Dimitri Terzakis

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Dimitri Terzakis ( Greek Δημήτρης Τερζάκης , born March 12, 1938 in Athens ) is a German- Greek composer .

Life

He was born in Athens in 1938 as the son of the writer Angelos Terzakis . Terzakis studied composition and music theory with Yannis Papaioannou at the Athens Conservatory from 1957 to 1964 . From 1958 to 1962 he also studied politics and law at the Athens Comprehensive University. From 1965 to 1970 he studied composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann and electronic music with Herbert Eimert at the Cologne University of Music .

From 1968 to 1994 he was a lecturer in music theory, counterpoint and fugue at the University of Education in Cologne. From 1974 to 1989 he held a teaching position at the Robert Schumann Institute of the Rhineland Music Academy. From 1985 to 1986 he was visiting professor for composition at the Berlin University of the Arts . In 1989 he was Professor of Composition at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf . From 1990 to 1997 he was head of the composition class at the Bern Conservatory . From 1994 until his retirement in 2003 he was Professor of Composition at the University of Music and Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig . His students included Thuon Burtevitz , Jean-Luc Darbellay , Andrés Maupoint , Michael Schneider , Aristides Strongylis , Spiros Mouchagier and others

In 1966 he was a co-founder of the Greek section of the IGNM . From 1972 he was musical advisor to the Goethe Institute in Athens. Terzakis has been a German citizen since 1985. He lives in Leipzig and Nafplio , Greece. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Institute of Musicology and Art at the University of Makedonia.

music

He developed his own tonal language that uses elements of the ancient Greek tonal system. This creates tonal centers that do not belong to the major-minor system. A formative experience for his music were his numerous visits to the holy Mount Athos and the music practiced there by the Greek Orthodox Church, whose tone system is the successor to the ancient one. There he understood, he says, that complicated technical means are not needed to compose good music. Terzakis' music tries to transfer the microtonal subdivisions of the ancient Greek music tradition to the western instrumentation and dispenses with complicated verticals, since these are not compatible with the microintervals. The main element of his music is the melody. This sets it apart from the Central European.

His compositions have been written by Tabea Zimmermann , Werner Jacob , Igor Ozim , Ernest Bour , Hans Zender , Brigitte Fassbaender , Péter Eötvös , Tatjana Masurenko , Karan Armstrong , Kolja Lessing , Saschko Gawriloff , Siegfried Palm , Almut Rößler , Alfons Kontarsky , the Artemis Quartet , the Leipzig String Quartet , the Bern Quartet, the Leonardo Quartet, the Arditti Quartet, Ernest Bour, Ulf Schirmer and the Thomanerchor .

Works

Songs

  • The gates of night and day
  • Erotic
  • Ethos B '

Odysseus' wanderings. Laterna magica music theater Nomos dorikos (piano quartet)

Piano works

  • Katawassia
  • Sappho fragments

Octets

  • Octo echoes

String quartets

  • String Quartets No. 1–5 (1969–1999)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Terzakis, Dimitri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Terzakis, Dimitris; Τερζάκης, Δημήτρης (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Athens