The maiden and death: A comparative reading of the homonymous compositions of Nikos Skalkottas and Antiochos Evangelatos as narrations of Greek tradition

Nikos Skalkottas’s (1904-1949) first ballet score, The Maiden and Death, was written in 1938. It is one of his most important tonal works, its plot being derived from a well-known folk-poem with the same title. Antiochos Evangelatos’s (1903-1981) homonymous symphonic ballad, written three years later, uses verses from the same folk-poem. The present comparative study attempts to analyze aesthetic aspects of these two works which are viewed moreover, as aesthetic entities in music history of a wider cultural background