Editorial

The subjects, included in the second issue of Musicology (Musicología) may be separated in two main sections:

1. Papers-tributes to composers and theoreticians of music.
2. Papers concerning research on the character of Greek traditional musical culture.

This issue includes a major paper – tribute to one of the most important composers of the Greek National School of Music, Marios Varvoglis. This paper is published on the centennial of his birth. The biographical draft and the documents that appear in this issue of Musicology demonstrate the direct relation that exists between the “life stories” of art music composers in Greece, their contemporary social reality and Greek history in general. Thus, this kind of research is proved to be important for the study of the history of ideologies and politics in our country. By referring to Varvoglis’ work, Musicology underlines the potentiality of musicological research to access a whole world of aesthetic ideas, where the artistic creation of high quality is interwoven with moral attitude.

The second paper is about Wallingford Riegger, a disciple of Schoenberg. Wallingford Riegger is a less known American composer from the generation of Copland, Harris and Barber.

The third paper – tribute to the composer and musicologist Egon Wellesz – concerns the character of music created on Greek territory. The position of pluralistic representation of persons and trends, chosen by Musicology, necessitates presentation of the most remarkable theories. This does not mean that the editorial staff embraces the theories presented. It means that Musicology seeks after a constructive dialogue about the issues concerning our “cultural identity”. These issues are discussed in the papers: Some Remarks on the Basic Intervals by the Greek and Eastern Music (a critical discussion of the systematic theory of Greek and oriental scales and intervals), On Musicality of Modern Greek Language, Information About Greek Music and The Ancient Musical Nomos, the Byzantine Echos and the Indian Raga (concerning the common character of an “ideal melodic archetype” that occurs in ancient Greek music, in Byzantine chants, and Indian classic music).

The paper, written by Béla Bartók in 1937, The Research on the Folk Music and the Nationalism is interesting in terms of the similarities between Modern Greek folk culture and another neighboring one. Raising the request for “objectivity of research”, this text makes the reader think about how important the influence of national ideologies is for the development of cultural research.

Finally, there are two papers concerning western art music: Benjamin Britten’s “Albert Herring”: An Operatic Study of Provincial Oppression by I. Zottos and Concerning “Missa Solemnis”. An Alienated fundamental Work (by T. W. Adorno), an essay that represents a kind of analysis that is rare in the literature about music.

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