TRADITIONAL SONGS 

The cretan music tradition has had many influencies and is very different from others. The first samples are Pirichii, war songs sung by giants Kourites, while, in the first post-christian century, song writer Messodemos lived and wrote cretan music. The most famous cretan songs are "mantinades", songs accompanied by lyre and lute. The singer adjusts the lyrics to the circumstance, and mantinades vary from love songs to satirical, historical, or social content songs. The rhymesters compete with each other for the best, most succesful verse which will be greeted with great enthousiasm from the audience. Another important category of cretan songs includes the historic songs which narrate facts from the island is disorderly history, praising the cretan heroism and willingness to fight. Among the regional songs are the "rizitika", sung in western Crete. They are thus called, because they originate from the foot or "roots" (rizes) of Lefka Ori. There are two types of rizitika: the "table" songs (tragoudia tis tavlas), sung without music instruments at feasts and dinner parties, and the "songs of the road" (tragoudia tis stratas), sung by travellers along the way. Unlike mantinades, rizitika are not improvised, expressing an emotional state, but they are the result of a long tradition, ever since the ancient years.

TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS

The most characteristic music instrument of the cretan musical tradition is "lyra" (the lyre), a three-string instrument with a small bow, similar to a fiddle-bow. Cretan lyre-players, self-taught in their majority, improuse and sing the cretan mantinades, adjusting the lyrics to the needs of the occasion. The cretan lyre plays along with the cretan "lagouto" (lute), an eight - string instrument, like a guitar. Other traditional instruments are the "outi", "askobandoura" - something like a bag-pipe - and "chabioli", a wind instrument played by shepherds, alone or attached to askobandoura. These instruments are taught from one generation to the next, and cretan musicians are taught from the elderlies the technique to construct the instruments and how to play music which is found in every aspect of the daily life.

FOLK DANCES

The traditional cretan dances constitute an expression of the bravery and dynamism of Cretan character and were highly influenced by the island is disorderly history. The turns of Siganos are reminiscent of Theseus convolutions in the maze. The dancers have their arms intertwined at shoulder level and take small steps. As the lyre-player accelerates, the dance becomes bouncing and "Pendozalis", the most famous cretan dance, begins. Dancers dance in an open circle, move away from each other and perform many improusations and spectacular jumps. "Sirtos" or "Chaniotikos" is danced in a different way from town to town, being a variation to Sirtos of mainland Greece. "Sousta" is a rhythmic, courting dance, danced by men and women facing each other. Men also dance "Kastrinos" or "Maleviziotis" in open circle. This is danced at fairs and local events.

Resource: http://www.hri.org/infoxenios