Lute (laouto) made by Christos Tofas, Greece (Athens), 2012

Lute (laouto) made by Christos Tofas, Greece (Athens), 2012 (2018.588)
“Liaskos,” traditional Greek piece
Performed by Vasilis Kostas

[@vageeshajm990]

Whole time, I worried about the vase.

[@user-qr2gd7me6c]

The vase is in a sturdy, plexiglass display case. What looks like a pipe or metal vertical rod is the corner of the display case.

[@soulbot119]

it's forced perspective, the vase is actually 10 metres behind the player and quite safe

[@marinamucci7035]

How I like instrumental greek music! Αυτό το κομμάτι είναι απλά υπέροχο! Usually everything is fine until someone starts to sing 😅

[@levelstothis4919]

Yeah…they’re not very good singers when it comes to these scales. Their language doesn’t let them sing in these scales because the Greek language doesn’t have too many tying words to use in their lyrics. UNBIASDELY the Arvanite-Albanian language dialect or the Gheg Albanian language dialect can pull out the true beauty in these scales.

[@stefanosstefos]

@@levelstothis4919 go learn some history before you speak as an idiot. These scales are Greek music and Greek language is the most versatile to express everything in total difference with Alabanian language which noone knows where it derives from.

[@Ximki]

This is really amazing.

[@levelstothis4919]

E bukur per bes. Por na kane marr melodit tona Arvanite (muzika e jona e lashte) e ata i kane helenizua muziken tone dhe e perfektuan muziken tone me instrumentet e tyne. Ata e moren nje’ate qe ashte e jona dhe e perfeksionuan. Greket kurr nuk i nderojne origjinen e kesaj muzike. KURR. E turpshme dhe turp per ta.

[@bigstanko7391]

@@levelstothis4919 You are the ones who don't honor the real origin of the things you stole, seljuk.

[@teovag2]

Ο Βασίλης Κώστας. παίζει τον ''Λιάσκο'', με λαούτο κατασκευασμένο από τον Χρήστο Τόφα!!!!!!!! Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

[@dongshen5477]

Wonderful performance!!

[@maroulio2067]

beautiful!

[@coloretlumen5281]

Ποιος δε ζήλεψε τέτοιο όργανο και τέτοιο παίξιμο!!!!

[@user-rk1mn4kh3p]

Στο κουβεντιαστό!...Του μιλάει κι αυτό αναποκρίνεται...Έτσι,για να περάσουν ευχάριστα την ώρα τους!...

[@DavesRiffage]

Wow, I didn't know Justin Trudeau was such a kickass laouto player LOL

[@user_athana]

Απο τα καλυτερα τραγουδια με ηχο απο ενα απο τα ωραιωτερα οργανα...

[@mariasikioti1953]

ΞΕΡΩ. ΑΓΑΠΗ. ΜΟΥ. ΤΙ. ΣΟΥ. ΛΕΩ. 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🌏🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷

[@kasswaiting...]

Is this instrument played in many God of War PS2 soundtracks like: "The Bathroom", "River of Forgotten"...? I'm happy if someone aswers.

[@r.xstudios2391]

I think so

[@levelstothis4919]

Idk if you’re going to see this comment sir. But I think you and many should know the fair origin of these melodies. These are part of a lot of different Hellenized “Arvanite” (Ancient Albanian) melodie’s, that are played in various instruments (clarinet, violin, accordion or the Çifteli). These Melodie’s back in the day were played on any instrument that can pull out the scales and notes we the Albanians were looking for and we capitalized on that, in the Middle Ages. The Greeks were notorious for having created musical instruments that can pull out these scales and notes like any average (guitar, mandolin, piano) BUT these instruments had a tone and flavor/spice to them to bring out more integrity and harmony to the melodies. Yes the Greeks are clever and handy lol. Anyway..to finish off my essay..these melodies have been a stepping block for most of our neighbors’ cultural music (Greece & Macedonia). It’s not acknowledged but it is very true. The scales are all in the Arvanite/Albanian/Illyrian scales. Arvanite or old Albanian music, was a huge influence on mostly Greece’s music for the last going on almost 800 years. FACT. We’ve been in and out of Greece since the 13th century. So it wouldn’t be of surprise. A lot of Gheg Albanians moved down into the Greek Islands, all the way south due to a natural disaster right around the 13th century. We’ve been in the Balkans ever since the Etruscans existed and prior to that. So..thought it would be fair to let all of you know. Cheers.

[@JesusDelCampo]

What's the tuning?

[@theodeborbamoosburger4903]

Cc-Gg-Dd-aa top to bottom, second (G) string is the lowest one

[@ShadowoftheDude]

It's a mando-lute!

[@renebleu3542]

Excellent !!! What is its tuning please ?

[@johnkostakis4973]

A D G C

[@edutorne3266]

But some of them are an octave apart right? It’s cc Gg Dd aa? Capital letter being one octave lower. If someone knows for certain please confirm

[@maestrokarajan7889]

@@edutorne3266 aa dd Gg Cc

[@maestrokarajan7889]

Sorry!!! aa Dd Gg Cc!

[@JThemelis]

@@edutorne3266 i am also a US based laouto player of the traditional island style, which is a little different than this style… im planning a channel and videos to teach and discuss that a bit more.. The tuning here is (looking at the face of the lute from left to right, or ‘low to high’ when thinking of most stringed instruments): Cc Gg Dd aa (3 octaves and 1 unison course), utilizing a re-entrant tuning. Like a uke, Cool, right? This tuning - which ‘backwards’ from the guitar, provides countless opportunities for various styling interpretations. The laouto is traditional, but at the same time popular in Greek music, though most folks have no idea the difference between it, the bouzouki, and the oud. I play all styles, mostly strummed, but i have focused on various Greek island styling which has a very strong history and varies from island group to island group.. It can be plucked, strummed, rhythmic and percussive all in one… Vasilis is an EXCEPTIONAL player, a wonderful person to speak with, is full of passion.. kudos to his work. I hope to join him in this movement to bring awareness of this instrument (as well as others) to the masses, and not just to those interested solely in Greek/Balkan music.. its so interesting, i think, to see, listen to, and learn about all musical instruments.

