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The Birth of Music Criticism in Greece: The Case of the Historian Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 June 2011
Abstract
The birth of music criticism in Greece is connected with the creation of the Greek state and the consequent reception of opera in Athens, its capital. In the newly formed Greek society, opera was not only considered as a cultural fact, but also as the principal symbol of the European lifestyle, which stood as a model for the new citizens of the European community. The young Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, before becoming the principal founder of the Greek nationalist historiography, published a number of music reviews on the opera performances in Athens in 1840, eager to contribute to the musical cultivation of his compatriots. According to his opinion, opera, thanks to its aesthetic quality, but mainly because of its universal influence (which goes beyond nations and classes) was the appropriate means to ‘mould’ the musical taste of the Greek nation. Paparrigopoulos’ insistence on Italian opera as the vehicle which could introduce the Greeks to the musical profile of European civilization is significant for his ideas on the cultural identity of his nation. In these early writings of the future historian we can distinguish the main topics of his later theory.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Nineteenth-Century Music Review , Volume 8 , Issue 1: Music in Nineteenth-Century Greece , 27 June 2011 , pp. 85 - 100
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011
References
1 Skopetea, Elli, ‘O Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos tou K.T. Dimara kai merikes skepsis peri ellinikis istoriografias’ [‘K.T. Dimaras's Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos and Some Thoughts about Greek Historiography’], Sychrona Themata 35–36–37 (Dec. 1988): 286–94 (p. 286)Google Scholar.
2 Kitromilides, Paschalis M., ‘Paparrigopoulos and Byzantium’ in D. Ricks and P. Magdalino, (eds), Byzantium and the Modern Greek Identity (London, 1998): 25–33Google Scholar (p. 28).
3 In the introduction to the first edition, K.P. notes: ‘What is called a history of the Greek nation is a narration of everything that has happened to the Greek nation since antiquity that is worth preserving in memory. All the people who speak the Greek language as their mother tongue are together called the Greek nation.’ Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous [1st ed., 1853], ed. Κ.T. Dimaras, (Athens, 1970): 33.
4 ‘The experience of a well-governed and free state turned the hatred of the Turks which I had nurtured in my soul since childhood into a violent revulsion. In my mind, the words “Turk” and “wild beast” were synonymous, as they remain to this day,’ notes Adamantios Korais in the autobiographical work he wrote in Paris late in 1829 (Vios Adamantiou Korai, sygrapheis para tou idiou [The Life of Adamantios Korais, Written by Himself], (Paris, 1833): 19), largely mirroring Greek sentiments towards the Turks. But Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, too, had expressed his revulsion for the Turks (it is certainly relevant that, when still a child, he had seen his father, his uncle, a brother and other members of his family hanged by the Turks in Constantinople).
5 Koumas, Konstantinos, Syntagma Philosophias [Compilation of Philosophy], vol. III, (Vienna, Austria, 1819): 268Google Scholar.
6 Ellinikos Tachydromos [Hellenic Messenger], no. 21–2, (10 Aug. 1837).
7 On musical activity during these first years, see Konstantinos Sabanis, ‘I opera stin Athina kata tin othoniki periodo (1833–62) mesa apo ta dimosieumata tou typou kai tous periigites tis epochis [‘Opera in Athens during the Reign of King Otto (1833–62), According to the Press and the Travellers of the Time’], (PhD diss., Ionian University, forthcoming).
8 Ibid.
9 ‘Οpian ennooumen tin dimosiografian’ [‘What We Mean by Journalism’], Ethniki [National], year 3, no. 117, (13 Jul. 1847) and Giorgos Laganas, Το dimosiographico ergo tou Konstantinou Paparrigopoulou [The Journalistic Work of Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos], a selection of his journalistic writings (Athens, 2003): 38–42, quote on p. 39.
10 Dimaras, K.T., Κonstantinos Paparrigopoulos, (Athens, 1986): 126Google Scholar.
11 Ibid., 101.
12 Ellinikos Tachydromos, no. 5, 18/30 (Jan. 1840).
13 ‘The opera drew its material from the celebrated novel by Walter Scott, the Bride of Lammermoor, in which, as you will already know, it is the father's lust for glory that destroys his daughter's love’, ibid. Since the novel would not be translated into Greek until 1865 (when it was published in Pandora, a periodical, translated by the young Zoi Dragoumi), the knowledge of the work's plot to which K.P. refers must either relate to those of his countrymen who read English or – more likely – reflects the impact of the work, whose plot was known to the public at large. Indeed, according to Sofia Denisi, Greek readers’ familiarity with the work was partly the result of this early performance of Donizetti's opera on the stage (see Sofia Denisi, Το elliniko istoriko mythistorima kai o Sir Walter Scott (1830–1880) [The Greek Historical Novel and Sir Walter Scott, (1830–1880)] (Athens, 1994): 35).
