Zagori & Epirus music

The music of Zagori and wider Epirus is not well known,
but it remains one of the most important
and best preserved cultural traditions of Greece.

Two collections of songs are presented below.
The first is of music played in Zagori
and the second from the neighboring area of Pogoni,
which is highly appreciated in Zagori and the rest of Epirus as well.

More about the Zagori & Epirus music

A Zagori music playlist

A Pogoni music playlist

Thanks to the travels of old Zagorians, local music
have gathered influences from distant places, as Constantinople
or the Ionian Islands but in it’s foundation remains close
to the local musical idiom of Epirus.
It contains much of the nearby’s Pogoni music, as well as
of other traditions of the historical Epirus.
Zagori music, for about the last two centuries
is played using clarinet, violin, lute, tambourin and vocals.
Today, several excellent bands are operating in it’s countless
panegyria or πανηγύρια (local religious feasts), celebrations
and social events. Of course the same applies for the
neighboring areas of Pogoni and Konitsa.
The Pogoni music is the sound of deep Epirus,
played in pentatonic scale and is said to come
from ancient times with little change.

Perhaps the most famous post-war band of Zagori
was the legendary Takoutsia.

Zagori as well as broader Epirus music has recently
received great international recognition
in the person of the American musicologist Christopher King,
author of the bestseller A Lament from Epirus.
Mr. King, probably the world’s greatest collector
of old 78 rpm records of folk Epirus music,
has produced a series of excellent record collections
of Epirus Music, under the label of Third Man Records.