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Book cover for Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist.
ANASTASIOS RUPERT ARTHUR MAVROUDIS SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNIST Performing selected chamber works and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 51 Benaki Museum, Athens, 2020 ISBN 978-960-476-260-6 Soft cover · English · 464 pages

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BOOKSICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNIST

BOOK

SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNIST

  • YEAR: 2020
  • PUBLISHER: Benaki Museum
  • FOREWORD: Elly Yotopoulou-Sicilianou
  • SPONSORS: Hellenic Republic Ministry of Culture and Sport / Rafina Friends of Music Society
  • NUMBER OF PAGES: 464
  • LANGUAGE: English

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Published by the Benaki Museum in 2020, with a foreword by Elly Yotopoulou-Sicilianou, Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist presents doctoral research in a form intended for a broader scholarly, musical, and performing readership. The book analyses Yorgos Sicilianos’s compositional influences, processes, and techniques as reflected in String Quartet No. 2, Op. 13, String Quartet No. 4, Op. 28, Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45, and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 51. It brings together source work, musical analysis, critical editing, and performance-led interpretation, asking how scholarly evidence may inform the practical act of returning a score to sound.

Sicilianos (1920–2005) was educated within the musical tradition of Greece’s National School Movement, but moved beyond its conventions — over a thirty-year period from 1954 — through atonal neoclassicism, the twelve-tone method, and integral serialism, while searching for solutions to problems of form and structure. After 1980 he concluded that the term “post-diatonic music” best described his style, which by then drew its form and meaning from literary works; the underlying method he called “neoserialism” — an idiosyncratic language in which the techniques and idioms he had absorbed could be used freely, selectively, and expressively, according to the demands of the work rather than the restrictions of any single system. The volume is concerned with what is required in order to deliver an authentic interpretation of this music: the clarification of musical texts, the reading of sketches and manuscripts, the relation between musical and performative analysis, and the translation of analytical insight into practical decisions of sound, articulation, pacing, bowing, and character. The critical editions included at the end of the book are a practical result of this work, prepared for compositions that had remained unpublished or commercially unavailable.

The sections below provide a general Book Overview, Chapter / Section Previews, Sources & Bibliography, and a Book Launch Video from the presentation of the volume at the Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri” of the Friends of Music Society at the Megaron, Athens Concert Hall, as part of the centennial celebrations of Sicilianos’s life and work. The launch included Dr Dimitris Arvanitakis of the Benaki Museum, Dr Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor and President of the Athens Conservatoire, Panos Dimaras, President of the Friends of Music Society, Prof. Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, then President of the European Court of Human Rights and son of the composer, Prof. Joseph Papadatos, composer and Vice-Rector of the Ionian University, Byron Fidetzis, conductor and Artistic Director of the Athens Philharmonia Orchestra, and Prof. Giorgos Demertzis, violinist, who has recorded the entirety of Sicilianos’s chamber works featuring the violin.

PROJECTSSICILIANOS.ORG

DIGITAL ARCHIVE

SICILIANOS.ORG

  • PROJECT: Digital archive and research platform
  • WORKS: 106
  • ARCHIVE RECORDS: 1,278
  • PDF DOCUMENTS: 1,300+
  • PERFORMER PROFILES: 377
  • PERFORMANCES: 284
  • RELATIONSHIPS: 6,462
  • REFERENCES: 539
  • TEXTS: 67
  • PUBLICATIONS: 60 articles / 14 books
  • EVENTS: 17 conferences and events
  • MEDIA: Discographies / broadcasts / sound archives
  • DEVELOPMENT: 4,000+ hours
  • ACCESS: Free public resource

Visit Sicilianos.org

Sicilianos.org is a free public digital archive and research platform devoted to the music, writings, manuscripts, performances, recordings, reception, and documentary world of Yorgos Sicilianos. It is not a commemorative website in the usual sense, nor simply a list of works. It is a structured public research environment designed to make a dispersed musical archive searchable, cross-referenced, and usable for performers, scholars, students, institutions, and listeners.

The site brings together 106 works, 1,278 archive records, more than 1,300 PDF documents, 377 published performer profiles, 284 performance records, 539 references, 67 texts, 60 articles and papers, 14 books, 17 conferences and events, 25 discography records, 10 broadcasts, sound-archive material, and a wide field of intertextual sources. These records are not presented as isolated pages. They are connected through a relational structure containing more than 6,400 recorded relationships, allowing works, documents, editions, performers, performances, recordings, writings, events, and sources to illuminate one another.

The archive gives public form to a musical life and its afterlives — material that might otherwise remain dispersed across publications, programmes, institutional archives, private files, recordings, and specialist memory. Drawing it into one structured resource allows a composition to be followed outward to its manuscripts, editions, recordings, performances, and the writings and events that surround it, and allows the documentary record to be read as a connected whole rather than a scattering of separate holdings.

The site was built as an individual scholarly and technical undertaking of more than 4,000 hours: titles normalised, files prepared, records classified, relationships built, fields tested, media attached, facets configured, public templates refined, and pathways through the material made intelligible. The result is a composer website that functions at once as catalogue, document repository, performance archive, media index, bibliography, and research guide.

PROJECTSPERFORMING SICILIANOS

DOCTORAL RESEARCH

PERFORMING SICILIANOS

Selected Chamber Works and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra

  • INSTITUTION: Department of Music, Goldsmiths, University of London
  • SUBMITTED: 2014
  • PAGES: 460
  • LANGUAGE: English
  • DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.00011857

View thesis record

Performing Sicilianos is a doctoral thesis on selected chamber works and the Violin Concerto of Yorgos Sicilianos, submitted in 2014 at the Department of Music, Goldsmiths, University of London. The thesis examines four works from different stages of the composer’s modernist development: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 13, String Quartet No. 4, Op. 28, Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45, and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 51. The span from 1955 to 1987 traces Sicilianos’s gradual departure from his early style towards the experimentation with modernism that matured into what he called “neoserialism” — a freedom, in his own account, from any compositional rule that hampered his ideas, allowing serial and other techniques to be used selectively rather than systematically.

The thesis asks how analysis may inform performance without reducing interpretation to mechanical obedience to the score. It considers Sicilianos’s compositional process, archival evidence, literary references, rhythmic and pitch organisation, notation, recordings, and performance history as materials that clarify the performer’s task. Its central concern is how structure becomes audible — how knowledge of a work shapes phrasing, articulation, bowing, tempo, sound, character, and formal direction. In some cases the analysis bears directly on practical decision: structural parameters that determine not only interpretation but the very bowings the performer must execute.

The two quartets establish complementary aspects of the thesis. String Quartet No. 2, Op. 13 stands near the beginning of Sicilianos’s movement beyond the Greek National School inheritance, retaining formal and motivic concerns while moving towards a more individual modernist idiom. String Quartet No. 4, Op. 28 belongs to a more rigorous serial and structural phase, where sketch material, numerical procedure, rhythm, and pitch organisation become central to understanding the surface of the score.

The later works open a different world. Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45 and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 51 show Sicilianos drawing on literary, dramatic, and symbolic sources as structuring forces rather than ornament. In these works, literary and dramatic materials affect the music’s formal behaviour, expressive atmosphere, and performative implications.

The research draws on Sicilianos’s archive, published and unpublished materials, recordings, scores, sketches, literary sources, and performance history — treated as evidence in their own right, capable of clarifying compositional process, structural design, and the performer’s relation to the score. The method is deliberately plural: formal analysis, pitch and rhythmic analysis, source study, comparison with related works, literary context, and practical performance knowledge are brought into contact with one another, so that documentary evidence and the act of playing inform each other rather than standing apart.

The project also had a practical outcome. It produced performer-oriented editions of the four principal works studied and expressed its findings through performance. The editions were conceived as scholarly and practical tools, giving future performers access to music that had remained difficult to obtain while embedding analytical and interpretative knowledge within the act of preparation.

The recital component was part of the same argument. The research did not end with commentary on the page, but returned to sound. In this respect the thesis became a foundation for later archival, editorial, and performance-led work on Sicilianos, including the published book Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist, the practical editions hosted through Sicilianos.org, and the broader effort to restore the composer’s music to public and performing circulation.

RECITAL

The practical component of the doctoral project was represented in recital through performances of the chamber works central to the thesis, presented alongside Bach’s Chaconne.

27 October 2014 · Council Chamber, Deptford Town Hall, Goldsmiths College, University of London

  1. Johann Sebastian Bach — Chaconne

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin

  2. Yorgos Sicilianos — Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45

    1. I. Chaconne–Scherzo
    2. II. Pantoum
    3. III. Nijinsky

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Anahit Chaushyan, piano

  3. Yorgos Sicilianos — String Quartet No. 2, Op. 13

    1. I. Allegro violento
    2. II. Allegretto semplice, con eleganza
    3. III. Largo
    4. IV. Tempo rubato

    Tettix Quartet: Anastasios Mavroudis, violin I; Markella Vandoros, violin II; Shiry Rashkovsky, viola; Julia Morneweg, cello

  4. Yorgos Sicilianos — String Quartet No. 4, Op. 28

    1. I. Allegro moderato
    2. II. Largamente – Allegretto – I Tempo (Largamente)

    Tettix Quartet: Anastasios Mavroudis, violin I; Markella Vandoros, violin II; Shiry Rashkovsky, viola; Julia Morneweg, cello

PROJECTSBOOK LAUNCH

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SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNIST

Presentation Event

  • EVENT DATE: 4 September 2020
  • RELEASE DATE: 16 November 2020
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:33:30

This filmed event documents the presentation of Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist at the Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri” of the Friends of Music Society, at the Megaron, Athens Concert Hall, on 4 September 2020. The presentation formed part of the centennial celebrations of Yorgos Sicilianos’s life and work, bringing together institutional, scholarly, familial, compositional, and performance perspectives on the composer and on the publication of the book.

