The City and the Writer: In Thessaloniki with Christopher Bakken Italo Calvino,
Can you describe the mood of Thessaloniki as you feel/see it?
Thessaloniki sits right on the Aegean, and the city’s mood is appropriately mercurial moving from blaring sun to placid shadow, from wave to wave, from agony to ecstasy. Out on the larger avenues, you find pandemonium, swelter, and constant vibration, but retreat down any side street and you’ll wind up in a network of tiny alleyways, all remarkably quiet. There, Thessaloniki feels much more like a village than the second-largest city in Greece.
What is your most heartbreaking memory in this city?
January 18, Birth and death of Vassilis Tsitsanis
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He was a Greek songwriter and bouzouki player.
Tsitsanis became one of the leading Greek composers of his time and is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Rebetiko and Laiko music.
From a young age, Tsitsanis was interested in music and learnt to play the violin, mandola and the mandolin, which were the mainstay of so many of his songs.
In 1936 he left for Athens to study law, and by 1937, he also learnt how to play thebouzouki and made his first musical recording.
In 1938, he moved to Thessaloniki, where he served his military service, and stayed there for about ten years, during the German occupation of Greece.