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Zorba the Greek - FM Records
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For those that lived through the 1960s some film music remains iconic, summing up an age when each new film was a journey of discovery. Themes from From Russia With Love, The Italian Job, The Magnificent Seven and 633 Squadron are all instantly recognisable to a whole generation.
Up there with these classics is ‘Zorba’s Dance’ from Mikis Theodorakis’ score for Zorba The Greek. The Cretan dancing in the film has been mimicked at thousands of weddings since, the male guests leaping to their feet whenever the distinctive bouzouki starts. However, this is only one cue in a charming score that has a unique Greek flavour. The film tells of an Englishman (Alan Bates) who has inherited a small cottage on a Greek island and who is befriended by a local (Anthony Quinn) then introduced to the loves and joy of Greek life. Mikis Theodorakis’ music captures the essence of lazy, romantic life in 1960s Greek islands. This prolific Greek composer and poet has written more than fifty film scores since his first, Eva, in 1953 as well as some of Greece’s most loved classical works including seven symphonies (as well as being an active politician and one time member of the Greek parliament), but it is his score for Zorba The Greek, above all, that initially gained him international recognition.
The album opens with the distinctive ‘Theme From Zorba The Greek’ played on the bouzouki at breakneck speed, but still light and airy and totally mesmerising. The score develops with a variety of delightful Greek-flavoured cues that create a variety of emotions from joy and sadness in ‘The Full Catastrophe’, through to melancholy in ‘Life Goes On’, and onto unabashed fun in cues like ‘The One Unforgettable Sin’ and ‘Always Look For Trouble’. Each cue uses the bouzouki to create a wonderful Mediterranean holiday atmosphere. The sixth cue is the famous ‘Zorba’s Dance’ starting with the slow intricate tune based around the inevitable toe-tapping beat. As the cue progresses, the foot tapping along with the beat gets faster and faster. Quinn and the white suited Bates, arms on each other’s shoulders, follow the beat dancing faster and faster, creating one of those unforgettable cinematic moments. The score ends with a sad reprise of ‘Life Goes On’, an enigmatic male choir singing the Cretan folksong ‘Free’, and finally ‘That’s Me-Zorba’, a more restrained version of ‘Zorba’s Dance’.
Mikis Theodorakis’ music for ‘Zorba’s Dance’ became an international hit and remains a popular symbol of Greece, despite the film actually being set in Crete. However, the rest of the music on the soundtrack for Zorba The Greek is an enchanting mix of the main Zorba theme and other Greek music that makes the score doubly desirable. With sleeve notes in Greek and English this 2001 re-recording by the composer using bouzouki player Costas Papadopoulos and bass played Vangelis Papangelidis is a must for devotees of film music from the 1960s.
Reviewed by: Andrew Keech. Music from the Movies
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