Before
Theodorakis wrote The Survivor, he had composed
two flow-songs which were settings of his own poetry. These, and
the later flow-songs, are more accessible to Greek audiences but
they lack the organic connection between text and melody of State
of Siege, Our Sister Athina and The Survivor.
In
his Journals of Resistance, Theodorakis says, "Before
I had completed The Survivor, I had begun work
on two poems by Manolis Anagnostakis: 'Charis',
and 'I Speak'. For so many years I have been
thinking of this particular collaboration and now the moment
has come".
Like Theodorakis, Anagnostakis was of Cretan descent. He was
also a deeply-committed left-wing artist and had been condemned
tp death during the Civil War.
Both poems which Theodorakis chose are overt expressions of
Anagnostakis's political stance. 'Charis' takes
its' name from a resistance hero who was killed in 1944. 'I
Speak' draws is parallel between the unquestioning
courage and obedience of Christ's disciples and the commitment
of the Greek Left. The strongly stated belief of a poet like
Anagnostakis suggest a simpler musical setting than Sinopoulos's
grim metaphor, and despite the extended length of these songs,
Theodorakis reverted to a more melodic, rhythmically regular
form of composition.
The
stirring march-like tune of 'I Speak'
reinforces the lines of the poem:
"I speak of the last trumpet calls
Of the last rags of the holiday dresses
Of our children
Who sell matches to the passers-by.
I speak of the flowers
That have faded on the tombs
Where
the ram rots them
Of the houses that gape
Without windows .
Like toothless skulls..."
'I
Speak' is one of Theodorakis's songs which makes
the non-Greek feel very much a foreigner. It sounds so cheerful,
so positive.
There are two possible explanations of what seems to me to be
the gay character of so many tragic Greek songs.
One is simply that the Greeks do not make the same connections
between fast tempo - major tonality - gay mood, and slow tempo
- minor key - sad mood in music. After analysing hundreds of
Greek rembetika and popular songs, I am sure this is not so.
Generally speaking, the dramatic slow zembekiko and the slow
hasapiko are reserved for songs with sad or poignant lyrics,
the rapid hasapiko and the tsifteteli rhythms are connected
with gayer, more humourous songs. Similarly the old 'minor'
group of modes was linked with sad songs and the more modern
division of major and minor harmony is more frequently associated,
as it is in western European music, with gay and sad songs.
The other explanation in that, in a country where suffering
and poverty have been the norm rather than the exception, the
population often adopts a defiant posture, a sort of swagger
in the face of adversity, which is expressed in much of the
folk poetry and music. This is expressed overtly in some of
the rembetika songs, and more subtly in songs like 'The
Slaughterhouse' as one of the most personal expressions
of Theodorakis's awareness of the tragedy of modern Greece (it
is no accident that they are among the few songs he customarily
performs himself at concerts), and yet without a text in front
of him, the foreign listener could be forgiven for thinking
he was listening to a jolly rousing march.
'Charis', like 'I Speak',
is an extended song with a strong melodic line. It was recorded
with the 'Songs of Exile' after the
dictatorship and because of its subject matter appealed to the
wide audience of young Greeks who had become interested in songs
of the war period.
©
Gail Holst: Theodorakis. Myth and Politics in Modern Greek Music.
Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1980
Origins of Arkadia
VIII | Poems | Biography
of Anagnostakis | Arcadia
I | Arcadia II | Arcadia
III | Arcadia IV | Arcadia
V: March of the Spirit | Arcadia
VI | Arcadia VII | Arcadia
IX | Arcadia X | Home