The Phenomenon Megalos Erotikos
Song Cycles for Ensembles of Single Instruments
Concept
The research focuses on Song Cycles featuring some or all of the following characteristics:
Composed in and around the twentieth century
Settings of poetry as opposed to lyrics
Accompanied by small ensembles, preferably ensembles consisting of single instruments as opposed to piano or orchestra
Mixed musical language in the range between the classical and the folk/world music, for example by use of traditional instruments
Performance in different mixed vocal styles and techniques between the operatic and the non operatic
Close relationship to other forms of art, such as radio, theatre, film, literature
Relationship to the numerous such Song Cycles by Greek Composers, with “Megalos Erotikos” by Manos Hadjidakis
as a central and constant point of reference
Background in terms of an example
In the year 1972, in times of military dictatorship in his native Greece, Manos Hadjidakis (famous for having thrown his Academy Award for Never on Sunday 1963 in the garbage) creates in exile in New York a unique song cycle named “Ο Μεγάλος Ερωτικός”, quite inadequately translated in english as “Magnus Eroticus”.
The composer describes the work in the following words:
“Magnus Eroticus is not dressed in local folk costumes. It is dressed in its own clothes which are a composition of difficult combinations of sounds, light colours and poetic dreams. It does not contain messages easily erased by the rain, it doesn’t fight back. The order these poems follow, forms an unbreakable song cycle, a mass for Magnus Eroticus – something like the vespers for the Saints at some far away deserted chapels with the participation of imaginary angels, lovers, virgins and adolescents. It is a strange litany, yet natural, in our inner and secret life. These songs are not sensual. They operate in practice, in the deep sense of any relationship, in every form, provided it contains the conditions for human communication.” November 28, 1972
Everything about this work is in a way unique:
The selection of texts: form a kaleidoscope of greek poetry all the way from Euripides (tragic poetry) and Sappho (lyric poetry) sang in ancient Greek language to the contemporary Nobelist Odysseas Elytis. Two poetic texts originally written in Hebrew (King Solomon’s Song of Songs from the Old Testament) and Spanish (an excerpt from Federico Garcia Lorca’s theatre play “The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belissa in the Garden”) are also included in their emblematic translations in modern Greek.
The orchestration: The cycle is set for two non classical singers (male and female) mixed choir accompanied by a group of stringed instruments: violin, violoncello, double bass, piano, plucked piano, two guitars, mandolin, lute, bouzouki and harp.
The enigmatic title: “Ο Μεγάλος Ερωτικός” consists of an article and two adjectives meaning “great” and “erotic” but there is no noun defined by these adjectives. It is clearly conceived as something far more than a song cycle, something like a musical and poetical ritual, a worship to the God of Love Eros as described by the poets all through the history of greek literature.
The political impact: The work was originally criticised as being “apolitical”, focusing on poetry and ignoring the critical political situation in Greece. It was inevitably seen in comparison and juxtaposition to the more directly political and revolutionary songs of Hadjidakis’s usual counterpart, the equally famous Mikis Theodorakis. Some people argue though, that such a “de profundis” introspection of the greek soul, was an act far more revolutionary than songs with a more obvious political message.
The Genre: In terms of style, Magnus Eroticus keeps equal distance to a classical Song Cycle with orchestra, such as Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder for example and to the underground Rembetiko Songs. Despite its refined melodic and harmonic language, with a combination of modal and free tonal material, the work was not written down and edited properly. Hadjidakis used to provide his musicians with impromptu notes written on little pieces of paper and instruct them verbally in order to produce not a score but a recording. He would also chose his singers painstakingly, preferably young and inexperienced, and provide them with detailed instructions.
The aesthetics that Hadjidakis establishes in this work respond to a rarely poetic approach to personal and collective life as described in his numerous texts and the rest of his work.
