Nikolaos Mantzaros

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nikolaos Halikiopulos Mantzaros (Niccoló Calichiopulo Manzaro)

Born October 26, 1795
Corfu, Ionian Islands, Greece
Died April 12, 1872
Corfu
Spouse Countess Mariana Giustiniani
Parents Dr. Giacomo Calichiopulo Manzaro, Regina Turini

Contents

[edit] Biography

Nikolaos Halikiopoulos Mantzaros (Greek: Νικόλαος Χαλικιόπουλος Μάντζαρος or Niccoló Calichiopulo Manzaro, (26 October 1795 - 12 April 1872) was a Greek composer born in Corfu and the major representative of the so called Ionian Islands school of music. He was of noble descent, coming from one of the most important and wealthy families of the "Libro d'Oro" di Corfu and therefore he never considered himself a 'professional composer'.

[edit] Debut in Corfu

He was taught music in his native city by the brothers Stefano (pianoforte) and Gerolamo Pojago (violin), Stefano Moretti from Ancona (music theory) and a certain 'cavalliere' Barbati, possibly a Neapolitan (music theory and composition). Mantzaros presented his first compositions (three concert or substitute arias and the one-act 'azione comica' Don Crepuscolo) in 1815 in the theatre of San Giacomo of Corfu.

[edit] His relations with Italy

From 1819 onwards he was regularly visiting Italy (Venice, Bologna, Milan, Naples), where, among others, he met the veteran Neapolitan composer Niccolo Antonio Zingarelli. His compositions include incidental music, vocal works in Italian and demotic Greek, sacred music for the Catholic Rite (three masses (1819?, 1825, 1835?), a Te Deum (1830)) and the Orthodox Church (notably, a complete mass based on the septinsular polyphonic traditional chanting (1834)), band music, instrumental music (24 piano 'sinfonie', some of them also for orchestra) etc. Mantzaros also composed the music for the first concert aria in Greek in 1827, the Aria Greca.

[edit] Greek national anthem

His most known composition remains the musical setting for the poem of Dionysios Solomos's Ymnos eis tёn Eleutherian (Hymn to Liberty, 1829-1830), the first and second stanzas of which were adopted initially in 1864 as the Royal Anthem of Greece and on 28 June 1865 as the Greek national anthem. However, recent research has proved that Mantzaros had broader activities in composition, music theory and music aesthetics, which go beyond the established perception of him as the mere composer of the National Anthem.