The video presents the book not merely as a publication, but as part of the continuing work of restoring Sicilianos’s music to scholarly and performing circulation. Speakers address the role of the Benaki Museum, the significance of Sicilianos within modern Greek music, the relation between the book and the composer’s archive, and the importance of performance in bringing modernist scores back into sound. The event includes pre-recorded contributions from Dr Dimitris Arvanitakis and Byron Fidetzis, while Prof. Giorgos Demertzis joins remotely from Heraklion, Crete, and Prof. Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos speaks remotely from Strasbourg, France.

Info

EVENT
Book presentation for Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist
EVENT DATE
4 September 2020
RELEASE DATE
16 November 2020
RUNNING TIME
1:33:30
LOCATION
Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri”, Friends of Music Society, Megaron, Athens Concert Hall
CONTEXT
Presented as part of the centennial celebrations of Yorgos Sicilianos’s life and work
LANGUAGE
Greek
SUBTITLES
English
ON-SITE SPEAKERS
Dr Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor and President of the Athens ConservatoirePanos Dimaras, President of the Friends of Music SocietyProf. Joseph Papadatos, composer and Vice-Rector of the Ionian UniversityDr Anastasios R. A. Mavroudis, author of Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist
REMOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, then President of the European Court of Human Rights and son of the composer, speaking from Strasbourg, FranceProf. Giorgos Demertzis, violinist, speaking from Heraklion, Crete
PRE-RECORDED CONTRIBUTIONS
Dr Dimitris Arvanitakis of the Benaki MuseumByron Fidetzis, conductor and Artistic Director of the Athens Philharmonia Orchestra

PROJECTSYORGOS SICILIANOS: A LIFE IN MUSIC

0:00 3:00

PROJECTS

Yorgos Sicilianos: A Life in Music

On the Twentieth Anniversary of His Passing

  • DATE: 22 November 2025
  • VENUE: Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London

A commemorative event at the Royal Academy of Music dedicated to the life and work of Yorgos Sicilianos (1920–2005), a leading figure in Greek musical modernism, held on the twentieth anniversary of his passing.

Held under the auspices of the Embassy of Greece in the United Kingdom and the Lykion ton Hellinidon, the evening brought together addresses, archival presentation, and live performance in a single portrait of Sicilianos’s legacy. H.E. Mr Ioannis Tsaousis, Ambassador of Greece to the United Kingdom, opened the proceedings with an address, followed by Professor Georgios Demertzis, Founder of the New Hellenic Quartet and one of the leading interpreters of modern Greek chamber music.

Demertzis’s presence gave the evening particular historical weight. A distinguished violinist, chamber musician, and educator, he has recorded music by more than twenty Greek composers with the New Hellenic Quartet and given numerous world premières of solo, concerto, and chamber works. His discography includes award-winning recordings of Nikos Skalkottas and other major twentieth-century Greek composers. His long-standing dedication to Sicilianos’s music has been central to bringing the composer’s chamber works to wider audiences, and his decision to make his commercial recordings available in support of Sicilianos.org has been especially important to the archive.

Dr Anastasios R. A. Mavroudis then presented Sicilianos.org, the digital archive and database dedicated to the composer’s life and works. The presentation introduced the archive’s open-access structure, its documentation of manuscripts, performances, publications, performers, conference material, and related events, and its role in bringing his music back to scholars and performers.

The second part of the evening turned from documentation to sound. Three string quartets by Sicilianos were performed by Georgios Demertzis and Anastasios Mavroudis, violins, Wanshu Qiu, viola, and Özgür Kaya, cello. The programme traced a concentrated path through the composer’s early chamber music: the First Quartet, composed in Rome in 1952; the Second Quartet, composed in Athens in 1955; and the Third Quartet, composed in Athens in 1961 and later awarded third prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Liège in 1962.

For the performance, Demertzis and Mavroudis were joined by Wanshu Qiu and Özgür Kaya. Qiu, a member of the Kyan Quartet, has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals including Encuentro de Música Santander, IMS Prussia Cove, the Lucerne Festival, the Bowdoin Festival, and the Edinburgh International Festival, and has collaborated with ensembles including the Nash Ensemble, Aurora Orchestra, Manchester Collective, the Hallé, and the BBC Philharmonic. Kaya is a cellist, gambist, and composer whose work connects historical performance and experimental contemporary practice, and is the founder and curator of the collective serpentine.iii.

Visit Sicilianos.org

Event information

TITLE
Yorgos Sicilianos: A Life in Music
DATE
22 November 2025
VENUE
Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
Embassy of Greece in the United Kingdom
SPEAKERS
H.E. Mr Ioannis Tsaousis, Ambassador of Greece to the United KingdomProfessor Georgios Demertzis, Founder of the New Hellenic Quartet and internationally acclaimed violinistDr Anastasios R. A. Mavroudis, violinist, musicologist, and creator of Sicilianos.org
PRESENTATION
Presentation of Sicilianos.org Digital Archive and Database
PERFORMANCE
Yorgos SicilianosString Quartet No. 1 (Rome, 1952)String Quartet No. 2 (Athens, 1955)String Quartet No. 3 (Athens, 1961; third prize, International String Quartet Competition, Liège, 1962)
PERFORMERS
Georgios Demertzis, violin IAnastasios Mavroudis, violin IIWanshu Qiu, violaÖzgür Kaya, cello

GALLERY

PROJECTSEVENT IMAGES

Poster for Yorgos Sicilianos: A Life in Music – On the Twentieth Anniversary of His Passing.
Poster for Yorgos Sicilianos: A Life in Music – On the Twentieth Anniversary of His Passing.
H.E. Mr Ioannis Tsaousis, Ambassador of Greece to the United Kingdom.
H.E. Mr Ioannis Tsaousis, Ambassador of Greece to the United Kingdom.
Professor Georgios Demertzis, violinist and Founder of the New Hellenic Quartet.
Professor Georgios Demertzis, violinist and Founder of the New Hellenic Quartet.
Dr Anastasios R. A. Mavroudis, creator of Sicilianos.org.
Dr Anastasios R. A. Mavroudis, creator of Sicilianos.org.
Georgios Demertzis and Anastasios Mavroudis, violins; Wanshu Qiu, viola; Özgür Kaya, cello.
Georgios Demertzis and Anastasios Mavroudis, violins; Wanshu Qiu, viola; Özgür Kaya, cello.

Event Images 1 / 5

Poster for Yorgos Sicilianos: A Life in Music – On the Twentieth Anniversary of His Passing.

H.E. Mr Ioannis Tsaousis, Ambassador of Greece to the United Kingdom.

Professor Georgios Demertzis, violinist and Founder of the New Hellenic Quartet.

Dr Anastasios R. A. Mavroudis, creator of Sicilianos.org.

Georgios Demertzis and Anastasios Mavroudis, violins; Wanshu Qiu, viola; Özgür Kaya, cello.

PROJECTSAN EVENT DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF YORGOS SICILIANOS

0:00 2:05:59

PROJECTS

An Event Dedicated to the Memory of Yorgos Sicilianos

People Worthy of Honour

  • DATE: 18 February 2019
  • VENUE: Aris Garoufalis Hall, Athens Conservatoire, Athens

Part of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation’s series People Worthy of Honour, this event at the Athens Conservatoire was held in memory of Yorgos Sicilianos.

The event was organised by the Hellenic Parliament Foundation for Parliamentarism and Democracy and the Athens Conservatoire. It took place in the Aris Garoufalis Hall, where spoken addresses and scholarly presentations were set alongside live performance in honour of Sicilianos’s life, work, and public musical legacy.

The proceedings were opened by Niki Maroniti, General Secretary of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and Associate Professor at Panteion University. An introductory address was then given by the composer Joseph Papadatos, Vice-Rector of the Ionian University, who also moderated the discussion.

The scholarly part of the event included three presentations. Markos Tsetsos, Professor of Music Aesthetics in the Department of Music Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, presented “Rereading Yorgos Sicilianos”. Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor, Associate Professor at the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University, and President of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire, presented “Yorgos Sicilianos, a Classic of Musical Modernism”. Anastasios Mavroudis presented “Performing Sicilianos: An Analytical and Interpretative Approach to the Violin and Piano Sonata, Op. 45”.

Mavroudis’s presentation approached the Sonata for Violin and Piano through analysis and interpretation, addressing its relationship to literary structure, Bach, neoserial writing, and elements associated with Indonesian musical tradition.

The event concluded with live performances of two chamber works by Sicilianos and was broadcast live on Hellenic Parliament TV. The Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45, was performed by Anastasios Mavroudis and Lysianne Chen. The Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 59, was performed by Ellie Filippou and Maria Eustratiadi.

