Arrangement by Farya Faraji, with recordings of traditional Clarinet playing by Greek musicians. Continuing in the series of the Balkan freedom fighters, I wanted to bring attention to some of the most renowned “hajduk” like figures of Greece, called the klephts, and more specifically, those of Mani. I visited Mani last year and fell in love with the regional culture and the incredible landscape. Mani is a harsh, arid land that was always relatively isolated from the rest of the Peleponnese to the north. Pagans still prayed to the Olympian gods there by the 10th century, and it was de facto mostly independent during much of Ottoman rule. Pirate-like clans ruled the land and the surrounding waters, and their presence can still be seen in the stone tower structures of Maniot families which dot the land to this day. Some of the most renowned klephts, like Petros Mavromichalis, were Maniots, and his statue can still be standing to this day in Areopoli. The Maniots speak their own dialect of Greek which shares similarities with Tsakonian, the modern, living (but unfortunately dying) language descended from Doric Greek in Antiquity, and also some similarities with other southern dialects like Cretan. Some have said of Mani: “As a passerby you need three days to see Mani, as a visitor you need three months, but to see her soul you need three lifetimes. One for her sea, one for her mountains and one for her people.” The instrumentation harkens to a sound much like that of the era of the klephts of the 1800’s: a clarinet, a laouto, and typical Greek drums like the bendhir and the darbuka.

As a Maniot, Thank you. So happy you enjoyed Mani. In my dads village we have churches that are 800 years old, and on the stones that the church was made with, there are still pagan markings. They literally tore down the old temples and used the same stones Lmaooo. Geiasou Korona!

I am a Maniot myself. Thank you for recreating a melody about the Maniots.

Greek, Norse, Turkish, Roman literally any song you make my brother is a masterpiece.I'm speechless. Congratulations!!🔥

As a son of a great-grandson of one of them, I greatly appreciated the song! Thank you!

The Maniots were truly an incredible people. They were the last pagans in Greece during the reign of Basil and never surrendered to the Turks. A tribe of true freedom fighters.

This truly was epic. 🇬🇷

There was a phrase that its not wide know to the rest of greeks.Εαν η Μανη έπιπτε,Ελλας κατευοδούτο.it means if Mani would fall the rest of Greece would follow.that's why Hibrahim 3 times tried to conquer Mani peninsula and thrice he failed. Νίκη ή θάνατος, Ταν ή επιτάς

as a neighboring Arcadian Greek, i have nothing but the most profound respect for the maniotes. well done as always, farya!

Very good song respect from Bulgaria

Just finished watching the Kings and Generals documentary on the Greek war of independence, that's some timing.

You really nailed the clarinete in this one. I want you to play at my wedding 😂

Καλύτερα μιας ώρας ελεύθερη ζωή παρά σαράντα χρόνια σκλαβιά και φυλακή

As a Greek this is one of the most interesting time periods to read and know.

Thank you for creating music about the more modern era of Greece. Also check out the shepperd music of Sarakatsani for further inspiration.

I feel extremely attached to the balkans and I feel a profound love for everyone, greek, serbian, albanian, bosnian, croatian, bulgarian, turkish and for our multimillenary history and culture. Basically, we are all cousins, a big crazy familly full of intrigues, dramas , yes that's true but we are a familly and that's something nobody can deny. Big love from Romania to you all!

Oh boy, my parents are from central greece, and since i am a child i loved greek tradicional songs. just by hearing the clarinet in the beginning i had memories of my childhood and a great sense of nostalgia. Thank you, Farya, your work is incredible

From antiquity to the middle ages to modern history farya Faraij triumphs with his pieces excellent work and unique as this one can hit harder to most Greeks because its a closer memory than Alexander or basil,thank you for your great work 🇬🇷💙

I'm waiting for a song like that for some time, and you did it. Nice work ⚔️✊🏻🫳🏻🇷🇴 🇬🇷 More warrior's songs!!!!

"Our Basileus (Constantine XI) died in battle. He never signed any treaty with the Turks. And our King's guard has always been in war with the Turks since then. And some fortresses never surrendered. The English captain then asked me "who are this Royal Guard, which are these fortresses?" And i answered him, "the Royal Guard are the so called Klephts, the Basileus's fortresses are MANI, Souli and the Greek mountains". General Theodoros Kolokotronis. I have waited so much for an epic song for the Greek War of Independence and the Greek freedom fighters! And once again you did an excellent job! Congratulations and well done!

The clarinet playing is magic

Великий уклін тобі, за твою роботу Фар'я. По нам стріляли "шахеди", але Слава Богу всі живі здоров.

