(Re)Remembering Mikis Theodorakis: Art-Popular Song as the Afterlife of Greek Wartime and Resistance Music-Making

This article addresses the genre of ‘art-popular song’ that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, represented by Mikis Theodorakis. I problematize the notion of art-popular song as a watershed in Greek music, making the case for resituating the genre within a cultural lineage that can be traced to Nikos Skalkottas, Alekos Xenos, and the guerrilla songs known as andártika. In so doing, I enrich an understanding of a leftist thread that connected Greek composers who grappled with music’s role and its social and political utility, and thereby testified to the enduring impact of the Russian Revolution and its cultural legacy, including socialist realism, in Greece.