The vienna school

Nikos Skalkottas () is a leading figure in Greek music (with Manolis Kalomiris [], the founder of a 'modernist national school'). Skalkottas and Dimitri Mitropoulos--later to establish himself as a world-renowned conductor--were the first Greek composers to adopt atonality and the twelve-tone method in the s.

Skalkottas also explored 20th-century tonal idioms.

Nikos Skalkottas was born on March 8, in Halkis (island of Eubea, Greece). His great-grandfather, Alexander Skalkottas, from Pyrgos (island of Tinos) was a renowned folk singer, violinist and composer; his father, Alexander Skalkottas, was a flutist.

Skalkottas nikos biography definition ap

A member of the Second Viennese School , he drew his influences from both the classical repertoire and the Greek tradition. He also produced a sizeable amount of tonal music in the last phase of his musical creativity. Skalkottas was born in Chalcis on the island of Euboea. He started violin lessons with his father and uncle Kostas Skalkottas at the age of five, three years after his family moved to Athens because Kostas had lost the post of town bandmaster in due to political and legal intrigues Thornley He continued studying violin with Tony Schultze [ de ] at the Athens Conservatory , from which he graduated in with a diploma of high distinction.

A child prodigy himself as a violinist, Nikos pursued his studies first in his hometown with his uncle Costas, later at the Athens Conservatory, graduating with the First Prize Gold Medal in In , on a series of scholarships, he left for Berlin where he stayed until , first taking violin master courses with Willy Hess at the Berlin Hochschule, then in the winter of turning definitely to composition, for which his main teachers were Phillipp Jarnach (), Paul Juon, Kurt Weill and Arnold Schoenberg ().

He composed prodigiously, in a personal atonal idiom, using the twelve-tone system rather seldom and somewhat reluctantly at that time. When the mounting wave of Nazism made life for exponents of new music difficult, Skalkottas returned to Athens in May , the same month that Schoenberg left Germany. In Greece, unfortunately, Skalkottas met with a great deal of incomprehension and enmity, and was obliged to accept a position as one of the last violins in the State Orchestra of Athens.

Skalkottas nikos biography definition wikipedia Nikos Skalkottas was a Greek composer whose works have often been overshadowed by the more prominent figures of 20th-century classical music. However, his contributions to the modernist movement and his innovative compositions have left an indelible mark on the history of music. This article delves into the life, works, and influence of Nikos Skalkottas, shedding light on the significance of his contributions to classical music. Nikos Skalkottas was born on March 21, , in Halkis, Greece. From a young age, it was evident that he had an extraordinary talent for music.

He isolated himself, refusing to talk about music to all but a few people who, he thought, appreciated contemporary music, all the while composing feverishly until his death on September 19, in Athens as a result of a neglected constricted hernia. Practically his entire output remained unknown, unpublished and unperformed during his life.

In he turned to a new, quite complex but highly concise version of the twelve-tone system of his own invention, which he used extensively until his death, parallel with, beginning around , a non-serial method that sounds only slightly different from the other technique. His main innovations consist of creating an entirely new sound world by developing formal structures operating at multiple concurrent levels, and by the intensity and directness with which he used harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, and articulation to serve maximum expressive purposes.

Another important feature of Skalkottas's music is the presence of Greek folk material in his works. For a period, he professionally transcribed and analyzed Greek folksongs. Of particular interest is his integration of folk elements in his atonal composition, most notable in his famous collection of Greek Dances for orchestra.

Biography definition and examples Greek composer Nikos Skalkottas was born in Chalcis on the island of Euboea on 21 March , and began violin lessons aged five, studying with his father and uncle. In he decided to switch from violin to composition, and studied with Philipp Jarnach, Paul Juon, Robert Kahn and Kurt Weill , and later in Arnold Schoenberg 's composition masterclass. His post-Schoenbergian music was influenced by classical repertoire and Greek traditional music, and he was a member of the Second Viennese School. In some of his works were performed in Athens and Berlin, but they weren't understood. He returned to Athens, where he spent the rest of his life, making a living as a back-desk violinist and working at the Folk Music Archive, transcribing Greek folk music into Western music notation.

In his year long career, Skalkottas composed more than works, often short, but sometimes of "gigantic" dimensions and of remarkable sophistication and complexity. Manuscripts for over works are gathered at the Skalkottas Archives in Athens, representing more than 80% of his work (since the missing ones are generally quite short).

BIS has recently released three recordings of his orchestral and chamber music (BIS CD, BIS CD, BIS CD). His three Piano Concertos, Concerto for Violin, Viola and Wind Orchestra, Greek Dances, Symphony in One Movement ("The Return of Ulysses") and Symphonic Suite are among his key works. Gunther Schuller is currently recording Skalkottas's Piano Pieces Volumes I--III.

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