Logothetis, Anestis (EN)

Logothetis Anestis, *27 October 1921 Pyrgos (now Burgas), †6 January 1994 Vienna, Austrian composer of Greek descent. He settled in Vienna in 1942 and studied there until 1944 at the Technical College in Vienna, after which he studied composing at the secondary music school (1945–51). He participated in New Music courses in Rome and Darmstadt. In 1951, he obtained Austrian citizenship. In 1957, he worked in a studio for electronic music (WDR) in Cologne. He was inspired by the work of J. Cage, E. Brown and B. Maderna. Initially, he was interested in serialism and wrote his compositions using traditional notation.

He is a laureate of Th. Körner Prize (1960 and 1963), the Award of the City of Vienna (1985), the honorary prize of the Austrian Federal Ministries of Education, Arts and Sports (1989), and the Golden Medal of the City of Vienna (1986). In 1981, he was invited to the Electronic Music Studio of Stockholm, where he wrote his first piece of computer music.

Until ca. 1959, Logothetis’s works were written in a serial twelve-note technique in a traditional notation. Later, the composer turned to graphic notation, inspired by his studies on Byzantine neumes. The break with the equal temperament system and traditional staves allowed him to create a different principle of reading the score through unconventional signs and images. The score was thus a symbol of the musical work that could provide inspiration for performers and suggest performance instructions. Graphic scores, often without detailed instructions regarding the cast, often have a characteristic style in the visual sphere, distinguishing them from other works of this genre. Logothetis’s graphics are not just a pretext for more or less free improvisation; the composer always insists on a strict interpretation of the symbols according to the code used. Logothetis left a huge collection of graphic scores. Some of them, however, are only shortened versions of the presented sound image, where different symbols characterise sounds expected by the composer and precision of the notation, different symbols determine their location in the sound space, other concern dynamics, and others are a ‘map’ of performers’ actions, etc. According to Logothetis, such a notation is more flexible and polymorphic because it interferes with elements not captured by the traditional notation. Moreover, it gives uniqueness to the piece’s performance and makes it premiere-like every time.

Literature: Anestis Logothetis. Dynapolis, Universal Edition, Vienna 1967, in: Technika kompozytorska, “Forum Musicum” no. 8, Kraków 1970; G. Günther Anestis Logothetis, in: Lexikon zeitgenössischer Musik aus Österreich, Music Information Center Austria, Doblinger, Vienna 1997; Th. Tamvakos Anestis Logothetis, in: Lexikon griechischer Komponisten, Athens 1998; G. Leotsakos, M. Kostas Logothetis Anestis, in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition ed. S. Sadie, vol. 13, Macmillan Publishers Limited, London 2001; E. Kowalska-Zając Zobaczyć muzykę. Notacja polskiej partytury współczesnej, Akademia Muzyczna, Łódź 2019; anestislogothetis.musicportal.gr.