Performing Sicilianos: Selected Chamber Works and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra

Yorgos Sicilianos (1920–2005) was educated in the tradition of Greece’s National School Movement, but managed to break away and to define his own musical personality. Over a 30-year period from 1954, he experimented with atonal neoclassical styles, the twelve-tone method and integral serialism, while searching for solutions to problems of form and structure. After 1980, Sicilianos concluded that the term ‘post-diatonic music’ best described his compositional style, which by then drew inspiration from literary works to give form and meaning to his music.

This thesis analyses the compositional influences, process and technique used by Yorgos Sicilianos in String Quartet No. 2, Op. 13 (1955), String Quartet No. 4, Op. 28 (1967), Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 45 (1981), and Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 51 (1987). It evaluates the extent to which analysis informs the performance of each piece and suggests an interpretative approach.

Utilizing various methodological approaches, the analyses reveal critical structural parameters that not only impact subjective aspects of interpretation, but in some cases also determine practical matters of performance such as the bowings that the performer must execute. The objectives of this thesis are to provide guidance to future performers of these compositions, enabling them to be interpreted with fidelity to the composer’s vision, and to provide editions of these compositions, which are currently unpublished and commercially unavailable. These editions incorporate indispensable context and performance suggestions to aid performers.

The findings of this study will also be expressed practically in the form of a recital.