From wedding dance floors to music classrooms : narratives of learning to play traditional music instruments amongst Greek Cypriots (1930-2010)

In recent years there has been a noteworthy revival of traditional instrumental mUSIC III Cyprus with the setting Up of schools and organizing workshops of traditional music, and the emergence of a new generation of Greek Cypriot professional instrumentalists and teachers. This study examines the narratives of learning to play traditional music instruments amongst Greek Cypriot musicians in the period 1930-2010. In doing so this study explores the development of the music learning system from its genesis in wedding celebrations, the influence of western music and training methods on the performance and learning of traditional instruments, and the dissemination of the instrumental tradition in the context of traditional dance ensembles to the systematic institutionalised teaching of traditional music in the early twenty-first century. The findings of this study contribute to an understanding of the various factors that influenced the transmission of the instrumental tradition in Cyprus during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the ways in which instrumental skills and knowledge of the repertory were acquired in particular cultural, temporal and spatial contexts and the manner in which teaching is informed by personal circumstances and the requirements of the tradition in contemporary learning environments.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo