Greek song is poorer than today as the great composer passed away at the age of 84 Yannis Markopoulos. The Greek composer had been battling cancer for a year, and on May 5 he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Athens General Hospital “Alexandra” where he was being treated.

Yannis Markopoulos was born in 1939 in Heraklion, Crete. His father was Georgios Markopoulos, former prefect of Lasithi and his mother was Irini Aeraki from Sitia. He spent his childhood in Ierapetra, his father’s place of origin, in whose conservatory he took his first music lessons in theory and the violin. His early influences come from local music with its fast dances and repetitive short patterns, from classical music, as well as from the music of the wider eastern Mediterranean – and particularly of nearby Egypt.

In 1956 he continued his musical studies at the Athens Conservatory, with the composer Georgios Sklavos and the violin teacher Joseph Bustidui. At the same time, he was admitted to Panteion University for social and philosophical studies while at the same time composing for theater, cinema and dance. In 1959 he composed the Three Sketches for Dance which were recorded and broadcast by the then EIR symphony orchestra. In 1963, he was awarded for his music in Mikres Aphrodites by Nikos Koundouros, at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, and in the same year his musical works Theseas (dance drama), Hiroshima (ballet suite) and Three Dance Sketches were staged by new dance ensembles.

In 1967, a dictatorship is imposed on Greece, and Yannis Markopoulos leaves for London. There he enriches his musical knowledge with the English composer Elisabeth Lutyens. He also composes the secular cantata Helios the first, in the poetry of Odysseus Elytis (honored with the Nobel Prize in 1979), and the music for Lysistrata by Aristophanes (for the Art Theater, directed by Karolos Koon), completes the Chronicle and the music Behold the Bridegroom ceremony, an anecdotal work with the exception of one section, entitled Zavara-katra-nemia (a special composition of a Dionysian character) which is one of his famous pieces. During the same period he met the composers Iannis Xenakis and Yiannis Christou and came into contact with the most innovative musical works. In London he still composes the Choruses, for symphony orchestra, and the first Pyrrhic dances A, B, C, (of the 24 he completed in 2001), which were played, in 1968, by the Concertante Orchestra of London at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Then he also writes the music for Shakespeare’s The Tempest, staged by the National Theater of England, directed by David Jones and Sir John Clemens.

In 1969 he returned to Athens to contribute with his works to the restoration of democracy. He started musical performances, collaborating with poets and directors, presenting his works in the Ledra studio with young singers and musicians whom he taught the way of interpreting his music and songs in the aesthetic direction he sought. Together with the theatrical moments and visual decoration he created a multi-modal musical performance. Intellectuals and students fill the area of ​​his activity every day, despite the obstacles and the interventions of the military power. His songs enter the mouths of the Greek people and contribute decisively to the demand for the restoration of the Republic.

At the beginning of the 70s, he realized his musical vision: he submitted musical works that are characterized as a whole as a new proposal and intersection for the Greek musical reality until then; works with unity of the composer’s aesthetics and philosophical point of view in terms of fundamental principles, but each of them is different. He establishes a new and peculiar orchestral scheme, establishing, with his compositions, the essence of musical symbiosis and the correlations of expression between symphonic and local instruments, through his melodic and rhythmic horizon, his harmonic structures and the timbres of his transparent orchestration. At the same time, he strongly suggests “Back to the Roots”, meaning “designing the future, with introspection, study and approach to the imperishable sources of the world’s living art and selected contemporary art information”. This proposal of his takes on the dimensions of an art movement.

A little later he founded the orchestra Palintonos harmonia, which consists of symphonic and Greek instruments. He presents his works at the Ledra studio and later at the “Kyttaro” boutique, with young singers and musicians. He teaches the way of interpreting his music and songs, in the aesthetic direction he always sought. Together with the theatrical moments and visual decoration, he sets up a multi-modal musical performance. Intellectuals and students fill the spaces of his activity every day, despite the obstacles of the then authorities. His songs, such as Ochtroi, Loya ia chroni, A thousand thousand waves, Lengo (Greece), Gigantas, Kato sti sis Margaritas to alonaki, Kafeneion i Hellas, Our place is closed, Complained words , I’m talking about my children and many others, become symbols and legends. The same is the case with his musical works Free Besieged, O Stratis o Thalassinos among the Agapanthos, Helios o Protos, Chronikos, Citizenship, Plateau, Thitia and Immigrants – in poetry and verses by Solomos, Seferis, Elytis, K.X. Myre, Mich. Katsaros, Eleftheriou, Skourtis, Theodoridis and his own.

