Aristotelis Koundouroff (1896 – 1969) was a Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of the Modern Era. He attended the conservatories of Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

 (1924-5) and Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 (1927–30), studying with Ippolitov-Ivanov

Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov

Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov was a Russian composer, conductor and teacher.- Biography :...

, Glière and Vasilenko

Sergey Nikiforovich Vasilenko

Sergei Nikiforovich Vasilenko was a Russian and Soviet composer and music teacher whose compositions showed a strong tendency towards mysticism....

. He became head of Ippolitov-Ivanov's composition studio in Moscow. In 1930 he settled in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 and he taught musical theory at the Piraeus League Conservatory (1931-2) and Woldemar Freeman's Musical Lycee (1932-8). He conducting the Nea Ionia municipal band (1938–41). From 1943 until his retirement in 1964 he was head of the music library and sound archives of Athens Radio.

Koundouroff is now regarded as one of the most noteworthy figures of Greek music in the period 1930 to 1960. His earlier compositions (e.g. Suite-fantaisie sur des themes populaires
grecs (1930–31), Sinfonietta (1934) etc.) show the influence of his Russian training, and of Prokofiev's `Soviet' style. Later works, including the tone poem Orpheus and Eurydice
(1962) and the Mazurka for piano (1963), are harmonically more adventurous, inviting comparison with the more radical Russian modernists such as Skriabin and Roslavets.

Works

Stage: Pastorale (ballet), The Village Bastundji, Orch: Tales]; Icarus; Suite-fantaisie sur des themes populaires grecs; Sinfonietta, 1934; Marche militaire; March on a Revolutionary Cretan Folk Theme; Larghetto; Premonition; Corfu; Orpheus and Euridyce,

Choral: Chorus for G. Xenopoulos's play Sabbath of the Souls; I zoi en tafo; 2 Frags. from the Suite `Pictures from the Revolutionary Gallery of Painting'; Triumphal Cant. on the 70th Anniversary of M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov; G. Stambolis

Other solo vocal: Dim Distant Tales; I Came to You; transcr. of N. Lambelet: The Rose Bush and the Cypress

Sources

1. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov: 50 years of Russian music in my reminiscences (Moscow, 1934)