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Rembetika Rembetika is a music of the Greek underworld which originated during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the great port cities of Greece and the Ottoman Empire - chiefly Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Constantinople (Istanbul) and Smyrna. The music can be basically divided into two types: the Smyrnaic and the Pireotic. The Smyrnaic featured the violin, the lavoudo (lute) or guitar, and the santuri. This music was played by professionals and reached high standards in the Cafes Aman of the period, where it was performed both indoors and outdoors. After the Greco-Turkish war in 1922, most of the leading composers and performers of the Smyrnaic school came to Greece as refugees. The Pireaus School of Rembetika began as an underground music in prisons and other relatively isolated places. It featured the "bouzouki", and its smaller relative the "baglamas". The early performers of this style were usually self-taught singing these underworld songs in a tough style. Artists associated with rembetika are composers such as Vassilis Tsitsanis, Manos Hadjidakis and performers such as Stelios Kazantzides, Grigoris Bithikotsis and Sotiria Bellou. Today, Rembetika is back on the scene, and can be heard in clubs, and tavernas all over Greece. Check that you understand what these words mean in this document To feature: to include as an important part. Refugee: a person who has escaped from his own country usually for political reasons or because of a war. For further information visit: History of Rembetika Music Rembetika