Abstracts of issue 5-6 (1987)

Giorgos Konstanzos

Bicentenary of Konstantinos Agathophron Nikolopoulos

Constantinos Agathophron Nikolopoulos (1786-1841) was born in Smyrna and lived since 1806 in Paris, where, due to his broad learning (he was an archeologist, philologist and musician), was employed as librarian in the French Institute.
Nikolopoulos was a member of the Philiki Etaeria (an underground revolutionary Greek organization) and worked with all his capacities for the cause of the liberation of the Greeks from the Ottoman Turks.
Until recently his musical work was unknown (Joseph Fink refers to his compositions in his Constantinos Nikolopoulos Arcadian expedition Athens 1980, which is the most extent study on Nikolopoulos). His compositions include 3 Romances, Ezekiels Dream, a Cantata for Palaeon Patron Germanos, The Song of the Greek, The Cry of the Greeks. Several of his compositions are based on ancient Greek texts. Most important, musically, are his Prooemion to the Iliad and the Ite Paedes Hellenon.
Nikolopoulos might be the first (western type) composer of Modern Greece.

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