Mikis Theodorakis is a man of many definitions and an inexhaustible supply of talents: poet, musician, composer,conductor, political activist, deputy, freedom fighter, exile, partisan, orator and yes, author. AngeliqueMouyis’oeuvre is an important addition to our understanding of his music. And of course, a book about Mikis is also avoyage into modern Greek history and modern Greek culture.

Nick Papandreou, author of Mikis andManos: A Tale of Two Composers

A meditation on the perplexity of Greece, the oldest nation but the youngest state,examined through the lenses of a polymechanous artist, a genuine Odysseus.

Dr. Maria Hnaraki, Ethnomusicologist & Director of Greek Studies, Drexel University

Mikis Theodorakis and his music are far more than a national treasure for Greeks; they are the quintessenceof the experience of being Greek. And, to the world at large, they are the very figure of Greece – of its

history, of its dreams, of its sorrows.

Antonis D. Papagiannidis, Journalist

AngeliqueMouyis has performed a valuable service to the composer and to serious lovers of Greek music bywriting about the “other” Theodorakis, a man whose large and impressive body of work in many different

genres deserves better recognition.Her study is an important contribution to the understanding of Theodorakis’ music, a subject which has

been largely neglected by musicologists in his own country, and which deserves to be better known in all itsbrilliance and abundance by music lovers all over the world.

Gail Holst-Warhaft, Cornell University

Author’s biography

AngeliqueMouyis wasborn in Johannesburg,South Africa in 1981 toGreek-Cypriot parents. In2007, under thesupervision of Prof. JeanneZaidel-Rudolph and Prof.Mary Rörich, she

graduated with a Master’s Degree inMusicComposition with distinction at the Universityof theWitwatersrand, with a research reportentitledMikis Theodorakis and the Articulationof Modern Greek Identity. She also completedanMFA inMusical TheatreWriting at NYU’sTisch School of the Arts as a composer in May2008. Angelique is the recipient of a SouthernAfricanMusic Rights Organisation (SAMRO)post-graduate studies scholarship as well as theErnest Oppenheimer Overseas Scholarship forthe Performing Arts. In 2003 and 2006, shewas selected and funded to attend theNewMusic Indaba Composition Workshop at theGrahamstown Arts Festival, where several ofher compositions were performed. Her songshave been heard at venues such as the DanceFactory in Newtown, Johannesburg, theZipper Factory in New York, New York,Goodspeed in East Haddam, Connecticut andBarrington Stage Company in Pittsfield,Massachusetts. Angelique continues to beinspired by Greek culture and theatre musicand hopes to continue exploring these areas inboth her music compositions and in herwriting.

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3869837896089

ISBN 978-960-8386-98-3

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As a South African of Greek descent, AngeliqueMouyis finds herself drawn into the heart of modern Greek culturalidentity, an identity that has been created, crafted and passionately theorized byMikis Theodorakis. While shegives due credit to the composer’s much loved Zorba the Greekmusic, Mouyis also pays homage to the composer’slesser known oeuvre, bred of an astounding creative force immersed in Greek history, thinking and myth. Mouyis’book has the energy and resonance of Theodorakis’ own project and also the rigour of modern musicology.

Mary Rörich, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg ANGELIQUE MOUYIS

MIKIS THEODORAKISFINDING GREECE IN HIS MUSIC

ISBN: 978-960-8386-98-3

© Copyright: KERKYRA Publications S.A.- economia PUBLISHING1st edition, February 2010

Author: Angelique Mouyis

Production: KERKYRA Publications - economia PUBLISHINGPublication Coordinator: Fani KarafylliEditor & Photo Editor: Maria AdamantidisBook Design & Layout: Rana Mourati - atelier KERKYRA

Distribution:

KERKYRA Publications S.A.6-8 Vlahava street, 105 51 Athens, GreeceTel.: 0030-210-3314.714, fax: 0030-210-3252.283www.economia.gr, bookstore@economia.gr

Book cover artwork by Paško Cvjetković (2002).

Photos on pages XVI-XVII are from Alexandra C. Vovolini’s personal collection. The concert poster on pages 96-97is part of the Mikis Theodorakis Archive, kept at the Music Library of Greece of the Friends of Music Societyand is reproduced by permission. Stills from Zorba the Greek on page 103 are published by permission of the MichaelCacoyannis Foundation. All other photographs published by permission of the Margarita Theodorakis Archive.