In 1976 he composed the music for the BBC television series, Who Pays the Ferryman? and the musical theme reaches the top of the English charts. The composer becomes internationally known.

In 1977 comes the secular liturgy The Free Besieged based on the poem of our national poet Dionysios Solomos which is presented that same year before 22,000 young people in a stadium in Athens under the direction of the composer. Yannis Markopoulos with his work and his attitude marks the exquisite musical landscape of the 70s.

The popularity that his music enjoys abroad is also expressed by many callbacks for concerts. The composer makes frequent trips around the world. He successively visits, giving concerts with his works, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Holland, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, England as well as various cities of Russia and Australia.

His artistic output includes music for theater and cinema, in works by Euripides, Aristophanes, Menander, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Beckett and modern Greeks, with the National Theatre, the Karolos Kuhn Art Theatre, the Amphitheater by Spyros Evagelatos and with the directors Alexis Solomos, Pello Katseli, Minoa Volonakis, etc. Among the films: Vortex and Byron by Koundouros, Scream of Women and Rehearsal by Jules Dassin, Beloved by G. Cosmatos, Fear by Kostas Manousakis, Operation Apollo by G. Skalenakis, Fate of an Innocent by Grigoris Grigoriou (Music Award Thessaloniki Film Festival) .

In 1980 he begins preparations for opening a new chapter in his music. At the core of his new compositions appear melodic outbursts based on the extended polytonicity of his harmonic structure, enhanced by the passion of an inexhaustible vitality. From the works of instrumental music we note: Concerto-Rhapsody for lyre and orchestra, the Mitroas (for string orchestra), the Tetrades (5 quartets), two sonatas, Five pieces for violin and piano, the Sirines (oratorio), the song cycle Friends who leave in the poetry of Nikos Karouzos, Manolis Anagnostakis, Andreas Empirikou, the 5 Stasimas – Epi Skinis, in the poetry of Giorgos Seferis.

Markopoulos

In January 1981, he joined the singer and collaborator Vasiliki Lavina. Their daughter Eleni is born. For a period the composer seeks a more private life with his family, while he begins his preparations for the opening of a new chapter in his music: in the body of his new compositions melodic outbursts appear based on the extended polytonicity of his harmonic structure – fruits of of his imagination–, strengthened by the passion of an inexhaustible vitality.

Among the compositions of this period we note chamber music works, four quartets, two sonatas, five pieces for violin and piano. From the works of instrumental music, the Concerto-Rhapsody for lyre and symphony orchestra, the Registers for string orchestra, the Symphony of Iasis, also two oratorios and two song cycles.

In 1994, one of his most important works, the Liturgy of Orpheus, was published. It is presented at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels dedicated to the redefinition of man with nature, inaugurating a new relationship between audience and concert performance, while at the same time an exhibition of ceramics, paintings and crafts is presented, under the auspices of the Belgian Ministry of Culture entitled “From Darkness in the light” – a subtitle used by the composer in live performances of Orpheus. The publication of the work in 2009 by the Naxos Company was a great musical event at the world level. Yiannis Markopoulos started composing the Liturgy of Orpheus, in the form of a modern oratorio, from 1991 and the work was structured on the basis of the preserved ancient Orphic poems. For the libretto he chose phrases and even single words from the fragments of the poems. Its spiritual content, enriched with many elements, revives the myth of the musical prophet Orpheus. In the symphony orchestra he added guitar, lute, canon and lyre to his score in certain parts. The narrative parts are mainly accompanied by a harp, as the composer’s intention here is to create a rhapsodic mood, while at some points two flutes play together as an allusion to the ancient channel as he has mentioned.