A Melodic Journey Through the Music of 1821

The exhibition transports us to the era of the Greek War of Independence, as well as to the period that preceded it — a time of fervent preparation. It was an era in which dynamic writers and poets of the diaspora, Philhellenes, and the oppressed inhabitants of this corner of the multicultural and internally divided Ottoman Empire converged on a revolutionary path.

This path was filled with sounds and music: marches composed and disseminated across Europe and the Balkans, and folk songs that narrated both personal and collective conflicts. These works, both named and anonymous, drew on old and familiar rhythms and have survived to the present day as poetic narratives of history, both intimate and grand, and as agents in the formation of modern Greek identity.

Within the framework of the exhibition, and through its musical journey, visitors are invited to take part in an experience of observation, discovery, action and auditory enjoyment; to experience feelings of joy and sorrow, enthusiasm and spiritual uplift. They are invited to join in the “game” of listening, to reflect, perhaps to be moved, and ultimately to become part of a gathering that, both within the Museum’s galleries and beyond them, will softly sing verses and melodies.