Christou, Jani

Christou, Jani, remarkable Greek composer; b. He-liopolis, Egypt (of Greek parents), Jan. 8, 1926; d. in an automobile accident near Athens, Jan. 8, 1970. He studied at Victoria Coll. in Alexandria, then took courses in philosophy under Wittgenstein at King’s Coll., Cambridge (M.A., 1948). He concurrently studied composition with Hans Redlich in Letchworth (194548), then enrolled in the summer courses of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena (1949–50); during the same period, he attended Karl Jung’s lectures on psychology in Zuumlrich. Christou returned to Alexandria in 1951, and then lived on his family estate on the island of Chios. He evolved a system of composition embracing the totality of human and metaphysical expression, forming a “philosophical structure” for which he designed a surrealistic graphic notation involving a “psychoid factor,” symbolized by the Greek letter psi; aleatory practices are indicated by the drawing of a pair of dice; a sudden stop, by a dagger, etc. His score Enantiodromia (Opposed Pathways) for Orch. (1965; rev. 1968; Oakland, Calif., Feb. 18, 1969), in such a graphic notation, is reproduced in the avant–garde publication Source, 6 (1969). His notation also includes poetry, choreographic acting, special lighting, film, and projection meant to envelop the listener on all sides. At his death, he left sketches for a set of 130 multimedia compositions of a category he called Anaparastasis (“proto-performances, meant to revive primeval rituals as adapted to modern culture”).