Konstantinos I. Sfakianakis
was born in Iraklio of Crete
(Greece) on 3/3/1890 in a bourgeois
milieu. He studied in Switzerland
and graduated in jurisprudence,
mathematics, astronomy, piano and
composition. Afterwards, he went
over Dresden of Germany, where he
became a student of Riemann. He was
fluent in French, German and Italian.
He founded the Greek Conservatory
in Canea of Crete (Greece), where he
created a famous piano class. Then
he became codirecteur, together with
Antiochos Evaggelatos, of the Greek
Conservatory in Athens.
He composed works for orchestra
such a " Symphonic Prologue’’, a
Liederkreis called "Kalymna", other
Lieder for voice and piano and
five works for solo piano. He also
composed a dance drama with a
carnival theme for piano. There were
also works of him that haven't been
found: The oratorio "The Revelation
of John", the "Cretan Sonata" for
violin and orchestra and the
"Accompaniment to the Lake of
Lamartine" and a "Scherzo".
For many years he was also
writing the History of Byzantine
Music, some pages of which were
saved and presented by Fotis
Kontoglou in the "Filiki Etairia"
magazine and in the Dictionary
of K. Eleftheroudakis on the term
"Byzantine Music".