The creation of the Cycle was documented in a film by Pantelis Voulgaris. Many song cycles by Manos Hadjidakis on the other hand derive from material originally written for the radio, the theatre or the cinema. Goals
Goals
Aesthetic Research
To define the aesthetics and philosophy that created the background of the composition
To study and define the performance style that do justice to this genre in terms of performance
To cultivate a culture of music making situated right between chamber and orchestral approach
To train conductors in this particular aesthetics
Musicology
To locate and discover forgotten or lesser known repertoire
To research the political and historical background of the genre
To notate and publish non existing scores and parts by dictation of recordings
To correct and edit existing scores and parts, that are usually full of mistakes
To record works that have never been recorded before
To explore the relationships of this repertoire to poetry and other forms of art
Education
To encourage young composers to create more works in this genre
To find and train conductors, musicians and especially singers in the particular style
To encourage simplified arrangements that can be used for pedagogical purposes
Concerts
The results of the research can be presented in terms of five concerts with the following themes
1. Commissioned Song Cycles with predefined specifications by young composer after a competition
2. Arrangements of Orchestral Song Cycles for Ensemble of Single Instruments (such as Schönberg’s arrangements of Mahler Song Cycles)
3. Arrangements of Song Cycles based on Folk Music originally with Piano Accompaniment for Ensemble (such as Berio’s Folk Songs or Konstantinidis’s “20 Songs of the Greek People”)
4. Manos Hadjidakis’s “Magnus Eroticus” and “Neighbourhoods of the Moon” in their original orchestration based on a critical edition to be published
5. A concert with juxtaposition of songs by Manos Hadjidakis and his original influences from Folk Song and Rembetiko all the way to Franz Schubert and Alban Berg focusing on the different vocal and instrumental techniques required.
One of the concerts could be conducted by me as well as by young conductors after a workshop under my guidance.
Please note that these concerts can be realised with the Ensemble Retro Vienna
www.ensembleretrovienna.com
The ensemble is happy to travel to Helsinki and elsewhere on our own costs. Apart from that, I am on constant cooperation with ensembles and singers in many European cities such as Vienna, Athens and London
Concept
The research focuses on Song Cycles featuring some or all of the following characteristics:
Composed in and around the twentieth century
Settings of poetry as opposed to lyrics
Accompanied by small ensembles, preferably ensembles consisting of single instruments as opposed to piano or orchestra
Mixed musical language in the range between the classical and the folk/world music, for example by use of traditional instruments
Performance in different mixed vocal styles and techniques between the operatic and the non operatic
Close relationship to other forms of art, such as radio, theatre, film, literature
Relationship to the numerous such Song Cycles by Greek Composers, with “Megalos Erotikos” by Manos Hadjidakis
as a central and constant point of reference
Background in terms of an example
In the year 1972, in times of military dictatorship in his native Greece, Manos Hadjidakis (famous for having thrown his Academy Award for Never on Sunday 1963 in the garbage) creates in exile in New York a unique song cycle named “Ο Μεγάλος Ερωτικός”, quite inadequately translated in english as “Magnus Eroticus”.
The composer describes the work in the following words:
“Magnus Eroticus is not dressed in local folk costumes. It is dressed in its own clothes which are a composition of difficult combinations of sounds, light colours and poetic dreams. It does not contain messages easily erased by the rain, it doesn’t fight back. The order these poems follow, forms an unbreakable song cycle, a mass for Magnus Eroticus – something like the vespers for the Saints at some far away deserted chapels with the participation of imaginary angels, lovers, virgins and adolescents. It is a strange litany, yet natural, in our inner and secret life. These songs are not sensual. They operate in practice, in the deep sense of any relationship, in every form, provided it contains the conditions for human communication.” November 28, 1972
Everything about this work is in a way unique:
The selection of texts: form a kaleidoscope of greek poetry all the way from Euripides (tragic poetry) and Sappho (lyric poetry) sang in ancient Greek language to the contemporary Nobelist Odysseas Elytis. Two poetic texts originally written in Hebrew (King Solomon’s Song of Songs from the Old Testament) and Spanish (an excerpt from Federico Garcia Lorca’s theatre play “The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belissa in the Garden”) are also included in their emblematic translations in modern Greek.