The publisher has made every possible effort to locate the creators of unidentified photographs and imagesup to the printing of this work. In the event these creators become known after publication, then the publisheris willing to take any rectifying action deemed necessary.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmittedin any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recordingor otherwise, whether in its original form or in a translated or adapted version, without the publisher’s prior writtenpermission.

Mikis TheodorakisFINDING GREECE IN HIS MUSIC

Angelique Mouyis

MODERN GREEK CULTURE

I dedicate this book to Mary Rörich,without whom this would not

have been possible.

Publisher’s NoteAlexandra C. Vovolini ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. x

ForewordGail Holst-Warhaft ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. xi

PrefaceMaria Hnaraki ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. xiii

Photographic Mosaic ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... xivAknowledgments ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ xviiIntroduction: Theodorakis Goes for Gold .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

Chapter 1. MODERN GREEK IDENTITY: HISTORY, POLITICS AND THEODORAKIS ............. 4

The Historical Negotiation of Modern Greek Identity ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6Language and Identity .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13Theodorakis: The Modern Greek ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 14Music .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20

Byzantine Music ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 21Western Art Music in Greece ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 21Demotic/Folk and Popular Music ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 23The Rebetika ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 23

Chapter 2. REIMAGINING THE GREEK THROUGH THE POPULAR ART SONG ................................................... 26

Poetry and Text ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 39The Birth of the Popular Concert ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 41

Table of Contents

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Chapter 3. MYTHOLOGISING THE MODERN GREEK: THEATRE, METASYMPHONIC

MUSIC AND LYRIC TRAGEDY .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 44

Contemporary Greek Myth: The Song of the Dead Brother (1962) ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 47Metasymphonic Music: Axion Esti (1960) ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 54Operas and Symphonies: Taking the ‘Popular’ Out of Popular Art? .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 66

Symphonies ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 67Laik Lyric Tragedies: Redefining Opera ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 70A Place for Opera Today? .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 73

Chapter 4. A ‘UNIVERSAL MAN’ IN SEARCH OF HARMONY ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 78

A Search for Universal Harmony ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 80Origins of a Universal Harmony ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 81Towards the Sacred Centre Through Marxism and Christianity ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 84

Identifying the Artist and His Art .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 87

Chapter 5. ZORBA TRANSFORMATIONS ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 96

Zorba’s Beginnings ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 98Perceptions of ‘Zorba’ ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 102Zorba’s Dance - the Music ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 104

BeyondWords ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 106Zorba Transformations ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 106

Zorba Dance Remix ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 107Reflections of ‘Theodorakis’ in his Zorba Ballet Suite ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 108Mikis the… Zorba? .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 111

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 112Notes .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 116Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 122Index ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 126

X

K erkyra Publications are proudly launching their Modern Greek Culture series withAngelique Mouyis’Mikis Theodorakis: Finding Greece in His Music, the abridged versionof her Master’s degree dissertation entitledMikis Theodorakis and the Articulation of

Modern Greek Identity.Discussing the renowned composer’s oeuvre, Ms. Mouyis, a South African Greek,

simultaneously inaugurates what we believe will be an exciting array of books that will illuminatevarious facets of contemporary Greek culture, from arts and architecture to crafts and cooking.Already, Maria Hnaraki’s Cretan Music: Unraveling Ariadne’s Thread, published in 2007,foreshadowed what would eventually become a firm belief in the necessity for such a series.Foreigners’ perceptions of 20th and 21st century Greece are fragmented at best –indeed,

Mikis Theodorakis himself, a towering figure in modern Greek culture and of an undisputedinternational acceptance as composer, is still in some respects not fully appreciated. Our newseries will help form a fuller picture of Greek society as it has evolved from the early 20th centuryto the present.Naturally, Mikis Theodorakis is the ideal example for any discussion of modern Greek

culture. Greeks have marched and celebrated, chanted and mourned at times of upheaval, offeasting or of sorrow with the music of Theodorakis sounding in the background. The joys andthe sorrows of everyday life, the great historical moments of Greece, personal moments andcollective experiences alike have been enriched by it. People all over the world have knownGreece – the torments and the glories of the country, its people and its scenery – throughTheodorakis. More than any other cultural experience the music of Mikis, one of the very fewpeople that Greeks have always called by his first name, has come to embody Greece and thesense of belonging together of its people.A man truly ‘larger than life’, whose massive work became worldwide famous, Mikis

Theodorakis expresses the many aspects of the Greek identity in a unique way.

