Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021)

Subject: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis
From: Felipa
Date: 02 Sep 21 - 06:55 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/02/mikis-theodorakis-composer-political-maverick-zorba-greek-dies-aged-96
Agence France-Presse
Thu 2 Sep 2021

Mikis Theodorakis, Zorba composer and political maverick, dies aged 96

The renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who scored the 1964 classic film Zorba the Greek and was an icon of resistance to the former military junta, has died in Athens, aged 96.

A prolific talent and political maverick, Theodorakis was revered in his home country for his inspirational music and defiance during the junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974.

After the news of his death on Thursday, the Greek flag was flown at half mast at the Acropolis while parliament observed a minute’s silence.

But Theodorakis was perhaps best-known around the world for his film title scores, which also included Z in 1969 and Serpico in 1973. His work ranged from operas to choral music and popular songs, providing a soundtrack to the life of his country.

In recent years, he suffered heart problems, for which he had previously been treated in hospital.

Greece’s culture minister, Lina Mendoni, said: “Today we lost a part of Greece’s soul. Mikis Theodorakis, our Mikis, the teacher, the intellectual, the radical passed away.”

The president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, hailed him as a “pan-Hellenic personality” who was also “a universal artist, an invaluable asset of our musical culture.

“He was given a rich and fruitful life that he lived with passion, a life dedicated to music, the arts, our country and its people, dedicated to the ideas of freedom, justice, equality and social solidarity.”

The prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announcing the three days of national mourning, said during a cabinet meeting: “Mikis Theodorakis is now passing into eternity.

“His voice was silenced and with him the whole of Hellenism was silenced.”

Born into a family of Cretan origin on 29 July 1925 on the northern Aegean island of Chios, Theodorakis joined the resistance against the German and Italian occupation of Greece when he was 17, during the second world war.

After completing music studies in the Paris Conservatory, Theodorakis was elected to parliament as a leftwing deputy in 1964. That year he also scored the theme of Zorba the Greek, to which the actor Anthony Quinn danced the popular sirtaki that went on to be known as the “Zorba dance”.

When a dictatorship seized control of the government in a 1967 coup, Theodorakis was among the first leftwing politicians to be arrested. Pardoned a year later, he was involved in setting up the clandestine Patriotic Front, which led to another detention and a ban on his works.

Even in old age, he maintained an active interest in Greece’s politics and its slide into economic crisis, living largely out of the public eye in a home beneath the Acropolis.

He was highly critical of the former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, whom he accused of betraying his leftwing roots by agreeing to impose EU-mandated austerity reforms after coming to power in 2015.

---

The Very Best of Mikis Theodorakis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl-KMnzq2b4

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Sep 21 - 07:24 PM

WoW.    Probably like many, I had assumed he was already passed!

His music (and particularly his Zorba soundtrack :) was a prominent part of the soundtrack of my 60s teenage years.
And I recall trying to learn the sirtaki dance and perform with the consummate ease of the Greek mates of my Bro, with upper body held up tall - but continually fell over my own feet (even at my Bro's wedding)!!!   
Ah, talk about "Minties Moments" .....


Vale, Mikis.
Hopefully we will hear a resurgence of your wonderful music now.



R-J, in Oz

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis
From: GerryM
Date: 02 Sep 21 - 07:26 PM

The Farantouri performance of the Mauthausen Cantata is heart-breaking in its beauty. It starts at about 2 minutes 50 seconds in this recording.

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Sep 21 - 07:30 PM

One of the really good guys, both inside and outside of music.

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis
From: Felipa
Date: 02 Sep 21 - 08:45 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLgerQJo7zM Theodorakis Farantouri To Yelasto Pedi 1974

Joan Baez recording of The Ballad of Mauthausen by Mikis Theodorakis

there is a link in the comments on the recording noted by Gerry M to this translation to Dari of the first of the two Mauthasen songshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Mmvna5-5U

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis
From: Felipa
Date: 02 Sep 21 - 08:49 PM

I don't know whether that Afghan national song is a translation or if it is different words set to the same air.

