The development of the Romanian music Avant-garde in the Communist Era

Abstract

This study aims to show the renovations that the Romanian avant-garde composers did in the Communist Era when they had to follow imposed norms and write music that had to serve the state. The assimilation of Western styles and techniques and the use of mathematics were a protest against politics. At the same time, they wanted to create something new and to continue George Enescu’s achievements creating a synthesis between Western techniques, especially the twelve-tones technique, serialism, aleatoric, and Romanian folklore. I pointed out the elements that Enescu took of the folklore and how the avantgardists continued them, like modality, heterophony, variation principle, and temporal organization. Then I briefly described the alternatives that were proposed by six composers of the avantgarde: Anatol Vieru, Ştefan Niculescu, Tiberiu Olah, Myriam Marbe, Aurel Stroe, and Cornel Taranu.