Harilaos Perpessas

Harilaos Perpessas (Greek: Χαρίλαος Περπέσσας) (born Leipzig, 10 May 1907; died Sharon, Mass., 19 October 1995) was a Greek composer of the Modern Era. He studied mainly with Schoenberg in Berlin. There he met Skalkottas but he remained opposed to both composers' compositional methods. After his first arrival in Greece in 1934 he became more actively involved in composition. In 1948 he moved to New York City where he lived in virtual seclusion, reportedly declining commissions for film scores from Skouras, the president of Twentieth Century-Fox.

Along with Skalkottas and Mitropoulos (one of his main champions of his work), he is generally considered one of the first Greek composers who did not belong to the National School. His main influences are Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy and Ravel. He often kept revising his works withholding them from publication.

Works

Orchestral: Dionysos Dithyramben (before 1934); Prelude and Fugue in C (1935, rev. 1970s); Symphony no.2, (1936-7), completed as Sym. `Christus', 1948–50; Symphonic Variations on Beethoven's Eighth Symphony, 1953–60; orchestration of J.S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fugue (1953-6);

Other works: Piano Sonata, (1928–32, destroyed); String Quartet (1928–32, destroyed); Restoration, tetralogy, 1963-73: The Song of the Concentration Camp [= Prelude and Fugue, 1935], The Opening of the Seventh Seal (Liberation) (Hippolytus: Philosophumena), Conjunction, The Infinite Bliss.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
• P.E. Gradenwitz: 'Requiem to a Forgotten Composer', The Athenian, no. 272 (1996), 16-18
• S.D. Heliadelis: 'Harilaos Perpessas, o agnostos Siatistinos klassikos synthetis ke philosophos' [Harilaos Perpessas, the unknown classical composer and philosopher from Siatista], Elymiaka [Salonica], no. 43 (1999), 93-110