Manos Hadjidakis

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Manos Hadjidakis ( Greek Μάνος Χατζιδάκις Manos Chatzidakis , born October 23, 1925 in Xanthi , Greece ; † June 15, 1994 in Athens ) was a Greek composer. In 1960 he received an Academy Award in the best song category for his song Never On Sunday from the film of the same name . Well known in Greece, he is considered to be the one who introduced rembetiko and bouzouki to contemporary culture.

Life

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
A ship is coming - Caterina Valente
  DE 5 10/08/1960 (21 weeks)
A ship is coming - Melina Mercouri
  DE 8th 10/08/1960 (15 weeks)
A ship is coming - Lale Andersen
  DE 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 09/24/1960 (28 weeks)
White roses from Athens - Nana Mouskouri
  DE 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 08/05/1961 (38 weeks)

One of his first works was the song Hartino to Fengaraki (Paper Moon) from Tennessee Williams ' End Station Sehnsucht . Hadjidakis wrote the music for this piece for the Athens Art Theater directed by Karolos Koun , with whom he worked for a total of 15 years. His first piano piece Gia Mia Mikri Lefki Ahivada (For a small white shell) was created 1947. 1948 shook Hadjidakis the musical establishment with his legendary lecture on the Rembetika , the urban folk songs, which after 1922 in the Greek cities, particularly in the Piraeus under the influence of refugees from Asia Minor emerged and until then were considered frowned upon. Hadjidakis emphasized the expressiveness, the strong traditional roots and the originality of the feelings that were expressed in the rembetika and praised composers like Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis . As a practical application of his thoughts in this regard, he worked on classical rembetika in his piano work Έξι λαϊκές ζωγραφιές (Six Popular Paintings) in 1951 , which was later performed as a ballet .

In 1955 he wrote the music for Michael Cacoyannis 'film Stella , in which actress Melina Mercouri sang the title song Agapi pou' gines dikopo mahairi (love, double-edged knife) .

In the 1950s, he began something of a two-pronged career. He wrote extremely popular pop and film scores alongside more serious works such as Ο κύκλος του CNS (1954), a song cycle for voice and piano that took up the form, if not the style, of the German song. Hadjidakis always claimed that he wrote his serious pieces for himself and the less serious ones for a living. His phenomenal melodic talent, however, barely showed any qualitative difference between the two types. Hadjidakis wrote numerous titles that were world-famous but never linked to his name (such as All alone am I , Brenda Lee , 1963).

In 1958 he met Nana Mouskouri , a reserved but highly talented singer who has since interpreted many of his songs with her uniquely beautiful voice. 1960 brought him international success. With the music to Jules Dassin's film Sundays ... never! (Ποτέ την Κυριακή - Never on Sunday) he won an Academy Award ; Ta Paidia tou Peiraia (the German version of Lale Andersen was called A Ship Will Come ) became a worldwide hit. Another success was the title White Roses from Athens (Σαν Σφυρίξεις Τρεις Φορές, San sfirixis tris fores - English When You Blow Your Whistle Three Times) in the interpretation of Nana Mouskouri, who originally wrote the 1961 documentary Ελλάς, Χώρα .τωρννωνω (τίωννω ( Greece) , Land of Dreams, dt. Traumland der Sehnsucht ) was composed. Also from Hadjidakis: I look after the white clouds , in 1962 with Nana Mouskouri for 7 weeks (after hot sand ) in 1st place in Germany.

In 1962 he produced the musical Οδός Ονείρων (Street of Dreams) and completed the score for the Aristophanes piece Όρνιθες (Birds), which attracted a lot of attention because of the great staging by Karolos Koun. The music was later used by Maurice Béjart's Ballet du XXe siècle .

In 1964, the score for the US comedy Topkapi was created , directed by Jules Dassin and which won an Oscar for Peter Ustinov . The feature film is based on the novel "Topkapi" (original title: The Light of Day ) by Eric Ambler .

In 1965 the LP Το Χαμόγελο της Τζιοκόντας (The smile of the Mona Lisa) was released . There was a digitally revised new edition of this in 2004 as an audiophile LP and CD in the EMI Classics collection.

