Entechna

Entechna (έντεχνα, 'artistic') is the Greek art-song tradition that arose in the late 1950s, when composers including *Manos Hadjidakis* and *Mikis Theodorakis* set the work of major Greek poets — Seferis, Elytis, Ritsos, Kavvadias — to orchestral music drawing on Greek folk melody and rhythm. It was conceived as an elevated counterpart to popular laiko, and its song cycles, from Theodorakis's "Epitaphios" and "Axion Esti" to Hadjidakis's "Gioconda's Smile", became central documents of modern Greek culture. Singers such as *Maria Farantouri*, *George Dalaras* and *Haris Alexiou* gave the repertory its canonical voices.