Frogtoon Musica

Pame Mia Volta Sto Feggari by Manos Hadjidakis

Biografia dell'artista Manos Hadjidakis

Manos Hadjidakis Μάνος Χατζιδάκις 1925-1994 Was A Greek Composer. Hadjidakis Was Born On 23rd October 1925 In Xanthi A Tobacco-Growing Town Near The Northern Border Of Greece. His Father Yorgos Hadjidakis A Lawyer Was From Myrthio The Prefecture Of Rethymnon Crete. His Mother Aliki Vasiliki Nee Arvanitidou From Adrianople. At The Age Of Four He Began Taking Piano Lessons With Madame Altounian A Teacher Of Armenian Descent In Xanthi. He Also Learned To Play The Violin And The Accordion. In 1932 The Mother And Her Two Children Manos And Miranda Settled In Athens And The Parents Divorced. In 1938 His Father Was Killed In An Air Accident On His Way To Milan. This Together With The Outbreak Of The Second World War Left The Family Financially Destitute. During The Hard Years Of German Occupation And After The Liberation Hadjidakis Worked As A Stevedore In Piraeus As An Ice Seller A Worker In The Fix Brewery An Employee In A Photographic Studio And As An Assistant Male Nurse In The 401 Military Hospital. At The Same Time He Took Advanced Courses In Musical Theory Under Menelaos Pallandios An Important Figure Of The Greek National Music School. He Also Entered The University Of Athens To Read Philosophy Without Taking His Diploma. At This Time He Was Nurtured By Artists And Intellectuals Of The Generation Between The Two World Wars George Seferis Odysseas Elytis Angelos Sikelianos Yannis Tsarouhis Nikos Gatsos Who Contributed Greatly To The Way His Orientations And Thought Took Shape. Nikos Gatsos Whom Hadjidakis First Met In 1943 Was His Mentor And Dear Friend To The Very End.
His First Appearance As A Composer On The Musical Horizon Of Greece Took Place In 1944 At Karolos Koun’s Art Theatre With Alexis Solomos’ The Last White Crow. He Also Attended Drama Courses Here With Intent To Become An Actor Until Koun Dissuaded Him From Doing So. Through His Fruitful Collaboration With The Art Theatre Which Lasted Fifteen Years He Wrote Music For Many Plays Of The Contemporary Theatrical Repertoire The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams 1946 Antigone By Jean Anouilh 1947 Blood Wedding By Federico Garcia Lorca 1948 All God's Children Got Wings By Eugene O'Neil 1948 A Streetcar Named Desire By Tennessee Williams 1948 Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller 1949 Etc. When The German Occupation Ended The Tragedienne Marika Kotopouli Was The First Person Bold Enough To Commission Him To Write The Music For Agamemnon And Choephoroe 1950 From Aeschylus’ Trilogy On The Story Of Orestes. Up Till Then The Score For Ancient Tragedy Performances Was The Responsibility Of Academic Composers. During This Same Period He Collaborated With The Eminent Poet Angelos Sikelianos For Writing The Music For His Tragedy Hippocrates. By Now He Was Receiving Accolades From That Authoritative Musical Critic Sophia Spanoudi. In 1945 When He Composed The Music For O'Neil's Mourning Becomes Electra He Met Melina Mercouri Who Was Playing The Role Of Lavinia. They Became Lifelong Friends And Collaborators. Hadjidakis' First Contact With The Cinema Was In 1946 When He Wrote The Score For The Film Free Slaves. A Year Later He Wrote For A Small White Seashell Op. 1 For Piano. In 1948 The American Pianist Julius Katchen Performed This Composition. Hadjidakis Looked Upon This Work As His Favourite. In L949 He Incurred The Obloquies Of The Conservative Greek Society For Lecturing On “rebetika” Songs. This Genre Of Music Expressed The Lower Classes And Was At First Banned And Then Snubbed. In "rebetika" Hadjidakis Recognized Genuine Folk Qualities.
