Harilaos Perpessa (1907-1995) - Greek composer ???

[Lance]

Today, I've heard a really marvelous piece of music performed live by Dimitri Mitropoulos/New York Philharmonic (1950) of Harilaos Perpessa's Christus Symphony, which rather blew my socks off. This is the first music I've heard by this apparently unknown composer. It will eventually appear in the Nickson series of privately issued compact discs.

In the meantime, I've been trying to research this composer online and not much is coming forth other than he studied with Arnold Schõnberg in the late 1920s or thereabouts. [Correspondence exists between the two men in Vienna.]

I would very much appreciate anyone finding biographical information for me on Perpessa or lead to some printed source if possible. I will be writing the program notes for this disc but information on this particular composer alludes me.

Many thanks.

[Lance]

Nobody's got any info? Well, Lyssie finds more stuff than anybody I know. Perhaps she will assist me here!

[Corlyss_D]

Your wish is my command, Herr Direktor.

http://www.schoenberg.at/1_as/schueler/ ... essa_e.htm

Maybe John could help you with the translation.

[Gary]

Not perfect, but it will have to do for now.

Translation

Perpessa was born on the 10 May 1907 as a son of Greek parents in Leipzig. He recovered suited early piano instruction, the bases of the composition he independently on. Perpessa instruction in beautiful mountain master class recovered 1926 – 1927, stood beautiful mountain twelve tone system however somewhat rejecting vis-à-vis. After the Berliner stay visited he philosophy lecture and literature lecture in Leipzig. Based on the takeover of the national socialist, it moved to Athens where it was active as a composer and pianist.

The piano game an end was set however through the loss of the left arm abruptly. Perpessa traveled 1948 to America where it had different residences: Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cambridge (Massachusetts), New York. Often it returned however for shorter or longer stays to Athens. Its livelihood consisted of scholarships and artist pension. Primarily Perpessa of the composition of orchestra music, that has its roots in Wagner, Mahler and Ravel, dedicated itself. In higher age, Beethoven-preparations (above all the symphony) arrive. Perpessa died on the 19 October 1995 in Sharon, Massachusetts.

Works

Pf Sonata, ?1928-32,? destroyed; Str Qt, ?1928-32,? destroyed; Dionysos Dithyramben, pf, orch, before 1934; 3 movt orch piece (?Sym nr.s. 1), 1934; Prelude and Fugue, c, orch, 1935; Sym nr. 2, ?1936-37, completed ace Sym. »Christ«, 1948-50; Sym. Variations on Beethoven's it Eighth Sym., 1953-60 Restoration, tetralogy: The singed of the Concentration camp [ = Prelude and Fugue, 1935J; The Opening of the Seventh Seal (Liberation) (Hippolytus: Philosophumena), solo vv, SATB, orch; Conjunction, orch; The infinite Bliss, orch, 1963-73 Orchestration of J. S. stream: The art of the Fuge, 1953-60

[Lance]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I just knew someone would come through. This helps me enormously and is much appreciated.

[jserraglio]

re: Harilaos Perpessas

Lance,

Hope this adds a bit more info, plus a biblio of print sources. The author, George Leotsakis, is a musicologist & critic that may be reachable via:
<div align="center">Hellenic Music Research Lab
Ionian University
Music Department
Old Fortress, Office 208
49100 Corfu, Greece
tel.: +30 26610 87537 and +30 26610 87115, fax: +30 26610 87573 and +30 26610 87117
e-mail: eremus@ionio.gr

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<div align="center">Grove Music Online

Harilaos Perpessas</div>

(b Leipzig, 10 May 1907; d Sharon, MA, 19 Oct 1995).

Greek composer. He was a pupil of Schoenberg for a year in Berlin, where he met Skalkottas, but he remained opposed to Schoenberg’s compositional methods. He went to Greece for the first time in January 1934, attracting notice there as a composer. In 1948 he moved to New York, where he lived in virtual seclusion, reportedly declining commissions for film scores from Spyros Skouras, the president of Twentieth Century-Fox. In 1992 he moved to a residential home in Sharon, Massachusetts.

Together with Mitropoulos, who admired and conducted his music, and Skalkottas, he is generally considered one of the first Greek composers to have turned aside from musical nationalism. His orchestral frescoes, influenced by Strauss and Mahler, Debussy and Ravel, abound in rich, chromatic polyphony driven to powerful and dramatic climaxes, with wide-leaping melodies. In the mid-1970s he wrote a large mystical treatise, The Opening of the Seventh Seal, which remained in manuscript. An ever-revising perfectionist, he kept his scores from publication.

