A Greek Songbook

Commissioned composition presented at the Greek National Opera – Alternative Stage in Athens.

The work was created as part of the multidisciplinary concert series “A Greek Songbook”, marking the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution. The program brought together more than thirty artists working across music, performance and contemporary composition.

The piece explored themes of resistance, memory and historical narratives through sound, archival references and performative composition.

Director’s note

Composer Kornilios Selamsis notes about A Greek Songbook:

A Greek Songbookis not a book. It is an assemblage of musical compositions, songs and images commissioned from music and performing arts workers as part of the Greek National Opera Alternative Stage’s programming for 2021. The definition of this non-book as Greek is associated with the root of the word itself -Greece-, since exactly two hundred years ago this word was established as our national, geographical and spiritual conscience, if I may say so. It was precisely for this era, when Greece was established as a notion, that composers and other arts workers were called upon to reflect and create works at times based on association of ideas and distant, and at times referential and tightly attached to historical, poetic, musical or narrative sources. A Greek Songbookis therefore a gathering of people crafting art works. They all come from very different places. From different practices and ideologies. It is a gathering that doesn’t intend to create a blend of each different person’s own styles; on the contrary, it attempts to let the aesthetic frictions be visible and not mitigate sensory contrasts. The only practical limitations of the commissions had to do with each work’s duration and the variety of means (instruments, objects, etc) that could be used during the live concert performance.