Event information

TITLE
An Event Dedicated to the Memory of Yorgos Sicilianos
DATE
18 February 2019
VENUE
Aris Garoufalis Hall, Athens Conservatoire, Athens
BROADCAST
Live broadcast on Hellenic Parliament TV
ORGANISED BY
Hellenic Parliament Foundation for Parliamentarism and Democracy; Athens Conservatoire
EVENT SERIES
People Worthy of Honour
SPEAKERS
Niki Maroniti, General Secretary of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and Associate Professor at Panteion UniversityJoseph Papadatos, composer and Vice-Rector of the Ionian UniversityMarkos Tsetsos, Professor of Music Aesthetics, National and Kapodistrian University of AthensNikos Tsouchlos, conductor, Associate Professor at the Ionian University, and President of the Board of Directors of the Athens ConservatoireAnastasios Mavroudis, violinist, composer, and musicologist
PRESENTATIONS
Rereading Yorgos Sicilianos — Markos TsetsosYorgos Sicilianos, a Classic of Musical Modernism — Nikos TsouchlosPerforming Sicilianos: An Analytical and Interpretative Approach to the Violin and Piano Sonata, Op. 45 — Anastasios Mavroudis
PERFORMANCE
Yorgos SicilianosSonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 59
PERFORMERS
Anastasios Mavroudis, violinLysianne Chen, pianoEllie Filippou, celloMaria Eustratiadi, piano

GALLERY

PROJECTSEVENT IMAGES

Poster for An Event Dedicated to the Memory of Yorgos Sicilianos, held at the Athens Conservatoire.
Poster for An Event Dedicated to the Memory of Yorgos Sicilianos, held at the Athens Conservatoire.
Niki Maroniti, General Secretary of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and Associate Professor at Panteion University.
Niki Maroniti, General Secretary of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and Associate Professor at Panteion University.
From right to left: Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor, Associate Professor at the Ionian University, and President of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire; Joseph Papadatos, composer and Vice-Rector of the Ionian University; Markos Tsetsos, Professor of Music Aesthetics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens; Anastasios Mavroudis, violinist, composer, and musicologist.
From right to left: Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor, Associate Professor at the Ionian University, and President of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire; Joseph Papadatos, composer and Vice-Rector of the Ionian University; Markos Tsetsos, Professor of Music Aesthetics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens; Anastasios Mavroudis, violinist, composer, and musicologist.
Markos Tsetsos, Professor of Music Aesthetics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Markos Tsetsos, Professor of Music Aesthetics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, Professor of Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and former President of the European Court of Human Rights; Niki Maroniti, General Secretary of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and Associate Professor at Panteion University.
Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, Professor of Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and former President of the European Court of Human Rights; Niki Maroniti, General Secretary of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and Associate Professor at Panteion University.
Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor, Associate Professor at the Ionian University, and President of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire.
Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor, Associate Professor at the Ionian University, and President of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire.
Anastasios Mavroudis, violinist, composer, and musicologist.
Anastasios Mavroudis, violinist, composer, and musicologist.
Anastasios Mavroudis and Lysianne Chen.
Anastasios Mavroudis and Lysianne Chen.
Ellie Filippou and Maria Eustratiadi.
Ellie Filippou and Maria Eustratiadi.

Event Images 1 / 9

Poster for An Event Dedicated to the Memory of Yorgos Sicilianos, held at the Athens Conservatoire.

Niki Maroniti, General Secretary of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and Associate Professor at Panteion University.

From right to left: Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor, Associate Professor at the Ionian University, and President of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire; Joseph Papadatos, composer and Vice-Rector of the Ionian University; Markos Tsetsos, Professor of Music Aesthetics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens; Anastasios Mavroudis, violinist, composer, and musicologist.

Markos Tsetsos, Professor of Music Aesthetics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, Professor of Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and former President of the European Court of Human Rights; Niki Maroniti, General Secretary of the Hellenic Parliament Foundation and Associate Professor at Panteion University.

Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor, Associate Professor at the Ionian University, and President of the Board of Directors of the Athens Conservatoire.

Anastasios Mavroudis, violinist, composer, and musicologist.

Anastasios Mavroudis and Lysianne Chen.

Ellie Filippou and Maria Eustratiadi.

PROJECTSTHEODORAKIS AT 80

EVENT

Recital for the 80 Years from the Birth of Mikis Theodorakis

  • DATE: 12 NOVEMBER 2005
  • VENUE: GREAT HALL, HELLENIC CENTRE, LONDON

This recital marked the eightieth anniversary of the birth of Mikis Theodorakis by turning away from the familiar public image of the composer and towards a more concentrated chamber and recital repertory. Presented at the Great Hall of the Hellenic Centre, the programme considered Theodorakis through works for violin, cello, piano, voice, and small ensemble — music in which his public language is reduced to more private forms of line, gesture, song, and instrumental dialogue, and in which the composer who described himself, throughout his career, as a “symphonist” can be heard beneath the popular icon.

The violin gave the evening its principal thread. The Sonatine No. 1 for Violin and Piano, “Cretoise”, the two studies for solo violin, the two studies for violin and cello, and the Theme and Variations for solo violin all placed attention on Theodorakis’ handling of instrumental character rather than on orchestral scale or political emblem. Heard this way, Theodorakis emerges as a composer whose musical thought can be followed through concise forms and exposed textures — the same pre-Epitaph concert sensibility that the “Cretoise”, with its Cretan lyra colour, preserves within a classical frame.

Love and Death: Four Songs for Myrto brought the voice into that chamber frame. The cycle placed song beside instrumental music without turning the evening into a survey of Theodorakis’ most familiar public repertory. Its presence made clear that song was not an appendix to the composer’s instrumental writing, but one of the forms through which his melodic and dramatic imagination entered more intimate musical spaces.

The Sonatina No. 2 for Violin and Piano and Piano Trio broadened the recital into larger chamber forms. Heard together with the studies, variations, sonatine, and songs, they presented Theodorakis at eighty as a composer whose work cannot be reduced to a single public symbol. The programme instead drew attention to a continuous strand of chamber, vocal, and instrumental writing running alongside the larger historical image by which he is most often remembered.

PROGRAMME

  1. Mikis Theodorakis — Sonatine No. 1 for Violin and Piano, “Cretoise”

    1. I. Vivo
    2. II. Largo
    3. III. Allegro

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Vassileios Rakitzis, piano

  2. Mikis Theodorakis — Two Studies for Violin

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin

  3. Mikis Theodorakis — Two Studies for Violin and Cello

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Rhian Porter, cello

  4. Mikis Theodorakis — Love and Death: Four Songs for Myrto

    (Έρως και Θάνατος: Τέσσερα τραγούδια για τη Μυρτώ)

    1. Απρίλης (April)
    2. Αν γυρεύεις απ’ τον ήλιο τη χαρά (If You Seek Joy from the Sun)
    3. Έρως και Θάνατος (Love and Death)
    4. Λήθη (Oblivion)

    Katerina Roussou, mezzo-soprano; Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Alex Koustas, viola; Rhian Porter, cello; Nikos Tsoukalas, bass; Vassileios Rakitzis, piano

  5. Mikis Theodorakis — Theme and Variations for Solo Violin — To Georgios Lykoudis

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin

  6. Mikis Theodorakis — Sonatina No. 2 for Violin and Piano

    1. I. Andante cantabile
    2. II. Allegretto grazioso
    3. III. Andante con motto
    4. IV. Allegretto con brio

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Vassileios Rakitzis, piano

  7. Mikis Theodorakis — Piano Trio

    1. I. Adagio
    2. II. Allegro vivace
    3. III. Andante mosso
    4. IV. Allegro vivace

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Rhian Porter, cello; Vassileios Rakitzis, piano

PROJECTSYANNIS RITSOS’ EPITAPH: THE TURNING POINT IN THE MUSIC OF MIKIS THEODORAKIS

MASTER’S RESEARCH

Yannis Ritsos’ Epitaph: The Turning Point in the Music of Mikis Theodorakis

  • INSTITUTION: Royal Academy of Music, University of London
  • SUBMITTED: 2008
  • PAGES: 80
  • LANGUAGE: English

Mikis Theodorakis is the central figure of this project — the composer of Epitaphios and, more broadly, the musician through whom a wider question about modern Greek music becomes visible. The dissertation examined the point at which Theodorakis turned from the European concert tradition towards a public musical language shaped by poetry, politics, popular idiom, and national symbolism. That point was his setting of Yannis Ritsos’ Epitaph, the poem written after the photograph of a mother mourning her dead son appeared on the front page of Rizospastis on 10 May 1936.

Ritsos’ poem gave artistic form to public grief. Its subject was political violence, but its language was deliberately direct: a mother speaks to her dead son not through elaborate religious iconography, but through the older and more immediate form of lament. The dissertation considered the poem’s fifteen-syllable iambic metre, its kinship with demotic verse and with the seventeenth-century Cretan romance Erotokritos, and its clarity of address. Ritsos’ simplicity was treated as a conscious poetic means of reaching a wider public — a choice read against the modernist free verse one might have expected of the 1930s.

Theodorakis’ setting transformed that poetic act into a musical one. In Epitaphios, the poem no longer depended on the printed page or on the private reader. It could circulate through voice, instrumental colour, recording, memory, and performance. The dissertation therefore treated Epitaphios as the turning point in Theodorakis’ music: the moment at which poetry, political address, and popular musical language became joined in a form that could speak to listeners far beyond the usual audience for concert music.

The use of the bouzouki was central to this transformation. The study understood the instrument as both musical colour and cultural signal: familiar, public, and far removed from the formal world of the concert hall. Theodorakis’ decision to set the poem not through a classically trained voice and instrumental apparatus but through the bouzouki and a folk singer was treated as part of the work’s meaning — a deliberate refusal of the stilted Brahms or imitation-Stravinsky a conservatoire setting would have produced. The point is sharpened by contrast with Hadjidakis, who kept classical and folk instruments in separate compartments; Theodorakis instead fused them, holding that the divide itself obstructed the accessibility of music to the widest public. The setting did more than popularise Ritsos: it created a new kind of public seriousness, one in which poetry could be carried by a musical language bound to everyday Greek life.

