The Smyrna song, but also the music of the East in general, did not suddenly appear in Greece after the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

At least half a century earlier, we had the timid at first, but quickly growing presence of the 'café-aman.' In a society culturally divided, with most of the wealthy bourgeois pretending to possess a Europeanized culture and gathering in self-proclaimed theaters, enjoying whatever troupe was left over from the provinces of Italy and Germany, and on the other hand the simple Greeks (with a capital E), who for various reasons, either professional or familial, inhabited the urban areas of the relatively new Greek state, and who saw no reason to replace their traditional musical heritage with something that seemed at least foreign to them and left them indifferent.

Who were then the patrons of these taverns? We believe that the balance tilted towards the second category of citizens for many reasons.

(. . .) [Excerpt from the introduction of the publication]