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. He began to compose and perform his compositions publicly in 1959. 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 and cantatas.
He 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 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 1750 and 1820.
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all human societies. Definitions of music vary widely in substance and approach. While scholars agree that music is defined by a small number of specific elements, there is no consensus as to what these necessary elements are. Music is often characterized as a highly versatile medium for expressing human creativity. Diverse activities are involved in the creation of music, and are often divided into categories of composition, improvisation, and performance. Music may be performed using a wide variety of musical instruments, including the human voice. It can also be composed, sequenced, or otherwise produced to be indirectly played mechanically or electronically, such as via a music box, barrel organ, or digital audio workstation software on a computer.
Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of the violin, and as the first coalescing of modern tonality and functional harmony.
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. The Oxford Companion to Music describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation ; the second is learning scholars' views on music from antiquity to the present; the third is a sub-topic of musicology that "seeks to define processes and general principles in music". The musicological approach to theory differs from music analysis "in that it takes as its starting-point not the individual work or performance but the fundamental materials from which it is built."
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, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or 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 and modal jazz that had been played before them was too limiting, and became preoccupied with creating something new. The term "free jazz" was drawn from the 1960 Ornette Coleman recording Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. 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. One of the major composers of the 20th century, he was also an outstanding teacher of composition and musical analysis.
Henry Dreyfuss Brant was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques.
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.
Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today, although with only five instrumental parts it was much more like a chamber opera than either the preceding intermedi or the operas of Claudio Monteverdi a few years later. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the "Camerata". Significantly, Dafne was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. The members of the Camerata considered that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation. The libretto was by Ottavio Rinuccini, who had written some of the 1587 Medici intermedi, in which Peri had also been involved; Rinuccini appears to have recycled some of the material, at least from the scene illustrated at right. Most of the music for "Dafne" is lost, but one of Peri's many later operas, Euridice, dating from 1600, is the first opera score to have survived to the present day.
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.
Comedy music or musical comedy is a genre of music that is comical, comedic or humorous in nature. Its history can be traced back to the first century in ancient Greece and Rome, moving forward in time to the Medieval Period, Classical and Romantic eras, and the 20th century. Various forms of comedic musical theatre, including "musical play", "musical comedy", "operetta" and "light opera", evolved from the comic operas first developed in late 17th-century Italy. Popular music artists in the 20th century interested in comedy include Allan Sherman, Frank Zappa, Tiny Tim, Barenaked Ladies, Randy Newman, and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Artists in the 21st century include Tenacious D, Flight of the Conchords, The Lonely Island, Ninja Sex Party and The Axis of Awesome.
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.
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.
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.
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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