Alexandra C. VovoliniPublisher

PUBLISHER’s NOTE

XI

I f there was a Nobel Prize in Music, it would undoubtedly have been awarded to MikisTheodorakis. He has been a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, and is probablyresponsible for the fact the poet Odysseus Elytis won the Nobel Prize for Literature in

1979. Elytis’s long poem Axion Esti, set to music by Theodorakis, became very popular inScandinavia and other parts of Europe as well as in Greece. Born in 1925, Theodorakis is atowering figure in Greece’s musical and political life, and despite his successive imprisonmentand torture in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s as a communist, is now revered by Greeks of all politicalpersuasions. Given his prominence, it is surprising that this man, whose music, political activityand deep engagement with literature and the arts in Greece has not received more attention byscholars of modern Greece. One reason may be the sheer magnitude of his output, whichincludes over a thousand popular and art songs, dozens of symphonic works, operas, oratorios,film and theatre scores, poems, autobiographical writings, political writings, and musical analysis.Few scholars are able to engage with the full compass of Theodorakis’ work, and many, even inGreece, are unaware of the extent of his achievements. No doubt there will be many studieswritten about him after his death, but while he is still actively engaged in revising his own scoresand even composing new works, it is gratifying to see a serious new study of his work appear inEnglish.Angelique Mouyis did not grow up in the period when Theodorakis was a symbol of

resistance to the 1967-74 dictatorship, a political exile, or the leader of a youth movementdedicated to the political martyr Grigoris Lambrakis. What drew her to his music was acomposition Theodorakis himself was less engaged with than he was with many of his otherworks: the film score for Zorba the Greek. The identification of Greeks, especially diasporaGreeks, with Zorba was something she wanted to understand. Growing up in South Africa as amember of the emigrant Greek community, Mouyis noticed the intense feeling Theodorakis’

FOREWORD

XII

music evoked in the Greek community and set out to investigate it. Unlike many other admirersof the Greek composer, Mouyis was musically trained to analyze what she heard. As a composerwith a special interest in theater, she began to study the works of Theodorakis, including themost neglected of his compositions: his operas.Theodorakis composed five operas, all of them requiring the full resources of a major opera

company. His first opera, Kostas Karyotakis was composed as a reaction to the political andfinancial scandals of the Papandreou regime during the 1980s. In the following decade he wrotea trilogy of operas based on ancient tragedy. Ironically, the decision to write the operas was aresponse to the success of his Zorba Ballet in Verona.Delighted by the success of the ballet, the composer decided to write three operas inspired by

Verdi, Puccini, and Bellini. It was not easy for a composer in his eighth decade to persuade amajor opera company to undertake performances of his works, least of all in his home country.Medea was premiered in Bilbao, Electra in Luxemburg, and only the third opera, Antigone, inGreece. Despite favorable reviews of his works abroad, and successful productions in Athens ofAntigone and of a subsequent comic opera Lysistrata in 2002, these works are not well known inGreece or abroad, and Theodorakis continues to be better known as the writer of Zorba and ofmany popular songs than as a ‘serious’ composer.Angelique Mouyis has performed a valuable service to the composer and to serious lovers of

Greek music by writing about the ‘other’ Theodorakis, a man whose large and impressive body ofwork in many different genres deserves better recognition.Her study is an important contribution to the understanding of Theodorakis’ music, a subject

which has been largely neglected by musicologists in his own country, and which deserves to bebetter known in all its brilliance and abundance by music lovers all over the world.

Gail Holst-WarhaftCornell University

MIKIS THEODORAKIS: FINDING GREECE IN HIS MUSIC

XIII

M any are those who have tried to capture in words the essence of legendary MikisTheodorakis. Mrs. Mouyis’ work is unique, however, as it evolves around – literally andmetaphorically – a Greek Zorba, addressing the following:

1. Can an artist influence human thought? If so how?

2. Who is Greek and how can Greeks sustain Greekness in today’s global world?

Here is a meditation on the perplexity of Greece, the oldest nation but the youngest state,examined through the lenses of a polymechanous artist, a genuine Odysseus. Mikis Theodorakisturned the Greek identity ‘confusion’ into a harmonious musical synthesis: an amalgam ofApollonian and Dionysian elements. After all, Zorba, who made him worldwide famous, isnothing else but a fable about the mind and the body; a marvelous composition of the East andthe West.

