Aristotelis Koundouroff (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Αριστοτέλης Κουντούρωφ) (1896–1969) was a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

of the

Modern Era The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...

. He is regarded as one of the most noteworthy figures of modern Greek music.

Biography

He was born in 1896 to a

family in the city of

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

). He was the son of the Georgios Koundouros, a merchant from the island of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

. The family's original surname, was Koundouros (Κούνδουρος) but his father altered the surname to Koundouriadis (Κουντουριάδης) and eventually Koundouroff. From an early age he took piano lessons, together with his brothers, from the pianist Ilya Eisberg, a pupil of

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...

. In 1922 Aristotelis won first place in the Symphonic Music Competition of Caucasian Composers. He attended the conservatories of

(1924–25) and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

(1927–30), studying with

Ippolitov-Ivanov Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Ипполи́тов-Ива́нов; 28 January 1935) was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and teacher. His music ranged from the late-Romantic era ...

, Glière and Vasilenko. He became head of Ippolitov-Ivanov's composition studio in Moscow. In 1930, he settled in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and he taught musical theory at the Piraeus League Conservatory (1931–32) and Woldemar Freeman's Musical Lycee (1932–38). He conducting the Nea Ionia municipal band (1938–41). From 1943 until his retirement in 1964, he was head of the music library and sound archives of Athens Radio. Koundouroff is now regarded as one of the most noteworthy figures of Greek music in the period 1930 to 1960. His earlier compositions (e.g. Suite-fantaisie sur des themes populaires grecs (1930–31), Sinfonietta (1934) etc.) show the influence of his Russian training, and of Prokofiev's `Soviet' style. Later works, including the tone poem Orpheus and Eurydice (1962) and the Mazurka for piano (1963), are harmonically more adventurous, inviting comparison with the more radical Russian modernists such as Skriabin and Roslavets. Among his noteworthy students were

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

composer

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde ...

and musician

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

Works

*Stage: Pastorale (ballet), The Village Bastundji, Orch: Tales]; Icarus; Suite-fantaisie sur des themes populaires grecs; Sinfonietta, 1934; Marche militaire; March on a Revolutionary Cretan Folk Theme; Larghetto; Premonition; Corfu; Orpheus and Euridyce, *Choral: Chorus for G. Xenopoulos's play Sabbath of the Souls; I zoi en tafo; 2 Frags. from the Suite `Pictures from the Revolutionary Gallery of Painting'; Triumphal Cant. on the 70th Anniversary of M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov; G. Stambolis *Other solo vocal: Dim Distant Tales; I Came to You; transcr. of N. Lambelet: The Rose Bush and the Cypress

References

*''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' *M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov: ''50 years of Russian music in my reminiscences'' (Moscow, 1934) {{DEFAULTSORT:Koundouroff, Aristotelis 1896 births 1969 deaths Greek classical composers Greek conductors (music) 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century composers Soviet emigrants to Greece Musicians from Tbilisi