How Hadjidakis Composed Incredibly Inspired, Beautiful Songs

EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis): In this rare, informative video from a musical event at the Herod Atticus Theater in Athens (a Roman thater with incredible acoustics at the foothills of the Acropolis – those who haven’t been there are truly missing a magical experience), Dionysis Savopoulos, the sarcastic “Nionios” of our youth, explains how the greatest composer of modern Greece, Manos Hadjidakis, truly “composed” totally different sources of inspiration.  In the particular song played here by the Savopoulos orchestra, it is explained that an ancient musician, Sicylos (first century BC), melodizes a poem in honor of his deceased wife.  Hadjidakis takes this saved ancient Greek melody and combines it with a 5/8 beat, traditionally played in Thrace of Northeastern Greece.  

Hadjidakis is internationally famous for approaching the prohibited underground (in the 1940s and 50s) bouzouki music and bringing it to the surface “composing” / combining it with his superb modern and classical music talent and skills… The result was what the world learned as contemporary Greek music, with the bouzouki at the center. Still, it is permanently anchored in our hugely rich folk musical tradition, and now, because of Hadjidakis, following Western musical skills and orchestration…  The result was a Greek music drawing equally – like all other cultural expressions in Greece – from both East and West. 

ENJOY THIS TRULY AMAZING VIDEO – FOLLOWED BY SOME OF THE MOST INSPIRED UNIQUE HADJIDAKIS MELODIES.  ENJOY!!  

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