Matching Items (17)
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- All Subjects: Piano music
- Creators: Meir, Baruch
Description
Yannis Constantinidis was the last of the handful of composers referred to collectively as the Greek National School. The members of this group strove to create a distinctive national style for Greece, founded upon a synthesis of Western compositional idioms with melodic, rhyhmic, and modal features of their local folk traditions. Constantinidis particularly looked to the folk melodies of his native Asia Minor and the nearby Dodecanese Islands. His musical output includes operettas, musical comedies, orchestral works, chamber and vocal music, and much piano music, all of which draws upon folk repertories for thematic material. The present essay examines how he incorporates this thematic material in his piano compositions, written between 1943 and 1971, with a special focus on the 22 Songs and Dances from the Dodecanese. In general, Constantinidis's pianistic style is expressed through miniature pieces in which the folk tunes are presented mostly intact, but embedded in accompaniment based in early twentieth-century modal harmony. Following the dictates of the founding members of the Greek National School, Manolis Kalomiris and Georgios Lambelet, the modal basis of his harmonic vocabulary is firmly rooted in the characteristics of the most common modes of Greek folk music. A close study of his 22 Songs and Dances from the Dodecanese not only offers a valuable insight into his harmonic imagination, but also demonstrates how he subtly adapts his source melodies. This work also reveals his care in creating a musical expression of the words of the original folk songs, even in purely instrumental compositon.
ContributorsSavvidou, Dina (Author) / Hamilton, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Little, Bliss (Committee member) / Meir, Baruch (Committee member) / Thompson, Janice M (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
ContributorsBryan, Karen (Speaker) / Meir, Baruch (Performer) / Campbell, Andrew (Pianist) (Performer) / Cosand, Walter, 1950- (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2006-03-29
ContributorsMeir, Baruch (Performer) / Barefield, Robert (Performer) / Buck, Nancy (Performer) / Jiang, Danwen (Performer) / Swartz, Jonathan (Performer) / Tescarollo, Hamilton (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2004-02-15
ContributorsPagano, Caio, 1940- (Performer) / Meir, Baruch (Performer) / Cosand, Walter, 1950- (Performer) / Hamilton, Robert, 1937- (Performer) / Branch, Sonja (Performer) / Nottingham, Douglas (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2010-10-01
ContributorsMeir, Baruch (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2001-10-19
ContributorsFennig, Andria (Performer) / Hanaoka, Katsunori (Performer) / Lee, Suzie (Performer) / Meir, Baruch (Performer) / Novak, Christina (Performer) / Tescarollo, Hamilton (Performer) / Williamson, Madeline J. (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created1997-04-29
ContributorsMeir, Baruch (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2010-02-22
ContributorsMeir, Baruch (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2005-04-10
Description
Beginning around the 1820s, the refinement of the piano mechanism increased the expressiveness of the instrument’s sonority and further attracted the composers’ attention and curiosity about the instrument. Concentration on piano music became a trend for composers between the mid to late nineteenth century. During this period, the massive output of music for piano and extremely developed keyboard techniques resulted in classical composers searching for fresh ideas. Starting in the twentieth century, composers became increasingly interested in music outside the classical world and new interpretations of meter, harmony, and form. As early as the 1910s, composers included tone clusters generated at keyboard and soon afterwards, began “playing” the internal components of the piano including strings. Concurrently, they blended different styles within a piece according to their cultural and educational background. A prime example of this compositional trend is the classically-trained Turkish pianist-composer Fazil Say (b. 1970). His ability as a pianist reflects his strong classical training as well as a stylistic freedom partly derived from jazz. Say’s inspiration is also drawn from his Turkish heritage, as traditional folk elements have helped to shape his compositions. Representing Say’s education, passion, and ethnic background, the three elements of classical, jazz, and folk music have become his primary devices within his solo piano compositions.
This brief investigation of Say’s life to date and his piano works offers an insight into the correlation between the multi-cultural environments in which he has lived and the formation of his styles. Chapter one, the summary of his life and educational background, illustrates the fact that the three facets within his piano compositions are strongly rooted in his exposure to different environments. The second chapter presents a clear overview of the development of Say’s compositional idiom and a deeper look at selected piano compositions: his transcription of J. S. Bach’s Passacaglia in C Minor, BWV 582, Three Ballads, Black Earth, Alla Turca Jazz, and Paganini Jazz. The goal is to provide current and future pianists with insight into the expressive performance of one composer’s extremely successful hybridization of classical, jazz, and Turkish folk music.
This brief investigation of Say’s life to date and his piano works offers an insight into the correlation between the multi-cultural environments in which he has lived and the formation of his styles. Chapter one, the summary of his life and educational background, illustrates the fact that the three facets within his piano compositions are strongly rooted in his exposure to different environments. The second chapter presents a clear overview of the development of Say’s compositional idiom and a deeper look at selected piano compositions: his transcription of J. S. Bach’s Passacaglia in C Minor, BWV 582, Three Ballads, Black Earth, Alla Turca Jazz, and Paganini Jazz. The goal is to provide current and future pianists with insight into the expressive performance of one composer’s extremely successful hybridization of classical, jazz, and Turkish folk music.
ContributorsChen, Yen-Wei (Author) / Meir, Baruch (Thesis advisor) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Hamilton, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
ContributorsHwang, Alice (Performer) / Cho, Joonghun (Performer) / Jiang, Xinzhe (Performer) / Joiner, Devon (Performer) / Hus, Ashley (Performer) / Ulianitsky, Ilia (Performer) / Cai, Chaoyin (Performer) / Levyatov, Yoni (Performer) / Kim, Sangyoung (Performer) / Marshall, Kimberly (Speaker) / Meir, Baruch (Speaker) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2008-01-12