Mrs. Mouyis re-discovers Mikis Theodorakis, an archetypal giant who may yet be one of us.Through his exemplary and prolific artistic works Hellenism proves to be an eternal symbol ofpeace, freedom and enlightenment. Yet Mrs. Mouyis’ work is not only about Greekness, buthumanity in general, as Mikis Theodorakis’ career and life prove that, knowing and understandingwhere one’s roots stem from, is significant in the Socratic terms of ‘knowing thyself’ and, at thesame time, in the notion of a self-catharsis taught by the ancient Greek tragic masterpieces.

Therefore, the book you now hold urges us all, citizens of the world, to re-imagine ourselves,mythologize our beings, follow the path of Mikis Theodorakis, and, using the art of music as athread of knowledge, become conscientious citizens via the means of a newly conscious identity.

Dr. Maria HnarakiEthnomusicologist &Director of Greek Studies, Drexel University

Author of Cretan Music: Unraveling Ariadne’s Thread

PREFACE

Mikis Theodorakis is a fascinating and indefatigable raconteur and this mosaic of 2009 shots captures him in a variety of moods andactivities, including welcoming publisher Alexandra C. Vovolini and author Angelique Mouyis in his Athens home in 2009 (top left).Though smoking is a long-forbidden pleasure, the composer finds some comfort in keeping his favourite cigars close by.

XIV

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XVII

I would like to thank

My family and friends for their support.

My Niko for his undying support and continuous motivation.

My sister Elena for all of her encouragement and helpespecially in the final stages of writing the original research report.

My father Achilleas for giving me the unforgettable opportunity of meetingMikis Theodorakis for the first time at the International Symposium for Music and Universal

Harmony in Crete and for allowing me the gift to dream.

My mother Dia for helping me translate endless Greek text and for alwaysmaking me dream big dreams.

Romanos Publishers for providing me with masses of research material.

Mrs. Alexandra C. Vovolini and the entire team at Kerkyra Publications for making this book areality, especially editor Mrs. Maria Adamantidis.

I would especially like to thank

Rena Parmenidou for her infinite patience, always responding to every questionand query and keeping me in touch with the work of Mikis Theodorakis.

Mary Rörich, my first advisor and editor of the original concept, for believing in meand inspiring me to write what I never thought I could.

Mikis Theodorakis for answering all of my questions and inspiring me for a lifetime.

I would also like to thank my alma mater, the University of the Witwatersrandin Johannesburg, South Africa, where I first started this researchand wrote the original report for a MMus (Composition).

Angelique Mouyis

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1

t he air is filled with anticipation, agitation even. There are only a few seconds left of thesecond half. A final basket lifts the entire stadium to its feet, roaring, applauding, cheeringits heroes. The hundreds of people who have gathered to support the Greek women’s

basketball team cannot contain their pride and exhilaration. ‘Yes! They’ve won!We’ve won!’ Thefamiliar sound of the bouzouki rings out from the stadium loudspeakers. There is no need for anintroduction. As one person and as if controlled by an unknown force, the crowd puts its handstogether: ‘Dada….dada….didi-dada…’ As the tempo increases, so does the rhythm of the clapping;faster and faster, intensifying in dynamic level and escalating in energy. As the music becomes a fastdance, Greece’s team knows that there is only one thing to do – they link arms, form a circle andbegin the hasaposervikos, their dance of victory, right there, in the middle of the basketball court.This is just what the spectators want – a tangible, ‘Greek,’ celebration of triumph.You may already have guessed the identity of the piece of music that spurred the crowd and

players on: Mikis Theodorakis’ ‘Zorba’s Dance.’ Time and time again, this music was played at the2004 Olympic Games, intended to excite the spectators (and the athletes), invariably bringing themto their feet. This is music that has gained a life of its own; a life over which its own composer nolonger has control.When I was asked about the prevalence of Theodorakis’ music at the Olympic Games in Athens

2004, there was one simple answer: It was everywhere. Theodorakis’ music resonated at the openingceremony, along with that of Manos Hadjidakis. As a volunteer and spectator at the Games, I heardit in the many stadia, as well as in the outer domains of the Olympic complexes. I invariably caught‘Zorba’s Dance’ while watching an Olympic event on television. Even theOfficial Olympic CDfeatures eighteen of Theodorakis’ popular songs sung by different artists. Not only was Ibombarded by his music at Olympic events, but on a tour to Delphi (a ‘non-Olympic’ event), ourtour-guide offered us the choice of music: either the latest interpretation of what ‘ancient’ Greekmusic sounded like, or the music of Greece’s ‘national’ composer, Mikis Theodorakis.What does this actually tell us about Theodorakis’ music? Is it part and parcel of what it is to be

