Dimitri Nicolau (21 October 1946 in Keratea, Greece - 29 March 2008 in Rome, Italy) was a composer, stage director, conductor, musicologist, writer and professor. He was born in Keratea, Greece and became a naturalized citizen of Italy. Starting in 1959, when he began to compose and perform his compositions publicly, his catalogue today comprises more than 290 compositions- 5 symphonies, 10 string quartets, 3 lyric operas, chamber music, concerts, strassenmusik, vocal compositions, music for Plectra, sax music, cantatas, etc.
He has frequented the faculty of Modern Letters in Rome University. Fundamental for his artistic formation is the relationship with the theory and the Collective Analysis of Massimo Fagioli. He has dedicated several years to didactic activity as a teacher of stage song, vocal theatrical technique and as a composer of original music at the Institute of Ancient Drama (INDA) of Syracuse, the Theatrical Academy of Calabria, the Theater Calabria, etc.
Reviews
Dimitri Nicolau with his composition "La melodia ritrovata" opus 41 (1975) it not only shows us to have a lot of new and original ideas but also to know how to write them. A really important composition of the recent years. The author succeeds in attracting the attention and the interest of the listener always maintaining an own independence and identity from schools, fashions of vanguard and taboo. Amfion - TA NEA 16 November 1985
"Let us state, with joy, that D.Nicolau's chamber opera "Music Lesson" ( Lezione di musica opus 43) approaches perfection, musically and theatrically, at the same time ..." commented the italian musicologist on "l'Unità" E. Valente.
"Nyctes" by D.Nicolau, 1st Prize of the II "S. Behrend" Competitions, immobilized us for almost half an hour, breathlessly. Timbre, sudden interruptions, melodies, intensities, all together made up a unified whole, with the instruments, without interruption. An[sic?] the end, a true explosion of the numerous public" comments the musicologist G. Hoffmann.
in his music Dimitri Nicolau, surprisingly a prolific author uses with extreme skill the peculiar characteristics of every instrument (included the voice) and often with not ever usual executive techniques and always with great originality of timbrical combinations. Parallelly numerous compositions introduce an intense theatricality and inherent dramaturgy. Another fundamental element in its compositions is the particular one and always personal use of the Greek and Mediterranean area popular music: original inseparable melodies from a rich, varied and asymmetrical rhythm and above all an absolute originality in the harmonic tensions so much to be able to say and without fear of denial that really finds us of front to a real personal style, rare fact in the panorama of the music to us contemporary. Its search for the new one is always fruit of solid and deep knowledge of the instruments that uses is on the plan of the techniques that on the plan of the final emotional result (never with pretension or striving for effect or for exhibition) and ends up with works integrated, full of content, attractive, but also accessible, in spite of their originality, to the listener. A valuable precious element to the music of Nicolau–often missing in international contemporary music - is humor: light, playful, unobtrusive, sometimes dionysiac. This doesn't mean that Nicolau doesn't cultivate with depth, consistency and proper coherence the dramatic level, tragic and to ample breath her where it feels the demand. Jannis G. Papaioànnou
The Classical period was an era of classical music between roughly 1730 and 1820.
Music is the art of arranging sounds in time through the elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. It is one of the universal cultural aspects of all human societies. General definitions of music include common elements such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping; there are solely instrumental pieces, solely vocal pieces and pieces that combine singing and instruments. The word derives from Greek μουσική.
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orchestration is the assignment of different instruments to play the different parts of a musical work. For example, a work for solo piano could be adapted and orchestrated so that an orchestra could perform the piece, or a concert band piece could be orchestrated for a symphony orchestra.
In music, timbre, also known as tone color or tone quality, is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musical instruments. It also enables listeners to distinguish different instruments in the same category.
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during this period believed that the bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz that had been played before them was too limiting. They became preoccupied with creating something new and exploring new directions. The term "free jazz" has often been combined with or substituted for the term "avant-garde jazz". Europeans tend to favor the term "free improvisation". Others have used "modern jazz", "creative music", and "art music".
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically and melodically he employs a system he called modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from the systems of material generated by his early compositions and improvisations. He wrote music for chamber ensembles and orchestra, vocal music, as well as for solo organ and piano, and also experimented with the use of novel electronic instruments developed in Europe during his lifetime.
