Nikolaos Mantzaros


Nikolaos Chalikiopoulos Mantzaros was a Greek-Italian composer born in Corfu, major representative and founder of the so-called Ionian School of music.

Biography

Mantzaros was of noble Greco-Italian descent, coming from one of the most important and wealthy Venetian families of the "Libro d'Oro" di Corfu and therefore he never considered himself a "professional composer", teaching the youth of Corfu without profit. His father was Iakovos Chalikiopoulos Mantzaros and his mother Regina Turini, from Dalmatia.
Recent research and performances have led to a re-evaluation of Mantzaros as a significant composer and music theorist.

Debut in Corfu

He was taught music in his native city by the brothers Stefano and Gerolamo Pojago, Stefano Moretti from Ancona and cavalliere Barbati, possibly a Neapolitan. Mantzaros presented his first compositions in 1815 in the theatre of San Giacomo of Corfu.

Relationship to Italy

From 1819 onwards he was regularly visiting Italy, where, among others, he met the veteran Neapolitan composer Niccolo Antonio Zingarelli.

Work

His compositions include incidental music, vocal works in Italian and demotic Greek, sacred music for the Catholic Rite and the Orthodox Church, band music, instrumental music etc. Mantzaros also composed the music for the first concert aria in Greek in 1827, the Aria Greca.
Mantzaros was an important music theorist, contrapuntist and teacher. From 1841 and until his death he was the Artistic Director of the Philharmonic Society of Corfu.
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Greek national anthem

His most popular composition remains the musical setting for the poem of Dionysios Solomos' Ýmnos eis tīn Eleutherían, which Mantzaros added to Solomos' poem in 1828. The first and second stanzas were adopted initially in 1864 as the Royal Anthem of Greece and on 28 June 1865 as the Greek national anthem.
However, recent research and performances have proved that Mantzaros had broader activities as a significant composer and music theorist, which go beyond the established perception of him as the mere composer of the National Anthem.

Recordings