Movement 1 From Vangelis’ Mythodea

This video captures Vangelis at what is probably his bombastic peak – performing Mythodea: Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens on June 28, 2001.

Mythodea was made the official theme music of the mission involving the NASA unmanned spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars.

I prefer Vangelis’s more electronic work – partially because it seems like a waste to have an orchestra of hundreds performing such simple stuff and partially because Vangelis has such a great ear for symphonic electronic orchestration. 

Let me know what you think!

Music Composed, Arranged and Produced by Vangelis.
Electronic Keyboards by Vangelis.
The London Metropolitan Orchestra
Blake Neely, Conductor
The National Opera of Greece Choir

The lyrics that are allegedly sung by the choir are:

Dia Ela (Come Zeus)
Esy Pe Di (Almighty,you must)
Dia Erota,Zito Sy Ela (Zeus Eros,I call for you to come)
Dia Sy Thee Mou (Zeus my God)
Eso Men Sy,Esy Pe Thee (You’re inside us,you Almighty God)
En Zi Theos (God lives inside)
Zito Te Tin Mitera Thee(I call for the Mother,God)
Men I Ek Tou Dia Men (Coming from Zeus)
Moni Ek Tou Dia Men (Only from Zeus)
Pe Zef,Pe Di (Zeus Almighty you must)
Deomeni Arhontos Dii (We pray to Lord Zeus)
Deomeni Deomen Si (Praying we call for you)
Deomen Deomen Deomeni (We call praying)

[source: www.geocities.com/ehetlaios/]

4 thoughts on “Movement 1 From Vangelis’ Mythodea

  1. I’d like to see Vangelis play with an orchestra of talented electronic performers — banks of synths, electric violins, and esoteric controllers. Now that, short of cloning the man himself, would be impressive!

  2. That would be cool.

    You wouldn’t need very many people in your Vangelis Orchestra – just a few people on CS80’s, somebody to handle misc synths & vocoder pads, and a percussionist.

    You’d still need a massive choir to sing the nonsense words, though.

    1. When I first heard this, I was so surprised. I think this is one of his best works. I thought this was an Opera, but I’ve heard that this is a Choral Symphony. But it’s still amazing!
      Aside from this movement, my other favourites from this suite is the 2nd and 10th movements, were the full choir gets a lot of input.

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