The orchestration: The cycle is set for two non classical singers (male and female) mixed choir accompanied by a group of stringed instruments: violin, violoncello, double bass, piano, plucked piano, two guitars, mandolin, lute, bouzouki and harp.
The enigmatic title: “Ο Μεγάλος Ερωτικός” consists of an article and two adjectives meaning “great” and “erotic” but there is no noun defined by these adjectives. It is clearly conceived as something far more than a song cycle, something like a musical and poetical ritual, a worship to the God of Love Eros as described by the poets all through the history of greek literature.
The political impact: The work was originally criticised as being “apolitical”, focusing on poetry and ignoring the critical political situation in Greece. It was inevitably seen in comparison and juxtaposition to the more directly political and revolutionary songs of Hadjidakis’s usual counterpart, the equally famous Mikis Theodorakis. Some people argue though, that such a “de profundis” introspection of the greek soul, was an act far more revolutionary than songs with a more obvious political message.
The Genre: In terms of style, Magnus Eroticus keeps equal distance to a classical Song Cycle with orchestra, such as Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder for example and to the underground Rembetiko Songs. Despite its refined melodic and harmonic language, with a combination of modal and free tonal material, the work was not written down and edited properly. Hadjidakis used to provide his musicians with impromptu notes written on little pieces of paper and instruct them verbally in order to produce not a score but a recording. He would also chose his singers painstakingly, preferably young and inexperienced, and provide them with detailed instructions.
The aesthetics that Hadjidakis establishes in this work respond to a rarely poetic approach to personal and collective life as described in his numerous texts and the rest of his work.
The creation of the Cycle was documented in a film by Pantelis Voulgaris. Many song cycles by Manos Hadjidakis on the other hand derive from material originally written for the radio, the theatre or the cinema. Goals
Goals
Aesthetic Research
To define the aesthetics and philosophy that created the background of the composition
To study and define the performance style that do justice to this genre in terms of performance
To cultivate a culture of music making situated right between chamber and orchestral approach
To train conductors in this particular aesthetics
Musicology
To locate and discover forgotten or lesser known repertoire
To research the political and historical background of the genre
To notate and publish non existing scores and parts by dictation of recordings
To correct and edit existing scores and parts, that are usually full of mistakes
To record works that have never been recorded before
To explore the relationships of this repertoire to poetry and other forms of art
Education
To encourage young composers to create more works in this genre
To find and train conductors, musicians and especially singers in the particular style
To encourage simplified arrangements that can be used for pedagogical purposes
Concerts
The results of the research can be presented in terms of five concerts with the following themes
1. Commissioned Song Cycles with predefined specifications by young composer after a competition
2. Arrangements of Orchestral Song Cycles for Ensemble of Single Instruments (such as Schönberg’s arrangements of Mahler Song Cycles)
3. Arrangements of Song Cycles based on Folk Music originally with Piano Accompaniment for Ensemble (such as Berio’s Folk Songs or Konstantinidis’s “20 Songs of the Greek People”)
4. Manos Hadjidakis’s “Magnus Eroticus” and “Neighbourhoods of the Moon” in their original orchestration based on a critical edition to be published
5. A concert with juxtaposition of songs by Manos Hadjidakis and his original influences from Folk Song and Rembetiko all the way to Franz Schubert and Alban Berg focusing on the different vocal and instrumental techniques required.
One of the concerts could be conducted by me as well as by young conductors after a workshop under my guidance.
Please note that these concerts can be realised with the Ensemble Retro Vienna
www.ensembleretrovienna.com
The ensemble is happy to travel to Helsinki and elsewhere on our own costs. Apart from that, I am on constant cooperation with ensembles and singers in many European cities such as Vienna, Athens and London
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