Melpo Merlier

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Melpomeni Merlier (Greek Μελπωμένη Μερλιέ, mostly Melpo (Μέλπω), born Logotheti (Λογοθέτη), * 1889 in Xanthi ; † 1979 in Athens ) was a Greek pianist , musicologist and ethnologist .

Career

Melpomene Logotheti grew up as the daughter of the Greek doctor Miltiadis Logothetis (Μιλτιάδης Λογοθέτης) and his wife Viktoria Kougioumtzoglou (Βικτωρία Κουγιουμτζόγλου) in Constantinople. There she attended the Ζάππειο Παρθεναγωγείο (Záppeio Parthenagogío), a girls' school, and received piano lessons from Sophia Spanudi (Σοφία Σπανούδη). Her father died when she was 15 years old. Her mother then moved to Geneva with her for family reasons. At the Conservatoire there, she attended the master class for piano given by Liszt's student Bernhard Stavenhagen . In 1913 she returned to Greece and gave concerts there, in Constantinople , Egypt and other places. From 1914 to 1919 she was professor of music history at the Conservatoire of Piraeus , but also taught at the Conservatoire of Athens . Her first publication, a biography of Beethoven, dates from this period . From 1919 to 1924 she studied musicology in Paris with André Pirro .

Around the same time, from 1920 to 1925, she taught Modern Greek at the Institut Néo-Hellénique of the Sorbonne as an assistant to Hubert Pernot . In the summer of 1922 she came to Greece with Pernot and collected folk songs in Roumelien (Central Greece). She was the first Greek woman to do field research in this area. In this research she turned to traditional Greek church music, folk music and especially folk song. She was the first to put together a systematic collection of the Roumeliotic folk song. In 1923 she married the French philologist Octave Merlier , whom she had met at the Institut Néo-Hellénique, and returned with him at the beginning of 1925 to Greece, where she continued her research on church music and folk song, while Octave Merlier taught at the institute français d'Athènes and finally worked as its head for many years.

In 1929 Hubert Pernot came to Greece and offered her the phonograph of the musical tradition of Greece. For this purpose the Σύλλογος Δημοτικών Τραγουδιών (Association for Folk Songs) was founded, which was renamed umουσικό Λαογραφικό Αρχείο (Ethnomusical Archive) in 1935. The cooperation with the Sorbonne was contractually agreed. In 1930 Melpo Merlier and her collaborators recorded 104 folk songs from the Pontus , 82 from the Eastern Pontus (24 from the Caucasus Pontier, 32 from the Trapezunt area and 26 from the Argyroupolis area ) and 22 from the Western Pontus (9 from Kerasounta , 7 from Oinoi and 6 from Inepoli ). In the same year she recorded a large part of Byzantine music on records, with voices such as that of the Metropolitan of Samos , Irenaios Papamichail (1878–1963), that of Simon Karas (1903–1999) with the then revived choral singing and that of two Singers from Megara , that of Dimitris Papapostolis (1869–1933) and that of Dimitris Karonis (1891–1955). A total of two hundred and twenty-two records with 660 folk songs and 66 melodies of church music were collected between 1929 and 1931, and were published by the Parisian music publisher Pathé . She was supported in her project by the government of Eleftherios Venizelos , who himself performed two Cretan folk songs for recording on records.

In 1930 Merlier founded the Archive for Music and Folklore (Μουσικό και Λαογραφικό Αρχείο) and in 1933 the Archive for Asia Minor Folklore (Αρχείο Μικρασιατικής Λαογραφίας). At the same time she was preparing her musicological dissertation on Greek folk song, which was published in 1931. In the following decades she worked with her husband Octave Merlier on her project at the Κέντρο Μικρασιατικών Σπουδ (ν (Center for Studies in Asia Minor).

Melpo Merlier died in 1979 at an old age a few years after her husband Octave Merlier. The marriage remained childless.

Fonts (selection)

  • Η Ζωή του Μπετόβεν. 1917.
  • Τραγούδια της Ρούμελης. 1931, second edition Κέντρο Μικρασιατικών Σπουδών, Athens 1981.
  • Études de musique byzantine. Le premier mode et son plagal. Paris 1933.
  • Μουσική παράδοση στην Ελλάδα. 1935 (επίσης Μουσική Λαογραφία )
  • Essai d'un Tableau du Folklore Musical Grec. Le Syllogue pour l'enregistrement des chansons populaires. 1935.
  • Archives musicales de folklore. Textes et travaux publiés sous la direction de Mme M. Merlier. Athens 1935.
  • Το αρχείο της Μικρασιατικής Λαογραφίας - πώς ιδρύθηκε, πώς εργάστηκε. Athens 1948 (Collection de l'Institut français d'Athènes, 7), (online) (PDF).
  • with Octave Merlier: Ο τελευταίος ελληνισμός της Μικράς Ασίας . Έκθεση του έργου του Κέντρου Μικρασιατικών Σπουδών (1930-1973). Κατάλογος. Με πολλές εικόνες και χάρτες εκτός κειμένου. Le dernier hellénisme d'Asie mineure. Introduction à l'exposition du Center d'études d'Asie mineure de Melpo Merlier. Center d'études d'Asie mineure, Athens 1974.

literature

  • Πασχάλης Μ. Κιτρομηλίδης, in: Παγκόσμιο Βιογραφικό Λεξικό , Εκδοτική Αθηνών, Athens 1983–1988, vol. 6, p. 147.
  • Mélanges offerts à Octave et Melpo Merlier à l'occasion du 25e anniversaire de leur arrivée en Grèce . Institut Français d'Athènes (Collection de l'Institut Français d'Athènes, n ° 92), Athens 1956.

Web links

Short biographies
Melpo Merlier founded
Various contributions
Discographies
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personal data
SURNAME Merlier, Melpo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Μερλιέ, Μέλπω (Greek); Logotheti, Melpo (maiden name); Λογοθέτη, Μέλπω (maiden name, Greek); Merlier, Melpomeni; Μερλιέ, Μελπωμένη (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek musicologist, ethnologist and Neo-Graecist
DATE OF BIRTH 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Xanthi
DATE OF DEATH 1979
Place of death Athens