Yet another amazing Greek composition by Farya

beautiful song! i love greek music and mediterranean in general, it would be awesome to see a bavarian song on here

Bravo!!!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽Thank you Farya for your hard work!!! Привет братьям грекам. Hello greek brothers!!! γεια σας αδερφια ελληνες!!!🇬🇷❤🇷🇺

Amazing song!!! Still waiting for a Spanish themed one!! 🙏🏻🇪🇦

third day of listening to this on repeat. holy fucking banger.

your timing is fucking ethereal. came across this literally just as i was considering the mani peninsula as a decently important location in a story of mine. this is going on the vibe list, very nice clarinet shredding

Last Spartans , Great music as always

The " Tsakonika" was one of the Permanent " Tagmata '" ( battalion s)of the Byzantine empire made up from Tsakones and stationed in Costandinopole

Listening this masterpiece while sipping my Turkish coffee ❤

Incredible work, once again! 🔫⚔️🔫 Long live Mani!

Não conhecia esse povo maniota, realmente é uma história única. Resistiram ao poder do tempo e mesmo durante o Império Bizantino, continuaram a manter as antigas práticas pagãs gregas até o século X! Intrigante, vou pesquisar mais acerca deles.

Excellent! You never fail to do a bang-up job. Πολύ φοβερό!!!

Thank you brother 🇬🇷❤⚔

J'adore vos musiques, j'espère un jour voir la sortie d'un album

Im American but half greek an love it 🇬🇷💪💪💪💪

Great blend mate. Even to this day, the Maniates are the toughest mofos you can find.

Thank you always for all the great music

Farya's music is guaranteed to be bangers!

Your music takes me back in time.

Great work as always

As always amazing work. Your dedication to your craft and music can be seen to all the videos you make. I'm especially happy whenever you cover any type of greek music, traditional or not since I'm greek myself and I feel it's a great part of our culture that not many people know unless they visit the country themselves. Again thank you for your hard work and keep at 😁😁😁

My Great great grandfather was from mani and his name was Leonidas, thank you for this amazing song

Always Amazing..Awesome channel ❤

Always a treat!

Hi bro! i love so much your content it's simply amazing, the fact you give to know to the world different cultures by their music and art is excepcional. Thanks for that. I wonder if you have contemplate to bring us any south american precolombine cultuure? would be amazing. Greetings from Chile

I love your music a lot, I have a playlist with your music❤

Otro gran Trabajo Farya! Eres un maestro 👏👏👏

Damn what an epic song about this tribe

Amazing track. I hope the Souliotes are somewhere on the list too. I might be biased, though, being an Epirote.

What incredibile timing, my dna test results came back recently, not only am i completely homogenous, i’m also strongly linked with people in the peloponnese.

Wonderful, thank you.

amazing as always farya! also, i have a suggestion. since you now have almost 94k subscribers, i think you should do a q&a video when you reach 100k. that would be great :) much love from turkey

Τρομερός! Τώρα κάνε και ένα από Στερεά Ελλάδα και έχεις συμπληρώσει κάθε περιοχή! Δεν υπάρχεις φίλε...

love it

congratulations yet again!

Thank you

This is brilliant Farya!

Fantastic stuff, from Kalamata

You did it! Waited so long for klephts, and this piece lived up to all my expectations. Which hajduks are next?

Toujours nous impressionnes😊et navons dela joie😊.

farya it would be really cool to see some sephardic jewish music! great composition as always today btw

i suggest to you to make a version of the song ''ΜΑΝΑ ΜΟΥ ΤΑ ΚΛΕΦΤΟΠΟΥΛΑ'' it should be great

Great!!

I know you get this all the time (song requests) but I do have an idea for one Either a symphony, or a song. This is what I suggest for you. Heraclius the Basileus Symphony: 1. Overture: The Eastern Roman Empire - Maurice 2. Overthrown - Maurice is Overthrown, music sounds hopeful, as Phocas overthrew him 3. Phocas: - Has an “evil” like sound to it in a minor key, and with some notes just out of place. The reason for this is that he was entirely random with how he did stuff like most Tyrants 4. War with the Sassanids - Begins with a Persian Tune, as it was Khosrow who declared war on Phocas, the Persian music is louder (mostly) than the Byzantines symbolizing that they are winning the war, and staying somewhat of a background tune. 5. Phocas Overthrown by Heraclius - Begins in a minor key to a key change to more of a major key they begin to hear the first part of Nineveh Symphony, This music ends off with a prayer like Psalm 135 before moving on to… 6: Heraclius’ war with Khosrow - Mostly on the side of the Byzantines. With bouts of Sassanid music. Shows Heraclius Winning his battles and ending off with the victory at Nineveh. 7: Heraclius returns Triumphant -Major, somewhat following Thermopylae and Heraclius’s Victory 8: The Letter - For context, Muhammad sent Heraclius a letter asking him to convert to Islam So kind of like Gaivs Ivlivs Caesar it repeats itself until all music stops to go too... 9: Rejection Ominous and Arabic music begin to play this portrays that if Heraclius had accepted he would be safe if he had converted. 10: Muslim Invasions Both Sassanid, Byzantine, and Islamic music begins to play portraying the the somewhat alliance between the Romans and Persians. 11: Yarmouk - The Byzantine battle of Yarmouk takes place and it starts off with a sluggish (kind of) rhythm which symbolizes the Byzantines being tired to fight due to the Persian wars. Then it quickly falls out off hand 12: Heraclius’ Failure Quiet beat with a depressing end like Carrhae. 13: Everything Everything Heraclius fought for had now lost and a quiet weep of prayer can be heard in the background 14: Death Depressing overall, as he had lost everything. The end This is just a suggestion. I do hope you take this into consideration, and sorry about grammar and spelling, I did this on my phone.

