A significant part of the musical heritage is often neglected for various reasons, which usually have nothing to do with the music itself or its qualitative characteristics. [1] Indeed, in the 21st century, the Information or Digital Age, [2] the work of art music composers is often overlooked; a phenomenon observed since the mid-20th century in Western Europe [3]. Greek art music, following a path from “musical cosmopolitanism through musical nationalism to musical populism,” failed to avoid this neglect and underestimation. [4] On the contrary, popular music composers are promoted through social media and communication channels, with the term ‘art music’ often being distortedly embraced as a distinguishing characteristic. [5] The mechanisms used in this process are not dissimilar to those promoting consumer products. [6]
Research Questions
From the above, it becomes clear that the creative journey of living Greek art music composers warrants research attention. Research interest is heightened, in fact, for composers nearing the end of their creative careers, as the creator’s style and aesthetic approach have crystallized and no longer possess the dynamic for changes they once might have had. This contributes to the accessibility of their work from a research perspective. At the same time, however, the creative period of these composers has marginally passed. That is, we are at a significant temporal zero point, characterized by a luxury: the creative period of these composers is indeed crystallized, but, simultaneously, it is as chronologically close as possible to the research period, with the result that many social, political, economic, etc. components of daily life differ as little as possible between the two periods. This can be considered a sweet spot. The composers currently falling into this chronology are those who were active – and primarily gathered musical stimuli – in the second half of the 20th century. Following the above, the following question logically arises: What is the context of musical compositional production in which the composers nearing the end of their creative careers were nurtured and shaped? More specifically, what stimuli did such a composer experience in the daily musical life of Athens?
Approaches to Music Historiography
It must be stated from the outset that a satisfactory analysis of the above issue would need to be exhaustive, lengthy, and include many factors, to such an extent that it is not feasible to present within the scope of this article. However, here, we aim for a first-level answer to the research questions posed, with the ultimate goal of involving more and more people in this endeavor. The approach to be followed (a) “does not focus solely on music but also on musical practice within a social and cultural environment” [7] while, (b) it presupposes, as Theodor W. Adorno emphasizes, that “music does not only engage with its non-musical historical environment, with the people of its time, but also with the music of its past and present, with the musical tradition in which it is inscribed.” [8] That is, of critical importance for understanding the context is, on the one hand, the musical and non-musical, social and cultural environment of the era and, on the other hand, the musical tradition that preceded it.
Contemporary research into Greek music is characterized by a major disadvantage and a significant advantage: the former relates to the lack of a “solidly structured and long tradition of research.” [9] This disadvantage automatically creates a relative advantage as an opportunity: the researcher’s ability to highlight all those formations and fertile misunderstandings, perhaps, that Western compositional habits and ideas underwent during their reception. On the other hand, there is also a strong intention among 20th-century historical and systematic musicologists to study the work of individual composers. [10] In cases of collective publications from the early 20th century, regardless of location, “a kind of cultural competition” is evident, while “history takes on a more propagandistic character than before and tends towards fabricated images.” [11] But this is merely the framework of historiography.
Greek Art Music Creation in the Second Half of the 20th Century
The first decade of the second half of the 20th century is marked by the gradual decline of the Greek National School, a phenomenon observed in Europe since 1945. [12] However, compositions in its style sporadically appeared until the end of the century. Nikos Maliaras, in fact, points out that the reasons for the devaluation of the National School are the same as those for its emergence as a dominant movement. [13] The national identity expressed by the National School gave way after the war to the new collective art music identity of the Western world, that of musical avant-garde, [14] which, in fact, prevailed in musical affairs until 1980. [15] The period of Greek musical avant-garde constituted the dominant trend in art music, in which composers of the era primarily lived as listeners gathering stimuli, experimenting, and preparing their personal style.
