History of Greek Symphonic Music

Description:

This is a series of musical documentary episodes focusing on the history and evolution of symphonic music in Greece. The series, which was completed in five episodes, began airing in October 1992. The fifth episode is the second part of the show that focuses on the New School.

It discusses new musical movements such as atonality and twelve-tone technique, which crystallized through the break with late Romantic music, putting tradition in crisis. The pioneers of these new movements in Greece were Mitropoulos, Skalkottas, and Yannis Christou.

The second part refers to the music of three contemporary composers who presented symphonic music works within the 1950s: Yorgos Sicilianos, Yiannis Andr. Papaioannou, and Mikis Theodorakis. The episode features interviews with composers Yorgos Sicilianos and Stefanos Vasileiadis, and musicologist Yiannis G. Papaioannou. It begins with a brief reference to Western European symphonic music and the symphonic works of Greek composers from the so-called “conservative school,” within the context of Greek national music, following similar movements in Europe. The episode then analyzes the relationship between the music of the National School in Greece and contemporary music post-1950. The symphonic works of D. Mitropoulos, G. Andr. Papaioannou, and G. Sicilianos are mentioned as representative examples of the new style.

Yorgos Sicilianos was one of the first Greek composers to use contemporary musical idioms. His “Concerto for Orchestra,” Op. 12 (1954), was the first approach by the composer to the twelve-tone method, inaugurating a period of his work characterized by exploration and experimentation with contemporary musical currents. In the episode, Sicilianos discusses the characteristics of composers from the 1950s that differentiate them from the traditional Kalomoiris school. He also talks about the different approaches to Byzantine chant and Greek folk song by the New and National Music Schools, respectively. A significant moment in Sicilianos’s career was his acquaintance with Dimitris Mitropoulos in the United States, who later premiered Sicilianos’s “First Symphony,” Op. 14 (1956), with the New York Philharmonic in March 1958. Sicilianos discusses the parts and stylistic features of this work. Stefanos Vasileiadis also emphasizes the essential difference between the younger generation of composers and those of the “conservative school” in terms of how they drew on and transformed elements of Greek identity in their art.

During the episode, excerpts from the 2nd movement of Sicilianos’s “Symphony No. 1,” the 1st movement of Papaioannou’s “Concerto for Orchestra,” and a part of Theodorakis’s “Suite for Orchestra and Piano No. 1” are played.