Greek? Does it define the style of Greek music? Or encapsulate Greek spirit? The fact that all thesongs on theOfficial Olympic CD were composed by Theodorakis strongly suggests that he is

INTRODUCTIONTHEODORAKIS GOES FOR GOLD

2

MIKIS THEODORAKIS: finding GREECE IN his MUSIC

synonymous with both Greek identity and Greek musical expression. My quest is to find out howthis has come about.

m y own experience as a South African of Greek descent is that Mikis Theodorakis’ musichas without question become part of Greek identity. One cannot speak about Greekculture without speaking about music, and one cannot speak about Greek music without

invoking Theodorakis. As for my own experience of Greek music, I think it is necessary to mentionwhere I stand. My parents are both Greek-Cypriot in origin – my mother was born in Cyprus andmoved to South Africa at twelve years of age, while my father, whose parents were Cypriot-bornand bred, was born in Johannesburg: so I always say that I am ‘one-and-a-half’ generation SouthAfrican. Although I grew up in Johannesburg, my parents always played Greek music in our homeand my grandfather sang Greek songs at the piano. So from a very young age, the sounds of MikisTheodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis were familiar to me, even if I did not know who composed themusic. I also attended a Greek school in Johannesburg where I learned the Greek language andculture (Greek dancing, singing, literature, history, religion) – I always admired the Greek spiritbecause it was constantly present in my environment and part of me. So as a Greek of the diaspora,Greek music and culture hold an extra special place in my heart, as anyone of us who yearns to keepour cultural heritage alive and an active part of our identity. I will admit that my experience of‘Greekness’ has affected the way I look and experience the material at hand, and furthermore, itaffects the way I understand it. The material moves me in an indescribable way because of theimportant and special place it has held in my environment throughout my life. On this journey ofthe life and work of Mikis Theodorakis, I have tried my best to be as objective as possible, but at thesame time I caution the reader that my admiration of the Greek culture and spirit may sometimescompromise this objectivity. At the same time, it is this very admiration that has compelled me todelve deeply into the life and work of Mikis Theodorakis.My love for the Greek spirit also brought me to volunteer at the Athens Olympic Games in

2004. While I was in Athens, I talked to many people, young and old, from students to securityguards, volunteers to professors. They reconstructed a gigantic figure for me, describingTheodorakis as a god, a brilliant, amazing man, about whom I would find masses of informationfor my research. Masses of information I did find, but strangely enough little of it is seriouslyacademic. The truth is that Theodorakis has provided me with hundreds of popular songs andother works to analyse, songs that remain close to the heart of the Greek people. However, it wasonly when I began researching his work that I learnt that Theodorakis is also a Western art music

3

Introduction: Theodorakis Goes For Gold

composer. Some people I spoke to were as surprised as I was to hear this. Others would quicklyremark: ‘Theodorakis is a communist, you know!’ Responses to these different aspects ofTheodorakis’ creative personality and experience suggest an ambivalence: he is obviously a potentsymbol of Hellenic culture, a legend who has inspired people throughout the years; at the sametime, there is a sense of dislike for, or rather misunderstanding of, ‘the communist,’ the leftist, ‘theone who says he is a socialist but who has made a fortune.’1

Nevertheless, Theodorakis continues to be acknowledged as a man who fought for Greece, whorose against the military dictatorship and who struggled for justice. He is undoubtedly a nationalhero. But he still seems to be misunderstood in some ways. A music student I met at the Gamesremarked that it is not Theodorakis that is Greece’s national composer, but Manos Hadjidakis.Theodorakis was simply a political composer, she argued, part of the past. Her reasoning wasobviously based on the fact that Theodorakis composed music during an important political periodin Greece’s history, a time when Greece was trying to find a stable political/cultural identity. (Thisperiod is marked by the Greek civil war between 1946-49, and the period of the militarydictatorship, commonly known as the Junta, from 1967-74.) Theodorakis was politically activethen, imprisoned and exiled for his beliefs; his music was banned. Does this explain why he is stillrevered in the Greek community, why we hear his music everywhere even without knowing who heis, and why he has become a hero for the Greek people? What about the music itself, the way itseems to move the Greek spirit and to bear some relation to Greek society? Are the abovestatements valid observations, and if so, why is his symphonic music so different? And why is itmostly unknown?Drawing on contemporary identity theories, such as those of Martin Stokes and Simon Frith,

