Greece Culture: Music and Dance: the Music of the Vlahi (Vlachs)
The Vlachs have been historically a semi nomadic, pastoral people found all over Greece (and throughout the southern Balkans) their presence in Greece documented in the 10th and 11th centuries, the greatest numbers in Greece concentrated in the Pindos mountains of Ipiros, in western and eastern Macedonia and in Thessaly , where there are many town with predominantly Vlach populations.
There are many groups of Vlachs (Koutzovlachs, Bastounovlachs, Skaltzovlachs, etc.), but they all speak a Latin-based language related to Romanian (though none of the various theories as to the origins of this people has been proven). As shepherds they traditionally migrated between the plains and mountain pastures twice a year, taking their flocks to mountain pastures in the summer months, and wintering in the plains. Many Vlachs are also fine craftsmen, including silversmiths, coopers, weavers, copper and brass workers, cobblers, etc. Vlach music is played on the same instruments used in most Greek mainland regions: vclarinet, violin, laouto, defi.
Their own traditional 'instrument' was chiefly the voice and they excelled in dancing to songs. There are also many Vlach songs in the category known as 'kathistika' (sitting songs for around the table), as well as klephtika (historical songs). Favorite dances are the pan-hellenic dances, such as Sta Tria, Syrto-Kalamatiano and Tsamiko, as well as some energetic men's dances in which the lead dancers does many variations. Early in the 20th century, researchers who spent time with Vlachs near Samarina in the Pindos mountains found two kinds of dances, one in ring formation, with two or more rings, with the ring of women on the outside and the ring on men on the inside, with hands joined and the movement in a slow circle. The other was a couple dance for members of the same sex. The best known dance done by modern Vlachs in Greece is the Syngathistos, a couple dance as in Thrace, but in the Vlach dance in 8/8 instead of 9/8 meter. Another dance is the Zaharoula.