14 Ellinikos Tachydromos, nos 6–7, (25 Jan./6 Feb. 1840). Greek music terminology would remain fluid for some time after. The start of a more systematic attempt at minting accepted musical terms must be attributed to Nikolaos Flogaitis (Synoptiki Grammatiki, ite Stichiodis Arche tis Mousikis, meta prosarmogis is tin kitharan [Concise Grammar, alias Elementary Principles of Music, adapted for the Guitar] (Aegina, 1830): 17) who, in this first theory of music in modern Greece, also provided a table with translations of core musical terms. On earlier and later proposals relating to the translation of musical terminology, see Haris Xanthoudakis: ‘Εlliniki Mousiki Orologia. H Neologiki mousiki onomatothesia kai to paradigma ton Xilinon Pnefston’ [‘Greek Musical Terminology. The Neohellenic Musical Naming and the Paradigm of Woodwind Instruments’], Quarterly of the Hellenic Music Research Lab 3 (Jul.–Sep. 2006): 12–14; ‘Εlliniki Mousiki Orologia. Sympliromatika gia to “flauto” ’ [‘Greek Musical Terminology. Supplementary Remarks on the “Flute” ’], Mousikos Ellinomnimon 1 (Sep.–Dec. 2008): 24–5; ‘Elliniki Mousiki Orologia. Οnomatothesia ton mousikon organon kai anagnorisimotita. I epiloges tou Panayioti Gritsani’ [‘Greek Musical Terminology. Naming of the Musical Instruments and Identifiability. Panayioti Gritsani's Options’], Mousikos Ellinomnimon 2 (Jan.–Apr. 2009): 36–9.
15 See Fimi [Fame], no. 291, (27 Jan. 1840).
16 Ellinikos Tachydromos, no. 9, (1/13 Feb. 1840).
17 Luigi Ricci (1805–1859) was more famous for his comic operas; Crispino e la comare (1850), one of the operas he composed in collaboration with his younger brother, Federico (1809–1877), was one of the most popular Italian comic operas of its time. For Luigi and Federico Ricci, see de Villars, François, Notices sur Luigi et Federico Ricci, suivies d’ une analyse critique de ‘Crispino e la comare’ (Paris, 1966)Google Scholar.
18 Syros was the first Greek city to welcome opera, just a few weeks after the capital, as the company of Athens visited the little island of the Aegean, on its way to Smyrna. One can find very interesting comments on the performance of Ricci's opera in Syros, in J.-A. Buchon, La Grèce Continentale et la Morée. Voyage, séjour et études historiques en 1840 et 1841 (Paris, 1843): 45–7. Many thanks to Konstantinos Sabanis for the unpublished information on Zante and Cefalonia.
19 The views of the author of this article in the Ellinikos Tachydromos (no. 9) seem to have been shared by the critic of the Filos tou Laou [People's Friend]; in a review dated 8 February 1840 (no. 31), I.D. notes: ‘We cannot imagine what could have driven Mr Sansoni to present this opera to us with such alacrity when he had so many fêted musical masterpieces before him from which to choose. Could it be that he finds the Rossinis, Bellinis and Donizettis deficient? … In its entirety, the opera not only failed to please the audience, it left it with the worst possible idea of the composer's merits. With the exception of a few dances and comic scenes, what is there in Chiara di Rosembergh that could be called harmonious or pleasing?’ This view was not, however, shared by the paper's editor-in-chief, who rushed to note: ‘We are not entirely in agreement with the views expressed in this essay on Chiara. We enjoyed Mr Ricci's music, as did a number of other people in the audience.’ Finally, the Fimi of 1 February 1840 notes: ‘Yesterday saw the fourth performance of Chiara di Rosembergh. The music has begun to go down well, and we were pleased to see that a number of people had revised their initially not especially positive view of the work.’
20 Ellinikos Tachydromos, no. 11 (15/27 Feb. 1840).
21 Although it has also been argued that Paparrigopoulos’ first publication must have been a text on Byron (Triptolemos, 4 Nov. 1833) which is also signed with the initials K.P. However, since neither the style nor the content of the text in question are consistent with the mature and collected style of Paparrigopoulos’ other texts, the hypothesis regarding the identity of the author of the text on Lord Byron should only be accepted with reservations.
