Mantinadas (song verses) at Korfes

Two books have already been published regarding the mantinada in Korfes (2004 and 2006), and two pan-Cretan mantinada competitions have been held with the themes of "hope" in 2005 and "peak" in 2006. Original photographic material from traditional festivities in Korfes has been published in the exact editions.

Mantinadas in Korfes is a product of collective poetic expression. It is related to the company and the events in the cycle of everyday life, in addition to scheduled entertainment. The “mantinades” maintain the liveliness and the element of communication between the people of the village. In a group, the rapid alternation of the mantinada helped people to develop a philosophical discussion on a topic that was each time determined by the first mantinada. Respect for the issue was an inviolable term. The change of subject, the "derailed (xetroxaliazo)" as it was called, was a misdemeanour and a cause of relaxation of the feast and displeasure of the revellers. Only after the exhaustion of a topic with an intermediate mantinada did the transition to another topic take place, for example, from "love" to "hope". The constant alternation in the mantinades with absolute respect for the topic created a polite rivalry among the company since everyone was anxious to say the most appropriate mantinada that he improvised immediately to answer the previous one. So, it was a poetic struggle of speech. The people of Korfes have experienced it as a "battle of the mantinada"… The flying of the hand was an aggressive move. It was the intention. The statement that there is a mantinada that beats the previous one. Usually, there were many hands raised high….

While the organ player was playing the lyre or the mandolin, the mantinada was heard recited. However, it correctly integrated into the musical motif, and the continuous alternation of the purpose followed. The expression-prompt to the lyre player is typical, e.g. "play us from twenty", meaning repeating the score at least twenty times. The playing of the score for, i.e. twenty mandatory times and only then to stop the company of friends for a break. In the broader area of ​​western Malevizi and upper Mylopotamos, the people of Korfes had the reputation of singing the mantinades "kouvediasta"… Therefore, the mantinada was the dominant element of the Korfes group of friends. At the same time, the melody, i.e. the score, which the organ played without a minor role, was adapted and somehow selected so that the company could say as many mantinades as possible.

For this reason, the scores that were created or played and then sung in Korfes were mainly "the chymatics", i.e. the kontylia or the slow pentozali, as most people know. The “ chymatic “ scores make it possible to alternate the mantinada. Thus, the motif is short, but the mantinada is also said in two times, while in the syrta (slow), each mantinada is sung in four times.

(See Manolis M. Papyrakis (doctor), The Mantinada in Korfes, Rethymno 2004).