my aim is to interrogate the construction of modern Greek identity in Theodorakis’ music. InChapter One, I unravel the complex webs spun by history and culture to shape the modern nation,and the ways in which Theodorakis’ political and musical life have intersected with these webs inthe twentieth century. In Chapter Two, I discuss the establishment of the Popular Art Song as apowerful agent of modern Greek identity. Chapter Three examines major moves in Theodorakis’advancing of popular art forms and hence his own renegotiation of modern Greek identity –theatre, ‘metasymphonic’ music and ‘lyric tragedy’ are genres that I discuss. Chapter Four exploresTheodorakis’ inner world, his beliefs and perspectives. Chapter Five discusses the phenomenon ofTheodorakis’ Zorba as the all-encompassing representation of modern Greek identity.I hope that this journey will reveal some of the many faces of Theodorakis and Greece and, in so

doing, will ultimately uncover some of the secrets to our own identity.

Chapter 1

Theodorakis marching with the FrenchCommunist Party in Paris on Labour Day,

May 1st, 1970.

MODERN GREEK IDENTITYHISTORY, POLITICS AND THEODORAKIS

‘The present-day Greek’, wrote the editor of a newspaper in insurgent Greece, ‘is notreborn, as is commonly believed; he is born. He is the child of a famous and proudfather, possesses the same features and constitution, the same functions, almost thesame intellectual powers; in short, he is the living image of the father, a lion’s cub. Togrow and become like his father, he must have the same upbringing, the sameconditions, those at least which are in accord with the spirit of the present century.’

Geniki Ephemeris tis Hellados, 20 Feb. 1826 2

Understanding modern Greek identity is a complex issue. It involves understanding the concept of Hellenism aswell as the meaning of what it is to be Greek in this day and age: namely, a multi-dimensional, multi-layering reachingback to the ancient Greeks. In this chapter, I will attempt to unpack these layers and create a picture of modern Greekidentity through an examination of key points in Greece’s (modern) history. Thus I trace the main events that haveled to what we have come to know as present-day Greece, both geographically and culturally, while the history oflanguage is uncovered in order to illustrate the ‘identity crisis’ of modern Greece. I then place Mikis Theodorakiswithin this historical frame. In the final section of this chapter, I examine the role and development of music inmodern Greece, and hence its changing identity as it was influenced by, and in turn influenced, its social and culturalcontext. I locate Theodorakis within this framework and establish his very close bond with Greek cultural identity andthe reciprocal role his music has played in defining it. This will provide the foundation for the chapters that follow.

The Historical Negotiation of Modern Greek Identity

The complexity of modern Greek identity lies in the fact that only in the past thirty years has it been able to moulditself without the pressures of external forces: from the 1400s to the 1800s, Greece was under Turkish rule. Greekindependence in 1821 was followed by a turbulent sequence of foreign kings, dictatorships, population exchanges via theAsia Minor Catastrophe of 1919, Greek civil war (1946-1949), Italian and German occupation and, finally, the Junta

6

MODERN GREEK IDENTITYHISTORY, POLITICS AND THEODORAKIS

(1967-1974). This young modern nation, thathas struggled to survive and also retain itsidentity in the five hundred years until afterthe Junta, has attempted and, I believe,managed to preserve as well as connect withher ancient Hellenic roots. However, it isobvious that modern Greece is not simply acontinuation of the ancient nation, althoughthe latter is and always will be part of themodern conception (no matter how oftenscholars dispute this fact). In order tounderstand modern Greek identity, its originsand creation, one has to look at key points inGreece’s history.

How is a sense of nation created? JohnConnell and Chris Gibson propose thatnation-states have always been sociallyconstructed3. Modern Greece is no different.A sense of ‘nation’ or rather, an ‘imaginedcommunity’ as Benedict Anderson puts it, iscreated through cultural means such aslanguage, music, national artistic traditions,religion, ethnic identity as well as visualsymbols (such as flags, emblems, crests,currency).4 Observing these culturalexpressions and historic movements willreveal how the Greek nation has been shaped.

