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CD: Epivatis - Passenger
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Undoubtedly, the PASSENGER constitutes one of the most significant song cycles by Theodorakis from every aspect: poetry, melody and rhythmic inventiveness, orchestration and, lastly, the superlative and mature interpretation by Maria Farandouri. However, the work's paramount significance lies in the political-ideological-existential moment that inspired it and which is conveyed by it.
The contribution, at the time, of the young poet Kostas Tripolitis was significant. The harsh, thwarted, prophetic language the poet employed had dissected, in a precise manner, the political situation in Greece of the 80's as well as the dead-ends experienced by people like the composer when they came to realize the end of the Grand Utopia of the people's struggles as they had experienced them up until then.
However, by composing melodies in a totally new form and sensibility, Theodorakis, seemed to be drawing of his personal drama an exquisite taste for lyrical expression. It was the first time that he had resorted to triple hythms which were totally new to the tradition of Greek folk music as if he sought to express his disappointment with the folk movement that seemed to be stuck on a path of no return. However, this audacious move of the composer in denouncing a movement at the moment it was flourishing was bound to cost him dearly. He experienced an extension of the law of silence around him one which pinioned the composer in a subtle and invisible manner rather than the barbaric one with which the dictators had tried to destroy him.
And it is truly a shame, not so much for the composer who proved that no force whatsoever was able to erase him from the hearts of the thousands of his admirers but, for the Greek audience who were deprived of the possibility of getting to know and of embracing the new 80's' compositions by Theodorakis: PASSENGER, RADAR, SALUTATIONS, THE SOUR SATURDAYS, PHAEDRA, DIONYSUS and more. All of these works are equal in significance to the ones of the golden 60's era while each of them opened up a new path in the evolution of Greek music.
Today, after more than twenty years, Tripolitis' prophetic verses are wholly authenticated. On the other hand, by listening to the music, one witnesses the composer's affection for the sound of his folk orchestra where either Papadopoulos and Karnezis determined the nature and the colour of the magnificent musical introductions (the dialogue between the two bouzoukis in the: With a flag and a shotgun song is brilliant) or, they coloured the deeply sensitive and moving melodies in waltz rhythm, the lyricism of which was intended to compensate for the resentment expressed in the lyrics.
In reality, this was the way in which the evolving class at that time could tolerate the apocalyptic verses of Tripolitis endorsed not only by Theodorakis the musician but by Theodorakis the politician as well, who was provoking everyone and everything at the time (1981) as he had always done.
Had the Left Wing at the time lent a favourable ear to his proposals for the formation of a united Left (Moveiment for the Unification of the Left), the political map of the country would be different by now. The monopolisation of power would not exist and, those in power would be obliged to take into serious consideration a strong Left which would be the sole player able to sustain and expand the progressive mass movement that had been moulded by the historical conditions in which the Left had played a foundational role.
However, the leadership of the Leftist parties had finally dismissed his proposal. This led the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) to sigh with relief since the path to its monopoly of power was left wide open with the Left wing in disarray. At the time, Theodorakis collaborated with the Greek Communist Party (he had been elected a Member of Parliament) due to the promise of the Left leaders to move on with the Unification of the Left...
He was very well aware, however, of the fact that everything had ended, as far as the great "National Liberation Front" bloc was concerned with the demise of the ideals with which he had been imbued. And while everyone in the Left and the Centre-Left Wing was celebrating the great transformation, he was the only one -a striking dissonance-, who dared to proclaim his fears, using the most popular weapon, namely, song. It was thus that the "new tribe" of Greeks, who were just forming at the time, took their revenge on him, and their first victim was his musical creation, the PASSENGER.
This becomes understandable when we read verses like these:
... You 've followed an opposite path to mine.
Under anew surname and in different dress
You 've followed an opposite path and now you are in power.
A power that's disabled and shooting at the weeks While turning Greece suicidal, slowly, bit by bit...
A passenger on the hysteria of this land That splinters the bones and dreams of man.
And I'm taxed and fined for it Paying for it with my life's abscess.
If tonight, you love the song
don't let the step you're standing on
lead the way - tomorrow
you 're bound to have it sawn off.
...you'llbe a vile director of an alien power.
It's you my song seeks to be told
It demands nerve and heart to be saved.
Considering the time that has elapsed since these lines were written, they probably concern mainly the historians and the analysts. We simply present these facts to help the listener form a global view of the work since the conditions prevailing at the time along with his personal experience played a leading role in the shaping it.
We also do so since it is our intention to quell the myth that Theodorakis' musical muscle at the time was not equal to that of the huge successes of the 60's. We hope that anyone who listens to the PASSENGER will discover the same melodically intuitive, imaginative, potent, renewed and daring Theodorakis, who is supported by brilliant musicians as well as by an ever-inspiring Maria Farantouri.
© Andreas Brandes
EPIVATIS - PASSENGER, AST 249
Poems by Kostas Tripolitis
Composed 1980-81 in Athens and Paris
Titles:
1. Epivatis - Passenger
2. 80 - 80
3. Afieroma - Dedication / With Rag and a Shotgun
4. Tora - Now
5. Apostima - Abscess
6. To tragoudi mou - My Song
7. Oloi - All
8. Kiriakes - Sundays
9. An - If
10. Sti nihta sou dosmenos - Absorbed in your Night
11. San na min ezisa pote - As if I had never lived
12. Ta sinora edo - The Borders here
First Recording: 1981: Maria Farantouri, Orchestra, Mikis Theodorakis
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