In 1966 Hadjidakis traveled to New York for the premiere of Ilya Darling , a Broadway musical starring Melina Mercouri based on Sundays ... Never! . He stayed away from Greece until 1972, mainly out of opposition to the Greek military dictatorship. While in America, he completed several major compositions, including Rythmologia for solo piano and his famous orchestral suite The Smile of the Mona Lisa (produced by none other than Quincy Jones ). But here was also the culmination of his musical creativity, the song cycle Ο Μεγάλος Ερωτικός (Megalos Erotikos) , in which he ancient poems of Sappho and Euripides , medieval texts (set pieces from folk songs and George Hortatzis ' Romance Erophile ) and modern Greek poetry of Dionysios Solomos , Constantine Cavafy , Odysseas Elytis , Nikos Gatsos , Myrtiotissa and George Sarantaris , also an excerpt from the Old Testament song of songs , set to music. His LP Reflections with the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble contained some of his finest songs, either for orchestra only or with English lyrics created by the ensemble; this record was several decades ahead of the trend towards world music and fusion .

Hadjidakis returned to Greece in 1972 and recorded the cycle "Megalos Erotikos" with the singer Flery Dantonaki , who proved to be the perfect interpreter of his music with her opera- trained dark alto voice , and the singer Dimitris Psarianos . After the fall of the military junta, Hadjidakis took over a number of public offices, for example in the Athens State Orchestra, the State Opera and the State Broadcasting Corporation ( Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση (ERT) ). In 1985 he started his own record company Σείριος (Sirius). In 1989 he founded the "Ορχήστρα των Χρωμάτων" (Orchestra of Colors), a small symphony orchestra , and became its first conductor .

After the death of Nino Rota , he was to compose the film music for the films of his friend Federico Fellini . Because of Hadjidakis' increasing health problems, this collaboration never came about. He died of heart disease and diabetes .

plant

Modern theater (selection)

(The catalog raisonné includes a total of 52 plays for which Hatzidakis composed incidental music.)

Chamber music

  • 1947: For a small white shell for piano
  • 1948: piano booklet
  • 1949: Six popular paintings for piano
  • 1950: Lyric suite for piano
  • 1952: Ionic suite for piano
  • 1954: Suite for violin and piano
  • 1958: Seven Greek dances for piano
  • 1958: Loneliness for piano
  • 1969: rhythmology for piano
  • 1986: Suite for guitar

Film (selection)

The catalog raisonné names 76 film scores. Here is a selection of the most important and, above all, the international productions in which Hadjidakis contributed the music:

Ballets

  • 1949: Marsyas - Choreography: Rallou Manou
  • 1951: The Cursed Snake (Katarameno fidi) - Choreography: Rallou Manou
  • 1957: Loneliness (Erimia) - Choreography: Rallou Manou
  • 1965: The Birds (after Aristophanes ) - Choreography: Maurice Bejart
  • 1972: L'ange heurtebise (Greek title: Five improvisations for bouzouki and piano) - Choreography: Maurice Bejart

Music for ancient theater

Songs and song cycles (selection)

The catalog raisonné lists a total of 29 (partly unpublished and unfinished) song cycles or song collections. Below is a selection of the most famous:

  • 1952: CNS cycle
  • 1965: mythology
  • 1969: Reflections
  • 1969: return (Epistrofi)
  • 1970: Amorgos
  • 1970–80: The Melissanthi era
  • 1971: The gold of the earth (Tis gis to chrisafi)
  • 1972: The great erotic (O megalos erotikos)
  • 1975: Athanasia
  • 1976: The absurd songs (Ta paraloga)
  • 1969: Apart from longing (Chorion o pothos)
  • 1977: For Helena (Gia tin Eleni)
  • 1983: winter sun (Chimoniatikos ilios)
  • 1985: Dark Mother (Skotini mitera)
  • 1988: The Myths of a Woman (I mithi mias ginekas)
  • 1990: Reflections (Andikatoptrismi)
  • 1992: The Songs of Sin (Ta tragoudia tis amartias)

Concert music for orchestra

  • 1964: The Mona Lisa's smile
  • 1964: Fifteen vespers

The list of works printed here is based on the official catalog raisonné of the composer, which has been published on his homepage.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charts DE
  2. ↑ Catalog of works ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the Hatzidakis homepage @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hadjidakis.gr
personal data
SURNAME Hadjidakis, Manos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chatzidakis, Manos (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Xanthi , Greece
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1994
Place of death Athens