More specifically, the first decade of the musical avant-garde (1950-1960) was characterized by intense financial aid, numerous scholarships, and broader support from the United States of America and other Western countries (e.g., West Germany, England, France, Italy), a fact interpreted as a conscious effort to establish a trend. [16] Kaiti Romanou emphasizes that, for a country like Greece, the avant-garde “is accepted much more painlessly,” due to the absence of a strong connection with the – earlier – Western tradition. [17] From one perspective, the Western European countries that adopted musical avant-garde broke with their own musical heritage, evolving it. In contrast, Greece struggled to form a cultural identity through various fermentations of the National School. It is easily understood that, although Greek cultural production was not in a position of strength, it tried – and often avoided – the trap of sterile imitation of foreign models, thanks to radiant personalities of Greek art music (e.g., Jani Christou, Iannis Xenakis, Theodore Antoniou, Yiannis Ioannidis, Anestis Logothetis). This element had a clear impact on the Greek public, which consciously took a particular interest in the avant-garde movement, and, indeed, with a special fervor reminiscent of “the vitality of sporting events, something many sought in the ‘dead’ art music concerts.” [18]
The decline of the musical avant-garde movement, with 1980 as a turning point, is not much different from any declining period: many composers write many works for many performers that are played many times for an audience of dwindling numbers. As Romanou characteristically states: “The booing and the fanatic followers disappeared, and the audience for contemporary music resembled the traditional one.” [19] Of course, the retreat of musical avant-garde is not interpreted unidimensionally as a phenomenon of supply and demand, where supply dramatically exceeded demand and led to saturation. One of the dominant reasons for the “fall of avant-garde music” is the communicative power of Mikis Theodorakis’s music. A power that managed to create a “feeling of brotherhood” in a wider circle than that of musical avant-garde. [20]
Epilogue
From the above, it is concluded that modern Greek art music, while indeed “simply following and not leading broader cultural developments,” [21] on the other hand, distinct cultural developments attest to a continuous incompleteness, which supports the broader crisis of 20th-century music. [22] In any case, the second half of the 20th century is characterized by hasty – from external and internal forces – changes in the way music is written. Changes that lead from the formerly alternative to the present, and, perhaps, overlooking that, within the framework of general life in the middle of the century, whatever is alternative may not be exogenous to the dominant culture, but the “dominant style, within the dominant.” [23]
[1] Markos Tsetsos, Elements and Environments of Music (Fagottobooks, 2012), 15-63.
[2] Mohammad Yamin, “Information technologies of 21st century and their impact on the society,” International Journal of Information Technology 11 (2019): 759-66, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41870-019-00355-1.
[3] Horkheimer Max and Adorno Theodor W., Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Stanford University Press, 2002), 94-136.
[4] Markos Tsetsos, Neo-Hellenic Music: Essays on Ideological and Institutional Criticism (Papagrigoriou-Nakas, 2013), 23-30.
[5] Ibid.
[6] The issue of correlating music promotion mechanisms with those promoting consumer products has also been extensively analyzed by Jacques Attali, while the impact of capitalism on listeners’ consumption habits has been presented in writings by Mark Fisher. Composer Haris Vrontos has also published his views on the matter. See Attali Jacques, Noises: An Essay on the Political Economy of Music, trans. Deniz Andritsanou (Kedros, 1991), 72-88; Fisher Mark, Capitalist Realism, trans. Themis Pantazakos, Giannis Galiatsos (Futura, 2015), 27-8; Haris Vrontos, Metronome for Small and Large Arrhythmias (Nefeli, 2005), 103-6.
[7] Anastasia Siopsi, “The position of the history of learned modern Greek music in the European horizon (the evolution of research in the diptych center [Central Europe] – periphery),” Musicology 21 (2013): 146.
[8] Markos Tsetsos, The Musical Good (Sakis Karagiorgas Foundation, 2020), 103
[9] Hardas, “Do it yourself? Issues of Greek music historiography,” Musicology 21 (2013): 131.
[10] Nicholas Cook, Music: A very short introduction (Oxford University Press, 1998), 87.
[11] Kaiti Romanou, “Comparing aspects of music historiography,” Musicology 21 (2013): 71.
