The book interrogates the construction of modern Greek identity in Theodorakis' music. After examining the composer's musical and political life in connection with Greece's modern history and culture, the author focuses on characteristic works of varying genres -from "Axion Esti" and "The Song of the Dead Brother" to "Lysistrata"- discussing Theodorakis' unique re-interpretation of modern Greek identity through them, and concludes with the phenomenon of "Zorba" as the all-encompassing representation of the modern Greek.

In the words of Cornell University professor Gail Holst-Warfat, this book "is an important contribution to the understanding of Theodorakis' music, a subject which has been largely neglected by musicologists in his own country, and which deserves to be better known in all its brilliance and abundance by music lovers all over the world."