Piperakis Harilaos

Harilaos Piperakis is from Crete, where he was born in 1890. He emigrated in 1908 and for decades traveled across the country as a musician, entertaining at dances and weddings in Cretan-American communities. He claims to have begun recording around 1930 and to have been on the first to record Cretan music. Today he lives in retirement, traveling between California and his son’s home in Austin, Texas. “Siteiako” means simply a dance from Sitiea. The dance is a pentozali, or five-step. They lyra, a three stringed viol played vertically, is of Turkish origin. The words to
“Siteiako” are especially lovely: “Oh, the light of my eyes. Why does it go dark when I hear my darling’s voice? Where could I find a flower garden to resemble your beautiful walk and grace? I gave you my heart, the essence of my body; but then you took my mind. I gave you my heart, but I was foolish, not asking if others had made you the same gift. I don’t want it back; another will be given to me.”