Harilaos Perpessas

Harilaos Perpessas (Greek: Χαρίλαος Περπέσσας) (10 May 1907 — 19 October 1995)^[1] was a Greek composer of the Postmodern Era.

Life and career[]

Born to Greek parents in Leipzig, Germany, Perpessas studied with Arnold Schoenberg in Berlin but opposed his compositional methods.^[1] There he met Nikos Skalkottas.^[1] He immigrated to Greece in 1934 where he lived for the next 14 years; enjoying success as a composer.^[1] The conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos was a champion of his works.^[1] In 1948 he moved to New York City where he lived in seclusion until moving again to a residential home in Sharon, Massachusetts in 1992.^[1] He died there in 1995.^[1]

As a composer, Perpessas is regarded as one of the earliest Greek composers to move away from Greek nationalism; often being grouped with Mitropoulos and Skalkottas in that regard.^[1] His orchestral works display chromatic polyphony and wide leaping melodic lines with dramatic climaxes which demonstrate influences from Debussy, Mahler, Ravel and Strauss.^[1] He often kept revising his works withholding them from publication.^[1]

Works[]

Orchestral: Dionysos Dithyramben (before 1934); Prelude and Fugue in C (1935, rev. 1970s); Symphony No. 2 (1936–37), completed as Sym. `Christus', 1948–50; Symphonic Variations on Beethoven's Eighth Symphony, 1953–60; orchestration of J.S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge (1953–56);

Other works: Piano Sonata, (1928–32, destroyed); String Quartet (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), Conjunction, The Infinite Bliss.

References[]

Sources[]

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
• P.E. Gradenwitz: 'Requiem to a Forgotten Composer', The Athenian, no. 272 (1996), 16–18
• S.D. Heliadelis: 'Harilaos Perpessas, o agnostos Siatistinos klassikos synthetis ke philosophos' [Harilaos Perpessas, the unknown classical composer and philosopher from Siatista], Elymiaka [Salonica], no. 43 (1999), 93–110

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