This raised a larger problem, and it is the dissertation’s central claim. In Greece, the art-folk song — the éntechno laïkó tragoúdi Theodorakis did most to create — came to occupy the cultural authority that classical music holds elsewhere, becoming, in the popular mind, the ‘serious’ music of the nation. Greek composers working within the Western art-music tradition were correspondingly obscured: not only Skalkottas and Xenakis, but a lineage reaching back through Kalomiris’s National School to the Ionian composers shaped by Italian opera. The study set this against the historical record — that Greece has sustained a Western art-music tradition since the early nineteenth century — to argue that the folk-song’s monopoly on ‘Greekness’ rests on a recent invention mistaken for ancient inheritance. Epitaphios therefore appeared as both achievement and disturbance: a work of genuine power that, in succeeding, helped push the country’s concert music to the margins of its own musical self-image.

The recital was designed as the performance counterpart to that argument, and the sequence was itself the argument. It did not present Theodorakis in isolation. It placed him within a wider field of twentieth-century Greek music: beginning with Manolis Kalomiris and the Greek National School, moving through Nikos Skalkottas and a more severe, international modernism, returning to Theodorakis before his decisive turn, and setting Iannis Xenakis beside him as another Greek figure whose music speaks in an international language. Only at the end did Epitaphios close the programme — not as an isolated emblem of Greekness, but as the pressure point at which one strand of Greek musical life became, for most listeners, the whole of it.

The project drew, too, on Xenakis’s own account of the three paths open to a Greek composer, set out in his 1963 interview with Theodorakis. There Xenakis refused the very premise of a ‘one hundred percent Greek’ music — asking who could possibly judge what is Greek — and argued instead for an abstraction that carries its Greek identity within an international language, ‘based on the logic of inheritance of a common antiquity’. Placed beside Theodorakis’s national project, the exchange frames the recital’s central tension between the two composers in their own words.

Kalomiris’ Sonata for Violin and Piano represented the attempt to establish a modern Greek art-music tradition through Western forms, Greek rhythm, modal colour, and institutional work in musical education. The programme notes described Kalomiris as a formative figure in Greek musical life, closely associated with the idea of a National School and with the creation of conservatoire structures that shaped later generations. His sonata opened the project historically, even as its late-romantic idiom differed sharply from the later modernisms that followed.

Skalkottas offered a second and more severe model of Greek modernism. His Sonata for Solo Violin, composed in Berlin in 1925, was presented as a work that reflects his command of the violin and the density of his musical invention. The Duo for Violin and Viola, completed after his return to Greece, set two related instruments against one another in a compact chamber texture. In the context of the project, Skalkottas stood for a Greek modernism linked to Schoenberg, serial thought, and a personal compositional language that did not rely on national colour for its seriousness.

Theodorakis’ Sonatina No. 1 for Violin and Piano, “Cretoise”, represented his pre-Epitaph chamber music. Composed in 1952, it draws on Cretan musical colour and on the sound-world of the Cretan lyra while remaining within a concert-music frame. Its position in the recital was therefore precise: it showed Theodorakis before the turn towards Epitaphios, at a point where regional and popular materials were already present but had not yet become the basis of the public idiom that later defined him.

Xenakis placed Greek modernism in a wider post-war field. Morsima-Amorsima, for violin, cello, double bass, and piano, sets fate or death against its opposite and was produced through a probabilistic programme that Xenakis loaded into an IBM electronic brain, calculating the position of sounds, timbres, and dynamics in sequences. Dedicated to Manos Hadjidakis, the work was performed in Athens in 1962 and won a competition bearing Hadjidakis’ name.

Hunem-Iduhey, for violin and cello, offered a later view of Xenakis’ chamber writing. Its title reverses and fragments the name Yehudi Menuhin, and the work is dedicated to Menuhin and to his protégée Edna Michell. It was premièred by Edna Michell and Ole Akahoshi at Lincoln Center in New York in 1996. Placed beside Morsima-Amorsima, it connected the recital to Xenakis’ continuing concern with musical process, instrumental concentration, and Greek modernism understood within an international field.

The programme closed with Epitaphios. In this position, the songs returned the project to Ritsos and Theodorakis, but with the preceding works still in view. Heard last, Epitaphios stood for more than national identity. It was placed beside the traditions it followed, challenged, and displaced: the National School, Greek serial modernism, pre-Epitaph Theodorakis, and Xenakis’ post-war modernism. The project was concerned with that historical pressure point, where Theodorakis’ music ceased to be only one strand of Greek concert life and became a decisive force in the formation of modern Greek musical consciousness.

RECITAL

The recital was held in Duke’s Hall at the Royal Academy of Music on 17 September 2008. It formed the performance counterpart to the dissertation and presented a programme of twentieth-century Greek music.

  1. Manolis Kalomiris — Sonata for Violin and Piano

    1. I. Agitato
    2. II. Andantino piacevole
    3. III. Vivo

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Anahit Chaushyan, piano

  2. Nikos Skalkottas — Sonata for Solo Violin

    1. I. Allegro furioso (quasi presto)
    2. II. Adagietto
    3. III. Allegro ritmato
    4. IV. Adagio

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin

  3. Nikos Skalkottas — Duo for Violin and Viola

    1. I. Allegro vivo
    2. II. Andante
    3. III. Ben ritenuto

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Alexandros Koustas, viola

  4. Mikis Theodorakis — Sonatina No. 1 for Violin and Piano “Cretoise”

    1. I. Vivo
    2. II. Largo
    3. III. Allegro

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Anahit Chaushyan, piano

  5. Iannis Xenakis — Hunem-Iduhey for Violin and Cello

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Oliver Coates, cello

  6. Iannis Xenakis — Morsima-Amorsima for Violin, Cello, Double Bass and Piano

    Anastasios Mavroudis, violin; Oliver Coates, cello; James Opstad, double bass; Anahit Chaushyan, piano

  7. Mikis Theodorakis — Epitaphios

    1. “Που Πέταξε Τ’ Αγόρι Μου” (Where Has My Boy Flown)
    2. “Χείλι Μου Μοσκομύριστο” (Your Fragrant Lips)
    3. “Μέρα Μαγιού” (A Day in May)
    4. “Βασίλεψες Αστέρι Μου” (My Star, You Have Set)
    5. “Είσουν Καλός” (You Were Good)
    6. “Στο Παραθύρι Στεκόσουν” (You Stood at the Window)
    7. “Να ‘Χα Τ’ Αθάνατο Νερό” (If Only I Had the Water of Immortality)
    8. “Γλυκέ Μου Εσύ Δε Χάθηκες” (My Sweet, You Are Not Lost)

    Stavros Avramoglou, voice; Panagiotis Metaxas, bouzouki; Antonis Hatzinikolaou, guitar; James Opstad, double bass.

PAPERS & PRESENTATIONSEUROMAC 2014

CONFERENCE PAPER

An Analytical and Interpretative Approach to the Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45 by Yorgos Sicilianos

  • AUTHOR: ANASTASIOS R. A. MAVROUDIS
  • AFFILIATION: GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
  • PRESENTED: EUROMAC 2014 — EIGHTH EUROPEAN MUSIC ANALYSIS CONFERENCE
  • VENUE: KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN, BELGIUM
  • YEAR: 2014
  • LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
  • ACCESS: UNAVAILABLE

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This paper examines Yorgos Sicilianos’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45, as a work in which analytical understanding and practical performance are inseparable. The Sonata belongs to Sicilianos’s mature period and stands within the compositional language he later described as “post-diatonic”: one that retained the discipline of set-based organisation while drawing its meaning from literary, poetic, and musical models — Bach, Seferis, and the gamelan and pantoum forms of the Malay world among them.

The first movement, Chaconne–Scherzo, provides the clearest point of entry into the paper’s central argument. The Chaconne is not a transcription or arrangement of Bach’s model but a kind of fantasia upon it — an hommage to the Bach of the Second Partita that condenses the rhetorical and rhythmic essence of the original into a far shorter span, replacing tonal procedure with Sicilianos’s own pitch organisation while preserving the impression of freedom, intensification, and quasi-improvisatory display. For the performer, this has immediate consequences: the movement demands an exaggerated and highly controlled form of expressive freedom — neither a historically neutral approach to Bach nor a merely modernist abstraction.

The Scherzo moves into a different world. Its materials are connected to Sicilianos’s Six Songs, Op. 37, and particularly to a Ritsos text whose images of birds, lament, fear, and theatrical vocality are transformed into instrumental terms. Although the Sonata removes the explicit staging and vocal effects of the earlier song, its motifs preserve the dramatic charge of that source. The paper also shows that the Chaconne and Nijinsky, and the Scherzo and Pantoum, are linked through shared master sets, so that literary and musical associations are reinforced by structural connections in the pitch material.

The Pantoum movement is discussed as an especially important case of form becoming performance instruction. Sicilianos drew on Seferis’ poem and on the pantoum as a poetic structure of repeated lines whose meaning changes through context. The violin line corresponds to this poetic process, while the piano evokes a gamelan-inspired sonority. This creates a situation in which apparently small differences of articulation, bowing, and dynamic inflection are not decorative details but part of the movement’s structural meaning. A performer who simplifies these differences risks obscuring the logic of the music itself.

The final movement, Nijinsky, continues the Sonata’s relationship with Seferis and with the idea of performance as transformation. The paper approaches the movement through Sicilianos’s own explanations, sketch evidence, and the dramatic imagery attached to the figure of Nijinsky. Taken as a whole, the paper argues that the Sonata demands a form of interpretation in which analysis becomes a practical discipline. Bowing, phrasing, articulation, rubato, character, and continuity are all shaped by the same literary and structural forces that govern the composition.