[12] Giorgos Sakallieros, “Transitional ‘texture’ and ‘style’ of modern Greek musical creation (19th-20th c.): historical overview through critical assessment and practical sources,” Musicology 20 (2011): 230.
[13] Nikos Maliaras, Greek Music and Europe. Journeys in Western European Culture (Papagrigoriou-Nakas, 2012), 103-4.
[14] “In order for the historiographer to avoid this labyrinth of periodization according to specific terminology, it is better to know how he uses the terms ‘new music,’ ‘modern,’ and ‘Avant-garde,’ i.e., whether he uses them chronologically, normatively, or historically.” See Ilias Giannopoulos, “History of musical terminology as music historiography: the problem of ‘new music’ in 20th-century music historiography,” Musicology 21 (2013): 108.
[15] Sakallieros, “Transitional ‘texture’ and ‘style’ of modern Greek musical creation (19th-20th c.): historical overview through critical assessment and practical sources,” 231.
[16] Kaiti Romanou, Art Music in Modern Greece (Koultoura, 2006), 235.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid., 237.
[19] Ibid., 257.
[20] Ibid., 258; Tsetsos, Neo-Hellenic Music: Essays on Ideological and Institutional Criticism, 28-30.
[21] Siopsi, “The position of the history of learned modern Greek music in the European horizon (the evolution of research in the diptych center [Central Europe] – periphery),” 147.
[22] Giorgos Zervos, “The crisis in 20th-century music. Theme and form in contemporary musical creation,” Musicology 9 (1997): 26.
[23] Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 18.
Bibliography
Attali, Jacques. Noises: An Essay on the Political Economy of Music. Translated by Deniz Andritsanou. Kedros, 1991.
Vrontos, Haris. Metronome for Small and Large Arrhythmias. Nefeli, 2005.
Giannopoulos, Ilias. “History of musical terminology as music historiography: the problem of ‘new music’ in 20th-century music historiography.” Musicology 21 (2013): 99-110.
Cook, Nicholas. Music: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Zervos, Giorgos. “The crisis in 20th-century music. Theme and form in contemporary musical creation.” Musicology 9 (1997): 14-27.
Fisher, Mark. Capitalist Realism. Translated by Themis Pantazakos, Giannis Galiatsos. Futura, 2015.
Horkheimer, Max and Adorno, Theodor W. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Stanford University Press, 2002.
Maliaras, Nikos. Greek Music and Europe. Journeys in Western European Culture. Papagrigoriou-Nakas, 2012.
Photographic Archive of Georgios Bakouras-Liza Koutsapli. Athens ’65 – ’70 – Syntagma Square. c. 1967. Digital photograph. Museum of the City of Athens.
Romanou, Kaiti. Art Music in Modern Greece. Koultoura, 2006.
Romanou, Kaiti. “Comparing aspects of music historiography.” Musicology 21 (2013): 59-76.
Sakallieros, Giorgos. “Transitional ‘texture’ and ‘style’ of modern Greek musical creation (19th-20th c.): historical overview through critical assessment and practical sources.” Musicology 20 (2011): 215-38.
Siopsi, Anastasia. “The position of the history of learned modern Greek music in the European horizon (the evolution of research in the diptych center [Central Europe] – periphery).” Musicology 21 (2013): 143-52.
Tsetsos, Markos. Elements and Environments of Music. Fagottobooks, 2012.
Tsetsos, Markos. Neo-Hellenic Music: Essays on Ideological and Institutional Criticism. Papagrigoriou-Nakas, 2013.
Tsetsos, Markos. The Musical Good. Sakis Karagiorgas Foundation, 2020.
Hardas, Kostas. “Do it yourself? Issues of Greek music historiography.” Musicology 21 (2013): 129-42.
Yamin, Mohammad. “Information technologies of 21st century and their impact on the society.” International Journal of Information Technology 11 (2019): 759-66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41870-019-00355-1.