In 1951 He Performed On The Piano His Adaptation Of “rebetika” Songs With The Title Six Folklore Paintings That Provided An Opportunity For The Public At Large To Enjoy And Appreciate Their Beauty And Richness And Which Furthermore Gave A New Impetus To Greek Song Writing. Eventually When Folk Songs Were Exploited For Tourist Purposes He Was The First To Raise A Voice Of Protest. In 1951 Together With The Choreographer Rallou Manou And Other Members Of The Intelligentsia He Founded The Greek Chorodrama. With This Dance Company He Presented Four Of His Ballets Marsyas 1950 The Accursed Serpent 1951 Six Folklore Paintings 1951 And Solitude 1958 . Having Already Made His Compositional Debut In Ancient Tragedy In 1950 He Followed This With Medea 1956 Cyclopes L959 And Bacchae 1962 Of Euripides Ecclesiazusae 1956 Lysistrata 1957 Plutus 1956 Thesmophoriazusae 1958 Frogs 1959 And Birds 1959 Of Aristophanes. In 1953 With A Series Of Lectures On Contemporary American Composers He Introduced To Greek Music Lovers Somewhat Isolated From The Rest Or The World By Virtue Of World War II And The Trying Post-War Conditions Such Personalities As Aaron Copland Gian-Carlo Menotti Leonard Bernstein Et.Al. It Was At This Time That He Also Composed One Of His Most Important Works The C.N.S. Cycle Op. 8 For Baritone And Piano 1954 . Apart From The Art Theatre Hadjidakis Collaborated With The Greek National Theatre Writing The Music For Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream 1952 King Lear 1957 And Othello 1958 Lorca's Dona Rosita The Spinster 1959 Etc. He Also Wrote The Music For Medea Presented At Epidaurus With The Famous Tragedienne Katina Paxinou In The Leading Role 1956 . In 1959 He Introduced Mikis Theodorakis To The Wider Greek Public By Orchestrating And Recording His Composition “Epitaphios” With Nana Mouskouri. Beginning In 1946 Hadjidakis Went On To Write The Score For A Great Number Of Greek And Foreign Films Including Counterfeit Sovereign Yorgos Tzavellas 1954 Stella Michael Cacoyannis 1955 The Rapist Nikos Koundouros 1956 Madalena Dinos Dimopoulos 1960 In The Cool Of The Day Robert Stevens 1962 America-America Elia Kazan 1962 Blue Silvio Narizzano 1967 Sweet Movie Dusan Makavejev 1974 Honeymoon Yorgos Panousopoulos 1978 Memed My Hawk Peter Ustinov 1983 Quiet Days Of August Pandelis Voulgaris 1992 Etc. In 1977 He Wrote The Music For The Documentaries A La Recherche De L'Atlantide I And A La Recherche De L'Atlantide II By Jacques Cousteau. In 1959 And 1960 At The First Song Festival Organized By The National Broadcasting Institute He Won First Prize For His Two Songs Sung By Nana Mouskouri. In 1960 At The First Greek Film Festival In Thessaloniki He Was Given The Top Award For The Score In The Film The River Directed By Nikos Koundouros. In 1960 He Received An Oscar Award For His Song Never On Sunday Written For Jules Dassin’s Film Of The Same Name. He Was Thus The First Greek Composer To Make Greek Music Known Throughout The World. Said Song Was Ranked Among The Best Ten Of The 20th Century And Later On In 1987 It Received A Prize In Hamburg. He Collaborated Again With Dassin In 1963 Writing The Score For His Film TOPKAPI. However Besides Never On Sunday A Number Of His Songs Became Famous Throughout The World In The Next Few Years And Were Sung By Lale Andersen Brenda Lee Nat King Cole Johnny Mathis Harry Belafonte S. Filips Amalia Rodrigues Michael Kamen And Nana Mouskouri. His Music For The Greek Cinema And A Series Of Songs Won Him An "unwanted Popularity" For Which He Felt Intense Antipathy And To His Dying Days Fought Against. In 1961 He Composed The Music For Georges Neveux’s Play La Voleuse De Londres Staged In Paris With Marie Belle Playing The Lead. In 1962 In Athens He Produced Street Of Dreams. In An Effort To Alleviate The Wounds Of Post Civil War Greece He Produced A Show That Was A Landmark In The History Of Musicals Directed By Alexis Solomos. The Scenery And Costumes Were By Minos Argyrakis With The Eminent Actor Dimitris Horn In The Leading Role. An Uncompromising Restless Spirit In Search At All Times Of New And Original Ventures He Financed 1962 The Competition For Avant-Garde Composers At The Athens Technological Organization Doxiadis Group . The American Composer Lucas Foss Was Chairman Of The Board Of Critics Which Included The Musicologist Yannis G. Papaioannou And The Composer Jani Christou And First Prize Went To Iannis Xenakis Who Was Virtually Unknown In Greece At The Time. Hadjidakis Founded And Conducted The Athens Experimental Orchestra Symphonic Orchestra In 1963 And During The Three Years Of Its Existence It Gave Twenty Concerts And Premiered Fifteen Works By Greek Composers. The Formation Of The Orchestra Gave A New Lease Of Life To The Nation’s Musical Environment In That It Attracted Young People’s Attention To The Hitherto “unknown” Contemporary Music. His Long And Fruitful Collaboration With Maurice Béjart And His 20th Century Ballets Began In Brussels In 1965 With The Performance Of Birds Of Aristophanes And Continued When Hadjidakis Conducted The Orchestra For The Ballet Series Jean Cocteau Et La Dance 1972 Music By Tailleferre