PAPERS & PRESENTATIONSSEMPRE MET2018

CONFERENCE PAPER

An Analytical and Interpretative Approach to the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 51 by Yorgos Sicilianos

  • AUTHOR: ANASTASIOS R. A. MAVROUDIS
  • AFFILIATION: INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER
  • PRESENTED: SEMPRE MET2018 — SOCIETY FOR EDUCATION, MUSIC AND PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH: MUSIC, EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGY
  • VENUE: SENATE HOUSE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
  • YEAR: 2018
  • LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
  • ACCESS: FREE ACCESS

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This paper examines Yorgos Sicilianos’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 51, as a work whose form and interpretation are bound to Samuel Beckett’s That Time. Sicilianos was drawn to the play’s “deep metaphysical anguish” and to a structure that he believed could be transferred into musical form. The paper therefore approaches the Concerto not as a conventional concerto with literary associations attached to it, but as a musical structure built in close relation to Beckett’s dramatic design.

In That Time, a visible face is confronted by three voices, each associated with a different stage or dimension of the same life, and the play unfolds through ordered sequences of voice changes. Sicilianos translates this dramatic organisation into music by assigning three twelve-note sets to the three voices, so that the sets become the principal structural agents of the Concerto. The correspondence is exact at the threshold: the first movement answers the play’s opening segment, its introduction representing the audible breathing that precedes Beckett’s spoken material. The design follows the composer’s own conviction, stated of the works of this period, that the music should be understood by a wider audience from its first hearing without forsaking the achievements of the years behind it.

The paper traces how this correspondence shapes the musical surface. Changes of tempo, metre, texture, timbre, register, and orchestration are read in relation to the voice changes and images of Beckett’s text. Rather than standing apart from the orchestra as a conventional virtuoso protagonist, the solo violin takes on different dramatic functions within the unfolding structure. At some points it appears to embody a voice from the play; elsewhere it participates in the atmosphere, memory, violence, or fragility of the surrounding orchestral material.

Particular attention is given to the first movement and to the cadenza. The cadenza is treated as one of the most revealing sections of the work, because Sicilianos brings together all three sets in a passage that reflects Beckett’s image of voices merging until they become difficult to distinguish. In this sense the cadenza is a compressed dramatic and structural confrontation between the work’s principal materials rather than a display episode.

The conclusion of the paper asks how such analysis can assist performance. Its answer is that the Concerto must be approached with an awareness of roles, voices, conversations, and theatrical relationships between soloist and orchestra. The analysis clarifies the serial organisation and formal design of the work, but its practical value lies in revealing how textural, timbral, and dramatic relations shape the performer’s task. The Concerto is therefore presented as a multi-layered work in which interpretation depends on understanding the hidden continuity between Beckett’s play and Sicilianos’s musical construction.

SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNISTOVERVIEW

SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNIST

OVERVIEW

A general outline of the book’s contents, structure, sources, and interpretative aims.

Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist is not a conventional composer monograph, nor simply an analytical study of four works. The book therefore moves between biography, compositional history, source study, analysis, aesthetics, and performance. Sicilianos is presented as a composer formed by the Greek National School tradition but not confined by it: a musician who moved through atonal neoclassicism, twelve-tone technique, serial thinking, spatial and timbral experimentation, literary inspiration, and ultimately towards a mature idiom in which modernist technique could serve expressive, poetic, and dramatic ends. The central concern is how the works’ construction is heard and made meaningful in performance, not only how they are made.

The theoretical centre of the study lies in its problematisation of performance and interpretation. It considers the performer as an essential mediator between score, composer, musical meaning, and listener: someone who must read, understand, decide, and communicate. This involves a movement from analysis to sound, from documentary evidence to musical judgement, and from technical preparation to interpretation. The chapter examines the relation between composer and performer, the historical development of the idea of “interpretation”, the question of musical meaning, and the tensions between fidelity, imagination, and authenticity.

The selected works form a deliberate trajectory. String Quartet No. 2, Op. 13 stands near the beginning of Sicilianos’s post-national, modernist development and reveals the persistence of form, dialogue, variation, and motivic process. String Quartet No. 4, Op. 28 belongs to a more radical phase, where sketch material, numerical procedures, rhythmic organisation, and pitch structures become indispensable to understanding the work’s surface. Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45 opens a later world of literary and poetic reference, where movement titles such as Chaconne, Scherzo, Pantoum, and Nijinsky point towards form, memory, dance, and image. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 51 places the solo violin inside a dramatic and literary architecture shaped by Samuel Beckett’s That Time, where voices, memory, time, and musical set-structures are closely interwoven.

A recurrent question underlies the whole study: what does authenticity mean in music of this kind? The book argues for informed interpretation, in which fidelity to the composer’s vision is pursued through evidence, technical understanding, structural awareness, and the imaginative act of turning notation into sound. The performer’s task is therefore not secondary to the work. It is one of the places in which the work becomes complete.

The edited scores included in the published volume are a practical consequence of that argument. They are part of the book’s central scholarly and musical labour, not appendices to it: to offer future musicians a way into works whose difficulty is inseparable from their expressive ambition. The book is thus at once a study of Sicilianos, an argument about interpretation, and a form of musical restoration through performance-led scholarship.

SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNISTCHAPTERS

SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNIST

CHAPTER / SECTION PREVIEWS

These previews give a practical map of the book’s structure. They are intended to help the reader understand what each chapter contributes: the historical problem, the analytical focus, the works examined, and the relation between scholarly evidence and performance.

01

INTRODUCTION

Sets out the central performance problem addressed by the book: how to approach major works by Yorgos Sicilianos when the available sources, manuscript materials, and technical language of the music require more than ordinary performance preparation. The chapter introduces Sicilianos’s family background, musical education, compositional periods, previous scholarship, and musical legacy, including the problem of legible scores and the need for edited performing materials.

02

THE PROBLEMATIZATION OF PERFORMANCE AND INTERPRETATION

Examines the theoretical and practical problem at the centre of the book: what it means to perform, interpret, and communicate a musical work. The chapter considers the relationship between composer and performer, the historical development of the word “interpretation”, and the distinction between mechanical execution and meaningful performance. It argues that scholarly knowledge, source study, and analysis earn their place by clarifying the musical act, and that authenticity in such music is reached through evidence and understanding.

03

STRING QUARTET No. 2, Op. 13

Examines the 1955 Second String Quartet in relation to Sicilianos’s early modernist development. The chapter considers international context, sources of inspiration, and the Bartókian techniques — motivic transformation, formal dialogue — through which the quartet departs from the National School tradition, including its relation to Tanagraia. The performative discussion concentrates on the quartet’s internal conversations: dialogue between the four voices, pacing, formal clarity, texture, and the practical task of making those conversations audible.

04

STRING QUARTET No. 4, Op. 28

Analyses one of Sicilianos’s most technically demanding works. The chapter draws on sketch material from the composer’s archive to examine the rhythmic organisation, the numerical procedures, and the pitch structures that govern the first movement’s large-scale articulation, before turning to the second movement and to broader performative questions. Its particular concern is the gap between system and surface: how complex compositional procedures, including duration-classes derived by analogy with pitch-classes, must be translated into intelligible musical gesture rather than performed as audible arithmetic.

05

SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, Op. 45

Studies the 1981 Sonata through its four titled movements: Chaconne, Scherzo, Pantoum, and Nijinsky. The chapter considers form, literary and poetic resonance, instrumental dialogue, recording history, and the composer’s involvement in the recording process. It relates the Chaconne to Bach’s Second Partita and to models of variation and continuity; the Scherzo to Ritsos and to the world of the Six Songs, Op. 37; the Pantoum to Seferis, to poetic recurrence, and to Malay verse forms; and Nijinsky to dance, theatrical image, and expressive disintegration. It also traces the gamelan sonority within the work’s textural world, and the structural correspondences linking Chaconne with Nijinsky and Scherzo with Pantoum, so that literary association and pitch structure reinforce one another. The performance discussion is concerned with how violinist and pianist make that structure audible while preserving the Sonata’s character, imagery, and drama.

06

CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA, Op. 51

Examines the 1987 Concerto in relation to Samuel Beckett’s That Time. The chapter traces the correspondence between Beckett’s three voices and the three twelve-note sets matched to them, the role of the solo violin, and the dramatic progression of the three movements. It considers how literary structure, memory, time, orchestral colour, and soloistic writing shape interpretation — including the function of the cadenza, where Sicilianos brings all three sets together as Beckett’s voices converge, and the final transformation of the work’s material.

07

CONCLUSION AND APPENDICES

Draws together the book’s argument about Sicilianos’s search for form and voice, the four analysed works, and the meaning of authenticity in relation to performance. The appendices provide supporting documentary material, including main events in Sicilianos’s life and oeuvre, recordings, a review of Sonata recordings, biographical information on Sicilianos’s teachers, music inspired by Beckett, and the edited scores prepared for the volume.

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SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNISTSOURCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNIST

SOURCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

The bibliography of Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist records the scholarly, archival, musical, literary, philosophical, and documentary sources that support the book’s analysis, critical editions, and performance-led argument. It is presented here in full as part of the documentary apparatus surrounding the publication.

MONOGRAPHS & EDITED VOLUMES

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Aristoteles, Leon Golden, and O. B. Hardison. Aristotle’s Poetics: A Translation and Commentary for Students of Literature. Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1981.

Auer, Leopold. Violin Playing As I Teach It. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1921.

Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Versuch Über Die Wahre Art, Das Clavier Zu Spielen. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1976.

