Ionian School (music)

This article is about the modern Greek school of music. For other uses, see Ionian School (disambiguation).

Music of Greece
General topics
Ancient Byzantine Néo kýma Polyphonic song
Genres
Entehno Dimotika* Hip hop Laïko Punk Rock
Specific forms
Classical Nisiotika Rebetiko Skiladiko
Media and performance
Music awards	Arion Awards MAD Video Music Awards Pop Corn Music Awards
Music charts	Greek Albums Chart Foreign Albums Chart Singles Chart
Music festivals	Thessaloniki Song Festival
Music media	Difono MAD TV (MAD World, Blue) MTV Greece
National anthem	"Hymn to Liberty"
Regional music
Related areas	Cyprus
Regional styles	Aegean Islands Arcadia Argos Crete Cyclades Dodecanese Islands Epirus Ionian Islands Lesbos Macedonia Peloponnese Thessaly Thrace

The term Ionian (or Heptanese) School of Music (Greek: Επτανησιακή Σχολή, literally: Seven Islands' School) denotes the musical production of a group Heptanesian composers, whose heyday was from the early 19th century till approximately the 1950s. Conventionally, it is divided in two periods: the First Generation (Πρὠτη Γενιά) from 1815, till the end of the 1860s, and the Second Generation (Δεύτερη Γενιά) from 1871 and onwards. Prominent representatives of this genre include Nikolaos Mantzaros, Spyridon Xyndas, Spyridon Samaras, Pavlos Carrer and Dionysios Lavrangas. The Music Museum of the Philharmonic Society of Corfu has in its collections several scores by these and other 19th and 20th century Ionian composers.

History

The major inspiration for the Ionian School was considered to be the Italian musical tradition. However, as late as 1820s composers from Ionian Islands succeeded in shaping their own path towards 'national music' initially by using the Greek vernacular language, and later by incorporating folkore elements both from the local tradition and from that of mainland Greece.

Bibliography

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London 2001, ISBN 0-333-60800-3
• Stanley I. Sadie: The New Grove dictionary of Opera, London 1992, ISBN 0-333-48552-1
• Friedrich Blume (Hrsg.): Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, München und Kassel 1989, ISBN 3-7618-5913-9 (German)