Dimitris Terzakis (; born March 12, 1938) is a Greek

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 def ...

. His father was the author Angelos Terzakis.

Biography

Terzakis was born on March 12, 1938 in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. From 1959 to 1964, Terzakis studied

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

with Yannis Papaioannou at the Athens

Hellenic Conservatory The Hellenic Conservatory () is an educational institution for the performing arts in modern Greece. It was founded in Athens in 1919 by the composer Manolis Kalomiris. Kalomoiris was the conservatoire's director until 1926, when he left to found ...

, followed by five years spent at the Hochschule für Musik in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

where he studied composition with

Bernd Alois Zimmermann Bernd Alois Zimmermann (20 March 1918 – 10 August 1970) was a German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera ''Die Soldaten'', which is regarded as one of the most important German operas of the 20th century, after those of Berg. Hi ...

and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

with Herbert Eimert. Works by Terzakis have been performed at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

(1970), the Darmstadt Artists' Colony summer courses (1970) and the

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Das Neue Werk series (1972). He taught

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

and

fugue In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin ''fuga'', meaning "flight" or "escape""Fugue, ''n''." ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'', eleventh edition, revised, ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson (Oxford and New York: Oxford Universit ...

(1974–94) and Byzantine music and composition (1989–94) at the Musikhochschule, Düsseldorf. In 1980, he began to organize summer courses in Western and south-eastern European music in

Nafplion Nafplio or Nauplio () is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece. It is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important tourist destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in the Middle Ages du ...

. In 1985–6 he was guest professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. From 1994 to his retirement, he held the chair for composition at the Leipzig Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre. He has been a German citizen since 1985 and is living and composing in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Germany, and Nafplion, Greece.

Compositions

As a composer, Terzakis' music began with an expanded tonality (''Prelude'' (1961) and ''Legend'' (1964)) moving to 12-note serialism (e.g. the ''Sinfonietta'' (1965)) and then to a fruitful exploration of micro-intervals and glissandi, principally in his melody, based on Byzantine music. In recent years, Terzakis's view of Western harmony, polyphony and the tempered system as constituting only an extended episode in the evolution of music has increasingly led him to an essentially monophonic output. In this he has drawn example from Greek traditional music, as well as from other parts of the Mediterranean and the Near East. Terzakis has written numerous symphonic works,

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

pieces, vocal art songs, and choral pieces such as ''Kassandra'' after Aischylos for the

ensemble amarcord Amarcord is a German male classical vocal ensemble based in Leipzig, founded in 1992 by five former members of the Thomanerchor. They primarily perform Medieval music and Renaissance music, as well as collaborating with Contemporary classical mus ...

. He has also written three

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s: ''Circus Universal'' (1975), ''Thomas Torquemada'' (1976), and ''Hermes'' (1984).

Sources

*George Leotsakos. The ''

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'', edited by Stanley Sadie (1992). and

External links

*
Biography and interview at the Music Library of Greece
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terzakis, Dimitri 1938 births Living people 20th-century Greek classical composers 21st-century Greek classical composers Greek opera composers Greek male opera composers Musicians from Athens 20th-century Greek male musicians 21st-century Greek male musicians