Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series VIII: Performing Arts

DAN BUCIU (1943-2025): Essential motifs in Choral Music. Case Study – “Small Winter Suite for Children's”. A cappella choir

2025-12-12T11:29:21+00:00

The composer, theorist, and professor Dan Buciu (1943-2025) was one of the great promoters of Romanian choral music, whose course he shaped both as a creator and as a leader of national choral associations. As a professor of harmony, Dan Buciu was able to experiment like no one else with the choral language, the analysis of which occupied him throughout his life: both in the tonal and modal realms. His collection of choral works was published by the Music Publishing House of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania in 1993, the pieces being selected by the author himself from among the most significant. As an important gesture of general analysis, we will attempt to extract some of his creative principles from one of the works that define him.

The Conductor as the Architect of Choral sound: Conducting strategies and applied exercises for optimizing Blend and Expressiveness in Musical Performance

2025-12-12T15:32:57+00:00

The conductor as the architect of choral sound represents a central figure in the evolution of modern choral music in Romania. The combination of gestural strategy with a profound understanding of acoustic concepts ensures a remarkable balance between science and art. This synthesis, which involves a harmonious integration of technical knowledge and aesthetic sensitivity, transforms the interpretative process into a complex and captivating experience, in which each note becomes an element of a sound painting of rare depth. Thus, the choir’s performance becomes not merely a musical execution, but a manifestation of an elaborate artistic vision, where every gesture and every acoustic adjustment contribute to shaping a sound that bears the unmistakable imprint of the conductor—the true architect of choral sound.

Balkan sound identity. The impact of Kiril Dzajkovski's film music

2025-12-12T15:49:14+00:00

Macedonian composer Kiril Dzajkovski's film music is defined by intermedial aesthetics, situated at the confluence of Balkan musical tradition, classical/Western European timbrality and contemporary electronic production techniques. In his compositions that go with cinematographic films such as The Great Water or Dust, Dzajkovski creates a distinct sound world marked by stylistic hybridization and emotional expressiveness. An approach that reflects not only the regional specificity of the Balkans, but also a universal view of conflict, memory and identity, thus developing a multicultural musical discourse. By using timbre contrasts, recurring themes and modal structures, the musician creates scores that function not only as a sound background, but as veritable narrative extensions of the film. In his works Bal-Can-Can, The Third Half and Balkan Is Not Dead, Dzajkovski proposes a sound dramaturgy that actively takes part in the construction of cinematographic meaning, by intertwining lyrical, epic and satirical registers. His music contributes to the shaping of an audiovisual rhetoric in which the musical element gets symbolic and emotional meaning, supporting or sometimes contrasting the director's intention. The integration of ethno-folkloric elements in orchestral or electronic textures generates an expressive tension between modernity and tradition, between document and fiction. Thus, Dzajkovsky's film music can be viewed as both a sound illustration and as a form of critical commentary and emotional mediation between the viewer and the cinematographic narrative.

Classical (cult) piano music, a factor for increasing the intrinsic quality of the workplace and decreasing stress in the Information Technology (IT) field

2025-12-12T15:56:36+00:00

In the multidimensional concept of quality of work is contained the intrinsic quality of the workplace - a factor which helps to increase employee performance. Stress in the workplace results in decreased employee satisfaction and work productivity, with negative consequences especially in professions that require creativity, such as employees in the IT (Information Technology) industry. Classical music has a beneficial effect on the human psyche known and valued from ancient times. We believe that in people who accuse fatigue, irritability, decreased creativity, low emotional intelligence, long-term complaints disappear after listening to classical piano music at the workplace. The quality of life is inextricably linked to the environment in which people live, the environment also including the workplace. Listening to musical pieces from the classical piano repertoire, will help to create a pleasant environment and extra harmony in different organizations, and will be reducing psycho-emotional indicators of stress, increasing employees’ individual efficiency and improving socio-human relations. The expected long-term impact of music is to increase employee satisfaction and attachment to his workplace and improve socio-professional relations within IT firms. Classical (cult) piano music will support social development and improve the quality of life of employees, ensuring in this way, the economic growth on IT companies and in other workplaces where stress and lack of communication have an impact on the intrinsic quality of the workplace.