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Beckett, Samuel. Proust. London: Chatto & Windus, 1931.

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Brinner, Benjamin Elon. Knowing Music, Making Music: Javanese Gamelan and the Theory of Musical Competence and Interaction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

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Burnham, Scott “How Music Matters: Poetic Content Revisited.” In Rethinking Music, edited by Nicholas Cook and Everist Mark. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

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Chaffin, Roger , Gabriela Imreh, and Mary Crawford. Practicing Perfection: Memory and Piano Performance. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002.

Christopoulou, Stavroula. “Γιώργος Σισιλιάνος - Ζωή Και Έργο.” [Giórgos Sisiliános - Zoí Kai Érgo] University of Athens, 2009.

———. Κατάλογος Έργων Γιώργου Σισιλιάνου [Katálogos Érgon Giórgou Sisiliánou]. Edited by Apostolos Kostios Athens: C. Papagrigorious - C. Nakas, 2011.

Clarke, Eric F. “Generative Principles in Music Performance.” In Generative Processes in Music: The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation, and Composition, edited by John A. Sloboda. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1988.

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Dante Alighieri, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867. http://books.google.com/books?id=5uszAQAAMAAJ.

Danuser, Hermann, and Thomas Binkley. Musikalische Interpretation. Neues Handbuch Der Musikwissenschaft. Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1992.

Davidson, Jane W., and Elaine C. King. “Strategies for Ensemble Practice.” In Musical Excellence: Strategies and Techniques to Enhance Performance, edited by Aaron Williamon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Davies, David. Art as Performance. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004.

Davies, Stephen. Musical Works and Performances: A Philosophical Exploration. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 2001.

Delivorias, Aggelos, Stavroula Christopoulou, Apostolos Kostios, Katy Romanou, Giorgos Kouroupos, Mihalis Stathopoulos, Nikos Synodinos, et al. Γιώργος Σισιλιάνος: Ο Συνθέτης Στην Πρωτοπορία Της Σύγχρονης Μουσικής [Giórgos Sisiliános, O Synthétis Stin Protoporía Tis Sýnchronis Mousikís]. Edited by Valentini Tselika Athens: Benaki Museum, 2007.

Derrida, Jacques. Writing and Difference. Translated by Alan Bass. London: Routledge, 2001.

Dietrich, Albert Hermann, and Joseph Viktor Widmann. Recollections of Johannes Brahms. Translated by Dora E. Hecht. London: Seeley and Co., Limited, 1899.

Dimitrov, Mario. “The Violin Concerto and Its Development in Bulgaria.” Louisiana State University, Doctoral dissertation. 2887. 2006.

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Ferneyhough, Brian Collected Writings. London: Routledge, 2006.

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Fourna, Dionysius of. Manuel D'Iconographie Chrétienne. Bristol: Intellect, 2013 Saint Petersburg: B. Kirschbaum, 1909.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. second ed. London: Macmillan 2001.

Gabrielsson, Alf. “Timing in Music Performance and Its Relations to Music Experience.” In Generative Processes in Music: The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation, and Composition, edited by John A. Sloboda. Oxford: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1988.

Glover, Jane. Mozart’s Women: The Man, the Music, and the Loves of His Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

Goehr, Lydia. The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, and Karl Friedrich Zelter. Briefwechsel Goethe-Zelter. Zurich: Artemis, 1987.

Goodman, Elaine. “Ensemble Performance.” In Musical Performance: A Guide to Understanding, edited by John Rink. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Grier, James. The Critical Editing of Music: History, Method, and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Grimal, Pierre Λεξικό Της Ελληνικής Και Ρωμαϊκής Μυθολογίας [Lexikó tis Ellinikís kai Romaïkís Mythologías]. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 1991.

Gruson, Linda M. “Rehearsal Skill and Musical Competence: Does Practice Make Perfect?”. In Generative Processes in Music: The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation, and Composition, edited by John A. Sloboda, 91–112. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.

Guy, Francis-Nectarios. Γιώργος Σισιλιάνος - Διαπασών Ένας Διάλογος Με Τον Φράνσις Γκάυ [Giórgos Sisiliános - Diapasón Énas Diálogos Me Ton Fránsis Gáy]. Limassol: Cypriot Wine Museum Publications - Kinyras Cultural Organisation, 2010.

———. “Георгиос Сисилианос – Композитор В Съвременна Гърция. Източници.” [Georgios Sisilianos – Kompozitor V Sŭvremenna Gŭrtsiya. Iztochnitsi.] Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2011.

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Horowitz, Vladimir, and Elyse Mach. Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for Themselves. edited by Elyse Mach New York: Dover Publications, 1988.

Howat, Roy. “What Do We Perform?”. In The Practice of Performance, Studies in Musical Interpretation, edited by John Rink. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Hugo, Victor, and Elisabeth Barineau. Les Orientales. Vol. 2, Paris: M. Didier, 1954.

Kalogeropoulos, Takis. Το Λεξικό Της Ελληνικής Μουσικής Από Τον Ορφέα Έως Σήμερα [To Lexikó Tis Ellinikís Mousikís Apó Ton Orféa Éos Símera]. 6 vols Athens: Giallelis, 1998.

Kárpáti, János. Bartók’s String Quartets. Budapest: Corvina Press, 1975.

———. Bartók’s Chamber Music. Pendragon Press, 1994.

Kerman, Joseph. Contemplating Music: Challenges to Musicology [in English]. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985.

———. Concerto Conversations. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999.

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Lester, Joel. “Performance and Analysis: Interaction and Interpretation.” In The Practice of Performance: Studies in Musical Interpretation, edited by John Rink. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Raw and the Cooked. Translated by Doreen Wightman and John Wightman. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture. New York: Schocken Books, 1995.

Levy, Janet M. “Beginning – Ending Ambiguity: Consequences of Performance Choices.” In The Practice of Performance, Studies in Musical Interpretation, edited by John Rink. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Lewis, Charlton Thomas. An Elementary Latin Dictionary. New York: American Book Co., 1890.

Maliaras, Nikos, Markos Tsetsos, Kostas Chardas, Georgios Sakalieros, Nikos Tsouchlos, Panos Vlagopoulos, Georgios Demertzis, and Charis Dimaras. Γιώργος Σισιλιάνος 1920–2005. Επετειακό Αφιέρωμα [Giórgos Sisiliános 1920–2005. Epeteiakó Afiéroma]. Edited by Stephania Merakou. Athens: The Friends of Music Society, 2016.

Marsden, William. A Dictionary of the Malayan Language; to Which Is Prefixed a Grammar, with an Introduction and Praxis. London: Longman, 1812.

Menuhin, Yehudi. Unfinished Journey. London: Futura Publications, 1978. Macdonald and Jane's, London 1977.

Meyer, Leonard B. Emotion and Meaning in Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956.

———. “On Rehearing Music.” In Music, the Arts, and Ideas: Patterns and Predictions in Twentieth-Century Culture, 42–53. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

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Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, and Robert L. Marshall. Mozart Speaks: Views on Music, Musicians, and the World Drawn from the Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Other Early Accounts Translated by Robert L. Marshall. New York: Schirmer 1991.

Mueller-Vollmer, Kurt. The Hermeneutics Reader: Texts of the German Tradition from the Enlightenment to the Present. New York: Continuum, 1985.

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Norton, Richard. Tonality in Western Culture: A Critical and Historical Perspective. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1984.

O’Dea, Jane. Virtue or Virtuosity?: Explorations in the Ethics of Musical Performance. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Papadimitriou, Maro. Φωτιά [Fotiá]. Athens: Icarus, 1980.

Pescatello, Ann M. Charles Seeger: A Life in American Music. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992.

Quantz, Johann Joachim. Versuch Einer Anweisung Die Flöte Traversière Zu Spielen. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1953.

Ramazzotti, Marinella. Luigi Nono. Palermo: L’epos, 2007.

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Reed, William H. Elgar as I Knew Him. London: Gollancz, 1936.

Ritsos, Yiannis. Η Σονάτα Του Σεληνόφωτος [I Sonáta Tou Selinófotos]. Athens: Kedros, 1956.

———. Του Λιμανιού [Tou Limanioú]. Σάμος Επαναλήψεις 1η, 1963–1965 [Sámos Epanalípseis 1, 1963–1965]. Athens: Kedros, 1998.

Roeder, Michael Thomas. A History of the Concerto. Portland, Or.: Amadeus Press, 1994.

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Schoenberg, Arnold. “Folkloristic Symphonies.” In Style and Idea, edited by Dika Newlin. New York: Philosophical Library, 1950.

———. Style and Idea. New York: Philosophical Library, 1950.

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Seferis, Giorgos. Δοκιμές Α’ (1936–1947) [Dokimés, Α (1936–1947),]. Athens: Icarus, 1974.

———. Ποιήματα [Poiímata]. Athens: Icarus, 1979.

Seferis, Giorgos Τετράδιο Γυμνασμάτων [Tetradio Gymnasmaton]. Athens: Tarousopoulos, 1940.

Sherman, Bernard D. “Authenticity in Musical Performance.” In The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, edited by Michael J. Kelly. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Sicilianos, Yorgos. Για Τη Μουσική [Gia Ti Mousikí]. Edited by Elly Giotopoulou-Sicilianos Athens: Benaki Museum, Hellenic Music Centre, 2011.

Sim, Katherine. More Than a Pantun: Understanding Malay Verse. Singapore: Times Books International, 1987.

Simms, Bryan R. The Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg, 1908–1923. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Sinopoulos, Takis. Πέτρες [Pétres]. Athens 1972.

Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation, and Other Essays. New York: Picador, 1966.

