On »March of the Spirit«

by Gail Holst

The uniquely Greek genesis of March of the Spirit may explain partly why it appeals more to Greek audiences than a work like The Survivor. Theodorakis's Greek biographer George Giannaris calls March of the Spirit: »...one of the most moving of all Mikis's compositions.« It is unquestionably the most difficult and breathtaking work next to Axion Esti. Once again the composer has managed to overcome the challenges of the aesthetic principles set forth in the poem - the superb unity, the grand and declamatory speech, and the free-verse form... In a most amazing way, Mikis has managed to capture the mood and music of the poem... It is, indeed, »a celebration of the salvation of the creative and genuine meaning of humanism.« (Theodorakis)
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As Theodorakis himself said, Sikelianos's is a »brassy voice«. It is his heroic tone which makes March of the Spirit such a striking contrast to the subtler flow-songs composed at Zatouna. The tsamiko rhythm, used so effectively in the final Gloria section of Axion Esti, is automatically associated in Greek minds with that most masculine of Greek folk dances, the dance of the mountain warriors of Epirus and Roumeli. Even to non-Greek listeners, its heavily-accented groups of six beats, varied by Theodorakis with bars of duple time, seem a suitably grand accompaniment for Sikelianos's gigantic thoughts.

Theodorakis had made effective use of traditional rhythms in a number of his earlier compositions, but in March of the Spirit rhythm becomes a more important structural and symbolic element in his work. In Canto General he was to develop still further the complexity and drama of juxtaposed rhythms, but already in March of the Spirit rhythm, and particularly the tsamiko rhythm, acts as an integral, unifying element in the structure of his composition.
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It is in the second section of the work, the stirring tsamiko of »gigantic thoughts«, that we hear the longest extension of the word »Greece«. In the sixth section, which is melodically and rhythmically related to the second section, the same falling melisma is extended for the words:

»Forward comrades, help lift up the sun
to become the spirit…«

It is the careful structuring of March of the Spirit, the relationship of each section to the whole, the obvious delight of the composer in the grand tone of the poetry, which distinguish the work from Theodorakis's other compositions of this period. The brief optimism of those days of concentrated activity and joy in Sikelianos were followed by months of unalleviated depression. It was not until Theodorakis left Greece and settled in Paris that he attempted another large-scale composition, a work in which, for the first time, his own language was not the immediate inspiration.

In: © Gail Holst: Theodorakis. Myth & Politics in Modern Greek Music. A.M.Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1980