Bravo !

Γεια σου φίλεFarya❤,toujours LP

ΠΟΛΥ ΚΑΛΟΣ!

Absolutely haunting and beautiful. Do one for Souli, please 😄🙏

Αγαπώ πολύ την Ελλάδα ❤

good as usual

Great

Every song you make is a masterpiece! Can you make Bulgarian song like ,,Boqt nastana"" or ,,Stani stani unak Balkanski"?

The ultimate fuck around and find out people

Holy shit! Why wasn't I recommended this earlier!

god DAMN this one goes hard

This is a banger

Γεια και χαρά σας Μοραϊτες αδερφοί Και 'σεις κοπέλες γεια σας Τη 'λευτεριά η Ελλάδα μας Χρωστάει στη λεβεντιά σας Γεια και χαρά σας Μοραϊτες αδερφοί Που μάνα αν δεν σας γέννα Ούτ' Άγια Λαύρα θα 'χαμε ούτε Εικοσιένα Από Καλάβρυτα και Τριφυλία

This song goes hard af.

I don't know as much about Greek history as I should, so unfortunately I do not know the Klephts very well, but nonetheless this is an absolute bop. I'll have to do more research, I suppose, haha!

Squidward wishes he could play clarinet like this lol

One of the most formidable and fearsome pirates of the Mediterranean

Ζήτω η Ελλάς! 🇬🇷☦️

Εύγε !!!

Los descendientes de Esparta !!

It would be interesting for you to explore the more atypical, 19th century Romanian freedom fighters in Transylvania. Primarily the Moți people of Țara Moților, under Avram Iancu. They structured themselves in Roman legions and Tribunes. Such an arrangement could use a multitude of Transylvanian Romanian folk rythms and the sounds of the Carpathian-horn.

Ironic I was just looking up Tsakonion greek, anyway great video as always 👍

Beautiofigl

❤❤

👍🔥

I’m from Karavostasi in Oitylo

I have been doing some research on Hellenic languages and dialects and I was always struck at how Tsakonian and Maniot managed to retain so much of their ancient Doric ways un-interrupted and how both regions always resisted the multiple invasions of the Peloponnese; truly a brave and hardy people.

Yeah, Mani is special. So Klepht literally means thief, bandit. Greece has a long, long tradition of mountain bandits. We do have a lot of mountains, so that helps. They were around quite a bit into the 20th century, still more or less glorified by the common people, having songs sung about them and everything. There is this subgenre of folk songs, the klepht songs, that happens to be my favourite. Epic songs, retelling the glorious deeds of the klephts, much like the akritika songs, but also describing the harshness of their mountain life and their longings. Wonderful stuff. The whole of Balkans is steeped in songs of this kind. Too bad there is a language barrier between me and them.

It reminds me a lot to the tsakonikos, is it based on that kind of music? Also, I thought you would make a piece more like a khasapiko, from Constantinople, glad you proved me wrong and did something that was actually from Morea, more in line with all the Klepht thing, maybe other day you'll do a Constantinopolitan one about the Phanariots

I hear some of this in modern Greek pop music; the male vocal timed to the beat, the wind-instrumented melody the seemingly is going backwards (compared to what we hear in "Western" pop music). I've been wondering which part of Greece this kind of sound is from, although perhaps it is homogenous to all of the Greek έθνος; Here are some searchable examples of what I am trying to say here on YT because I have wondered about this: Τζένη Κατσίγιαννη «Παίρνω τηλέφωνα»

Sounds very similar to the music you would hear around west coast of Turkey which is to be expected considering two nations been living next to each other for a long time

1:15 perfect😍

VICTORY or Death!

This could be played during a party