Music of Cyprus
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The music of Cyprus includes a variety of classical, folk and popular genres. Recent trends have seen the rise of Ayia Napa, a resort, as a home for UK garage music, similar in its evolution to that of the island Ibiza.
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Medieval music
Cyprus changed hands numerous times prior to the Medieval era, and was an important outpost of Christianity and European civilization during the Crusades. The tumultuous history introduced a variety of styles, including music from Armenia, France, Turkey, and Greece. The island's peak as a cultural capital of Europe occurred from 1359 to 1432.
During that peak, Pierre I de Lusignan made a three year tour of Europe, bringing with him an entourage of musicians that so impressed Charles V in Rheims that he donated 80 francs in gold to them. On his return to Cyprus, Pierre I brought with him the French Ars Nova and, later, the Ars Subtilior. French musicians became well established in Cyprus, and the city of Nicosia became a capital of the Ars Subtilior style.
Janus I de Lusignan saw Cypriot music evolve into its own variety of music. His daughter, Anna, brought a manuscript after her marriage to Louis, Count of Geneva, which contained 159 folios with over two hundred polyphonic compositions, both sacred and secular. The manuscript is now contained within the National Library of Turin.
Rock
In Northern Cyprus, the biggest rock band is SOS, founded in 1987. In the south heavy metal and greek rock are both quite popular with the most important metal group being Armaggedon
Classical music
Notable composers include:
- Yannis Kyriakides 1969 Cyprus-The Netherlands
- Solon Michaelides, 1905 - 1979 Cyprus-Greece
- Michalis Chrysanthou
- Nicolas Economou
Traditional music
Folk music on Cyprus is similar to the folk music of Greece and music of Turkey, and includes dances like the sousta, syrtos, zeimbekikos, tatsia, and the kartsilamas suites. Note that unlike Turkey and Greece, there are suites of 4 kartsilamas dances, different for men and women, some of them at tempo different than 9/8. Traditional music is modal based on the makams.
Both turkish and greek cypriots use the violin as the main solo instrument, accompanied by laouto (form of lute) for greek cypriots and ud for turkish cypriots. Accordion, percussion and recorder (pithkiavli) are also used.
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