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis
From: Felipa
Date: 02 Sep 21 - 08:58 PM

At a Wikipedia Music of Afghanistan article, it says: ""Watan" ("Homeland") by Abdul Wahab Madadi, in Persian. Recorded in 1980, the song samples a Greek song called "Antonis" composed by Mikis Theodorakis.[4] The first line, Watan ishqe tu iftekharam, translates to "My country, my love for you is my honour". Its tone sounds very similar to a national anthem.

footnote 4= War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan: The Ethnographer’s Tale by John Baily

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021)
From: Monique
Date: 03 Sep 21 - 03:40 AM

Me to lichno tou astrou (Με το λύχνο του άστρου) conducted by Mikis Theodorakis himself, soloist Yannis Kotsiras. You'll find the lyrics, transliteration and translation on this Mudcat post,
Live concert, "El canto general", 1993, Poems by Pablo Neruda (Chile, 1904 - 1973), Music Mikis Theodorakis: Algunas bestias, La United Fruit Co, Vegetaciones, Neruda requiem aeternam, Los libertadores, América insurrecta, Nuestra tierra.

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021)
From: GUEST,JHW
Date: 03 Sep 21 - 05:38 AM

Nearly got out my Zorba LP. As with so many past greats you/I still remember it though without. Sorry he's gone.

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 03 Sep 21 - 09:02 AM

I'd enjoyed the soundtracks to "Zorba the Greek" and "Z", but I discovered a recording of "Canto General" in the mid-1970s and it — the poetry of Neruda, the music of Theodorakis, and the voice of Maria Farantouri — totally blew me away.

Alas, THAT particular recording has never been available on CD, but I still have it in a double LP and a friend transferred it to CD for me a few (ten?) years ago.

I had just turned on to my road yesterday afternoon when I heard the news on NPR on Maine Public Radio. I'm pretty sure I first heard "Canto General" on "Morning Pro Musica" on Maine Public Radio all those many years ago.

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021)
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 03 Sep 21 - 09:17 AM

From the NY Times obit —

"In the early 1970s, Greek exiles were fond of sharing a story about an Athens policeman who walks his beat humming a banned Theodorakis song. Hearing it, a passer-by stops the policeman and says, “Officer, I’m surprised that you are humming Theodorakis.” Whereupon the officer arrests the man on a charge of listening to Theodorakis’s music."

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021)
From: Reinhard
Date: 03 Sep 21 - 10:43 AM

Linn, which recording is this? I have five recordings of the Canto General on CD, three of them with Maria Farantouri.

I first heard the Canto General in an open air concert during the women's festival on the town hall square in Hamburg in Summer 1988 with Arja Saijonmaa and Petros Pandis and the Hamburger Sängerhaufen (and I met an aquintance which resulted in me getting the job at Universiät Hamburg where I still am).

A year later having sufficient funds now, I moved from my student flat into a better one. After a few weeks I met the young woman of Spanish descent living in the flat above mine, and asked her if the music I'm playing wasn't too loud. She answered that the Canto General is nice but I should play something else occasionally...

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021)
From: Monique
Date: 03 Sep 21 - 10:56 AM

Live recording of the whole piece sung by Maria Farantouri. (Algunas bestias, Voy a vivir, Los libertadores, A mi partido, Lautaro, Vienen los pájaros, Sandino, Neruda Requiem Eternam, United Fruit Co., Vegetaciones, Amor América, Emiliano Zapata, América insurecta)
I sang it 33 years ago without "Algunas bestias" and "Vienen los pájaros". And no, it wasn't directed by Theodorakis!

Subject: RE: Obit: composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021)
From: Monique
Date: 03 Sep 21 - 10:57 AM

And I wasn't the soloist either!!