From Danube to the Aegean: Veronika Varga’s Journey into Greek Music

Written by Sotiris Bekas

As a member of Babra, Veronika Varga plays bass in one of Hungary’s best folk music bands, which has emerged on Budapest’s music scene over the past 10 years. Their repertoire includes songs and melodies from the traditions of South Slavs settled along the banks of the Danube, offering a fresh approach to this music, with the tamburica, clarinet, and accordion taking center stage.

It’s not the first time a Hungarian band has turned to this type of music for inspiration. Interest in neighboring cultures and their influence on Hungarian music dates back to the 1970s and the táncház movement, with the Vujicsics being a characteristic example in the realm of Slavic music.

Just a few weeks ago (December 2024), Babra released their latest album, described by the band as a “distillation” of the last 100 years of tamburica music.

However, Slavic melodies are not the only focus of the band’s bassist and singer, Veronika Varga. In recent years, she has shifted her attention to Greek music, which she has been studying methodically and has recently begun incorporating into her personal productions.

Varga has always been interested in the different “dialects” of Hungarian music, as well as the influences and musical cultures of neighboring countries such as Serbia and Romania, especially when these stem from the Balkan Peninsula or further east.

How she first became interested in Greek music might be unclear even to her, leaving the explanation to instinct. However, her studies in folk music at the Liszt Academy certainly play a significant role in shaping her interests. A pivotal moment was her first trip to Greece as a student during an Erasmus program. Determined to broaden her knowledge of Greek music, she decided to attend classes at the Department of Folk and Traditional Music at the TEI of Epirus in Arta.

She credits the warm and welcoming environment she encountered, as well as the behavior of the people, as significant factors in her journey. Earlier, in Hungary, she had already received some recommendations to explore rebetiko and other genres of Greek music. Still, Varga felt the need to immerse herself in this knowledge and embark on her own exploration. In Arta, she began learning and performing Greek songs, welcoming the generous support of those she met there.

Since then, over eight years have passed, during which Varga has studied and engaged with Greek music, incorporating it into her daily life. She focuses on contemporary singers but does not ignore older generations, particularly voices from the early 20th century, seeking to understand their timelessness.

On this artistic journey, she still considers herself a student and often turns to Greek colleagues she admires to learn more, such as Yiannis Dionysiou. She is also fond of the voices of Panagiotis Tournas and Areti Ketime, particularly because they remind her of a “Turkish-style” sound.

Having begun to publish her interpretations of Greek songs, she is especially pleased when she receives feedback from Greeks, saying her versions help them discover new dimensions in songs they already knew from older recordings.

Her goal, however, is to find her own musical color and style through these interpretations, approaching Greek music both emotionally and by studying the Greek language.

A few weeks ago, she shared a video of her take on a song from the Dodecanese, famously sung by Anna Karabesini: “Ti Thalassa ti Galani” (“The Blue Sea”). This song provided the spark she needed to begin studying island music, as until then, her focus had been on music from Epirus, Smyrnaic songs, or rebetiko.

In the workshops she conducts on Greek repertoire in Budapest, she introduced the theme of island songs. While researching a list of songs, she discovered this one. She was drawn to its lyrics, the symbolism of the sea’s power—which so closely identifies with Greece—and felt the song conveyed a beautiful image. She immediately knew she wanted to perform it a cappella with other voices from her workshop group, consisting of Hungarian singers and students from the Liszt Academy.

The idea took shape and was visualized in a video featuring a choral interpretation. The video’s setting contrasts with the song’s content, as it was filmed in a garden at the Budapest University of Fine Arts, reflecting what such a song might mean to an artistic group from Hungary within a local cultural context.

As for what Greek music ultimately means to her, Veronika Varga explained to folkradio.gr:

This endeavor gives me the right to be myself; it grants me freedom and a sense of nostalgia. It may sound a bit strange because I haven’t lived in Greece for long, and not at all in Smyrna, but there’s something in this music that brings me feelings of familiarity. Perhaps it’s like I’ve known it forever—a smile but also tears. Greek music means to me what I find in Greeks: their character, their mind, and their temperament.

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