Conference Proceedings: IASPM 2009. "The Music of Exil of Mikis Theodorakis: the Eternal Voice of Freedom..." (original) (raw)

2009, Popular Music Worlds, Popular Music Histories

In Greece, one of the consequences of the World War II was the onset of the Civil War. Conflict between the Right and Left wing parties was running high. Having been defeated the leftists were obliged to go into exile; among them was the Greek composer, politician and philosopher Mikis Theodorakis. However, his exile did not prevent him from continuing his musical and political activities. On the contrary, he was very productive and composed many musical works, such as “The Songs of Exile A’”, the “First Symphony” etc., during his incarceration. In 1949, after the end of the Civil War, he was liberated but his fate was to reserve for him a new period of exile. Almost twenty years later, during the Dictatorship of Colonels (1967-1974), his lack of freedom made his will to struggle stronger and so, he composed new musical works, among them: “The Songs of Exile B’”, “The Songs of the Struggle”, “The Sun and the Time”, the last one based on his own poetry. The aim of this paper is firstly, to examine the general historical and social context and the specific conditions which gave birth to these musical works of Mikis Theodorakis, and secondly, to highlight, through a specific poetical and musical analysis (prosody, melody, rhythm, harmony…), their diachronic value.