Stanislavski, Constantin Creating a Role. Translated by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood. London: Methuen Drama, 2008.

Stein, Erwin. Form and Performance. New York: Knopf, 1962.

Stravinsky, Igor, and Robert Craft. Dialogues and a Diary. New York: Doubleday, 1963.

Stravinsky, Igor, and Giorgos Seferis. Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons. Translated by Ingolf Dahl and Arthur J. Knodel. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003. 16.

Stravinsky, Igor Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons. Translated by Ingolf Dahl and Arthur J. Knodel. London: Oxford University Press, 1947.

Taruskin, Richard. “The Pastness of the Present and the Presence of the Past.” In Authenticity and Early Music: A Symposium, edited by Nicholas Kenyon, 137–207. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

———. Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Theodorakis, Mikis. Οι Δρόμοι Του Αρχαγγέλου [Oi Drómoi Tou Archangélou]. Edited by Spyros Karachristos. 4 ed. 5 vols Athens: Kedros, 1986. Autobiography.

Thom, Paul. The Musician as Interpreter. University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State Press, 2007.

Todd, R. Larry. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Tsouchlos, Nikos B. “Γιώργος Σισιλιάνος: Η Kυρία Του Σεληνόφωτος.” [Giórgos Sisiliános: I Kyría Tou Selinófotos]. In Γιώργος Σισιλιάνος: Ο Συνθέτης Στην Πρωτοπορία Της Σύγχρονης Μουσικής [Giórgos Sisiliános, O Synthétis Stin Protoporía Tis Sýnchronis Mousikís], edited by Valentini Tselika. Athens: Benaki Museum, 2007.

Urmson, Jonathan O. “The Ethics of Musical Performance.” In The Interpretation of Music: Philosophical Essays, edited by Michael Krausz. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

Vagenas, Nassos. Ο Ποιητής Και Ο Χορευτής: Μια Εξέταση Της Ποιητικής Και Της Ποίησης Του Σεφέρη [O Poiitís Kai O Choreftís: Mia Exétasi Tis Poiitokís Kai Tis Poíisis Tou Seféri]. Athens: Kedros, 1979.

Varga, Bálint András From Boulanger to Stockhausen: Interviews and a Memoir. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2013.

Wagner, Richard. Richard Wagner’s Prose Works - in Paris and Dresden. Translated by William Ashton Ellis. Vol. 7, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr¸bner and Co., Ltd., 1898.

Ward, Geoff. “On the Pantoum, and the Pantunite Element in Poetry.” In A Companion to Poetic Genre, edited by Erik Martiny. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

Waterman, David. “Playing Quartets: A View from the Inside.” In The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet, edited by Robin Stowell. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

White, Eric Walter. Stravinsky, the Composer and His Works. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.

Williamon, Aaron, ed. Musical Excellence: Strategies and Techniques to Enhance Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Yeomans, David. Bartók for Piano: A Survey of His Solo Literature. Bloomington, In.: Indiana University Press, 1988.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Balinisteanu, Tudor. “Meaning and Significance in Beckett’s the Unnamable.” Applied Semiotics/Sémiotique appliquée, no. 13 (2003): 167–175.

Bent, Margaret. “Fact and Value in Contemporary Scholarship.” Musical Times 127 (1986): 85–89.

Boulez, Pierre. “Nécessité D’une Orientation Esthétique (Ii).” Canadian University Music Review 7, no. 7 (1986): 46.

Cook, Nicholas. “The Editor and the Virtuoso, or Schenker Versus Bülow.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 116, no. 1 (1991): 78–95.

———. “Between Process and Product: Music and/as Performance.” Music Theory Online 7, no. 2 (April 2001).

Dipert, Randall R. “The Composer’s Intentions: An Examination of Their Relevance for Performance.” The Musical Quarterly 66, no. 2 (1980): 205–218.

Dreyfus, Laurence. “Beyond the Interpretation of Music.” Dutch Journal of Music Theory 12, no. 3 (2007): 253–272.

Durazzi, Bruce. “Luigi Nono’s Canti Di Vita E D’amore: Musical Dialectics and the Opposition of Present and Future.” The Journal of Musicology 26, no. 4 (2009): 451–480.

Edidin, Aron. “Look What They’ve Done to My Song: “Historical Authenticity” and the Aesthetics of Musical Performance.” Midwest Studies in Philosophy 16, no. 1 (1991): 394–420.

Field, Christopher D. S. , Eugene E. Helm, and William Drabkin. “Fantasia.” Grove Music Online.

Hook, Julian. “How to Perform Impossible Rhythms.” Music Theory Online 17, no. 4 (2011).

Jackson, Roland. “Authenticity or Authenticities?--Performance Practice and the Mainstream.” Performance Practice Review 10, no. 1 (1997).

Maier, Franz Michael. “The Idea of Melodic Connection in Samuel Beckett.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 61, no. 2 (2008): 373–410.

Miklaszewski, Kacper. “A Case Study of a Pianist Preparing a Musical Performance.” Psychology of Music 17, no. 2 (January 1989): 95–109.

Nattiez, Jean-Jacques, and Katharine Ellis. “Can One Speak of Narrativity in Music?”. Journal of the Royal Musical Association 115, no. 2 (1990): 240–257.

Newbould, Brian. “Ravel’s Pantoum.” The Musical Times 116, no. 1585 (1975): 228–231.

Nielinger, Carola. “‘The Song Unsung’: Luigi Nono’s “Il Canto Sospeso”.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 131, no. 1 (2006): 83–150.

Poné, Gundaris. “Webern and Luigi Nono: The Genesis of a New Compositional Morphology and Syntax.” Perspectives of New Music 10, no. 2 (1972): 111–119.

Santini, Andrea. “Multiplicity — Fragmentation — Simultaneity: Sound-Space as a Conveyor of Meaning, and Theatrical Roots in Luigi Nono’s Early Spatial Practice.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 137, no. 1 (2012): 71–106.

Schmalfeldt, Janet, and Beethoven. “On the Relation of Analysis to Performance: Beethoven’s “Bagatelles” Op. 126, Nos. 2 and 5.” Journal of Music Theory 29, no. 1 (1985): 1–31.

Seeger, Charles. “Prescriptive and Descriptive Music-Writing.” The Musical Quarterly 44, no. 2 (1958): 184–195.

Sicilianos, Yorgos. “Αναζητώντας Τη Χαμένη Μουσική Παράδοση Της Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Τραγωδίας.” [Anazitóntas Ti Chaméni Mousikí Parádosi Tis Archaías Ellinikís Tragodías]. Χρονικό ‘72 [Chronikó '72] (September 1971 – August 1972 1971): 210–213.

Tanner, Mark. “The Power of Performance as an Alternative Analytical Discourse: The Liszt Sonata in B Minor.” 19th-Century Music 24, no. 2 (2000): 173–192.

Williamon, A., and E. Valentine. “The Role of Retrieval Structures in Memorizing Music.” Cogn Psychol 44, no. 1 (Feb 2002): 1–32.

Zink, Antoine, and Elisa Porto. “Luminescence Dating of the Tanagra Terracottas of the Louvre Collections.” Geochronometria - Journal on Methods and Applications of Absolute Chronology 24 (2005).

RECORDINGS

Sicilianos, Yorgos. Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45. Lyra, 1982. LP, 0274.

———. Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45, Yorgos Sicilianos: Chamber Music II, New Hellenic Quartet. Athens: Poikili Stoa, 2006. CD, EA 7.77702.

BROADCASTS

Adorno, Theodor W. “Das Altern Der Neuen Musik.” Süddeutschen Rundfunk, 1954.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

Archibold, Paul. “’Performing Complexity’, a Pedagogical Resource Tracing the Arditti Quartet’s Preparations for the Première of Brian Ferneyhough Sixth String Quartet.” 2011.

MANUSCRIPTS

Sicilianos, Yorgos. “Op. 13 String Quartet No. 2 (Score).” Archive of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEMA) Greek Music Information Center (GMDC), 1955.

———. “Op. 17 Tanagraia (Score).” Archive of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEMA) Greek Music Information Center (GMDC), 1957.

———. “Op. 28 String Quartet No. 4 (Score).” Archive of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEMA) Greek Music Information Center (GMDC), 1967.

———. “Op. 37 Six Songs for Voice and Piano (Score).” Archive of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEMA) Greek Music Information Center (GMDC), 1975.

———. “Op. 45 Sonata for Violin and Piano (Score).” Archive of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEMA) Greek Music Information Center (GMDC), 1981.

———. “Op. 51 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Score).” Archive of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEMA) Greek Music Information Center (GMDC), 1987.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

. Anexartitos Typos, November 15 1958.

. Ta Nea, April 3 1962.

. Prensa, May 30 1964.

. Vima, November 11 1976.

. Vima, November 24 2008, https://www.tovima.gr/2008/11/24/archive/anthologio-35/.

Anogianakis, Foivos To Ethnos, November 14 1958.

———. To Ethnos, November 30 1962.

———. To Ethnos, May 4 1968.

———. Epikaira, March 30 1978.

———. Avgi, December 23 1987.

Arkadinos, V. . Avgi, November 13 1958.

Boyd, Francis. “’Le Sacre Du Printemps’: A Musical Impertinence.” Observer, 12 July 1913.

C., A. T. Oxford Mail, April 17 1972.

Dounias, Minos. Kathimerini, May 16 1952.

———. Kathimerini, November 11 1958.

Gill, Dominique. Financial Times, April 18 1972.

Iatras, Dionisios. Vima, January 1 1966.

Kazasoglou, Giorgios. Anendotos, January 28 1966.

