Dimitri Terzakis

Dimitri Terzakis (Greek Δημήτρης Τερζάκης; born March 12, 1938 in Athens ) is a German - Greek composer.

Life

He was born in 1938 as son of the writer Angelos Terzakis in Athens. Terzakis studied from 1957 to 1964 Composition and Music Theory at Yannis Papaioannou at the Athens Conservatory. From 1958 to 1962 he also studied political science and law at the Athens Polytechnic. From 1965 to 1970 he studied composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Electronic Music in Herbert Eimert at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.

From 1968 to 1994 he was professor of music theory, counterpoint and fugue at the Pedagogical University in Cologne. From 1974 to 1989 he held a lectureship at the Robert Schumann Institute of Musikhochschule Rheinland. As a guest professor of composition, he worked from 1985 to 1986 at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1989, he was professor of composition at the Robert -Schumann-Hochschule Dusseldorf. From 1990 to 1997 he was head of the composition class at the Bern Conservatory. From 1994 until his retirement in 2003 he was professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater " Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy " Leipzig. His students included Thuon Burtevitz, Jean -Luc Darbellay, Andrés Maupoint, Michael Schneider, Aristides Strongylis, Spiros Mouchagier among others

In 1966 he was co-founder of the Greek section of the ISCM. From 1972 he was a musical advisor of the Goethe Institute in Athens. Since 1985 Terzakis is a German citizen. He lives in Leipzig and Nafplio, Greece. In 2007 he was honored with an honorary doctorate from the Institute of Music Science and Art of the University of Macedonia.

Music

He developed his own musical language, using the elements of the ancient Greek tonal system. This creates tonal centers that are not part of the major-minor system. A formative experience for his music were his numerous visits to Mount Athos and practiced there music of the Greek Orthodox Church, whose successor of the sound system is ancient. There, he understood, he says however that a non- complicated technical means to compose good music. Terzakis ' music tries to transfer the microtonal subdivisions of the ancient Greek musical tradition on Western instruments, and waives Vertical complicated because it is not compatible with the micro- intervals. The main element of his music is the melody. This makes them stand out from the Central European.

His compositions were, among others, Tabea Zimmermann, Werner Jacob, Igor Ozim, Ernest Bour, Hans Zender, Brigitte Fassbaender, Péter Eötvös, Tatjana Masurenko, Karan Armstrong, Kolja Lessing, Saschko Gawriloff, Siegfried Palm, Almut Rössler, Alfons Kontarsky, the Artemis Quartet, the Leipzig String Quartet, the Berne Quartet, the Leonardo Quartet, the Arditti Quartet, Ernest Bour, Ulf Schirmer and the St. Thomas Choir premiered.

Works

Songs

• The gates of night and day
• Erotikon
• Ethos B '

The wanderings of Odysseus. Magic lantern musical theater Nomos dorikos ( Piano Quartet )

Piano Works

• Katawassia
• Sappho fragments

Octets

• Oktoechos

String Quartets

• String Quartets Nos. 1-5 (1969-1999)