Manolis Kalomiris’s Romeic Suite (1907/1910) as an Initiatory Semantic Signifier of the Composer’s Ideology and Creation. A Music-Analytical and Intertextual Approach

Manolis Kalomiris (1883–1962), the leader of the Greek National School of composers, continuously sought to express his ideas through both music and words. This paper examines the formation of his ideology up to 1910, focusing on his writings (articles, the 1908 “program-manifesto”) and his orchestral Romeic Suite (1907/1910). Musical and textual co-examination under semantic codes reveals external influences, symbolic meanings, and ideological identity of the composer and his work. It is asserted that within the historical context of the early 1910s, Kalomiris used intertextual discourse to convey his ideological codes to Greek literary, political, and musical audiences of the time.