Now, in the end of my life, and upon reviewing things, the details fade from my mind and only the "big things" remain. Thus, I see that my most critical, forceful and mature years were under the banner of KKE [Communist Party of Greece]. For this reason I want to leave this world as a communist.

-Mikis Theodorakis, in a 2020 letter to the Secretary General of KKE

Today Mikis Theodorakis, almost unanimously considered the greatest Greek composer and one of the most important personalities in the country, died at 96 years of age.

In fact his music is so famous you probably have heard it somewhere, even if you don't know it. For instance, the famous Sirtaki from the movie Zorbas the Greek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzpHvLWFUM

Or the theme from Serpico: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1DMnQHvN7A

However, his most important work, often considered his magnum opus, was Axion Esti, his musical transfer of the poem of the same name by Odysseas Elytis, the Nobel prize winning poet, an epic symphony combining elements of 20th century (especially Russian) classical music, byzantine music, and Greek folk. He is seen conducting it here in 1977: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXeUIeShYk

To understand his work you first have to understand his life, and the historical context of his music. He was born in Crete in 1925 and showed great musical talent from very young, presenting his first work at 17 years old. At the same time he joined the resistance against Axis invasion of Greece. The next year, in 1943, he was captured and tortured by Italian occupation forces. After his escape, he joined ELAS (Greek People's Liberation Army) the communist rebel forces. His experiences in the resistance were formative for his later development. Soon after the retreat of the occupiers from Greece, the civil war began, and he was once again persecuted and finally arrested in 1947. He was eventually released after an amnesty granted by the government, at which point he went underground and joined the Democratic Army of Greece, the communist side of the civil war. However he was once again arrested and sent to Makronisos, a prison island, where he was tortured to the point of paralysis in his legs, from which he never fully recovered. In 1949 he was finally let free due to his disability.

After his recovery, he graduated from the Athens School of Music in 1950. That same year he attempts suicide but he is saved. In 1954 he leaves Greece and enters in a Parisian conservatory where he studies music under Olivier Messiaen, the important 20th century classical composer, and others. In 1957 he receives the first prize in the Moscow music festival from Shostakovich for his Suite no. 1 for piano and orchestra, a dissonant and complex work influenced by composers such as Igor Stravinsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFyfXN0WnHM

He didn't become so important to Greece however until he "rediscovered" the folk music of Greece. His first such work was Epitafios, based on a book by Giannis Ritsos, a fellow communist poet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOiMmJ8ErOM

He returns to Greece in 1960 and puts music to the words of Giorgos Seferis, the other Nobel prize winning poet in his album Epifania, which was an incredible success.

Here is an excerpt of Theodorakis conducting for the final time the song Arnisi off of that album in 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_plGAm1ovA

The beautiful Kratisa ti Zoi Mou from the same album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZnif5JbDKw

Finally, he presents Axion Esti in 1964. He had already written most of it however he postponed release because he did not think the Greek public was ready for it yet. Around the same time he is elected in the parliament with EDA (United Democratic Left) and composes the theme of Zorba which makes him famous worldwide.

In 1966 he returns to Ritsos, and composes some of his most distinctly revolutionary songs, such as "Otan Sfigoun to Heri", played here by the Red Army Choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cr17m4SPRM

He also composes Mautthausen, a tribute to Holocaust victims. Here is a rendition of his song Ballad of Mautthausen by Joan Baez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeSVp65fI1M

But in 1967, a military coup brings an end to the already very fragile democracy, and the junta government vehemently opposes Theodorakis. IHe was one of the founders of the first resistance organization, which resulted in him being arrested very quickly and his music being banned. The ban is satirized in this famous scene from a comedy with Thanassis Veggos, released after the fall of the regime in 1974: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Ub43WdoFU

During his imprisonment, he is subjected to terrible conditions and torture, and his health degrades rapidly. However, he manages to smuggle some of his works out. It led to his composition of works like The Slaughterhouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTfV99xB1EI

Or Eimaste Dio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNY6J6XmF4Q

However, the global outcry against his imprisonment led to him being freed in 1970. It was during this time that Axion Esti became a symbol of resistance against the junta, with songs from that work such as Ena to Helidoni, a song about the burden the people have to carry to achieve liberation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTReB0eakWQ

Lone is the swallow, and costly is the spring it takes a lot of work for the sun to return it takes thousands dead at the wheels and it takes those who are alive giving their blood

Or this one, again performed by the Red Army Choir in honor of the 200 years since the Greek revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4U5esBgTBo

So this is the context which lead to him achieving the status he has after the fall of the junta, and critically influenced virtually all Greek music.

Later on in life and particularly in these last few years he did and said some really stupid and nasty things. I'm talking industrial level cringe. At some point when he got very old he had a weird rightward and nationalist shift unfortunately, which culminated in 2018 and his stupid rant in the protests about the North Macedonia bullshit. But I think the rants and bad calls of someone after they get very very old don't detract much from the rest of their immense offer. Besides, his letter to the general secretary of KKE last year (when his health problems turned severe and it became evident he wouldn't live much longer) indicated that he probably looked back and reconsidered some things.

Personally I am honored to be able to say I met him, albeit as a little child. I actually have a photo with him somewhere... I distinctly remember his hand being very dry and wrinkly lol