Athens handover band.
By Philip Barker
This week, to mark the opening of the virtual IOC session which had originally been scheduled for Athens, the Olympic Anthem sounded in the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, just as it had at the first Olympic Games of the Modern era 125 years ago.
It remains the oldest of the Olympic symbols for in 1896, there was no grand lighting of an Olympic cauldron, and no flag with the five interlocking rings.
The music for the Cantata had been written by Spiros Samaras, a composer from Corfu.
The lyrics were the work of the Greek national poet, Kostis Palamis.
Music had been discussed at the organising committee in April 1895 where Alexandros Skouzes suggested that musical societies be invited to Athens . The committee set aside some 10000 drachmas to pay for singers and musicians to stay in Athens during the Games. The minutes specified that “the expenses should be within strict limits and specified time of stay in Athens.”
A further 5000 drachmas to be paid to Samaras for the composition.
He was advised that the preference of the committee was for a work featuring both orchestra and vocal parts.
It was later announced that the music by Samaras would consist of three quatrains.
The Greek national poet Kostis Palamis was commissioned to write the lyrics.
It was performed at the opening ceremony.
“All the different philharmonic societies arranged themselves in the middle of the arena, and being joined there by a great many performers on string instruments and a chorus of singers, began to play the Cantata for the Olympic games […] these words sung in the open air under streaming sunlight …had a marvellous effect. The harmonious strains of music floated on the air and kindled a fire of enthusiasm. Its repetition was unanimously demanded and the King himself expressed his approval by applauding vigorously and after it having been played a second time, renewed cheers greeted the composer.”
The Acropolis newspaper reported that
“The performance of the hymn, directed brilliantly by the composer himself was excellent. The acoustics of the stadium are wonderful but I think it would be a good suggestion that an extra “grand cassa” be added to the orchestra since one is not enough.”
It remains a curiosity then, that the music then largely disappeared from the Olympic stage.
In the meantime, Samaras used its fanfare as the overture to his opera Rhea. This premiered in 1908, a year when Coubertin lamented the absence of a substantial musical work at the London Olympics.
At subsequent Games there were attempts to find suitable music. Bradley Keeler’s work was chosen for the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Though it was performed at the IOC session in Vienna the following year, another hymn was written for Berlin 1936 by Richard Strauss.
“I kill the boredom of the advent season by composing an Olympic hymn for the proletarians – I of all people who hate and despise sports”, he wrote.
His work was subsequently adopted by the IOC as the Olympic hymn for all time, but within three years of that decision the world was at war.
At the London 1948 Olympics,Sir Malcolm Sargent conducted the combined choirs in “Non Nobis Domine” music by Roger Quilter originally used for the pre-war Festival of London.
In 1952 the Finns held yet another competition and a piece by Jaakko Linjama with words by Toivo Lyy was performed.
There remained the wish for something more permanent and Prince Pierre of Monaco sponsored a competition to find a permanent Olympic hymn. Out of 387 entries, a work by the Polish composer Michel Spisak was chosen for use at the Olympic celebrations in 1956.
However, disputes over copyright prompted further discussions during the 1957 session in Sofia.
The next IOC session was to be in Tokyo and Japan’s member Dr. Ryotaro Azuma, in charge of the arrangements wrote
“Somehow or other Jean Ketseas a Greek IOC member uncovered the Samaras score and sent it to Japan. The NHK arranged it for orchestral music with Mixed chorus and famous Japanese poet Akira Nogami wrote the solemn words for the chorus […] all of the attending members of the IOC were deeply impressed with the hymn. “
The performance by the orchestra conducted by Kazuo Yamada was well received and Prince Axel of Denmark proposed that it should be adopted as the official Olympic hymn. This was passed unanimously, 62 years after it had first been performed in an Olympic setting.
Ketseas contacted the composer’s widow to iron out any difficulties of copyright and the anthem made its reappearance in Squaw Valley at the 1960 Olympics.
For the first time, English lyrics written by Basil Swift in an arrangement by Robert Linn were used.
Since then they have been translated into other languages.
Alfredo Kraus performed the anthem in Barcelona and the crystal clear voice of Sissel Kyrkjebø singing the anthem in Norwegian at Lillehammer 1994 remains a fond memory for many.
The anthem was performed in the Greek vernacular in Montreal, at the closing in Moscow and memorably at the opening ceremony of Sydney 2000 where it was also decided that the choir should be composed of Australians of Greek Ancestry. “This task was easier said than done,” recalls Father Steven Scoutas, Chairman of the Greek Orthodox Church Millennium Commission, “because the Greek Orthodox Church does not generally use massed choirs in its celebrations”.
In the new millennium,the Athens Philharmonia have performed the anthem live at the lighting of the flame in Olympia and in more recent times, a choir of schoolchildren have given the music of Samara a fresh sound.
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