Harilaos Perpessas

Greek composer, born in Leipzig on 10 May 1907, died in Sharon, Massachusetts on 19 October 1995. Active as a composer from the early 1930s. Charilaos Perpessas (or Perpessas) was born on May 10, 1907 in Leipzig, Germany, where he lived all his childhood and youth. He was the firstborn son of Constantinos Perpesa and Agnis Mustafa from Siatista in Western Macedonia. His father was a successful fur trader, settled in Leipzig. Thus, Charilaos grew up in a rich, metropolitan environment and owes his deep education to his family. He studied at the König-Albert-Gymnasium in Leipzig, while his teacher in private lessons of the Greek language was the Shiatist scholar Christos K. Kapnoukayas. At the age of 20, he enrolled in the composition class (Meisterschule) of Arnold Schönberg at the Academy of Arts in Berlin, while it remains unknown what musical studies preceded it. Schönberg would point out much later, in 1947, in a letter of recommendation for Charilaos to the Juilliard School: “He must have graduated from a German conservatory (which means something to me!) and I would not have accepted him [into my class ], if I hadn't realized that he was talented". He attended only two semesters at the Academy of Arts, without completing the three-year course of the Meisterschule, due to financial problems faced by his family. Although his relationship with Schönberg was excellent, he never embraced the dodecaftone system, but remained faithful to the tradition of European music as it developed through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The works of this first period include pieces for piano and chamber music (they have not been saved, they are probably damaged), but also the symphonic work entitled "Dithyramboi tou Dionysus for Orchestra and Piano" (saved complete). With the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933, he leaves Germany – to which he will never return – and after a short stay in Zurich, Switzerland, he comes to Athens. Thus begins the second period of his life and his compositional course. In December 1934, the "Piece for orchestra" - a symphonic poem in three parts, adagio, allegro and finale - which bears the nickname "Miden agan" is awarded at the Composition competition of the Academy of Athens. Programmatically, the work (unfortunately, not preserved) is inspired by the last moments of a dying person. Perpesas has a creative path in the field of composition during his stay in Athens. His style was oriented towards Romantic and Post-Romantic composers, especially Gustav Mahler. He never joined a national school, an attitude that was the cause of criticism from the musicologists of the time. The work "Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra", written in 1935, was presented for the first time in January 1936 by the Orchestra of the Athens Conservatory under the direction of Perpesas himself. In the program of the New York Philharmonic concerts of 1948 (November 4, 5 and 6), during which this work was performed under the direction of D. Mitropoulos, we read the composer's revelatory confession: "One of the most important things that I was taught by Schönberg was unbiased self-analysis and evaluation. When my works failed to survive either, I simply destroyed them.” During the years 1936-1937 he composes the "Agreement no. 2" with the Andante-Presto parts (destroyed or incorporated into later compositions). In December 1944 in Athens, he violates the curfew and is arrested by an English patrol. During his attempt to escape, he loses his left arm from a mortar shell. In 1945 he married the musicologist and singer Eleni Malafekas, head of the Department of Music at the Ministry of Education, and they had a daughter, Eleonora (1946-2009), who taught piano in Massachusetts for more than 20 years. Perpesas began composing the work "Symfonia tou Christos" before 1948, a year which marks the end of the second and the beginning of the third period of his life, with his departure for America. The work was completed in 1950 in New York and the first performance took place on October 26, 1950 by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Society Orchestra at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Dimitris Mitropoulos. Mitropoulos, the most ardent supporter of Perpesa's music, severed all relations with Charilaos in the mid-1950s, when he broke his agreement to compose a new work as part of taking on an order with an annual stipend, for which Mitropoulos intervened. Instead of the new composition, Perpesas presented the "Symphonic Variations on Beethoven's 8th Symphony". In later years he orchestrated the Art of Fugue by J.S. Bach and the String Quartet op. 127 of L. v. Beethoven ("The Infinite Bliss", Symphonic Interpretation of Beethoven's op. 127). "Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra", which was later renamed "Concentration Camp Song", includes in a handwritten score the following allegorical motto (in the English language, thus written in America): "I went voluntarily to my grave, in order, since pass through Purgatory, to celebrate my triumphant Resurrection." Perpessa's last work, The Opening of the Seventh Seal, consists of two parts. The first, a four-part symphonic work for soloists, choir and orchestra, includes the following titles: "Grave and Resurrection", "The Song of the Volga" (original title: "The Song of the Boatmen"), "World Revolution", "World Restoration". In the second, a book-philosophical treatise by himself, based on the Apocalypse of John and texts of the early Christian apologist Hippolytus, he turns to esoteric philosophy and theosophy, metaphysics and mysticism, ancient Greek literature and mythology, but also the principles of astrophysics and cosmology. In his musical writing, both his personal elements in harmony and rhythm, as well as the idioms of romantic and post-romantic composers, starting with L. v. Beethoven and reaching A. Bruckner, G. Mahler, R. Wagner, M. Ravel and R. Strauss. He defined himself as a "traditionalist", as a "man of the great tradition" and perceived his personal style as "an attempt to continue the work of Gustav Mahler". Signed as “HP Aquarius”. Surviving works (unfortunately, only the first three complete): "Dithyrambs of Dionysus for Orchestra and Piano", "Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra", "Christ Symphony", "Symphonic Variations on Beethoven's 8th Symphony", "Symphonic Edition of the Quartet op. 127 of Beethoven", "The Opening of the Seventh Seal", as well as sketches based on works by L. v. Beethoven and G. Mahler. Charilaos Perpesas passed away on October 19, 1995 in Sharon, Massachusetts, USA. at the age of 88. Thanks to the actions of the composer's niece, Athina Rosenbaum, at the urging of the musicologist Peter Gradenwitz, the original scores of these extant works are kept at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, while microfilm copies of the works are housed in the Great Music Library of Greece. Lilian Voudouri".