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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

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
Description
This research concentrates on the five sonatinas for piano by Walter Saul. It consists of a recording and a document providing musical analyses and performance guides to these sonatinas.

The purpose of the research is to introduce Walter Saul’s five sonatinas,

This research concentrates on the five sonatinas for piano by Walter Saul. It consists of a recording and a document providing musical analyses and performance guides to these sonatinas.

The purpose of the research is to introduce Walter Saul’s five sonatinas, composed from 1998 to 2015. Walter Saul is a gifted living American composer and pianist. He has written a quantity of piano music intended for study by young performers. His five sonatinas, in traditional sonata forms, use a variety of compositional techniques, including twelve-tone rows, jazz elements, modulations, modes, scales, and contrapuntal procedures. Performers may find that the analyses in this document are useful in understanding these pieces. The guides are likewise provided to teachers and students studying these pieces.

This paper consists of six chapters. It begins with an introduction in Chapter 1; Chapter 2 presents a biography of Walter Saul; Chapter 3 observes characteristics of Walter Saul’s piano music; Chapter 4 deals with background of the five sonatinas; Chapter 5 provides performance guides including simple analyses; Chapter 6 arrives at a conclusion.
ContributorsYun, Ahyeon (Author) / Cosand, Walter (Thesis advisor) / Rogers, Rodney (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017