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abstracts
Yannis Belonis: The response of music critics to the Greek operetta
during the Greek inter-war period
This research paper examines the reaction of the music critics to
the Greek composers of operetta through the newspapers and music
journals of the inter-war period. The critics’ response was negative
and, in many cases, hostile. This feedback was in contrast with the
warm reception of the audience at that period, which used to fill
the theatres and praise the composers of these works, in every
opportunity. All music critics that collaborated with the daily and
music press on a regular basis during the inter-war period avoided
to attend hundreds of performances and numerous premieres of Greek
operetta. This behaviour was associated with their willingness to
underrate the role of Greek operetta in music community, as well as
to indicate their contempt to this genre. In their rare publications
regarding the operettas, they highly emphasize their “damaging
impact” on the taste of the audience, the efforts of the newly
established Greek National School of Music to build a common Greek
music language, as well as their “cheap” themes.
Katerina Maniou: Motif and contemporary musical borrowing material
as a means of a new form of thematicism in Alfred Schnittke’s work
This paper investigates the versatile use of motifs in Schnittke’s
work and examines an additional parameter that has not been pointed
out in relevant research: their definition as themes. By using four
different works as case studies, the means of thematicisation of
motifs through complementary elements of reinforcement and,
ultimately, substitution of traditional thematic function is
examined. At the same time, the elaboration of this practice in
combination with the composer’s musical and ideological maturing is
depicted. A key factor in “thematicisation” is the identification of
motifs in relation to stylistic allusions and conventions, which is
supported by the unique features of contemporary musical borrowing
material, of which Schnittke is fully aware, as can be seen in his
theoretical work. This issue is treated as part of the widespread
return to musical borrowing practices from 1960s onwards,
highlighting their unprecedented range and emphasizing their
pluralistic sources, their ways of embodiment and their conceptual
dimensions. Finally, in a synthetic view of the parameters of motif,
thematicism, musical borrowing and Schnittke’s evolution, the choice
of the minimalistic musical cell of motif as a means of thematicism
is approached itself interpretatively, as it seems to balance
between conflicting musical aspects, thereby providing solutions to
some of the composer’s most crucial concerns.
Marianna Sideri: The fascinating story of a third gender
singers
A brief historical review of one of the most fascinating and
extraordinary stories of Italian music: the adventure of hundreds of
young boys who underwent partial mutilation in order to maintain the
quality characteristics of a voice that is out of their nature. The
ambiguities that accompany the life stories of castrati
singers are not limited to identifying the gender and quality of
their voice but extend to issues of origin, education,
professionalism and social relationships, making it difficult to
assess the true dimension of their phenomenon. The present study,
based on historical sources and modern scientific literature,
gathers the existing knowledge and contributes to a better
understanding of the world of castrati and their time.
Angeliki Skandali: Vocal teaching at the State Conservatory of
Thessaloniki (1914-1940)
The article focuses on the results of an investigation in the
archives of the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki. Records of
hardback volumes include administration acts, examination and
concert programmes as well as documents of a multifaceted opera
activity. All lyric song teaching staff is chronicled in detail, the
names of the students are listed, concert repertoires and
graduations are also included. This sets sights on highlighting the
particular character of the Conservatory since its founding in 1914
until the 1940 war break-out. Numerous distinguished artists pass in
front of the reader’s eyes: Carolina Capasso, a long-term teaching
staff member, Stella Kokkinis, a performer famous for her earlier
lyric career, Pepos Baxevanos, a lyric singer from Thessaloniki,
Elvira de Hildago and Odysseas Lappas, distinguished artists in
Greece and abroad, etc. During the chronicle they are all shown
active into the frames of unanswered questions of study.
Nestor Taylor: Harp technique: chords and arpeggios – A guide for
composers and orchestrators
The present study is a brief overview of the main technical
possibilities of the harp and a description of the formal processes
of their integration in the orchestral writing that draws examples
from the wider range of music literature including works of
contemporary representatives of modern Greek music. Particular
emphasis is placed on issues of orchestration practice, with
detailed commentary on the basic principles governing the
construction of chords and derivative arpeggios, in an attempt to
codify the technical possibilities and physical constraints that
influence and, to a large extent, shape our compositional choices
when writing for the harp.
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