Stephanie Merakos & Spyros D Orfanos WHY THEODORAKIS MATTERS Part 3: Archive and Cultural Memory скачать в хорошем качестве

Stephanie Merakos & Spyros D Orfanos WHY THEODORAKIS MATTERS Part 3: Archive and Cultural Memory

A centennial conversation series in English in four parts honoring the life, work, and legacy of Mikis Theodorakis (1925–2021). Recorded on Zoom and presented as a video archive on YouTube. Produced by Spyros D. Orfanos, New York University. Part 1: Gail Holst-Warhaft and Spyros D. Orfanos - Witness and Transmission Part 2: George Syrimis and Spyros D. Orfanos - Poetry and Cultural Meaning Part 3: Stephanie Merakos and Spyros D. Orfanos - Archive and Cultural Memory Part 4: Asteris Koutoulas and Spyros D. Orfanos - Politics and the World. --- In a country rich with artists both past and present, the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2019) stands out as singularly original. His vast musical oeuvre demonstrates his sublime melodic gifts and an extraordinary diversity of musical forms. His music became a source of inspiration for Greeks, the Greek diaspora, and for all those around the world who have yearned for personal and political liberation. Perhaps most profound was his courage to create art even while in the grip of despair during repeated incarcerations and brutal torture for his political beliefs. His life and work are testaments to the indomitable spirit of the artist in the face of repression. Born on July 29, 1925, on the island of Chios in the Aegean, Theodorakis came of age in the aftermath of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. His mother, Aspasia Poulakis, was a refugee from Tsemes, a coastal city in Asia Minor. Her exile and loss left a deep imprint on the young Theodorakis. His father, Yorgos Theodorakis, fought for Cretan independence from Ottoman rule and was exiled from Crete three times. These family legacies of displacement and resistance would shape the contours of his musical and political life. In the 1950s, Theodorakis studied classical composition in Paris, where he earned wide recognition and numerous awards. His compositions were performed across Europe and the Soviet Union. In 1959, Theodorakis set to music a series of poems by Yannis Ritsos titled Epitafios. The poems were about a mother grieving the murder of her son by the police at a factory strike in 1936 in Thessaloniki. Shortly after the composition, Theodorakis returns to Greece and begins a journey that would transform Greek cultural and political life. He went on to compose hundreds of songs based on Modern Greek poetry, and his genius lay in uniting intellectual and popular spheres: fishermen, taxi drivers, factory workers, and university professors alike could be heard singing the same songs. Yet Theodorakis did far more than popularize art song. He composed song cycles, symphonies, metasymphonic works, oratorios, operas, religious compositions, chamber music, and scores for theater and cinema. He did not merely incorporate folk elements—he wove them into holistic aesthetic experiences that gave voice to memory, sorrow, joy, and the boundless imagination of the Greek people. Moreover, he inspired generations of Greek composers to contribute to a new tradition: the Greek art song, a music of and for the people, both national and transcendent. For decades, Mikis Theodorakis was a tireless voice against cultural and political oppression. Working with poets from across the political spectrum, he championed an ethos of freedom, equality, and human dignity. He loathed irrational authority. Theodorakis once declared: “Creative expression is, above all, an act of freedom. I create means I am free—I become free. The message of art is the message of freedom.”