Dissertation committee:
Μάρκος Τσέτσος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ
Φώτιος Δημητρακόπουλος, Ομότιμος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Φιλολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Νικόλαος Μαλιάρας, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σποδών, ΕΚΠΑ
Αναστασία Σιώψη, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ
Γεώργιος Σακαλλιέρος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΑΠΘ
Κωνσταντίνος Χάρδας, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΑΠΘ
Ιάκωβος Σταїνχάουερ, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Μουσικών Σπουδών, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
This thesis studies Manolis Kalomiris' relationship with modern greek literature (poetry and prose) of the early 20th century. Throughout the work of Manolis Kalomiris, both in operas and songs, as well as in instrumental and orchestral works, the presence of poetry and literature is intense and decisive and the language has equal importance with music in the evolution of his compositions. At the beginning of his career, he also writes lyrics which he is also composing, while until the end of his life he publishes articles and issues mainly in the journal Noumas and in the press of the time.
The poets and the writers present in Kalomiris' work are selected by various criteria. Kalomiris is attracted by the beauty of the language, but he is also attracted by the extra-poetry, extra-literal messages that this language bears. His compositions were placed in a particular place and time where art faces several battles including the «language question», the establishment of «dēmotikē» as the main language. The language question («glossiko zētēma»), the Greek identity, the greek national soul («ēthnikē psychē»), the traditions, the morals and the customs, the great national visions, the Great Ideal («Megalē Idea»), the presence of ancient Greece and Byzantium, all these issues which are included in the broad term «hellēnikotēta», are contained in texts and expressed by the poets and writers of the period, determine the composer’s choices.
Folk poetry and Kostis Palamas, Nikos Kazantzakis, Angelos Sikelianos, Yiannis Psycharis, Yiannis Kambisis, Kostas Hatzopoulos, Ioannis Griparis, Miltiadis Malakassis, Alexandros Pallis and others, represent the great and dynamic effort of awakening, regenerating and rebuilding the language and the nation and have common ideological and aesthetic axes. According to these characteristics, they are selected by Kalomiris.
In literature and poetry, the 1910s is characterized by Palamas and the language question, of the great collective visions and the extroverted poetic language which absorbs the contemporary artistic and spiritual movements and highly expresses the individual effort. Inspired by the higher ideals, it also inspires the masses for seeking noble minded purposes. These are the characteristics that Kalomiris is deeply touched from and interested for. Papadiamantis' different sense of «hellēnikoteta», Cavafy’s particular poetry, the parallel line of poets expressing the tendency of pessimism, impasse and resignation mainly emerged in the 1920s, militant art, anti -war literature, do not concern Kalomiris. The intersection of the 30s literature as well as the later pioneering poetry does not interest him as well.
Kalomiris envisioned a Greek National Music School equivalent to the Europeans, definitely based on poetry and the language of the people. The choice of the poet Kostis Palamas, who bears the title of the national poet, defines the context of creation for greek music: the national poet together with the national composer creates the National School of Music as an individed set of greek language and greek sound. The composer tries until the end to determinate the national identity, in the terms of the 1910s decade. His last opera Constantinos Paleologos (1961), based on Nikos Kazantzakis drama, closes a circle that started with Nikos Kazantzakis and the opera «The Master –Builder» (Prōtomastoras) (1915).
With his music, Kalomiris searches the “ellēnikotēta” as he perceives it and puts his work at its service. His music is characterized as purely greek and confined to this characteristic it becomes neither a global nor a future one. It’s music that lives in the Greek space and time of the first decades of the century. Its artistic value comes secondary, as its primary destination is to serve the vision of the establishment of a National School of Music.
Poetry and literature are the foundation stone and the driving force of Kalomiris' musical inspiration, and his choices defined his composing course and the character of the National School of Music. In the vortex of events that shaped the physiognomy of the modern greek culture, Kalomiris' music is a special way of perceiving and interpreting the greek literature and poetry.
Keywords:
Manolis Kalomiris, Palamas, Poetry 1910, Question of Language, Noumas, Greek National Music School, Greece, 20th century
