Elements of modal composition in Alexandru Pascanu’s Choral “Festum Hibernum”

Abstract

In the second half of the 20th century, a new name was brought to the general attention of the Romanian musical world, regarding the composition (but not solely) of instrumental and of choral music especially: Alexandru Pascanu. This paper is an analysis of Alexandru Pascanu’s choral poem “Festum hibernum” from the perspective of the modal composition: melodic modal (the diversity of the natural or chromatic models, of the Pentatonic or pre-Pentatonic scales, or outside the Octatonic scales), harmonic modal (chords analysis, other than the traditional ones: major, minor, diminished or augmented), and polyphony (specific elements: counterpoint, imitation, cannon, inverted intervals, bi, and poly-modals).