“We couldn’t afford to buy a piano, and there were only three in the entire town. I practiced the scales on the piano of a rich American, who allowed me to study at his house on Sunday mornings when people were at mass. But I had to stop playing as soon as he got back. For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of hatred for rich people who could afford a piano but who didn’t use it, whereas I really needed a piano but was deprived of the opportunity. If I became a Marxist, it was because of that piano, which to my eyes was the embodiment of social injustice. I eventually hired a harmonium, which I found very useful. But all these setbacks taught me to write music from memory, without any instruments, and I was therefore later able to go on composing in exile and prison.”
– Mikis Theodorakis, 1992, as told to UNESCO
ME AND ME DAD
Ireland, 2012, 67m
Director: Katrine Boorman
Starring: Katrine Boorman, John Boorman
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