Auric Honegger Milhaud Poulenc And Hadjidakis With Jean Marais As Narrator. He Also Conducted The Music Of La Traviata By Giuseppe Verdi 1973 Choreographed By Béjart. The Latter Also Choreographed The Ballet Dionysos With Hadjidakis’ Music And That Of Richard Wagner 1988 And Hadjidakis’ Own The Ballads Of Athena Street 1993 . In 1966 Hadjidakis Went To America For The Theatrical Adaptation Of Never On Sunday Presented With The Title Illya Darling. He Remained Here Until 1972 During Which Time He Became Interested In Pop Music. This Resulted In An LP Of Songs Reflections With The New York Rock And Roll Ensemble. Whilst In New York He Composed Rhythmology Op. 26 For Piano And Magnus Eroticus Twelve Songs With Verses By Ancient And Modern Greek Poets And Recorded His Gioconda's Smile. He Also Wrote The Librettos For The Operas Transformations And Opera For Five The Musical Delikanis And The Era Of Melissanthi A Musical Theme Based On His Personal Experiences From World War II. In 1970 During The Filming Of Martlet's Tale In Rome Hadjidakis Met The Italian Composer Nicola Piovani. This Marked The Beginning Of A Long Teacher-Student Relationship With Piovani Eventually Becoming An Assistant To Hadjidakis On Several Projects. When Nino Rota Died Federico Fellini Offered Hadjidakis To Write The Score For His Forthcoming Film La Nave Va. Hadjidakis Kindly Declined Due To Other Commitments And Proposed Piovani For This Purpose. In 1972 The Darkest Year Of Military Dictatorship He Returns To Athens. The Following Year He Sets Up The Café-Theatre Polytropon In An Effort To Find New Expressive Ways Out Of The Musical Quagmire Of The Times And “aspiring” As He Said “to Ritualize The Presentation Of Songs By Availing Himself Of All Modern Theatrical Practices”. Two Years Later When The Military Dictatorship Had Fallen He Once Again Became Active In The Country's Cultural Affairs. He Was Appointed Deputy Director Of Greek Opera 1975-7 Director Of The State Orchestra L975-82 And Head Of The Third Programme On Greek Radio 1975-81 The Latter Of Which In Collaboration With A Group Of Young And Talented Artists He Revolutionized. In 1979 He Organized The Musical Festivities At Anoyia Crete With Local Folk Dances And Songs. He Was Also Responsible For A Conference On The Subject Of Tradition With The Participation Of Academics Artists And Other Intellectuals. In 1980 And 1981 He Launched The Musical August Festival At Herakleion Crete In Which Were Presented All Current Artistic Trends. Guest Artists Included Nicola Piovani Astor Piazolla Susana Rinaldi GiselIa May R. Winters Gyorgi Sandor E. Cup H. Zender Frei Hermano Da Camara Et Al. Again In 1981 And 1982 He Organized The Music Contests In Corfu A Musical Competition For Young Greek Artists. In 1985-6 Hadjidakis Published And Edited Tetarto Fourth A Cultural Magazine With Poignant Influential Articles About Greek Society And Everyday Affairs. In His Effort To Protect Greek Music From Commercialism In 1985 He Set Up A Record Company SIRIUS Which Is Still Active Today. With Sirius As A Vehicle In 1987-8 He Presented In Plaka An Old District Of Athens A Series Of Musical Programmes With Young Artists Reacting Thus “against The Vulgarization And Pollution Of Our Cultural Environment”. In 1991 In Collaboration With The Municipality Of Kalamata He Organizes The First Greek Song Contest. Once Again He Seeks “a Rapport With Young People Without Cries Without Slogans And Without Unbending…” In 1989 He Founded The Orchestra Of Colours For The Purpose Of Presenting “original Work Not Usually Undertaken By Conventional Symphonic Orchestras” Whose Conductor He Remained To The End Of His Life. Greek And Foreign Soloists Included Christodoulos Georgiadis Sonia Theodoridou Sheila Armstrong Astor Piazolla Gyorgy Sandor Et Al. The Orchestra Gave A Number Of First Public Performances Of Greek Composers. From The Very Beginning Of His Career And In Tandem With His Other Activities Hadjidakis Was Engaged In Recording His Music And Songs. His Oeuvre By And Large Has Become A Classic Of Its Kind The Caucasian Chalk Circle 1956 Tale With No Name 1959 Lilacs Out Of The Dead Land 1961 Fifteen Vespers 1964 Mythology 1965 Captain Mihalis 1966 Liturgical Songs L971 Immortality 1975 Irrationals 1976 Dark Mother 1985 Songs Of Sin 1994 Et Al. The Lyrics In Most Of His Compositions Are By Nikos Gatsos. Hadjidakis Published Two Books Of Poetry Mythology And Mythology II And The Volumes The Mirror And The Knife And Third Programme Commentaries. Modern Greek Society Developed And Was Nurtured By The Personality Of Manos Hadjidakis. Never For A Moment Did He Hesitate To Propound His Visions To The Utmost Thus Revealing The Deepest Meaning Of Art. An Irreconcilable Pioneer An Enemy Of Pomposity And Solidified Views A Lover Of “youth ” Nonconformist To The Core And Armed With Greek And World Culture He Was Able To Combine Classical With Folk Music Thus Creating A “new” Sound A “new” Type Of Song With Roots Both In The East And The West. He Died In The Afternoon Of 15th June 1994.

INIZIO MANOS HADJIDAKIS
POPOLARE BRANI MIX ALBUM
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