Contemporary Greek Piano Music Vol. 1

First published as "Neue griechische Klaviermusik" (Köln: Hans Gerig), 1967

These two books of piano pieces arranged in progressive order of difficulty are the first collection to give a representative survey of contemporary Greek music. No pretensions of completeness are being made. The piece by Skalkottas is the only one that has been published before, and I am indebted to the Universal Edition, Vienna, for their kind permission to republish it.

The younger generation of Greek composers have turned away from their national folklore, which is in evidence in just a few works only as a latent force. Some of the composers were introduced to modern techniques by the outstanding teacher Jannis A. Papaioannou and have gone abroad to complete their knowledge of the latest methods and to integrate them into their personal style. Older composers like Poniridy and Konstantinidis are represented by works of artfully stylized folk music.

I should like to acknowledge the advice and help given to me by my friend and colleague Jannis A. Papaioannou, as well as to the American Director of the Gennadeios Library, Francis R. Walton, for generously providing the manuscript of the piece by Mitropoulos.

Günther Becker (1924-2007)