Deropolitissa

Deropolitissa (Greek: Δεροπολίτισσα, Girl of Dropull) is a Greek polyphonic folk song, popular in the region of Dropull, southern Albania. It is also sung by the rest of the Greeks in Albania, as well as in parts of Greece.

Background and popularity

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Regional music
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The song refers to the period of Ottoman occupation (15th-19th century) and is a lament inspired by the persecutions of the Greek Christian element during that time, when forcible conversions and Islamizations had taken place by the Ottoman authorities.^[1]

Deropolitissa is a representative song from the region of Dropull, Gjirokaster District in southern Albania. The song is also sung by all Greek communities living in parts of southern Albania, known as Northern Epirus, as well as in parts of Greece, such as in the village of Ktismata, in Pogoni, near the Greek-Albanian border.^[1]

Song

The song is performed in a 3/4 tempo of 4/4 (2-2), but also in 5/8.^[1] The first soloist (the partis) sings in a narrative way, while other members of the drone group, second soloist, spiner and isokrates provide the vocal backing.^[2]

Deropolitissa is danced in a Syrtos manner in two cicles.^[3]

Lyrics

The singers are urging their fellow Christian, a girl from Dropull, not to imitate their example but keep his faith and pray for them to the church.^[4] Part of the verse goes as follows:

English	Greek
...and go to the church with lamps and candles and with sweet-smelling incense pray for us too because Turkey has seized us, so as all of Arvanitia (Albania), to take us to the mosques, and slaughter us like lambs, like goats in Saint George’s day like lambs in Easter	σύ (ντ)α πας στην εκκλησιά, με λαμπάδες με κεριά, και με μοσκοθυμιατά, για προσκύνα για τ’ εμάς, τι μας πλάκωσε η Τουρκιά, κι όλη η Αρβανιτιά, και μας σέρνουν στα Τζαμιά, και μας σφάζουν σαν τ’ αρνιά, σαν τ’ αρνιά την Πασχαλιά. σαν κατσίκια τ’ Αγιωργιού.

References

1. Kanellatou, Vivi. "Δεροπολίτισσα (Deropolitissa)". Greek Traditional and Popular Singing. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
2. "Τραγούδια της Ηπείρου". epirus-history.gr. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
3. Nitsiakos, Vassilis (2010). On the border : transborder mobility, ethnic groups and boundaries along the Albanian-Greek frontier. Berlin: Lit. p. 116. ISBN 978-3-643-10793-0.
4. Vlassas, research-text: Georgios K. Giakoumis ; photography: Grigoris (1996). Monuments of Orthodoxy in Albania. Athens: Doukas School. p. 180. ISBN 978-960-7203-09-0.

External links

• Live performance in Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Athens.
• Live performance by Μη χείρων group.