Corfu Blues and Global Views: Zagori: Sacred Groves; ΄Ιερά δάση

Monday 13 June 2016

Zagori: Sacred Groves; ΄Ιερά δάση

Thanks to Charmagne for the introduction today

Magical sounds and some great songs!

Peter Annear, at Mikro Papingo

Peter and Frances Annear from Mikro Papingo and Wedmore shared this link today

Peter Annear on Soundcloud

NB the sound collage The Papingo Suite, No 1, Village Life, Sunday Morning

Eleni's Goats, Mikro Papingo

Zagorohorio Ambience

The Flight of the Papingo Bee

The Aweful Innocence Of Distant Bells And Voices Εικόνες Για Το Αυτί

I am reminded of a poem (Dry-stone Hideaway, Vitsa) I wrote in Vitsa back in 1983, which included these lines:

"Unique , the quality of quiet: monastic isichea.

We hear the basil breathe and grow;

Wake with cattle-bells; cockerel's crow".

Frances Annear, Exploring Papingo - highly recommended!

Frances Annear, at Mikro Papingo

Stara, K. (2012). Trees and the sacred in modern Greece. Langscape (Terralingua), Sacred Natural Sites: Sources of Biocultural Diversity, (2):11, 60-63.

From Protothema:

"An effort to survey the groves began in 2003 with financial support from the Greek Ministry of Environment and the EU. A new interdisciplinary project based at the University of Ioannina that aims to study the biocultural value of the groves is titled “Conservation through Religion: the Sacred Groves of Epirus” (SAGE, 2012-2015). A total of 38 social and natural scientists from Greece and abroad have been involved in this project that has received the local community’s positive interest".

"A chapel dedicated to the Transfiguration/Metamorphosis of Christ and its associated belfry oak in Vitsa":

Photo from protothema

The Sacred Forests of the villages of Zagori and Konitsa

"In the mountains of Northwest Greece Sacred Natural Sites constitute distinctive features of the cultural landscapes of the area. These are either groves or groups of ancient trees around chapels or sacred forests".

Pdf file - Τα μεγαλειώδη δέντρα του Ζαγορίου και της Κόνιτσας, Καλλιόπη Στάρα

Τα αιωνόβια δέντρα του Ζαγορίου: τόποι ιστορικής αναφοράς και σύµβολα ιερότητας

Religion and the Management of the Commons. The Sacred Forests of Epirus

See also: Stara, K. (2012). Trees and the sacred in modern Greece. Langscape (Terralingua), Sacred Natural Sites: Sources of Biocultural Diversity, (2):11, 60-63.

From Frixos Tziovas: "Axion Esti, To Chroniko enos Dentrou" -

Frances Annear, Exploring Papingo: Faith, festival and foraging

Other soundscapes:

Voices from the land - talk by Dr. Bernie Krause

"An early pioneer in the field of soundscape ecology a sub-category of ecoacoustics, Krause introduced a number of terms and concepts into the discipline to further define the sources of sound within the soundscape. They include geophony, the first sounds heard on earth consisting of non-biological natural sounds such as the effect of wind in trees or grasses, waves at the ocean or lakeshore, or movement of the earth. The second acoustic source is called biophony, the collective signature produced at one time by all sound-producing organisms in a given habitat. The third, and last of these elements is referred to as anthropophony, or human-generated acoustic signatures. Some of these are controlled sound, such as music, theatre, or language. While a large percentage consists of incoherent or chaotic sound, referred to as noise. The first and last terms were implemented along with colleague, Stuart Gage, Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University.In addition, Krause introduced the concept of the Acoustic Niche Hypothesis, the idea that vocal organisms in a healthy habitat, tend to establish acoustic or temporal bandwidth in which to vocalize unimpeded by the signatures of others"(Wikipedia).

The River Dart, Devon - a poetic soundscape, Alice Oswald

Dart (abridged), a film based on the poem

"Over a decade ago, poet Alice Oswald began recording conversations with the people who live and work along the river Dart. In her subsequent book-length poem, these records formed the characters in a sound-map of the river, a songline from the source to the sea".

Sample film scene

"One of the great celebrants of the genius loci, the spirit of place... lovingly elaborated topographical lore". David Wheatley, Guardian review

Thomas Hardy, from The Return of the Native:

From Under the Greenwood Tree:

"To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir–trees sob and moan no less distinctly than they rock; the holly whistles as it battles with itself; the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall. And winter, which modifies the note of such trees as shed their leaves, does not destroy its individuality".

The Girt Woak Tree, William Barnes

Binsey Poplars, Gerard Manley Hopkins

Brits need to reconnect with ancient woodlands, MailOnline

Scientists discover grove of 1,000-year-old trees in Greece, MNN