by
Gail Holst
Another
cycle of songs which is unknown to most Greeks is Theodorakis's
settings of the 19th century poet Kalvos, subtitled Arcadia
IV. Mikis had been starved for poetic texts in Zatouna
and when an anthology he had ordered finally arrived, he quickly
searched for suitable material to set to music. 'To start
with', he wrote in his journal, 'Kalvos, an epic poet
of the last century, whose language is robust and grandiose;
his call to arms must strike a chord in sensitive Greek hearts'.
Theodorakis chose the third, fourth and sixth Odes
of Kalvos.
The theme of all three poems is a rallying call to Greeks, by
virtue of their ancient glories, to throw off the tyranny of
Turkish occupation and look to God for protection in their struggle.
In translation, Kalvos sounds overblown and dated; in the original
Greek, his heroic verse is enhanced by sheer beauty of language
and by the reality of the struggle he describes.
Theodorakis uses melodic material from the Doxology in the third
Byzantine echos for the Kalvos odes, material which he was to
expand in the flow-song 'Paean' or 'War Song'.
The first and third songs are in F major and like the Doxology,
they move mostly in stepwise motion with occasional leaps of
a fifth or a third.
The second song, 'To Samos', uses similar melodic material
in a minor key. It is this song which rescues the cycle from
the intentional, but somewhat staid grandeur of the Kalvos settings.
It contains the usual features of Theodorakis's Byzantine-influenced
melodies: the repeated notes of identical pitch, the phrases
ending in the three descending notes of the minor third, the
preference for stepwise motion, but it changes abruptly from
the opening section '...whoever feels the heavy bronze hand
of fear...' to the section which describes the heroic death
of Icaros. Here there is a change of key to Eb major for a long-drawn
out cry of triumph: 'But he fell from the heights, and he
died free'... before the melody returns to minor key for
the last lines...
It is a song which suited the qualities of Maria Farandouri's
voice; the large tone without tremolo, passion without sensuality,
the ability to sustain long notes against a Greek band playing
too loudly.
The Kalvos Odes are an indication of the direction
Theodorakis was moving in during the period at Zatouna. He was
more than involved with Byzantine music, which he studied every
day local priest, and he was seeking a grander, broader form
of expression which would still relate to traditional Greek
forms. The full expression of this new style appeared in works
like March of the Spirit and Paean,
where the extended form of the composition gave him more scope.
Arcadia I | Arcadia
II | Arcadia III | Arcadia
IV - Poems | Home