Mikis Theodorakis - The Ballad of Mauthausen

Michael "Mikis" Theodorakis was born July 29, 1925 and is a Greek songwriter and famous composer. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and Serpico (1973). He is viewed as Greece's best-known living composer.

Tracklist:
01-Asma Asmaton - Song Of Songs
02-O Andonis - Anthony
03-O Drapetis - The Hostage
04-Otan Teliosi O Polemos - When The War Ends
05-Kourastika Na Se Krato - I'm Tired Of Holding Your Hand
06-O Iskios Epese Varis - Deep Shadows
07-Pira Tous Drmous Tou Ouranou - I Took To The Streets Of Heaven
08-Stou Kosmou Tin Aniforia - The Uphill Road
09-To Ekremes - The Pendulum
10-To Oniro kapnos - The Dream Went Up In Smoke

Download Link - Mediafire


The album "The Ballad Of Mauthausen" is one of the most haunting and beautiful pieces of music I have encountered in recent times. For music which was released in 1974 it is just as striking in present times as  it was then - I do regard it as timeless (although I shudder at the thought of using that adjective). The songs have a common thread: they express in powerful music and lyrics the terror, the agony and torture of the concentration camp and its effects on the minds and bodies of the inmates. Best-known of the 4 songs is “Asma Asmaton” expressing the anguish of a Jewish prisoner on learning that the women he loves has just been sent to the gas chamber. Maria Faranouri delivers a remarkable performance as in the fourth song ”Otan teliosi O Polemos” ( "When the War Ends") which portrays the life-in-death fantasy of a Jewish internee who dreams of the end of the war, or of life in almost surrealist images.

Mikis Theodorakis says himself of the work: "A good friend of mine, the poet Iacovos Kambanellis, was a prisoner in Mauthausen during World War II. At the beginning of the sixties, he wrote his memories of this time under the title of "Mauthausen". In 1965, he also wrote four poems on the subject and gave me the opportunity to set them to music. I did this with much pleasure, firstly because I liked the poetry of the texts, and secondly because I was myself locked up during the Nazi occupation in Italian and German prisons, but mainly because this composition gives us the chance to remind the younger generation of history, that history must never be forgotten.

First and foremost, of course, the Mauthausen Cantata is addressed to all those who suffered under Fascism and fought against it. We must keep the Nazi crimes continually in our minds, because that is the only guarantee and the only way to assure that they are not repeated. And we can see every day that the ghost of Fascist is far from being laid. It seldom shows its real face, but Fascist cultures and mentalities exist all over the world. For us, who had to live through this time of horror, the most important task is to protect our children against this peril."

The six songs that make up the rest of the album, four ballads and two lively, up tempo ones, all demonstrate Farandouris’ distinctive dramatic style, which adds an essentially Greek touch of pathos and nostalgia even in the lively gaiety of the two faster songs.

Reproduced here is the English translation of the lyrics of the four poems by Iacovos Kambanellis:

1 - SONG OF SONGS

My love, how beautiful she is
In her everyday dress.
With a little comb on her hair.
Nobody know how beautiful she was.
Young girls of Auschwitz.
Young girls of Dachau.
Have you seen my love?
We saw her on a long journey
She no longer had her everyday dress
Or the little comb on her hair.

My love, how beautiful she is.
Fondled by her mother
And the kisses of her brother
Nobody knew how beautiful she was
Young girls of Mauthausen,
Young girls of Belsen,
Have you seen my love?
We saw her in the frozen square
A number in her white hand
And a yellow star on her heart.

2 - ANDONIS

There, on the great staircase,
On the staircase of tears.
In the dark sentry of death,
In the quarry of lamentation.
Jews and partisans are marching.
Jews and partisans are falling,
They carry a rock on their backs.
A rock, a cross of death.

It's there that Andonis hears a voice.
The voice
"Oh comrade, oh, comrade.
Help me climb the stairs."
But there, on the great staircase.
On the staircase of tears.
Help is an insult.
Compassion is a curse.

The Jew falls on the stair,
And the staircase turns red
"And you, my boy, you, come this way
Get hold of a second rock."
I lift two rocks.
I lift three rocks.
Me, my name is Andonis.
And if you are a man, well then, come here
On this marble threshing-floor.

3 - THE FUGITIVE

Yannos Ber who comes from the North
Cannot stand the barbed wire.
He takes heart he takes wing,
He runs through the villages of the valley.

Good lady, give me a piece of bread.
Give me some clothes to change.
l have to go on a long journey.
And over lakes to fly.

Wherever he goes, wherever he stops
Terror and fear beat their wings,
And a terrible voice is heard.
"Hide from the fugitive."

Christians, I am no murderer.
No wild animal to eat you
I have escaped from prison
To go back to my home.

Ah! What solitude of death
In this country of Bertolt Brecht!
Yannos is handed over to the SS
They take him now for execution.

4 - WHEN THE WAS IS OVER

Girl with the weeping eyes,
Girl with the frozen hands.
Forget me not when the war is over.

Joy of the world. come to the gate
So that we could embrace in the street.
So that we could kiss in the square.

So that we could make love in the quarry.
In the gas chambers,
On the staircase, in the observation post.

Love in the middle of noon
In all the corners of death
Till its shadow will be no more.