Romania Music
Still active until the early 1950s, G. Enescu (1881-1955) is certainly the composer whose work most influenced the developments of Romanian music in the 20th century: his compositions that appeared starting from the 1930s are particularly remembered by Oedipus, a play, completed in 1932, and successfully staged in Paris in 1936; Suite for orchestra (1938), Childhood impressions for violin and piano (1940), Overture on Romanian folk themes (1948), and again the symphonic poem Vox Maris (1950) and the Chamber Symphony for 12 solo instruments (1954). Slightly younger than Enescu is S. Dragoi (1894-1968), author of Sciagura (1928), one of the most significant theatrical works that appeared in Romania during the years between the two wars; alongside Dragoi we must remember M. Andricu (1894-1974), author of classical symphonies, who perfected in Paris with G. Fauré and V. d’Indy, and M. Jora (1891-1971), teacher of many of the most significant composers contemporary Romanians.
According to itypeusa, ZO Vancea (b.1900), T. Ciortea (b. 1903), pupil of P. Dukas and N. Boulanger in Paris; S. Toduta (b. 1908), pupil in Rome of I. Pizzetti and A. Casella; P. Constantinescu (1906-1963), author of an important comic work, A stormy night (1930); A. Mendelsohn (1910-1966), N. Petri (b.1912), I. Dumitrescu (b.1913), O. Varga (b.1913), and G. Dumitrescu (b.1914), considered the creator of Romanian historical work, author in 1956 of Prince Ion Voda the Terrible (1956); and again, a few years younger, M. Kiriac (b. 1919), D. Bughici (b. 1921), D. Capoianu (b. 1929), A. Porfeyte (b. 1927) and T. Grigoriu (b. 1926).
Formed around the 1940s, the young composers who, after the end of the Second World War, established themselves on the Romanian music scene have variously oriented themselves to the development of new compositional forms, referring to some of the most significant developments in Western musical research., and often obtaining important awards, even outside their country.
In addition to L. Profeta (b. 1925), CP Basacopol (b. 1926), Romania Paladi (b. 1927), W. Berger (b. 1929) and D. Constaninescu (b. 1931), are particularly remembered A. Vieru (b.1926), composition teacher at the Bucharest conservatory since 1955, who in 1963 received the ” Regina Maria José ” award in Geneva, and who in his compositions uses random techniques and electronic instruments: they are of the latter period the plays Iona (1976), The punishment (1980), and the triptych Telegram, There and variations, Pedagogue of the new school (1983); and P. Bentoiu (b.1927), who in 1968 received the Italian RAI award, author of the play Amore medico (1966), of the radio opera Il sacrifice di Ifigenia (1968), and again of the opera Amleto (1971), of the Second and Third Symphony (1974 and 1976) and of the String Quartet (1983).
Alongside these it is necessary to remember some young composers who at the end of the Sixties perfected themselves in Darmstadt, following the courses of K. Stockhausen, G. Ligeti and B. Maderna: among them S. Niculescu (b.1927), A. Stroe (1932), T. Olah (b. 1928), D. Popovici (b. 1932), M. Mitrea-Celerianu (b. 1935) and A. Hrisanide (b. 1936).
Niculescu attended, in addition to the summer courses in Darmstadt of Ligeti and Stockhausen (1966-68), the electronic music courses in Munich held by M. Kagel: he composed Symphony for 15 soloists (1963), the Homage to Enescu and Bartokfor orchestra (1982) and Per tre, trio for strings (1985). Stroe has taught at the Bucharest Conservatory since 1962: his first works include Arcade, for 11 instruments (1962), and Musique pour Oedipe à Colone, for mezzo-soprano, choir and orchestra (1963); subsequently he composed 10 pastoral pieces, for clavichord and electronic organ (1978), and again Orestia I (1978) and Orestia II (1983). Olah is the author, as well as of Colonna senza fine, for large orchestra (1962), and Study for space and rhythm, for three percussion groups (1964) – parts of a cycle dedicated to the Romanian sculptor C. Brancusi -, of the orchestral compositions Armonii I-III, composed between 1975 and 1978. Popovici composed the plays Mariana Pineda (1969), Interrogatorio alba (1975), and The Longest Night (1978), as well as the cantata La leggenda dell’arkola, for orchestra (1981).), and The victory of fulfillment, for choir and orchestra (1986). Mitrea-Celerianu, who also specialized in Darmstadt, worked in Paris in 1968-69 at the ” Groupe de recherches musicales de l’ORTF ” with P. Schaeffer and H. Pousseur: Piano de Martin belongs to the seventies, for 5 instruments, 5 performers and electrophones, and Prerive, for violin, clarinet, flute and percussion. Hrisanide, pupil of N. Boulanger, is the author of Volumes-Inventions for cello and piano (1963), of Du soir venant, for bass clarinet (1975), and of Ad perpetuam rei memoriam, for orchestra (1976).
Of the most significant compositions between the mid-seventies and the early eighties, we recall here the Concerto for piano and orchestra (1978) and the Concerto for 2 pianos and percussions (1983) by N. Brindus (n. 1935); the ballet Ulysse(1973) by L. Glodeanu (1938-1978); the opera-ballet On the model of Mioritza, taken from a popular ballad (1973), Sinfonia a II-a “ Orizzontale ” (1980), Atemporal Studies with Ribbon (1980), and Sinfonia a III-a ” Lo look of colors ” (1982) by CD Georgescu (b.1938); Jeu des sens, experimental music “for ears, eyes, hands, nose, mouth” (1973-74),, “Space Music” (1973-74), by O. Nemescu (b. 1940); Piano-Miroir for piano and computer (1978), Musique climatique for electronic organ, percussion and reciting voice (1979), and Nuages-Nuages, for synthesizer (1982), by C. Miereanu (b. 1943).
