Divine Liturgy with notes of Miki in the metropolitan church of Chios

A special Aunt A liturgy set to music by Mikis Theodorakis was held a few days ago at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Chios. On the island, which was the birthplace of the great composer, the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, set to music by the great composer, was sung for the first time, 40 years after its release on vinyl. It was a touching moment with 30 children as protagonists, members of the “Agios Spyridon” children’s and youth choir of Corfu and students of the Music School of Chios, who performed the hymns.

The church music of Mikis Theodorakis is unknown to many, but it was a catalyst for his work. “Within the musical universe of the Neohellenic, certainly church music occupies the first place”, he had written. “Personally, I was lucky enough to be influenced by the music of the Church from a young age. As a primary school student, in Argostoli, I participated in the church choir formed every year by the metropolitan for the Good Friday tropes. Now that I’ve put it all together in the Third Symphony, I can say that I feel as if I have fulfilled my heaviest debt towards what I consider to be the mother of our musical – and not only musical – memory: the Byzantine tradition,” he said.

After Argostoli, the teenager Mikis systematically participated in church choirs, in Patras, in Pyrgos, until he found himself in Tripoli, in the period 1940-1943, directing the choir of Saint Barbara himself. Then he also wrote his first ecclesiastical essays, culminating in the composition of “Kassiani”, in 1942, which he placed among his most important works. A little later, now organized in EAM, he composed the “Hymn to God”. “I have to say that I changed from Christianity during my teenage years,” he noted. “Indeed, at the same time, I was dividing my love between Christ and Plato – or rather Socrates – and I think that Marx and Lenin came to me quite naturally to complete and above all to establish and document the deepest ethics, mental and spiritual need I felt for the deification of Man”. He was looking for God, “in the Light, I was looking for him in the Darkness. And I found him, in the end, in the face of Man.”

The Cherubic, Social, Trisaya, Se Hymnumen, which Mikis Theodorakis composed in the first half of the 40s, were those that later led him to the complete composition of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. This composition was performed last Saturday morning in the holy church of Saints Minas, Victor and Vincent in Chios under the direction of the professor of the Ionian University Christina Kalliaridou. The initiative belongs to the Music School of Chios and became a reality with the help of the Holy Metropolises of Corfu and Chios.

As Michalis Pilavas, a professor at the Music School of Chios and responsible for teaching the school’s choir, explains to “NEWS”, “a three-day seminar was held last September with the participation of Mrs. Kalliaridou and the 30 children who took part in the action. It had a pilot character, the children worked on the works of Mikis Theodorakis and what happened a few days ago was the continuation of this work”. He says that “this is an effort related to our goal to constantly compete with something better – the children’s choir “Agios Spyridonas” is, after all, internationally recognized – and in the end to come out with more confidence. At the same time, it was the emergence of an unknown side of Mikis Theodorakis, an apprenticeship not only for the children but also for us teachers. The fact that all this happened inside a church was an unprecedented experience for us and extremely moving,” he adds. Of those that bring to mind the words of Mikis Theodorakis: “Are we, after all, the ones who choose the paths of life? Even an Archangel leads us with his invisible wings…”.