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Nena Venetsanou & Yannis Ritsos |
What
an unusual contrast was formed by the work of Paul Eluard and Epitaphios,
together for the first time from 1958 where they were put to music
in Paris.
The works of Eluard flowed underground with some anakrousis
in Axion Esti and in Canto General where we heard
an echo of some far off, tropical unknown musical world; discrete,
fragile where whatever reverberates within it belongs to the future.
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Epitaphios
in the light, signifying the established status of the composer and
which remains the comerstone of modem Greek song.
Hidden and visible spring of the source of the river, which forked into
many branches.
I recognise the melancholy emerging from Eluard, as well as the
soul's ascent which death claims in Epitaphios. I know how much
loneliness is surrendered by the poets who claim their complete freedom,
willingly sworn on the side of love.
The music of Mikis Theodorakis transported an entire people towards
freedom, joie de vivre, and struggle.
Like a river it flooded Greece and everything became more comprehensible
with that song. The song, poetry's ally and its means of conveyance.
The song in service to a masterpiece of thought. The song which can
not be contained by dreams, but calls them forth, just as it calls forth
our inmost desires and demands. The song which shouts: Make room,
"All is new"
"All is Future"
The song which was written with certainty and conveys trust, which was
distributed as communion-antidote to the misfortune of man and which
stood witness to the lament of a bare heart.
Today thousands of images refract the light and its brilliant passion.
Now I know how it was then! Horror for the artists! Exile, jail, wanderings,
loneliness amongst the masses who hastened to forget. ..their own history
by means of the strictest laws and regulations, at the same moment that
they seized freedom.
© Nena Venetsanou
Theodorakis on the CD - Paul
Eluard - Yannis Ritsos - Version française
- Deutsche Fassung - Index
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