"Next to people who played traditional musical instruments, sang and danced, the material presented here I did not simply know, but I experienced it, mixed with images, tastes, smells and above all with rich and profound emotions on the collective experience that unites the participants of an old but always alive musical language. So, in writing, I tried not to sterilize the experience, not to betray its dynamics, but to evoke in every case the whole range of sounds, and even more so, the functions served by the rhythms that I gather in this presentation. That is why rhythmic patterns are matched to dance types: I do not consider, of course, that they are identical, but I choose to keep this naming practice, which is a rule among folk musicians, in order to serve the need for reduction to the universal experience that accompanies folk music. This experience, the lived experience, was the starting point for composing this book. I hope this experience will also be its destination."

Lefteris Pavlou