The Cypriot Fiddler: The Oral History of a Professional Class in the Twentieth Century (in Greek: Ο Κύπριος βιολάρης: Η προφορική ιστορία μιας επαγγελματικής τάξης στον εικοστό αιώνα) was published by Psifides Publishing (Εκδόσεις Ψηφίδες) in Thessaloniki in 2022.

The book uses much of the same material that is also used in the documentary, but expands it in a significant way. Given that the use of different recording technologies is not prohibitive in the writing of a book, and that time constraints do not apply in the same way as they do in a documentary, the book uses material that was collected during interviews with the fiddlers from 2005 onwards (see Ethnographic Data).

The book is made up of two main narrative strands: the first consists of the musicians’ first-person narratives (their life stories, told in Cypriot Greek); the second comprises short essays in the third person (written in standard Greek), dealing with specific topics relating to their life as fiddlers (e.g., how they learned to play, what their place in society was, what their repertoire was, etc.). The first-person narratives move chronologically, from the oldest musician (born in 1913) to the youngest (born in 1951). We hear the voices of nineteen musicians, who appear in eighteen chapters (two musicians give a joint interview). The book is written in a way that allows the two narrative strands to be read separately, as well as jointly; for instance, one reader may only wish to read the first-person narratives, whereas another may only wish to read the third-person essays.

The main parts of the book are preceded by a short preface (called ‘Taksim’), and a longer introduction, which lays out the historical and social context for the book. At the end of the book there are five Appentices, dealing, among other things, with ethnographic data, the different parts of a traditional Cypriot wedding, the fiddlers’ repertoire, etc.

Although the book touches upon a variety of ethnographic, social, cultural and theoretical issues, it is written in an accessible manner and can be read by both the academic and the lay reader.

In order to purchase the book, please click here.