Yiannis Papaioannou

Yiannis Papaioannou ( gr, Ιωάννης Ανδρέου Παπαιωάννου; 6 January 1910, Kavala – 19 May 1989, Athens) was a Greek composer and teacher of the Modern Era. He studied piano with Marika Laspopoulou and composition with Alekos Kontis at the Hellenic Conservatory in Athens (1922–34), as well as the piano and orchestration with Emilios Riadis in Thessaloniki (1928–29).

In 1949 he visited major European music centres on a UNESCO grant and became familiar with new developments in music composition. In particular, in Paris he attended Arthur Honegger's class. Between 1951 and 1961 he taught music at an Athens high school and from 1953 he was professor of counterpoint and composition at the Hellenic Conservatory. He was the first president of both the Greek section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (1964–75) and the Hellenic Association for Contemporary Music (1965–75).

Papaioannou was the first musician to systematically teach atonal, 12-note and serial techniques before 1970. His compositional career falls into five main phases: Early Impressionist (1932–8), National School (1939–43), Hindemithian neo-classicism combined with elements of Byzantine music (1944–52), 12-note period (1953–1966) and the last period (1966–89) in which he developed an entirely personal technique.

Works

*Stage: Agnos (dramatic idyll, 1937); Sklavas lytrossi iberation of a Slave Woman(choreographic tableau, 1945); Pirates (ballet, 1952); Himoniatiki fantasia inter Fantasy(ballet, 1951); Antigone (ballet, 1965) etc.
*Orchestral: 5 Symphonies.: 1946, 1947, 1953, 1963, 1964; Idhyllio dyll 1938; O koursaros he Corsair 1939; Choreographic Prelude, 1940; 3 Piano Concertos, 1940, 1952, 1989; Poiema tou dhasous orest Poem 1942; Vasilis Arvanitis, 1945; Triptych, str, 1947; Orthros ton psychon atin of Souls 1947; Pygmalion, 1950; Hellas (P.B. Shelley), nar, orch, 1956; Images d’Asie, suite, 1961; India, suite, 1961; Meteorissi uspended in the Air vc, orch, 1979 etc.
*Vocal: Dafnis ke Chloi (G. Drossinis), chorus, orch/pf, 1933; I kidheia tou Sarpidhonos he Funeral of Sarpedon(cant., C. Cavafy), 1966; O fotofraktis he Aperture(A. Embeirikos: Octana), 1982; Encomium (Kotsiras), 1984–5; I logosteméni psychi he Exhausted Soul(O. Votsi), 1986; 2 Songs (G. Byron), 1989 etc.
*Chamber and Solo instrumental: Nocturno, 1935; Burlesca, 1936; I parlata tou Arlekinou (La parlata d’Arlecchino) he Harlequin's Speech tuba, 1971; Halkografia ngraving hn, pf, 1977; Dioyssiakon ionysiac db, 1978; Erotiki exomologhissi tou Minotavrou ove Confession of the Minotaur tuba, pf, 1978; Aétoma, 1987; Caryatid, 1987; Sonata, 1988 etc.

Sources

#''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''

*B. Schiffer: ‘Neue griechische Musik’, Orbis musicae, i (1971–2), 193–201, esp. 198–9
*G. Leotsakos: ‘Papaïoannou, Yannis Andréou’, Universal biographical dictionary, viii (Athens, 1988), 141–2
*A.S. Theodoropoulou: ‘Contemporary Greek composers: 7. Yannis Papaioannou’, British-Greek Review, iii (1947), 213–4

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papaioannou, Yiannis
1910 births
1989 deaths
People from Kavala
Greek classical composers
Greek musicians
20th-century composers
Herder Prize recipients