A Composer’s Self Portrait. Prayers for the Choir by Leonard Dumitriu

Abstract

The present paper is a composer’s confession of the creating process that lead to the six Prayers for the Choir; it is equally an exercise in self-analysis based on candidness, lucidity, and the decision to take the responsibility for “musical deeds” that have already been done. The unavoidable nature of subjectivity and the aspiration towards objectivity are intertwined, as the author, in his double identity, wishes to describe the stages that lead to the completion of the scores. The compositional technique for choir is considered through the angle of its components, in phrasings devoid of any musicological dryness.