Modern Music: Manos Hadjidakis’ Gioconda’s Smile (Το χαμόγελο της Τζοκόντας)We have already seen Man
Modern Music: Manos Hadjidakis’ Gioconda’s Smile (Το χαμόγελο της Τζοκόντας)We have already seen Manos Hadjidakis as the composer for the influential score for Karolos Koun’s Birds. Gioconda’s Smile was recorded in New York in 1965, with most notably Quincy Jones as producer. It was first released in USA in 1965 with twelve orchestral songs, and that same year in Greece. Gioconda’s smile is an album based on an experience Hadjidakis had in New York. Walking down the 5th Avenue he saw a woman in the crowd, while she was passing Hadjidakis noticed a book with Mona Lisa (aka Gioconda) on the cover. It seemed to him that there was a relation between the woman of the crowd and the painting and so he set out to write an album about the “imagined“ life of that woman. The album is also accompanied by poetry Hadjidakis wrote as a form of small “monologues“ for the woman.Here’s an example for the track, the Virgin in my neighbourhood.THE VIRGIN IN MY NEIGHBOURHOOD At that very hour my neighbours – who were curious, amazed and in a hurry - were gathering in the Church, to witness the miracle they’d heard about by word of mouth. The weeping Madonna. I rushed there too, but the throng prevented me from entering. Full of fear and curiosity, everyone was talking about the miracle. This was the only weeping Madonna in the whole city and this was a lot for our small and paltry neighbourhood. I entreated them to let me in. I wanted to see. But they just shoved me and trod on me, until I hurt so much I too started weeping.But suddenly, when they saw me weeping, they all formed a circle around me and little by little began to move away from me; they were upset and left me all alone in the center of a constantly growing circle, and I wept and wept, weeping till I turned into a tiny spot in the public square. Meanwhile, they’d gone, they’d vanished in the nearby streets, stammering: “The weeping Madonna”.Translation by Amy Mims -- source link
#modern music#music history#manos hadjidakis#quincy jones#giocondas smile#greek music#μουσική#ιστορία της μουσικής#Μάνος Χατζιδάκις#Το χαμόγελο της Τζοκόντας#ελληνική μουσική