I see that the great composer Mikis Theodorakis died on 2 September at the age of 96.
Most people are probably familiar with the music of his syrtaki danced by Anthony Quinn with Alan Bates in the film Zorba the Greek. He also scored the music for the films Z and Serpico.
Mikis Theodorakis wrote many beautiful song cycles which combined the genres of Greek folk and popular music with the works of contemporary poets who wrote in the Demotic Greek accessible to all Greeks. His music was banned by the extreme right wing regimes of the 1960s and people were imprisoned just for listening to it. He was imprisoned, tortured and exiled.
He toured Australia in 1972 when he was in exile. I went to the concert he gave at the huge old Festival Hall in Melbourne - a very basic venue used for boxing and wrestling matches and rock concerts. There was a sold-out audience including many, many Melbourne Greeks. There was one particular song I had heard many times on ABC Radio National's drive time program and it always struck me as a joyfully lighthearted piece, though the lyrics and context were never announced. Perhaps the programmers didn't understand Greek. When Mikis Theodorakis and his band with the magnificent singer Maria Farandouri sang it that night, all the Greeks, especially the little old women in black around me erupted, drumming their feet on the wooden floor every time the word "spiti" ("home") was sung.
The song is part of the Mauthausen song cycle about the Nazi concentration camp.
Mikis Theodorakis had fought in the partisan resistance against the Nazi occupation of Greece.
His music, including the song cycle Romiosini ,became the music of the resistance to the Greek military dictatorship of 1967-1974. He toured internationally to raise funds for the resistance and muster international support.
No wonder the junta feared him.
He has been described as "the soul of Greece".
