The Poetics of the Little Finger : Motor Structures of the Greek Bouzouki in Print and Practice since the 1960s

Abstract

After a long break, I recently found myself revisiting the tactility of the Greek bouzouki—a subject which has tickled my fancy since the early 1990s. My previous study on the motor structures of the three- and four-course bouzouki was primarily concerned with the developments until the late 1960s (Pennanen 1999, 171–83; 2009), but in this paper I shift the analytical focus further towards our time. Here, I will specifically address how bouzouki methods and sheet music editions represent the left- and right-hand technique from the 1960s to the 2010s and, on the other hand, how contemporary professional musicians organise their motor patterns for the three- and four-course bouzouki—occasionally combining the principles of the two layouts. The central issues of this article are the process of modernisation and the impact of the guitar on the bouzouki methods and the left-hand technique. By modernisation I refer to a view, according to which Western elements are means of continuing the tradition rather than changing it. Furthermore, I will observe the gradual shift of bouzouki methods from etic to emic approaches.