News
If you are interested for my CD,
please contact me via e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
=============================================
Why do I sing Asia Minor songs when I've been born and raised in Crete? An explanation, excerpt from my CD "My Precious Ruby and Sapphire: Songs and Tunes of Asia Minor."
“From all that’s good in humankind, words alone enthrall
uplifting each and every heart, solace bringing to all
and he who knows to craft with words is someone truly blessed
‘cause tears or smiles to eyes he’ll bring, forgetting all the rest.”
Erotokritos
A few words from me to you…
Whether you know me as friends or know me not at all,
you’re all probably wondering how someone born and raised in Crete (the village of Zouridi, Rethymnon, is where I hail from)
has come to sing Asia Minor songs. If those songs were the traditional Rizitika songs of Crete, there would be no reason for you to wonder. From time to time, I have wondered myself on that issue.
My curiosity was quenched some months ago when I accidentally ran into a wise witch (she must have been a sprite, no question about it) at one of Crete’s enchanting areas.
And after inadvertently putting a spell on her through my songs in the “beauteous garden” we were sitting, in the wee hours, I asked her to talk to me about:
“my errant fate that never heard of respite or of rest
and runs amok high up above putting me to the test.”
I asked her to explain to me why my fate
“hurls me up high yet seeks below,
shows me what’s sweet, poisons me though.”
And this is what the bewitched witch told me:
“In times of yore, in glorious times,
one of Byzantium’s young nobles you were
who came and settled in celebrated Crete.
That’s where your fate and noble face come from,
therefrom your songs and your angelic voice”.
I thanked the witch whose face, mien,
and words so wise had cast a spell on me,
and right at dawn, I turned and frankly said:
Do let me go, temptress and witch of love,
do let me go, exile myself back to my own homeland.
Ibidadieu, beforeIgo, akissIgive to her,
a song I sing, worthy of such beauty
and that’s when both she and I our minds we lost…
Today, as times are changingrighthereinCrete,
I often sing songs of olden days.
And just as they came to me, I hand them down
to those whose nobleness of heart is rivaled
only by their word and actions, bidding them
to remember and honor too “the land of toil and blood”.
=============================================
New CD published
MY PRECIOUS RUBY AND SAPPHIRE
Lyrics: Thomas Venakis
My precious ruby and sapphire and purest gold
My August night with a full moon ...
It is from the first line of the song of the same name that the creator, performer, and lyrics-writer, the Cretan Mr Thomas Venakis gives the title to his first CD of songs from Asia Minor. 'At last' will be the reaction of those who have known him for years now, and they'll be right. This disc vindicates them.
It includes 12 songs and one instrumental piece. Of these, most are from the collection of the Greater Teacher of our National Music, the late lamented Simon Karas. Four are here published on disc for the first time, in the case of one, Mr Thomas Venakis has written the lyrics and interprets them in the appropriate manner to a well-known Asia Minor tune.
He works with the following skilled musicians: Manolis Karpathios, kanun - he is also the music editor of the CD - Stratis Psaradelis, Constantinople lyre, Periklis Papapetropoulos, Constantinople lute, and Yorghis Tzanetos, percussion.
The musical pieces are an accompaniment to three outstanding texts. Two have been written by two men with a profound knowledge of our Byzantine and traditional music and fine interpreters of it: (a) the Archpriest and General Episcopal Commissioner of the Metropolitan Bishopric of Kifissia, Marousi, and Oropos, Fr Christos Kyriakopoulos, and (b) the extremely prolific interpreter , researcher and professor of Greek national music Mr Constantinos Markos. The third is that of the composer and interpreter Mr Thomas Venakis.
Those who read the texts and listen to the music will wonder whether this is a musical poem or a poetic work of music. Undoubtedly, they will come to realise that it is both. Those involved guarantee the truth of that.
Fr Christos Kyriakopoulos says, in his 'Gift of Friendship':
Our beloved and distinguished friend Thomas Venakis, born and bred in Crete, the mother of heroes, but with origins in Asia Minor and veins of the Greek East, by means of the songs which he interprets on this CD puts on record the expression of his soul. He offers and delivers them "to people who have heart, who have nobility in great abundance", for them to remember and to honour "blood-soaked soil".
