Makis Solomos

Makis Solomos (born 1962) is a Franco-Greek musicologist. He specializes in contemporary music, particularly the musical works of Iannis Xenakis and Theodor W. Adorno.

In 2005, Solomos co-founded the magazine Filigrane, which aimed to broaden the field of musicology. His research focuses on issues related to sound ecology and decay.

Biography

Solomos was born in Athens, Greece, in 1962. Early in his life, he was interned in the Gyaros concentration camp alongside his mother. Following their time in the concentration camp, his family was exiled to France. Solomos has lived in Paris since 1980. He studied musical composition with Yoshihisa Taira and Sergio Ortega, and musicology at the Paris-Sorbonne University. He taught at the University of Montpellier Paul Valéry until 2010. He is currently a professor at the Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis and a junior member of the Institut universitaire de France.

Research areas

Solomos' research encompasses a range of analytical, historical and hermeneutic approaches. While much of his work has focused on Iannis Xenakis, he has also written about composers such as Webern, Varèse, Boulez, Criton, Vaggione, and Di Scipio. Solomos' genres of interest include spectral music, electronic music, and aspects of popular music. He also addresses aesthetic questions informed by the philosophical writings of Adorno.

Adopting a modernist perspective, Solomos engages with contemporary music aesthetics, particularly those associated with neoclassicism and postmodernism. He is a critic of historicism, challenging the particular the notion of a linear musical evolution centered exclusively on canonical composers. In contrast, he argues for a more pluralistic understanding of musical development as a complex interplay of diverse aesthetics and conceptions.