WORKS

Orch: Dionysos Dithyramben, pf, orch, before 1934; 3-movt orch piece (?Sym. no.1), 1934; Prelude and Fugue, c, orch, 1935, rev. ?1970s; Sym. no.2, ?1936–7, completed as Sym. ‘Christus’, 1948–50; Sym. Variations on Beethoven’s Eighth Sym., 1953–60; orch of J.S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fugue, 1953–6; orch of L. van Beethoven: Str Qt no.12, in E flat, op.127

Other works: Pf Sonata, ?1928–32, ?destroyed; Str Qt, ?1928–32, ?destroyed; Restoration, tetralogy, 1963–73: The Song of the Concentration Camp [= Prelude and Fugue, 1935], The Opening of the Seventh Seal (Liberation) (Hippolytus: Philosophumena), solo vv, SATB, orch, Conjunction, orch, The Infinite Bliss, orch

BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Leotsakos: 'Perpessas, Herilaos’, Pangosimo viografiko lexico [Universal biographical dictionary], viii (Athens, 1988)
P.E. Gradenwitz: 'Requiem to a Forgotten Composer’, The Athenian, no.272 (1996), 16–18
S.D. Heliadelis: 'Harilaos Perpessas, o agnostos Siatistinos klassikos synthétis ke philosophos’ [Harilaos Perpessas, the unknown classical composer and philosopher from Siatista], Elymiaka [Salonica], no.43 (1999), 93–110

<div align="right">GEORGE LEOTSAKOS
© Oxford University Press 2006
GEORGE LEOTSAKOS: 'Perpessas, Harilaos', Grove Music Online (Accessed 04 June 2006), <http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/ ... usic.21361></div>

[Lance]

re: Harilaos Perpessas

Lance,

Hope this adds a bit more info, plus a biblio of print sources. The author, George Leotsakis, is a musicologist & critic that may be reachable via:
<div align="center">Hellenic Music Research Lab
Ionian University
Music Department
Old Fortress, Office 208
49100 Corfu, Greece
tel.: +30 26610 87537 and +30 26610 87115, fax: +30 26610 87573 and +30 26610 87117
e-mail: eremus@ionio.gr

------------------------------------------------------------------------

<div align="center">Grove Music Online

Harilaos Perpessas</div>

(b Leipzig, 10 May 1907; d Sharon, MA, 19 Oct 1995).

Greek composer. He was a pupil of Schoenberg for a year in Berlin, where he met Skalkottas, but he remained opposed to Schoenberg’s compositional methods. He went to Greece for the first time in January 1934, attracting notice there as a composer. In 1948 he moved to New York, where he lived in virtual seclusion, reportedly declining commissions for film scores from Spyros Skouras, the president of Twentieth Century-Fox. In 1992 he moved to a residential home in Sharon, Massachusetts.

Together with Mitropoulos, who admired and conducted his music, and Skalkottas, he is generally considered one of the first Greek composers to have turned aside from musical nationalism. His orchestral frescoes, influenced by Strauss and Mahler, Debussy and Ravel, abound in rich, chromatic polyphony driven to powerful and dramatic climaxes, with wide-leaping melodies. In the mid-1970s he wrote a large mystical treatise, The Opening of the Seventh Seal, which remained in manuscript. An ever-revising perfectionist, he kept his scores from publication.

WORKS

Orch: Dionysos Dithyramben, pf, orch, before 1934; 3-movt orch piece (?Sym. no.1), 1934; Prelude and Fugue, c, orch, 1935, rev. ?1970s; Sym. no.2, ?1936–7, completed as Sym. ‘Christus’, 1948–50; Sym. Variations on Beethoven’s Eighth Sym., 1953–60; orch of J.S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fugue, 1953–6; orch of L. van Beethoven: Str Qt no.12, in E flat, op.127

Other works: Pf Sonata, ?1928–32, ?destroyed; Str Qt, ?1928–32, ?destroyed; Restoration, tetralogy, 1963–73: The Song of the Concentration Camp [= Prelude and Fugue, 1935], The Opening of the Seventh Seal (Liberation) (Hippolytus: Philosophumena), solo vv, SATB, orch, Conjunction, orch, The Infinite Bliss, orch

BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Leotsakos: 'Perpessas, Herilaos’, Pangosimo viografiko lexico [Universal biographical dictionary], viii (Athens, 1988)
P.E. Gradenwitz: 'Requiem to a Forgotten Composer’, The Athenian, no.272 (1996), 16–18
S.D. Heliadelis: 'Harilaos Perpessas, o agnostos Siatistinos klassikos synthétis ke philosophos’ [Harilaos Perpessas, the unknown classical composer and philosopher from Siatista], Elymiaka [Salonica], no.43 (1999), 93–110

<div align="right">GEORGE LEOTSAKOS
© Oxford University Press 2006
GEORGE LEOTSAKOS: 'Perpessas, Harilaos', Grove Music Online (Accessed 04 June 2006), <http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/ ... usic.21361></div>

Thank you very much for this added information. I have already sent off a note to George Letosakos. I'll advise you if I hear from the man. Much, much appreciated!

[PJME]

in beautiful mountain master class

So, that's where Schoenberg found his inspiration!

J. S. stream: The art of the Fuge, 1953-60

I knew he was an Englishman!!!!

Beethoven-preparations

They are quite good, but never take more than 9 at a time!

Anyway, I feel like

somewhat rejecting vis-à-vis

after listening to music by Maestro Perpessa!

[jserraglio]

in beautiful mountain master class

So, that's where Schoenberg found his inspiration!

Yes, a machine translation of "Schoenberg" can indeed rise to the level of poetry.