Mikis Theodorakis - 18 Little Songs For The Bitter Homeland

Mikis Theodorakis is a renowned Greek troubadour and one of his country's greatest composers. He wrote many symphonies, cantatas, several ballets and operas, plus popular songs including "Zorba the Greek," famous from Herb Alpert's instrumental hit. Born in 1925 on the Greek island of Chios, Theodorakis began writing songs quite early. He formed his own choir and gave his first performance at the age of 17. An active resistance fighter during World War II, he studied at the conservatories in both Athens and Paris (the latter with Olivier Messiaen). Theodorakis wrote several symphonies during the late '50s, but later returned to Greece to apply his musical knowledge to the traditional Greek music he'd grown up with. After several years of film scoring, in 1964 he composed the music for the film adaptation of the Nikos Kazantzakis novel Zorba the Greek. When 1967 brought a fascist government into control of the country, Theodorakis went underground and formed a revolutionary group to combat abuses -- including a ban on playing or even listening to his music. He was later arrested, exiled, and sent to an internment camp, though the work of a global solidarity movement -- led by Leonard Bernstein, Dmitri Shostakovich, Arthur Miller, and Harry Belafonte -- helped secure his release in 1970. Still exiled from his country, Theodorakis served as the greatest ambassador of Greek music during the 1970s, playing thousands of concerts across the world. After the government toppled, he served as a member of the new parliament, also working as general musical director of the symphony orchestra and chorus of the Hellenic Radio and Television. Mikis Theodorakis died on September 2, 2021 at his home in Athens after suffering a cardiac arrest; he was 96 years of age.

This album features18 quatrains by Yannis Ritsos, 16 of them written on 16/9/1968 in Partheni of Leros, where the poet is in exile from the dictatorial regime, and after receiving a secret message from Theodorakis asking him to set to music unpublished poems of his. Next year, in Karlovassi of Samos, Ritsos writes two more and edits them all.



Tracklist:

01. Anavaftisi
02. Kouvnta m' ena louloudi
03. Karterema
04. Laos
05. Mnimosino
06. Avgi
07. De ftani
08. Prasini mera
09. Silitourgo
10. To nero
11. To kiklamino
12. Ligna koritsia
13. T' aspro xoklisi
14. Epitimvio
15. Edo to fos
16. To htisimo
17. O tamenos
18. Ti romiosini mi tin kles


01. Rebaptism
02. Chat with a flower
03. Patience
04. People
05. Memorial
06. Dawn
07. It is not enough
08. Green day
09. Common liturgy
10. The water
11. Cyclamen
12. Lean girls
13. The white chapel
14. Tombstone
15. Here’s the light
16. The building
17. The devoted one
18. Do not cry for Romiosini



Mikis Theodorakis - 18 Little Songs For The Bitter Homeland
(320 kbps, cover art included)