Bandleaders in Crete: Musicians and entrepreneurs in a Greek island economy

Abstract

Being a “musician” evolves out of a wide range of factors and influences operating through a convergence of social, political and economic forces, which in turn are apprehended by local notions of history, ethnicity, identity and place. The meaning of music and what it means to be a musician is worked out of this nexus of social relations and life chances. A study of the working life of individual musicians in Cretan culture reveals the complexity of their activities within a local musical world, and a number of operating strategies and entrepreneurial skills informing a customised and personalised modus operandi. Musicians have developed niches within the network of relationships that make up the island music system, these niches maintained by local as well as non‐local approaches to music business practice (notions of value and exchange) as the system becomes integrated into international markets and networks. This article offers an insight into the working life of “traditional” musicians in a modernising society, focusing on the work of a single musician, lyra (bowed lute) player and bandleader, Dimitris Paspardkis.

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