But where does one start? In his ReadingGreece, David Mason poses the question‘What is Greece?’, and also asks at what pointin history one should start exploring theconcept of ‘Greece.’5 In my attempt tounderstand and research modern Greek

7

Chapter 1 �Modern Greek Identity: History, Politics and Theodorakis

Ikaria, 1947: Mikis Theodorakis,right, with fellow political exilesin this Aegean sea island.

Mikis Theodorakis is a man of many definitions and an inexhaustible supply of talents: poet, musician, composer,conductor, political activist, deputy, freedom fighter, exile, partisan, orator and yes, author. AngeliqueMouyis’oeuvre is an important addition to our understanding of his music. And of course, a book about Mikis is also avoyage into modern Greek history and modern Greek culture.

Nick Papandreou, author of Mikis andManos: A Tale of Two Composers

A meditation on the perplexity of Greece, the oldest nation but the youngest state,examined through the lenses of a polymechanous artist, a genuine Odysseus.

Dr. Maria Hnaraki, Ethnomusicologist & Director of Greek Studies, Drexel University

Mikis Theodorakis and his music are far more than a national treasure for Greeks; they are the quintessenceof the experience of being Greek. And, to the world at large, they are the very figure of Greece – of its

history, of its dreams, of its sorrows.

Antonis D. Papagiannidis, Journalist

AngeliqueMouyis has performed a valuable service to the composer and to serious lovers of Greek music bywriting about the “other” Theodorakis, a man whose large and impressive body of work in many different

genres deserves better recognition.Her study is an important contribution to the understanding of Theodorakis’ music, a subject which has

been largely neglected by musicologists in his own country, and which deserves to be better known in all itsbrilliance and abundance by music lovers all over the world.

Gail Holst-Warhaft, Cornell University

Author’s biography

AngeliqueMouyis wasborn in Johannesburg,South Africa in 1981 toGreek-Cypriot parents. In2007, under thesupervision of Prof. JeanneZaidel-Rudolph and Prof.Mary Rörich, she

graduated with a Master’s Degree inMusicComposition with distinction at the Universityof theWitwatersrand, with a research reportentitledMikis Theodorakis and the Articulationof Modern Greek Identity. She also completedanMFA inMusical TheatreWriting at NYU’sTisch School of the Arts as a composer in May2008. Angelique is the recipient of a SouthernAfricanMusic Rights Organisation (SAMRO)post-graduate studies scholarship as well as theErnest Oppenheimer Overseas Scholarship forthe Performing Arts. In 2003 and 2006, shewas selected and funded to attend theNewMusic Indaba Composition Workshop at theGrahamstown Arts Festival, where several ofher compositions were performed. Her songshave been heard at venues such as the DanceFactory in Newtown, Johannesburg, theZipper Factory in New York, New York,Goodspeed in East Haddam, Connecticut andBarrington Stage Company in Pittsfield,Massachusetts. Angelique continues to beinspired by Greek culture and theatre musicand hopes to continue exploring these areas inboth her music compositions and in herwriting.

ALSO PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH

Coffee Table Books� Mikis Theodorakis: My Posters(bilingual, paperback)

� Mikis Theodorakis: My Posters(bilingual, collector’s edition,hardcover)

� Greece Star & Secret Islands(bilingual)

� Magical Greece (bilingual,paperback)

� Magical Greece (bilingual,collector’s edition, hardcover)

� The Hotel Grande Bretagnein Athens

Modern Living &Health� CretanMusic: UnravelingAriadne’s Thread

� Cretan Healthy Diet – Truths& Secrets

Economy, Finance & Business Guides� Managing EmploymentRelations in Greece

� Following the Nereids: SeaRoutes andMaritime Business

� The Business of Olympic GamesSponsorship

� Greece After 2006 (bilingual)� Thessalonica – A Business Guide(bilingual)

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As a South African of Greek descent, AngeliqueMouyis finds herself drawn into the heart of modern Greek culturalidentity, an identity that has been created, crafted and passionately theorized byMikis Theodorakis. While shegives due credit to the composer’s much loved Zorba the Greekmusic, Mouyis also pays homage to the composer’slesser known oeuvre, bred of an astounding creative force immersed in Greek history, thinking and myth. Mouyis’book has the energy and resonance of Theodorakis’ own project and also the rigour of modern musicology.

Mary Rörich, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg ANGELIQUE MOUYIS