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Session 5C: Dissenters Beyond the Centres: Analytical Perspectives on Greek Musical Modernism

Thursday 18 September
Session Convenor: Eva Mantzourani

1A Early Modernism - Tradition and Continuity: The Berlin Connection
Chair: Eva Mantzourani                          

The first subsession, ‘Early Modernism – Tradition and Continuity: The Berlin Connectionfocuses on early musical modernism in Greece as reflected in the atonal and twelve-note music of Dimitri Mitropoulos, Nikos Skalkottas and Yannis Constantinidis. In the first paper, Vasiliki Zlatkou explores and compares the formal structures of the first movement of two early piano sonatinas by Nikos Skalkottas and Yannis Constantinidis. In the second paper, Giorgos Sakallieros analyzes Mitropoulos’s Passacaglia, Intermezzo e Fuga for piano, and discusses the introduction of musical modernism in Greece.

10.00    Vasiliki Zlatkou
Two Early Sonatinas for Piano by Nikos Skalkottas and Yannis Constantinidis: Re-Interpretation of Normative Formal Models

10.30    Giorgos Sakallieros
Dimitri Mitropoulos’s Passacaglia, Intermezzo e Fuga (1924): Introducing Musical Modernism in Greece


1B Early Modernism - Diversity within the Tradition: The Schoenberg Connection

Chair: Panos Vlagopoulos                                   

The second subsession, ‘Diversity within the Tradition: The Schoenberg Connection’, is devoted to Nikos Skalkottas (1904–1949). Eva Mantzourani discusses Skalkottas’s approach to sonata form and his techniques for achieving multimovement coherence in his free dodecaphonic works. Costas Tsougras examines Kurze Variationen auf ein Bergsthema for piano, and explores Skalkottas’s predilection for stylistic synthesis. Petros Vouvaris deals with melodic structures in Skalkottas’s post-tonal music. The lecture-recital on analytical insights into the performance of Skalkottas’s piano works by Lorenda Ramou rounds off the subsession.


11.00    Eva Mantzourani
Sonata Form, Sonata Cycle and Multimovement Coherence in Skalkottas’s Free Dodecaphonic Works

11.30    Costas Tsougras
Kurze Variationen auf ein Bergsthema from the 32 Piano Pieces by Nikos Skalkottas: An Analytical Approach of Theme and Variations Based on Greek Folk Melodies

12.00    Petros Vouvaris
Issues of Melodic Structure in Nikos Skalkottas’s Post-Tonal Music

12.30    Lorenda Ramou
Analytical Insights into the Performance of Nikos Skalkottas’s Piano Works (Lecture Recital)

13.00    lunch break                                          


2A Post-WWII Modernism - Continuities, Discontinuities, Traditions and Individualities within Greek Musical Modernism

Chair: Danae Stefanou

The subsession, ‘Post-WWII Modernism – Continuities, Discontinuities, Traditions and Individualities within Greek Musical Modernism’, explores the diverse directions that musical modernism in Greece took after World War II.  In the first paper, Struggling for the “New”’, through the analytical exploration of representative works, Kostas Chardas investigates stylistic interactions and the ambivalence between formal coherence and fragmentation in Yannis A. Papaioannou’ s ‘paradigmatic post-1950 Greek modernism. Magdalini Kalopana explores the symbiosis of diverse, avant-garde and traditional Greek elements in Dimitris Dragatakis’s works for solo instruments. Anastasios Mavroudis provides a performance analysis of Yorgos Sicilianos’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45.

15.00    Kostas Chardas
Struggling for the ‘New’: Tonal/Atonal/Twelve-Note Interactions and the Ambivalence between Formal Coherence and Fragmentation in Y. A. Papaioannou’s ‘Paradigmatic’ post-1950 Greek Modernism

15.30    Magdalini Kalopana
Opposition and Symbiosis: Avant-Garde and Traditional Greek Elements in the Works for Solo Instruments of Dimitris Dragatakis: An Analytical Perspective

16.00    Anastasios Mavroudis
Performing Sicilianos: An Analytical and Interpretative Approach to the Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45 by Yorgos Sicilianos

16.30    coffee break


2B Post-WWII Modernism - Diversity, Self-Expression and New Directions
Chair: Kostas Chardas

The subsession, ‘Post-WWII Modernism 2 – Diversity, Self-expression and New Directions’, focuses on self-expression and the new directions Greek composers took in the post-war era. Two papers examine the music of Christou. On the basis of an analytical commentary to the manuscript sources of Christou’s Second Symphony, Panos Vlagopoulos  proposes a new dating of the work, and points to the underlying unity in all of Christou’s oeuvre, taking into account his multifaceted philosophical background. Maria Yerosimou explores analytical and performative approaches to Christou’s Strychnine Lady. Danae Stafanou closes the session with a re-evaluation of current analytical literature on Christou’s cross-media compositions, and considers methodologies for an inclusive, analytically grounded account of post-1960s Greek modernism. The session will culminate in a piano recital given by the pianists Athina Fytika and Fani Karagianni.

17.00    Panos Vlagopoulos
Jani Christou’s Second Symphony: Monument, Crossroads, Path

17.30    Maria Yerosimou
Analytical and Performative Approaches to Jani Christou’s Strychnine Lady

18.00    Danae Stefanou
“Maybe a glimpse into the void beyond”: Experimentalist Paradigms and the Liminal Spaces of post-1960s Greek Modernism


Piano Recital
18.30    Athina Fytika
Rena Kyriakou, 6 Preludes lyriques Op.12, Nos.1–3 (1936) - Yannis Constantinidis, 6 Studies οn Greek Folk Rhythms Nos. 1-3 (1958) - Giorgos Koumentakis, 'Thyme'-'Mint'-'Sage' (from: Mediterranean Desert, 2000)

            Fani Karagianni
Yannis A. Papaioannou, Prelude No. 16 (1939) - Arghyris Kounadis, Three Idiomela (1956) - Yorgos Sicilianos, Eight Children’s Miniatures Op.23 (1963)

>19:00