[@Altaykaan1]

Are they nylon strings ?

[@nurettinbaygibi]

Yok metal

[@user-ws2su5ox6c]

ходят слухи что этот инструмент был в Молдавии но это не точно

[@dragosmihai3140]

Can anyone tell me where to buy such an instrument? Thank you.

[@dorosgoulios9642]

this instrument is totaly greek... you can find it only in greece... there are many luthiers who can manufacture the greek lagouto...

[@jorgensteiner1013]

@@dorosgoulios9642 no no, I have to disagree on that, laouto, λαγούτο, laut, lude or whatevere it can be called, it's not only greek, as all musical instruments. but you can find it also there. people trade sounds, goods, words(sounds) and everything that make their life better. they have been doing it since 150.000 years ago, or so.

[@theodeborbamoosburger4903]

As Doros Goulios said, it's found only in Greece. Other traditional Greek instruments are shared with neighbouring countries (such as the oud and the saz), but the laouto is very peculiar to Greek folk music. It isn't even widespread in urban music (e.g. rebetika music never uses laouto). There are two types of laouto, the mainland or island, which is the one presented in this video, and a lower and slightly larger one, the Cretan laouto, used mainly in Crete. There are webstores that sell laouto and other Greek instruments. I have a laouto made by the luthier Giannis Alexandris, from Thessaloniki. Don't expect to find cheap laouto, they are exclusively handcrafted and the cheaper ones will cost around 600-800 euros. A good one is more than 1000 euros. A good online store is the bouzouki shop from Athens. I have visited this shop in Athens and can tell you they have a good selection of instruments made by good luthiers.

[@theodeborbamoosburger4903]

@@jorgensteiner1013 no, you are wrong. 'lute" is a general denomination for a whole family of instruments. Laouto is a particular instrument used only in Greece. No one is claiming it is purely Greek or its origins are purely Greek, but this specific instrument which is tuned in fifths and has four double steel strings with reentrant tuning is peculiar to Greek folk music. As Foivos Anogianakis has said, it can bear elements from both the oud family (namely it's body shape) and from the wide family of the tambouras or saz family, especially the reentrant tuning and some aspects of left hand technique that resemble tambouras-saz playing. 150.000 is a ridiculous exageration. Unless you consider anything with a plucked string and a sound bowl the same thing as modern traditional laouto, no, you are absolutly wrong. Obsession with pure ancestry is as harmfull as obsession with the complete erasing of ethnic peculiarities. Some things are borrowed, some things are original; some elements can be shared, other elements can be distinctive of a certain region. And the laouto is very Greek.

[@jorgensteiner1013]

@@theodeborbamoosburger4903 yes I gladly have to agree with you, that speaking in that detail it can be taken as a greek instrument. And about the 150.000 years of trading and exchanging, I was speaking very generally of cultural interaction. Just a misunderstanding. : )

[@1964Byron]

Why a lute player playing Middle Eastern / Arabic music is presented in a context of Greek art, especially classical. I know that a lot of Greeks still listen to this music today but this music was never Greek to begin with. Herodotus wrote about that distinct sound-color he heard in his trip to Egypt and called it ‘Amane’. => Greeks lived under Muslim Ottomans for almost 400 years and believe me those were not the happiest of times. Bear in mind that Greek speaking population in Byzantine times was 11 to 13 million and 400 years after the Ottomans took over, 2 mil were left in Greece and 1 in Asia Minor. => When in the middle ages all nations in Europe were building the musical or cooking palettes the Ottomans did not allow schools or universities, neither any communication with the rest of Europe. So the Greeks took what was readily available to them. The Ottoman music and cuisine which they were both Arabic anyway. => Well, I like much of this style of music just as I like Latin music, the Mali Blues, Spanish Flamencos and so on. None of them is Greek though and it saddens me to be presented as such.

[@thehabibis8292]

Thias not arabic as such... it is close to Byzantine music - and old Balkan music - Greek music is within a musical spectrum...

[@1964Byron]

@@thehabibis8292 => To begin with there is no Balkan music. Actually here is not such a thing as Balkan. “Balkan” was a term first used by the British and then by all western allies AFTER 1946 to describe Slavic nations belonging to the Soviet bloc. Some of those nations were also under Ottoman rule and themselves were affected to some extend by Middle Eastern sounds of the Ottomans. => Byzantine music on the other hand, which is basically church music, is a totally different story. It was firstly a continuation of ancient Greek rhythm patterns and singing styles and for the first centuries of the Empire was under development as a new/different identity. This continues up to the 7-9th century where the Byzantines because of the disputes with the Catholics decide to drop anything that connects the two sides of the Roman Empire and that included music as well. So the Catholics on one hand continued the ancient Greek singing style and the Byzantines decide to adopt Middle Eastern singing styles just to be different from the Catholics (Huge and idiotic mistake if you ask me). => Even without any music studies or musicology knowledge involved, anyone with a decent hearing can hear and distinguish the difference of the Byzantine (religious) singing style before and after 6th and 7th centuries.

[@thehabibis8292]

@@1964Byron Whatever... no point in discussing any further with you - as nothing begets nothing

[@1964Byron]

@@thehabibis8292 Oh I agree with you that nothing positive can come out from a conversation in TouTube. It’s just that sometimes I forget that I'm in KZbin