European Heritage
SONG OF HELLAS
A project under the Patronage and sponsored by the committee "Greece 2021 - 200 years after the revolution".
The importance and influence of Greek heritage in European history is undeniable. Most important, however, is the influence of Greek ideals on European art, thought and architecture. Greek mythology, philosophy and ideals such as democracy inspired European humanism, the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the Classical and also the Romantic periods.
Many were the artists who "sang about" Hellas in literature, painting or sculpture: from Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin or Hugo, Percy Shelley to Lord Byron, Delacroix, Géricault, Canova and others.
Above all, however, it was the musicians who paid homage to the land of Orpheus, Sappho and Apollos.
SONG OF HELLAS is a project that we conceived in 2021, aware that European philhellenism in art played a major role in the liberation of Greece. The poems and Greek songs played an enormous role, especially in the German-speaking region of Romanticism, not only in inspiring many young people to actively participate in the fight against the Ottomans, but above all in inspiring the rulers to support the small people in their fight for freedom.
Franz Schubert is of particular importance in the collection of Hellas songs. He has written more than 30 songs on Greek mythology: poems by Goethe and Schiller, but also by Johann Mayrhofer and others.
On a separate website www.songofhellas.org we collect all songs written since 1800 inspired by Greek culture and ideals. In addition to Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, Hochberg, Nowowiejski these include many French composers such as Debussy, Hahn and Ravel, to modernity ans Wolfgang Rihm and the Canadian female composer Jean Coulthard.
Most of the artists playing in the project are selected participants of the First International Singing Competition "Bolko von Hochberg".
The project was funded by the Grece2021 Committee - 200 years after the revolution.