ourania was ostracized by her family, and by her own account, that would open a lifelong wound that the very warm reception she was given at Anogeia could not compensate for. Xylouris and his wife Ourania had two children, a son named Giorgis (George) and a daughter named Rinio (Irene), and remained together until his untimely passing. As per custom, she has maintained her grief (aka "penthos" in Greek) ever since. The love story between the pair is often recounted in Greek media and echoes in part the great Cretan poetic (lyrical-epic) work Erotokritos by Vintsentzos Kornaros, which Xylouris sang about in one of his most well-known recordings.

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
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