“IT BLOSSOMS AND BEARS MORE”

TRADITIONAL SONGS FROM PONTUS

How glad I feel that I sing my roots, that I open my mouth to release all that has been captured in my cells for years now, in such an unintentional way.

It is both magical and admirable to observe the way in which the energy of the man’s soul goes through his life and shapes his eternal course through the wonderful charge of their common course.

The human races, ever since the beginning of the world, as I know and see, have been characterised by many elements, which are common both to the body and psychology.

Looking for this charge of the eternal course inside me and out of me, I notice so many wonderful things, so many elements that smile at me, elements that I discovered while they have silently been inside me for years and years.

I have met my ancestors from Pontus and Minor Asia, I’ve lived and understood my parents really well, I am in harmony with my siblings, I feel unique and I like that, I also like that everyone around me is unique, carrying the eternal elements in such a unique combination.

This is one of the things that make me love and urge me to get to know people.

Great and dense is the part of Pontus and refugees in my life. I’ve grown up in such an intense way, hearing songs from Pontus, I recall how clearly and directly my heart was unlocked at the hearing of music from Pontus, when I was a little boy!!!

The music from Pontus, as I understand it, due to the fact that it was made in hard times and places, onto the mountains and, sometimes, off the coast of the Black Sea, through communities that lived under threat and defence in every-day life, that were made one with the earth and dug deep in it, both materially and spiritually, unintentionally at times, has imprinted and preserved that depth and that threat in all its creation.

Thus, I can discern a sensational primitive melodious root, that swept away our ancestors and captured them in its sound in a magical way.

This root is really strong and deep, and this is probably the reason why all this music revolves around it without many “openings”, as it happens with music from Constantinople or Minor Asia, for instance; this is, probably, the reason why the music from Pontus is not so popular or dearly loved by the rest of the Greeks. Besides, I gather that, for someone to love a deep source of culture, he should explore it in depth, with honesty and naturalness.

My love for that race and their music, my eagerness to sing with excitement and devotion the songs from Pontus, my obligation to honour my roots, but, also, my desire to deliver to all the Greeks a well-made, brand-new production with this precious material, all this was what incited me to make this CD.

I’ve chosen songs from practically all the themes of Pontus, with a variety of rhythms, instruments, melodies, lyrics, areas of Pontus, so that we can have the widest possible recording of that area that had so many variations in dialects and sounds.

I cry inside when I think of our ancestors who lost their lives in the tragic event of the Genocide…oh, my sweeties…oh, my poor souls…how many parents actually held out, delivering -they, too-their poor souls, watching their children, their people, die in such an unfair and unexpected way…

How many houses were burnt down, which were built with toil and neatness, stone by stone, with their honest, diligent hands…Whom did they pester? How unfairly were they lost as time went by and the regions were deserted…

I feel as if I were there, I am at the edge of that gate, through which, if opened, I will hear their voices and their prayers, right next to death; it is as if I can see their clear, deep, dark, wet eyes, trying to hold the understanding of the earthly end…

Virgin Mary Soumela and St. John Vaselonas…with how much understanding must they have leant and rested their souls, observing the laws of Wisdom.

It was God’s Will to be like that, in the same way that it was God’s Will for me to share with you this deep part of my life.

Let our love for Pontus and its music probably be a starting point, so that we, younger people of the third and fourth generation post them can show how united and consciously sentimental the people of Pontus are throughout time.

Let the sound of the kementze be a boat of heritage and let us go take them all and place them in our arms, lull them in the deep warmth of the Mother of Pontus, who, with her rich breast, fed, turned boys into men, gave a colour to the indelible character of the race, and take them on a trip of love and joy, a trip on the wings of the proud eagle, which, with the arms of the soldier – Trandhellenas – set new heights and made visible the eternal Pontus, which shines bright through its submission and its silent partaking in the eternal light.

Thank you for being on our side in this joyful experience.

Petros Gaitanos

April 10 2006