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abstracts
Dimitris E. Lekkas:
Byzantine “soft chroma”: a systemic structural approach
Following
upon a previous article in Polyphonia
8 on the Byzantine nominal diatonic scale of base, the same author
comes in the present article aspiring at providing a definitive
mathematical and, more generally, theoretical and historical
solution to a second fundamental basic structural block of
intonation in Greek, Balkan, Byzantine, Anatolian and Middle Eastern
music, i.e. the one called soft
chroma and (soft)
hejâz. The article argues that it is but a rearranged
diatonic, determines its model intervallic structure mathematically
and identifies it to a number of intervallic structures recorded in
history, most notably the archaic family of Asia Minor and Lesbos iasti
and mixolydisti
as well as the classical Attic soft
diatonic designated by Aristoxenos.
Leontios
Hadjileontiadis: The
Strychnine Lady (1967) of Jani Christou. Relations, analogies
and differentiations with the European and American Experimental
Music Theatre of the decades of 1960 and 1970
In
this paper, an insight in the work of Jani Christou The
Strychnine Lady through the perspective of experimental music
theatre is attempted. In particular, fields and analysis spaces are
explored within the work, in an effort to reveal relationships,
analogies and differentiations with the European and American
experimental music theatre of the 1960s and 1970s. Deep probing,
extensions and remarks in the fields like the collective and
personal unconscious, the time distribution, and the obvious and non-obvious
masking, are used to reveal the multidimensional characteristics of
Christou’s work, embedded with the artistic surroundings of his
time. The paper is a multifaceted reading of Christou’s work,
aiming at a deeper understanding both of his creative thinking and
his explicit dialectic.
Ioannis
Papachristopoulos: Developmental stages of Dimitris Terzakis’
composition technique
At
his effort to shape a strictly personal musical language, Dimitris
Terzakis capitalized in a very radical way the musical culture of
his descent; exploiting suitably compositional processes,
organizational and structural principles as well as technical
elements and audio material, which he had acquired through his
intensive activity with various types of the familiar to him musical
tradition but also with other important musical phenomena of the
wider South-Eastern Mediterranean area, he developed in the context
of modern music a compositional technique, via which the emergence
of an original and authentic artistic creation was rendered possible.
The
fundamental objective of this paper is the systematic presentation
of the development of the composition method of Terzakis since 1968.
In this framework, the determination of the fundamental traits of
his music on the basis of material-technical and aesthetic criteria
–through the required analytical observations– it is mainly
pursued. Moreover, a reflective illumination of the degree of access
in existing composing means in his oeuvre is attempted as well as of
the influence that these wielded in each final acoustic result. In
the last section of this article a basic exploration of the reasons
that prompted Terzakis towards concrete composing choices is
realized. In addition, we attempt to clarify his musical-historical
awareness as well as his perception regarding not only to his
personal creation but also with his positioning inside the wider
musical activity of his time. This clarification is necessary given
the fact that the elucidation of his artistic self-determination and
the expression of his fundamental convictions contribute
substantially to the comprehension of his attitude toward each
musical material as well as of the way of configuration and
organization during the creative process.
Ioannis
Fulias: Sonata forms and their theoretical evolution: The fourth
sonata type (“sonata-rondo”) and other related forms
The
tenth part of this extensive survey of the theoretical evolution of
sonata forms from 18th to 20th centuries refers to the fourth type
of sonata, the so-called “sonata-rondo” form, because it is a
mixture of sonata and rondo principles. The treat of this subject-matter
proves to be very demanding, since there are many different
structural cases in music theory from mid-19th-century onwards that
could (or should not) be regarded as versions of “sonata-rondo”.
Thus, several music forms are examined in this paper, from rondeau
to rondo and from “rondo-sonata” to “sonata-rondo”,
including structural types that constitute possible crossings among
them as well as products of erroneous theoretical approaches. Final
aim of this investigation is the clear distinction of the
“sonata-rondo” proper (a ternary sonata form with an additional
reinstatement of the primary theme just before the central development)
from all other cases, in which either a seven-part – but also
sometimes a five-part – rondo or (very rarely) a rondeau form is
enriched with sonata elements.
Apostolos
Kostios: Music Therapy: Art in the service of science (III)
The
third and last part of this treatise begins with an examination of
the criteria and methodological guidelines that have been used in
the attempt to define music therapy. It is concluded that almost all
definitions have a common thread: music therapy is a method.
The argument is enhanced by examples of its use in the
rehabilitation of offenders in society, the psychological support of
the elderly and the treatment of alcoholism. The essay concludes
with comments on the need for a healthier sound environment and the
skills, abilities and strengths which a music therapist needs.
Katy
Romanou: A cembalo for Nabucco?
– Basso continuo improvisation in 19th century opera performances
in Italy and Corfù
Students
of 19th century Greek music have often come across the names of
certain Italians, who contributed to Corfù’s music culture,
followed by terms connected to 18th century music practices, such as
“Maestro al cembalo”, “Contrabasso al cembalo”,
“Violoncello al cembalo”. In fact, the practice of basso
continuo improvisation persisted in 19th century opera performances
in Italy (consequently in Corfù as well), as Claudio
Bacciagaluppi has shown in a recent study. It disappeared only at
the beginnings of the 20th century, at which time it was completely
erased from musicological memory, because of the German dominion on
the field.
This
is one among various old fashioned practices preserved in Italy,
which was isolated from the progressive music centers beyond the
Alps. But 19th century basso continuo is practiced by cellos and
double bass players, and the term “al cembalo” has survived by
tradition, while the instrument itself disappeared from the
orchestra’s pit early in the century. As a consequence, cello and
double bass education in 19th century Italy included the instruction
of the partimenti,
a semi-practical method of counterpoint integrated in harmony, which
armed musicians with the ability to improvise accompaniment.
The
knowledge of those peculiarities of Italian music life and education
solves one of the riddles of recent Greek music history, namely, why
Rafaele Parisini, the man who, according to the historian Theodoros
Synadinos, “brought the Muses back to their home”, was simply
a double bass player.
Anastasia
Kakaroglou – Katy Romanou: Extracts
from Guillaume André Villoteau’s De l’état actuel de l’art musical en Égypte
(VI)
In
this volume of Polyphonia
we go on with the publication of Guillaume André
Villoteau’s “De la musique grecque moderne”, i.e. the fourth
chapter of his treatise De
l’état actuel de l’art musical en Égypte…
(1826), in a Greek translation. In “Article” IX, presented in
this volume, Villoteau continues the translation of the treatise
known as Papadike,
that he had interrupted in order to clarify concepts that he
considered difficult for Western readers (namely, the so called
“great hypostaseis” and the composition of neumes). In
“article” IX, Villoteau translates the part of the old treatise
covering the possibility of transposing a tetrachord. A problem in
the translation of the present “article” derives from the fact
that he applies the term “mutation” to denote the transposition
of a tetrachord, while he has used the same term (in “article”
8) to denote alteration signs. We chose to allow ourselves this
differentiation, since we have no doubt that he applies the term
with a different meaning in each instance.
As
is the case in all previous issues of Polyphonia,
where this translation is being published, all music examples and
plates have been photographed from the French edition of 1826. The
original pagination is given in brackets within the text.
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