22 ‘Musician's language has over poet's language the same advantage as a universal language has over a particular idiom; the latter speaks only the language of its epoch and its country, the former speaks the language of all nations and of all times.’
23 ‘The universal language acting immediately upon our organs and our imagination is also by its own nature a language of sentiments and passions. Its expressions go directly to the heart, without, so to say, passing by the mind.’
24 Both commentaries were published in the contemporary press. The first in the Imera [Day], a Trieste newspaper, on 9/21 and 16/28 May 1858 (issues 140–41), the second in the Ellin [Greek], a newspaper published by Paparrigopoulos himself, on 30 March and 4 April 1859 (issues 64–5); the latter was republished in Pandora on 15 April 1859 (no. 218).
25 Moullas, Panayotis, Les concours poétiques de l'Université d'Athènes, 1851–77 (Athens, 1989): 137Google Scholar.
26 Paparrigopoulos, Konstantinos, Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, [History of the Greek Nation], 14 (Athens, 2001): 199Google Scholar [according to the last edition (1886) supervised by the historian himself].
27 Ibid.
28 Manzaros left three complete music sets of the whole poem (the first of which still stands for Greece's national hymn) and several sets of fragments of the 158-strophe hymn. Zervopoulos, Konstantinos, ‘Nikolaos Chalikiopoulos-Mantzaros, Leben und Werk’, in Joseph M. Mindler, Hymne an die Freiheit, ed. Hans-B. Schlumm, Andreas Kertscher, Konstantinos Zervopoulos (Paderborn, 2010): 33–40Google Scholar.
29 Dimaras, Κ.T., Εllinikos Romantismos [Greek Romanticism] (Athens, 1994): 467Google Scholar.
30 As Dimitris Spathis notes in ‘Ο theatrikos Vernardakis, klassikos i romantikos’ [‘The Theatrical Vernardakis, Classic or Romantic?’], Lesviaka, vol. 11 (1987): 81, commenting on the frequent interchanges and combination of elements between the two schools of thought.
31 Apart from Dimaras’ monograph on Paparrigopoulos, we could not omit from the bibliography on his life and studies the texts by Laios, G., ‘Κonstantinos Paparrigopoulos’, Mnimosyni V (1974–75): 284–324Google Scholar and Antoniou, D., ‘I “egyclies spoudes” tou Konstantinou D. Paparrigopoulou. Anekdota eggrafa kai “diplomata” ’ [‘The “Scholastic Studies” of Konstantinos D. Paparrigopoulos. Unpublished documents and “Diplomas” ’], Mnimosyni XIII (1995–97): 124–142. The Ergography of Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, published by Georgios Laganas (Athens, 2002)Google Scholar is also extremely useful. See also Kontos, Demosthenes, ‘Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos and the Emergence of the Idea of a Greek Nation’ (PhD diss., University of Cincinnati, 1987)Google Scholar.
32 Eon [Century], 2701, (2 Aug. 1871).
33 Dimaras, Εllinikos Romantismos, 465.
34 Paparrigopoulos, , Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 1 (2001): 210Google Scholar.
35 Paparrigopoulos, Konstantinos, Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 1st ed. (Athens, 1853) 33Google Scholar (introduction), 35 (chapter I).
36 Panayiotakis, Nikolaos Μ., Κritiko Theatro [Cretan Theatre] (Athens, 1998): 146Google Scholar.
37 The other two were the manuscript Pistikos voskos by a nameless Cretan poet (which was published in 1962) and the Zakynthian Pastor Fidos, igoun Poiemen pistos [Pastor Fido, or Faithful Shepard] by Michael Soummakis (Venice, 1658). See Kriaras, E., ‘I metafrasi tou “Pastor fido” apo ton Zakynthino Michael Soummaki’ [‘The Translation of “Pastor Fido” from the Zakynthian Michael Soummaki’], Nea Estia (Christmas 1964): 273–297Google Scholar, which contains a comparative presentation of the three translations.
38 Dimaras, Κ.T., Neoellinikos Diafotismos [Greek Enlightenment], 7th ed. (Athens, 1998): 406Google Scholar.
39 Ellinikos Tachydromos 5 (18/30 Jan. 1840).
40 Pikili Stoa VII (1887): 277.
41 For the equal myth in literature see Vayenas, Nasos, ‘O Yperrealismos stin Ellada kai o mythos tis argoporias’ [‘Surrealism in Greece and the Myth of Delay’], Ironiki Glossa [Ironic Language] (Athens, 1994): 353–65Google Scholar.
42 Paparrigopoulos, , Istoria tou Ellinikou Ethnous, 5 (2001): 150Google Scholar.