"Famous Macedonia" («Μακεδονία ξακουστή») is a Greek military march that is derived from a traditional Greek folk song written in 1910. It is often regarded as the regional anthem of Greek Macedonia,[1] and had been used as the marching song of the Hellenic Army since the Balkan Wars.
Until the recent introduction of 24-hour programming, it also marked the end of radio programs on the local Macedonian channel (Radio Makedonia102 FM"), played before the Greek national anthem.
It is written in Dorian scale, in iambic 15-syllable. The beat is 2/4 and it can be danced as a Hasapiko. It can be performed in conjunction with the Macedonia dance. In addition, the lyrics refers to Alexander the Great, who is the progenitor of the Greek Macedonians.
Origin
The origin of the march is not certain. According to an ethnographic study conducted in villages in Serres and Drama,[citation needed] the song wasn't known or danced to in the area. Women from Ano Oreini and Petrousa attribute the Greek lyrics and the teaching of the dance to an anonymous teacher after World War II. Women from Petrousa claim that the melody of the song is a modification of a local malady of theirs, which was made "somewhere more centrally", and they dance to a similar melody with Slavic lyrics and different steps, similar to those of other local traditional dances.[citation needed]
The musicologist Markos Dragoumis found a cassette with Ladino songs of Thessaloniki, which included the melody of the song, as a composition made for the opening of the Schola de la Alianza, the first Jewish school of Thessaloniki, in 1873. Dragoumis guesses that it was either composed for the opening of the school and later was transmitted to the groups in the area, or it was originally composed in the middle of the 19th century by some Western composer for the Ottoman Sultan and later used by the Jewish communities.[citation needed]
According to the Greek Army's website, it is a military march or emvatirio based on the traditional Makedonikos choros, which is related with Acrítes of Byzantium.[2]
𝄆 O, Famous Macedonia,
the land of Alexander, 𝄇
𝄆 You've repelled the Barbarians,
now liberated you are. 𝄇
𝄆 You were Greek and you are still Greek,
'tis the pride of ev'ry Greek, 𝄇
𝄆 We sons and daughters of the Greek,
'tis for you a holy wreath. 𝄇
𝄆 Let not the Macedonians
succumb to slavery, 𝄇
𝄆 Even if they lose ev'rything,
their freedom remains holy! 𝄇
𝄆 O, youthful Macedonians
let us dance and celebrate, 𝄇
𝄆 Before you enter this bleak world,
and the hеlls you'll penetrate. 𝄇
References
^Roudometof, V. (2002). Collective Memory, National Identity and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question. Greenwood Press. p. 81. ISBN0-275-97648-3.