Lalaounis, Alexandra Vradini, May 13 1952.

———. Vradini, November 14 1958.

Leotsakos, Georgios. Mesimvrini, November 30 1962.

———. Ta Nea, August 18 1965.

———. Ta Nea, January 21 1966.

———. Ta Nea, May 3 1968.

———. Vima, March 3 1978.

———. Proti, January 12 1988.

Lykoudis, Georgios Vima, May 17 1952.

Monemvasitis, Georgios B. Eleftherotypia, December 29 1987.

Petridis, Petros. Vima, November 12 1958.

Psaroudas, Giannis. Ta Nea, May 13 1952.

Romanou, Katy. Kathimerini, March 24 1978.

Sicilianos, Yorgos. Vima, January 29 1966.

Skouloudis, Manolis Prodeftikos Phileletheros, May 14 1952.

Sperer-Drakou, Lili. Athenaiki, January 29 1966.

Stadlen, Peter. Daily Telegraph, April 17 1972.

Vagenas, Nassos. “Η Αναζήτηση Μιας Ποιητικής Θεωρίας.” [I Anazítisi Mias Poiitikís Theorías] Το Βήμα, February 27 2000.

Varvoglis, Marios. Ta Nea, November 11 1958.

PRESS RELEASES

Papaioannou, Giannis A., February 2, 1967.

WEB PAGES

Appel, Aaron. “A Discussion of That Time.” Washington State University, http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~aappel/.

Butt, John. “Playing with History the Historical Approach to Musical Performance.” Cambridge University Press, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.06327.

Contributors, Wikipedia. “Demak Sultanate.” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate_of_Demak.

———. “Yogyakarta.” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogyakarta.

Heer, Nicholas. “Nicholas Heer’s Homepage.” http://faculty.washington.edu/heer/apantun.pdf.

Hutchings, Arthur, Michael Talbot, Cliff Eisen, Leon Botstein, and Paul Griffiths. “Concerto.” Oxford University Press, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40737.

Wilde, Oscar. “An Ideal Husband.” Project Gutenberg, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1022600.

SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNISTBOOK LAUNCH VIDEO

0:00 1:33:30

SICILIANOS, THE GREEK MODERNIST

PRESENTATION EVENT

  • EVENT DATE: 4 September 2020
  • RELEASE DATE: 16 November 2020
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:33:30

This filmed event documents the presentation of Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist at the Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri” of the Friends of Music Society, at the Megaron, Athens Concert Hall, on 4 September 2020. The presentation formed part of the centennial celebrations of Yorgos Sicilianos’s life and work, bringing together institutional, scholarly, familial, compositional, and performance perspectives on the composer and on the publication of the book.

The video presents the book not merely as a publication, but as part of the continuing work of restoring Sicilianos’s music to scholarly and performing circulation. Speakers address the role of the Benaki Museum, the significance of Sicilianos within modern Greek music, the relation between the book and the composer’s archive, and the importance of performance in bringing modernist scores back into sound. The event includes pre-recorded contributions from Dr Dimitris Arvanitakis and Byron Fidetzis, while Prof. Giorgos Demertzis joins remotely from Heraklion, Crete, and Prof. Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos speaks remotely from Strasbourg, France.

Info

EVENT
Book presentation for Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist
EVENT DATE
4 September 2020
RELEASE DATE
16 November 2020
RUNNING TIME
1:33:30
LOCATION
Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri”, Friends of Music Society, Megaron, Athens Concert Hall
CONTEXT
Presented as part of the centennial celebrations of Yorgos Sicilianos’s life and work
LANGUAGE
Greek
SUBTITLES
English
ON-SITE SPEAKERS
Dr Nikos Tsouchlos, conductor and President of the Athens ConservatoirePanos Dimaras, President of the Friends of Music SocietyProf. Joseph Papadatos, composer and Vice-Rector of the Ionian UniversityDr Anastasios R. A. Mavroudis, author of Sicilianos, the Greek Modernist
REMOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, then President of the European Court of Human Rights and son of the composer, speaking from Strasbourg, FranceProf. Giorgos Demertzis, violinist, speaking from Heraklion, Crete
PRE-RECORDED CONTRIBUTIONS
Dr Dimitris Arvanitakis of the Benaki MuseumByron Fidetzis, conductor and Artistic Director of the Athens Philharmonia Orchestra

SICILIANOS.ORGARCHIVE STRUCTURE

SICILIANOS.ORG

ARCHIVE STRUCTURE

A classification of the archive’s materials and the structural principles through which they become searchable, comparable, and cross-referenced.

Sicilianos.org is organised around the premise that a composer’s work cannot be represented adequately by a simple chronological list. The archive separates different kinds of evidence — works, editions, texts, manuscripts, archive files, performances, performers, recordings, broadcasts, publications, events, references, writers, and intertextual sources — while preserving the relationships that make those categories meaningful.

This structure lets the site operate as a scholarly environment rather than a commemorative page. Its value lies not in accumulation alone but in arrangement: documents, people, performances, recordings, and ideas are gathered around the individual works to which they belong, so that each composition carries its own documentary world rather than standing as a bare entry in a list.

The public sections are built from these distinct record types rather than from ordinary free-standing pages. Each kind of material keeps its own place in the system, with the fields and structure proper to it, which is what allows the holdings to be searched, compared, and cross-referenced rather than merely read one page at a time.

The result is an archive that serves several kinds of enquiry at once — performance, scholarship, study, institutional reference, and listening — because the same underlying records can be approached with different questions and yield different paths through the material.

SICILIANOS.ORGCATALOGUE & RELATIONSHIPS

SICILIANOS.ORG

CATALOGUE & RELATIONSHIPS

How individual records are transformed into a network of musical, documentary, bibliographic, and performance evidence.

The site uses a revised catalogue of Sicilianos’s works in which each record can carry many relationships. A work is not a closed entry but a hub: its title, date, genre, instrumentation, and catalogue number sit alongside links to the editions, manuscripts, performances, recordings, performers, writings, and sources connected to it, so that the record opens outward into the evidence around the music.

This is unusual for a public composer website. Most offer a biography, a work list, a few recordings, and a handful of documents; Sicilianos.org has to work at once as catalogue, performance archive, document repository, media index, bibliography, and research guide. Holding those functions together in one coherent public interface is the central design problem the site solves.

The relational system allows the archive to be entered from several points. A visitor who starts with a work can find related archive files, performances, performers, editions, discographies, broadcasts, and texts. A visitor who starts with a performer can move towards performances and works. A visitor who starts with a publication or event can move back into the catalogue and the surrounding documentary field.

The aim throughout is to make complex cultural evidence navigable: to let a dense web of musical, archival, bibliographic, and performance information sit beneath a public surface that stays readable. Complexity is held in the structure so that it need not burden the reader.

SICILIANOS.ORGDOCUMENTARY SCALE

SICILIANOS.ORG

DOCUMENTARY SCALE

The archive’s numerical scale understood not as inventory alone, but as a prepared corpus of linked documentary evidence.

The archive includes a substantial body of digitised and catalogued material: 1,278 archive records, more than 1,300 PDF documents, 106 works, 377 published performer profiles, 284 performance records, 539 references, 67 texts, 60 articles and papers, 14 books, 17 conferences and events, 25 discography records, 10 broadcasts, sound-archive material, and 68 intertextuality records. The archive also contains a large media corpus, including thousands of image files and dozens of audio files that support the public record structure.

The scale is not only a matter of quantity. Each record had to be prepared so that it could function within the larger archive — titles made consistent, files named and attached, works given catalogue logic, performers and performances linked with their dates, venues, and roles, and references and intertextual sources structured enough to be useful without flattening their meaning. The figures above therefore measure preparation as much as accumulation.

Modern Greek art music often survives in dispersed forms: scores, parts, drafts, programmes, private documents, recordings, reviews, institutional files, publications, and personal memory. Sicilianos.org gives this material a clearer public structure. It enables performers, researchers, and institutions to locate evidence, compare records, and approach the music with a stronger documentary foundation.

The archive is also built to expand. New documents, corrected records, further performances, recordings, publications, and contextual links can be added without rebuilding the public interface, so that the resource keeps pace with continuing research, performance, and preservation rather than fixing the music at a single moment.

SICILIANOS.ORGTECHNICAL BUILD

SICILIANOS.ORG

TECHNICAL BUILD

The underlying information architecture and curatorial labour required to make a complex musical archive publicly navigable.

Sicilianos.org was built as a structured relational archive rather than as a conventional static website. Its content model had to hold every kind of record the archive distinguishes, and then connect those records through a large relationship system, so that a visitor could move meaningfully from a work to the documents, people, performances, and sources bound to it. The design problem was not storage but connection.

The public interface hides much of this technical and curatorial labour. Behind a single page may sit metadata fields, document files, cover images, relationship rules, media attachments, filtered browsing logic, display templates, and cross-links to other record types. The site’s discovery layer allows users to browse, filter, and follow material through the archive rather than depend on a single search box or a static menu.

More than 4,000 hours of individual work went into building and refining this system. That labour included defining the content model, preparing records, creating metadata structures, building relationship types, uploading and naming files, preparing covers and thumbnails, linking archive files to works, connecting performances to performers, building filtered archive pages, revising public record templates, testing navigation, and correcting records as the archive expanded.

The technical point is ultimately a scholarly one. Sicilianos.org was built so that cultural evidence could remain detailed without becoming inaccessible. It turns dispersed material into a public instrument: not merely a digital storage space, but a structured environment in which documents, music, people, performances, recordings, and ideas can be followed through their relationships.