Seta Theodoridou, president of the Greek Community in Paris, discussed the event held on Saturday, November 16, at a Sorbonne amphitheater in Paris, under the auspices of Greece’s Ministry of Culture. The event honored French Sorbonne professor and scholar Claude Fauriel, who published the first volume of a book on Greek folk songs in French in 1824. She shared this on Voice of Greece and the show “Our Global Voice”, with hosts Petros Diplas and Dimitris Kontogiannis.
Ms. Theodoridou emphasized that although the multilingual Mr. Fauriel never visited revolutionary Greece, he traveled as far as Trieste, Italy, where he met Greek rural migrants and documented their songs. He also gathered additional information on traditional songs in Germany and from Adamantios Korais. The second volume of his book was published in 1825. The collection, titled “The Popular Songs of Modern Greece,” recorded all the songs in his work. According to Ms. Theodoridou, the Sorbonne, the cradle of Greek Classical Studies in the 1830s, fostered philhellenism and played a crucial role in shaping Greece’s national identity. Mr. Fauriel, the first professor of foreign languages at the Sorbonne, collaborated with Andreas Mustoxidi, Greece’s first Minister of Education under Kapodistrias, on the songs.
During Saturday’s event at the Sorbonne, the sounds of ten well-known Greek folk songs featured in Mr. Fauriel’s book were performed. Young musicians from the Tsitsanis Museum participated: Panagiotis Tournas (vocals), Nektarios Papageorgiou (clarinet), Stefanos Sikerglou (violin), and Giannis Karakalfatidis (lute).
The proposal for the event came from Stelios Karagiorgos, head of the Tsitsanis Museum in Trikala. Ms. Theodoridou also extended her thanks to Effi Leventi and Trikala Mayor Nikos Sakkas for their collaboration and support.