Track 8 Foni Komitissa
Cypriot folksong with Arabic oud improvisation
Voice: Nicoletta Demetriou
Oud: Attab Haddad
This mixture of Cypriot-Arabic music is the product of a collaboration between Nicoletta and Attab that began at SOAS in 2005. In the performance here, Nicoletta was inspired by a 2002 recording of the traditional song by Cypriot singer Michalis Tterlikkas (Kypraia Foni). The original melody and verses were first recorded by Tterlikkas from Jannis and Mariannou Poullis. ‘Foni’ usually denotes a melody to which different verses can be adapted. ‘Komitissa’ indicates a region in Cyprus, and this is where the song originated and was extensively performed, although the same melody can be found with different designations. Although the oud, a lute associated more with the Middle East, is not typically associated with Cypriot folk music, it fits well. Here Attab accompanies the singing part with a drone and improvises between the couplets.
Nicoletta Demetriou began her PhD in Ethnomusicology at SOAS in Autumn 2004, while Attab Haddad completed his MMus (Performance) in 2006.
