Shkodër
Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra) is the fifth-most-populous city of the Republic of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. The city sprawls across the Plain of Mbishkodra between the southern part of Lake Shkod ...
, 1925–1991) was an
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
n conductor, and composer of many popular pieces for piano and orchestra.Jim Samson Music in the Balkans 2013 p458 "Finally, Simon Gjoni (1928-91), another Shkodér—born composer, studied conducting at the Prague Conservatory, and although known principally as a conductor, composed a symphony and a substantial body of orchestral and instrumental ..."
Life
Simon
Gjoni
Gjon (definite form: ''Gjoni'') is an Albanian male given name, clan, surname and onomastic element.
As given name
Etymology and history
''Gjon'' as a given name is a form of the English name John. It is the name of the apostle Saint John in ...
was born on October 28, 1925 in the city of
Shkodër
Shkodër ( , ; sq-definite, Shkodra) is the fifth-most-populous city of the Republic of Albania and the seat of Shkodër County and Shkodër Municipality. The city sprawls across the Plain of Mbishkodra between the southern part of Lake Shkod ...
,
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
. He was educated in a rank and file urban family and graduated from the "Illyricum" High School of the city. Very soon he learned to play guitar, trombone, the piano and devoted himself with enthusiasm and passion to the art of music. In the years of his youth, he composed over 200 original songs, which were immediately sung in the city of Shkodër and were spread all over Albania, such as " Lule Bore" ( en, Hortensia), " Syte e tu si drite" (English: Your Eyes Like Light), "Weaving girl".
He completed his studies over the years 1952–1958 in the
Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague ( cs, Akademie múzických umění v Praze, AMU) is a university in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic, specialising in the study of music, dance, drama, film, television and multi-media. It is the larg ...
). During the years 1956-1958 in the city of Prague, he conducted:
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
's ''
Rosamunde
''Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern'' (''Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus'') is a play by Helmina von Chézy, which is primarily remembered for the incidental music which Franz Schubert composed for it. Music and play premiered in Vienna's Theater an de ...
'',
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...
's ''
Peer Gynt
''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five- act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen published in 1876. Written in Norwegian, it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Ibsen believed ''Per Gynt'', the Norwegian fairy tale on wh ...
'',
Jiří Antonín Benda
Georg Anton Benda ( cz, Jiří Antonín Benda, italic=no, link=no; 30 June 17226 November 1795) was a composer, violinist and Kapellmeister of the Classical period (music), classical period from the Kingdom of Bohemia.
Biography
Born into a Bend ...
's ''
Pygmalion
Pygmalion or Pigmalion may refer to:
Mythology
* Pygmalion (mythology), a sculptor who fell in love with his statue
Stage
* ''Pigmalion'' (opera), a 1745 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau
* ''Pygmalion'' (Rousseau), a 1762 melodrama by Jean-Jacques ...
'', K. Dittersdorff "Concert symphony for violin and contrabass", and
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
Tirana
Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...
, where he started teaching at the
Artistic Lyceum
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of what ...
of Tirana and later in 1961 was among the first lecturers in
Academy of Music and Arts of Albania
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
, where he prepared whole generations of musicians and artists, teaching the subjects of
polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
,
orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orc ...
chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
. In 1958, while being a teacher, he also worked for the
National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania
The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania (Albanian: ''Teatri Kombëtar i Operas dhe Baletit - TKOB'') is a theatre in Tirana, Albania. It is the largest theatre in the country, and hosts music and dance performances year round.
History ...
, where he conducted many worldwide renowned works, which were interpreted for the first time in Albania. Such works were:
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...
's
Don Pasquale
''Don Pasquale'' () is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti with an Italian libretto completed largely by Giovanni Ruffini as well as the composer. It was based on a libretto by Angelo Anelli for Stefano Pavesi's ...
,
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo ( , , ; 23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Although he produced numerous operas and other songs throughout his career it is his opera '' Pagliacci'' (1892) that remained hi ...
's
Pagliacci
''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, "Clowns") is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who m ...
, Gioachino Rossini's
Barber of Seville
''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...
,
Tish Daija
Tish Daija (Shkodër, 30 January 1926 – 3 October 2003) was an Albanian composer. He composed the first Albanian ballet ''Halili dhe Hajria'' (Halili and Hajria) that premiered on 13 January 1963 and has since been shown more than 250 times at ...
's ''Pranvera'' ( en, The Spring), and two ballets (by
Sergei Vasilenko
Sergei Nikiforovich Vasilenko (russian: Серге́й Никифорович Василенко, ''Sergej Nikiforovič Vasilenko''; – 11 March 1956) was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and music teacher whose compositions showed a str ...
's ''Lola'', and
Alexander Krein
Alexander Abramovich Krein (; 20 October 1883 in Nizhny Novgorod – 25 April 1951 in Staraya Ruza, Moscow Oblast) was a Soviet composer.
Background
The Krein family was steeped in the klezmer tradition; his father Abram (who moved to Russia fr ...
's
Laurencia
''Laurencia'' is a genus of red algae that grow in temperate and tropical shore areas, in littoral to sublittoral habitats, at depths up to .
Description
''Laurencia'' species have a thallus that is erect or decumbent with distichous, whorled ...
). Under his care and passion, he recorded many works of the Albanian composers: such as
Çesk Zadeja
Çesk Zadeja (8 June 1927, Shkodër – 15 August 1997, Rome) was an Albanian composer. A native of Shkodër, he studied in Moscow and did much to promote the arts in Tirana. He is known as "The Father of Albanian Music".Pjetër Gaci, Nova, Tish Daija,
Tonin Harapi Tonin Harapi (June 9, 1926 – July 30, 1992) was an Albanian composer and teacher. He was born in Shkodër, Albania. He studied composition in Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Мос ...
, Pjetër Dungu, Grimci, Kono etc., and the music of some Albanian movies. In 1967, he conducted in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
works by Albanian composers. Gjoni was also one of the founders of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Albanian Radio-Television. He worked persistently and with discipline for the establishment and growth of that group.
Gjoni's activity as a composer has passed through all genres from the song, romance, cantata, suite, ballads, works for piano, clarinet, violin and major orchestral works such as: Symphonic dances, Symphonic poems, Symphonic Suite up to Symphony in Mib. Gjoni was a composer with a noble inspiration and pathos, whose music flows freely. Critic of music and musicologist George Leotsakos, in his letter dated 22 December 1991 characterized him as follows: "Simon Gjoni was an excellent composer, a predestined creator, with a profound aesthetic and musical culture, but above all with a marvelous human personality, with a golden heart in harmony with his refined culture."
Likewise, in the field of musical critique, he has left numerous theoretical works, related to the Albanian musical art and his work "The Instruments and the Art of Orchestration".
Composer Çesk Zadeja wrote the following on Gjoni on Drita, an Albanian cultural periodical, dated 1 December 1991, right after Gjoni's death:
The name of Simon Gjoni will remain graven in the pentagram of the Albanian music. The highest assessment for each creator is then when his work (his message) has its repercussion in the profundity of the time, increasing its values along as the time passes by. These features are attributed to the talented artist, composer, conductor, lecturer and musicologist Simon Gjoni.