Transformations of Romanian traditional songs in Constantin Arvinte’s choral creation

Abstract

Born in Moldova, and raised in the world of a Romanian village, Constantin Arvinte, since childhood, loved the popular song. As a result of artistic maturity, Constantin Arvinte will collect and preserve the Romanian folklore from all parts of the country, he will work on the harmonic-polyphonic gems of the folk song, which, as a conductor, brings them to the light of the show. At the same time, he creates himself melodies in folkloric character, which he ornaments choral or instrumental. He continues thereby the tradition of the composers who built the Romanian school of composition. Understanding the ideological communion between the Romanian musical folklore and the psaltic songs, Constantin Arvinte promotes, as a musical expression, modalism in his creation. We exemplify the statements with the stylistic analysis of the work “Trecui dealu’ la Baiut” [“I passed the hill to Baiut”].