We have shared at close quarters with our good friend Thomas Venakis his anxiety during his preparation for the recording of this CD. He wanted his bold undertaking to be crowned with success, so that this spiritual and cultural wealth of the Hellenism of Asia Minor would be preserved and more widely known. To this end, during the recording, he prayed while he performed and performed while he prayed, "that he should not collapse under what he was experiencing", under this banquet and intoxication of music. And truly, it reaches the degree of perfection!
The distinguished musicologist and author Mr Constantinos Markos, in the learned study which adorns this work of music, deals systematically with the culture and history of the musical tradition of the Hellenism of Asia Minor from the remotest antiquity to the present. He concludes:
In the field of this musical tradition, in which in modern times noteworthy labourers - from Asia Minor and elsewhere - have been found, the present CD by the musician Mr Thomas Venakis, which as a labour of love he has brought out, comes to play its part; in this way he contributes, as a tried and tested labourer in the field, to the great and brilliant wealth of the music of Asia Minor.
In his own text, included in the leaflet which accompanies this CD, Mr Venakis skilfully interweaves the fifteen-syllable line with the mantinada and lines from the Erotokritos, and produces a lyrical, poetic piece of writing.
Let this extract from this text serve instead of a biographical note:
In order to satisfy your interest, I would inform you that, as I have mentioned, I was born in the village of Zouridi in the province of Rethymna, in Crete. I was brought up on the Erotokritos poetry and Rizitika songs, which my Great Teacher and Noble Father used to sing. I grew and shot up to the accompaniment of the primordial and eternal sounds of his voice, the voice of an archangel, and his lyrical speech. After my poverty-stricken years in high school, and my equally poverty-stricken time in the Chemistry Department of the University of Patra, I pursued my postgraduate studies at the University of Zurich, where I was awarded my doctorate in Chemistry. Now I am a retired teacher. The outcome of my lifelong study of and research into music is the work which you hold in your hands. I hope there will be more to come.
At another point he states:
This work of music is a precursor of a volume on music which is to follow - I hope soon - entitled 'Selections from the Treasures of Greek Musical Tradition and the Songs of our People. Volume One'. This has been a lifelong dream of mine, but it is also an obligation to my nation, to hand on life experiences, what I have heard, interpretations during 40 years and more, to those who long to quench their thirst and to forget the spiritual poverty in which we live today. I address myself to the 'Boundless Hellenism' which searches, which hopes, which endures patiently and resists, , the Hellenism, which still retains its Ancient Dignity and Greek Nobility.
.It will include three discs: the first with 12 songs, interpreted by my father, VENOSIFIS (1899 - 1995), a rare figure as a genuine Cretan with the voice of an archangel. Of the innumerable songs which he knew, some recordings of 1966 have been chosen. The second disc will include one of the finest borderland songs, one of the most beautiful “akritika” songs (inspired by the frontier guards of the Byzantine Empire) and an outstanding, a great “paralogi” (ballad) with music and interpretation by myself. On the third disc I shall sing songs from Crete (rizitika, etc.),and " EROTOKRITOS ".
He concludes:
I would like to finish with my favourite poem 'What I wish ... ' by Georgios Drosinis from Bright Darknesses
I have no wish for the deceptive growth of the ivy
bound to supports not its own.
Let me be a reed, a shrub,
but as I rise higher, let me rise alone.
I have no wish for the glitter of the seashore
which appears like a star by the grace of the sun.
I wish to give light from my flame,
even if I am a humble olive oil lamp.
And I would add:
And if I am an olive oil lamp, I give light which never will go out,
true, unfading light, which shines in hearts.
I have never sought the crutches of men,
I have never been like the ivy; I've always grown up straight.
So to reach the summit, to fly at the heights;
if I am down below, I fear I shall be stifled in my distress.
A good friend adds:
You are no ordinary olive oil lamp, oh truly ;
neither any star,not even the Aposperitis, ( the bright Evening star of Venus );
you are the radiant Sun,
the Boast, of Crete.
Thymos Hesychios
I wish everyone 'happy listening'
Sincerely
Dr Thomas Venakis
