Special Notes:

Silva Screen’s latest digital offering is this 1995 compilation album of best-known film themes by Greek composers for an international audience.

Little if any Greek film scores have penetrated the North American market beyond the few international hits – Z (1969), Never on Sunday (1960), Phaedra (1962), to name a few – and then there are the English language productions scored by Greek composers either because they were set in Greece – notably 300 Spartans (1962) – or the directors wanted either the ‘hot new musical voice,’ or a composer whose sonic style suited a particular vision.

In terms of the latter, Vangelis is the best-known, largely because his scores for Chariots of Fire (1981) and Blade Runner (1982) became hits. Chariots is a lovely albeit maniacally repetitive theme that loops on and on, and its all-synth design was daring at the time, considering the film was set in the twenties. In the end story, characters, and music trumped the score’s anachronistic sound, but the music soon after became a favourite prop in the comedy genre, spoofing racing sequences or in commercial ads.

Like the extracts from Blade Runner, the electronic performances on this compilation are pretty faithful, although Vangelis’ choral theme from 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) gets an orchestral rendition (which works), whereas the version of the Missing (1982) theme stays to the original keyboard performance, including low, deep bass tones.

Music more deeply rooted in Greek music (at least in harmony and instruments) include Mikis Theodorakis’ Z, which is given a lively performance featuring acoustic strings, and a galloping spaghetti western rhythm. The partial synth and organic instrumentation in State of Siege (1972) also mimics a galloping rhythm prior to the melodic bridge, and Theodorakis’ theme is a great, slightly wry composition that plays with rhythmic textures, integrates South American woodwind instruments, and clusters of percussion that repeatedly trample in and out of the theme.

Also rooted in a pop style is Manos Hadjidakis’ swinging theme from Topkapi (1964), with wheezing clarinet trading lines with groups of guitars while a tambourine keeps a steady rhythm. More famous is Hadjidakis’ Never on Sunday, an infectious piece comprised of a whimsical intro (played on woodwind), the melody’s A section (the signature component), and the B section, which gets thicker in instrumentation after each component goes through the cycle.

Never on Sunday was a best-seller for original label United Artists, as well as Topkapi, and Phaedra, the last one featuring a semi-tragic theme by Theodorakis that veers from big string orchestra to low-key, solo guitar with subtle string accompaniment. The theme’s construction is basically repeated, long, whole notes, shifting chords, and an alternation between intimate renditions (flute and guitar) and wholly tragic eruptions (full orchestra). Equally charming is Theodorakis’ rhumba theme from Honeymoon (1959) with twanging acoustic instruments nestled in a fifties big band.

Perhaps the strength among the album’s best themes is the relationship the composers create with quiet acoustic guitar and orchestra, playing with textures, solo environments, and using the guitar as a lead-in for an epic statement or placing the instrument within a large orchestral field.

Phaedra figures as a lead-in, since the theme is capped with a big surge, but a lovelier example of inter-acoustic relationships is Hadjidakis’ Blue (1968), which did get a stereo LP from Dot during the film’s brief theatrical release. Hadjidakis’ theme is truly gorgeous, and moves between woodwinds and orchestra to quiet solo guitar, and while the film was a western designed to cash-in on the spaghetti western craze, the score features a broad array of fusions.

More traditional in Blue is the solo guitar lament that’s the center of Hadjidakis’ theme, and its function as a lead-in to a full orchestral variation, where marimba, tambourine, and lovely brass create a theme about isolation, ephemeral triumph, and tragedy. It’s one of Hadjidakis’ finest themes, and it’s a pity the score has yet to enjoy a full release. (The short stereo Dot LP was mastered on rubbish vinyl, and a brief Greek CD was reportedly taken from a mono album sources.)

300 Spartans was a rare moment where a Greek composer was hired to score a big Hollywood production. Although set in ancient Greece, Hadjidakis’ title music is comprised of a rousing march and a gorgeous love theme that captures the feeling of anguish, separation and devotion (which the film’s stilted characters didn’t). A deadly dull movie where every 8th word in a sentence is “Spartans,” the film’s best-remembered sequence is the soldiers’ final stand against the Persians in the ending, as well as Hadjidakis’ title music. A Fox production, the score should’ve been picked up by now for a full CD release, but it’s remained marginalized while the ancient history scores by big name Hollywood composers have gotten more attention by music producers.

Fox’ Zorba the Greek (1964) was a bigger hit, and the charisma of its characters and story was also reflected by Theodorakis’ score. The giddy romance between a western character who ‘discovers’ Greek culture was crystallized in the famous dance sequence, where Theodorakis’ starts his circular theme with a solo guitar and works things up with percussion woodwinds, and strings, punctuating the spiraling dance rhythm with full orchestra hits.

Serpico (1973), like Z, was an international hit, although the former is rooted in seventies Euro pop, with a rich array of Greek acoustic instruments, and a sweeping melody that Theodorakis shaped into a triumphant march, using each melodic iteration to thicken the percussion textures, and shift the harmonics to create moments victory, melancholy, and a sense of isolation for the film’s rebel character.

Silva’s album closes with a strong vocal version of the Phaedra theme, with Haris Alexiou singing her part in Greek. Unlike the original 1995 CD release, the 2010 digital version contains 15 of the 17 tracks, with music from Shirley Valentine (1989), scored by Willy Russell and George Hatzinassios, and Yanni’s music for the TV movie I Love You Perfect (1989) dropped, perhaps due to rights issues.

© 2010 Mark R. Hasan