Ear training or aural skills is a music theory study in which musicians learn to identify pitches, intervals, melody, chords, rhythms, solfeges, and other basic elements of music, solely by hearing. The application of this skill is analogous to taking dictation in written/spoken language. As a process, ear training is in essence the inverse of sight-reading, the latter being analogous to reading a written text aloud without prior opportunity to review the material. Ear training is typically a component of formal musical training and is a fundamental, essential skill required in music schools.
Music can be analysed by considering a variety of its elements, or parts, individually or together. A commonly used list of the main elements includes pitch, timbre, texture, volume, duration, and form. The elements of music may be compared to the elements of art or design.
Eugène Joseph Bozza was a French composer and violinist. He was one of the most prolific composers of chamber music for wind instruments. Bozza's large ensemble works include five symphonies, operas, ballets, large choral work, wind band music, concertos, and many works for large brass or woodwind ensembles. Outside of France, he is best known for his chamber music, rather than his larger works.
The art form known as opera originated in Italy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though it drew upon older traditions of medieval and Renaissance courtly entertainment. The word opera, meaning "work" in Italian, was first used in the modern musical and theatrical sense in 1639 and soon spread to the other European languages. The earliest operas were modest productions compared to other Renaissance forms of sung drama, but they soon became more lavish and took on the spectacular stagings of the earlier genre known as intermedio.
Musical technique is the ability of instrumental and vocal musicians to exert optimal control of their instruments or vocal cords in order to produce the precise musical effects they desire. Improving one's technique generally entails practicing exercises that improve one's muscular sensitivity and agility. Technique is independent of musicality. Compositional technique is the ability and knowledge composers use to create music, and may be distinguished from instrumental or performance technique, which in classical music is used to realize compositions, but may also be used in musical improvisation. Extended techniques are distinguished from more simple and more common techniques. Musical technique may also be distinguished from music theory, in that performance is a practical matter, but study of music theory is often used to understand better and to improve techniques. Techniques such as intonation or timbre, articulation, and musical phrasing are nearly universal to all instruments.
In the years centering on 1600 in Europe, several distinct shifts emerged in ways of thinking about the purposes, writing and performance of music. Partly these changes were revolutionary, deliberately instigated by a group of intellectuals in Florence known as the Florentine Camerata, and partly they were evolutionary, in that precursors of the new Baroque style can be found far back in the Renaissance, and the changes merely built on extant forms and practices. The transitions emanated from the cultural centers of Northern Italy, then spread to Rome, France, Germany, and Spain, and lastly reached England . In terms of instrumental music, shifts in four discrete areas can be observed: idiomatic writing, texture, instrument use, and orchestration.
Boris Papandopulo was a Croatian composer and conductor of Greek and Russian Jewish descent. He was the son of Greek nobleman Konstantin Papandopulo and Croatian opera singer Maja Strozzi-Pečić and one of the most distinctive Croatian musicians of the 20th century. Papandopulo also worked as music writer, journalist, reviewer, pianist and piano accompanist; however, he achieved the peaks of his career in music as a composer. His composing oeuvre is imposing : with great success he created instrumental, vocal and instrumental, stage music and film music. In all these kinds and genres he left a string of anthology-piece compositions of great artistic value.
Alexander Shchetynsky (Shchetinsky) is a Ukrainian composer. Born on 22 June 1960 in Kharkiv, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. His work list includes compositions in various forms ranging from solo instrumental to orchestral, choral pieces and operas.
Nicolaus à Kempis, Nicolaus a Kempis or Nicolaes a Kempis was a Flemish composer and organist active in Brussels in the middle of the 17th century. He is known for introducing the latest innovations from Italy into Flemish polyphonic music.
Timbral listening is the process of actively listening to the timbral characteristics of sound.
The six string quartets Op. 20 by Joseph Haydn are among the works that earned Haydn the sobriquet "the father of the string quartet". The quartets are considered a milestone in the history of composition; in them, Haydn develops compositional techniques that were to define the medium for the next 200 years.
Coro is a large scale composition for forty voices and forty instruments by Italian composer Luciano Berio.
Nicholas Baragwanath is a British music theorist, musicologist and pianist. He is currently Professor of Music at the University of Nottingham. He is best known for his contributions to the compositional theory and practice of 19th-century Italian Opera. He regularly writes and presents for BBC Radio 3.
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