Yannis Markopoulos, one of the most important Greek composers, whose pioneering compositions paved musical paths in previous decades, has died at the age of 82.
The great composer, who had been suffering from cancer for the last year, was admitted on Friday 5/5 to the Intensive Care Unit of the Athens General Hospital «Alexandra» after complications.
Yannis Markopoulos was born in 1939 in Crete, where he took his first musical lessons in theory and violin, as well as his first influences from local rhythms with fast dances and repetitive small motifs, classical music, but also the music of the wider eastern Mediterranean, especially Egypt. In 1956 he continued his studies at the Athens Conservatory, with the composer Georgios Slavos and the violin professor Joseph Bustidui. At the same time he entered Panteion University for social and philosophical studies, which he did not complete, while composing for theatre, cinema and dance.
In 1963 he was awarded at the Thessaloniki Film Festival for his music in the film «Little Venuses» by Nikos Koundouros and in the same year his works «Theseus» (choreography), «Hiroshima» (ballet suite) and «Three Sketches for Dance» were performed by new dance companies. In 1967, with the imposition of the dictatorship, Yannis Markopoulos went to London, where he enriched his musical knowledge with the English composer Elisabeth Lutyens. He also composed the cosmic cantata «Helios o preotos» (The First Sun), with poetry by Ulysses Elytis, and the music for Aristophanes« Lysistrata for the Art Theatre, directed by Karolos Koun. At the same time he completes the musical ceremony »Behold the Bridegroom«, a work that has remained unpublished, except for the famous »Zavarakatranemia«, one of his most famous pieces. During the same period he meets the composers Iannis Xenakis and Yannis Christou and comes into contact with the most innovative musical works. In London, he also composed the »Christs« for symphony orchestra and the first »Fire Dances A, B, C« (of the 24 he completed in 2001), which were performed in 1968 by the London Concertante Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. At that time he also wrote the music for Shakespeare's ’The Tempest’, which was produced by the National Theatre of England, directed by David Jones. He returned to Athens in 1969, with the aim of contributing his works to the march for the restoration of democracy.
At the beginning of the 1970s, Yannis Markopoulos made a decisive turn in his career. He realizes his musical vision, submitting works that are characterized as a whole as a new proposal and a breakthrough for the Greek musical reality until then. These are works which, as a whole, have been influenced, in their fundamental principles, by the composer's aesthetic and philosophical views, but each of them is different. With his compositions he established 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 emphatically proposes «Return to the Roots», meaning «planning for the future by introspection, study and approaching the indestructible sources of the world's living art and selected contemporary art information». This proposal takes on the dimensions of an art movement. In the same period, his songs such as «Ochtroi», «Words and Years», «A Thousand Myriad Waves», «Lengo» (Greece), «Giant», «Under the Daisy's Alonaki», «Kafeneion Hellas», «Complaining Words», «Talking about my children» and many others become symbols and myths. The same happens with his musical works «Free Besieged», «Stratis the Thalassin among the Agapanthus», «Helios the First», «Chronicle», «Citizenship», «Plateau», «Thesis and Immigrants» - in poetry and lyrics by Solomos, Seferis, Elytis, K.H. Myris, Mich. Katsaros, Eleftheriou, Skourtis, Theodorides and his own.
In 1976 he composed the music for the BBC television series «Who pays the Ferryman?» and the theme tune's success remained at the top of the British Hit-Parade for months and made the composer internationally famous. In the following years, this popularity is expressed in numerous concert invitations and Markopoulos makes repeated trips around the world, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Naples, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Munich, Frankfurt, Brussels, London, as well as various cities in Russia and Australia.
In 1980 he joins in life with 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 to prepare for the opening of a new chapter in his music: In the core of his new compositions appear melodic outbursts based on the extended polyphony of his harmonic structure - the fruits of his imagination - enhanced by the passion of an inexhaustible vitality. In 1994 he composed one of his most important works, the «Orpheus Mass» - for voice, choir and orchestra - which philosophically addresses the redefinition of man's relationship with nature. This is followed by «Renaissance Crete between Venice and the City», a musical journey in 4 sections, the opera «Herotokritos and Virtue», «Schemes in Motion», a piano concerto inspired by Pythagoras, «Euphoric Landscapes, fantasy for solo flute», «The Law of Thalassa», oratorio-musical spectacle for voices, choir, wind orchestra, ballet and images, «16 Pyrrhic Dances 1980-2001», «Triptych for flute strings and harp» (2007).
Finally, it should be noted that Yannis Markopoulos had collaborated with APPE-MPE as the music signal of the news of the radio station «Praetorio 104,9» that broadcasts from Thessaloniki, but also online, bears his signature.
Eleni Markou