Time, sign, tension: a semiotic perspective on Beethoven's rhythmic construction in „Piano Sonata in E minor, op. 90”

2025-12-12T16:03:22+00:00

At the heart of the performing approach is the issue of rhythm as a vector of formal coherence, semantic tension, and expressiveness in Beethoven's piano sonatas. Classical phraseological structures arise from a rhetoric of continuity and becoming, where musical time is a dialectical process between metrical stability and transformative impulse. Through techniques like motivic shortening, progressive acceleration, sonic expansion, and metric reconfiguration, Beethoven redefines the relationship between expressiveness and sound structure, creating a language in which rhythm becomes the generative principle of form. From a semiotic and aesthetic perspective, Beethoven's beats goes beyond the technical dimension, becoming a signifier of will, inner tension, and temporal drama. An analysis of the Sonata in E minor, Op. 90, shows the fragile balance between the tragic force of the first movement and the contemplative lyricism of the second movement, expressing an inner temporality between discourse and revelation. In this conception, rhythm is not only a structural phenomenon but also a metaphysical principle of expressive unity in Beethoven's sonatas.

Cross Media Arts: Creative Assemblages for Social Impact — The Case of „Five Centuries, Fifty Years: An Evocation of the University of Evora”

2025-12-12T16:13:21+00:00

This paper analyses Five Centuries, Fifty Years: An Evocation of the University of Evora (2024) as a case study in Cross Media Arts, highlighting how interdisciplinary artistic assemblages foster educational, cultural, and social impact. Combining video mapping, music, theatre, architecture, and digital design, the project transformed the Main Cloister of the Colegio do Espírito Santo into an immersive environment celebrating heritage and collaboration. Grounded in theories of media convergence, relational aesthetics, and participatory art, it examines implications for creative education and sustainable practice, showing how experiential learning and environmentally responsible strategies position universities as hubs for innovation and social engagement.

Cultural Dynamism and the Reconfiguration of Gender Roles in African Music: A Case Study of Sona Jobarteh

2025-12-12T16:20:15+00:00

This study examines cultural dynamism and gender roles in African music through the case of Sona Jobarteh, the first woman from a hereditary griot lineage to gain international recognition as a kora virtuoso. Her career illustrates the negotiation between indigenous musical traditions and shifting gender expectations. Drawing on nineteen sources (2020–2025), the study uses qualitative thematic analysis to explore how women across Africa challenge gendered musical roles shaped by patriarchy and lineage. Findings show expanding female participation in instrumental performance, leadership, dance, and popular music. Jobarteh exemplifies how individual agency can sustain tradition while advancing cultural renewal, education, and social advocacy. The study contributes to discussions of gender equity, cultural continuity, and the evolving nature of African musical heritage.

Specificities and implications of the cadenza in Christopher Bochmann's Concerto for accordion and orchestra, “Wandering from Clime to Clime”

2025-12-12T16:27:17+00:00

The cadenza is a moment dedicated to the soloist, based on harmonic sections and virtuosic passages, often based on thematic themes expressed earlier in the work, in which the soloist has the opportunity to showcase technique and virtuosity. In the 21st century, we still have the privilege of finding cadenzas in major works, including contemporary music. An example of this is the cadenza that composer Christopher Bochmann wrote in his Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra, "Wandering from Clime to Clime." What specificities and implications can a cadenza present regarding the composer's initial ideas and the development of the work's interpretation?

The Symbolism of the Instrumental Voice: The Role of the Violin Solo in French Opera from Gounod to Massenet

2025-12-12T16:34:41+00:00

This article investigates the expressive and symbolic function of violin solos in French opera from the second half of the 19th century to the early 20th century, through the analysis of representative works by Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet, and Jules Massenet. At the core of the study are orchestral moments in which the violin transcends its role as mere accompaniment and becomes an extension of the human voice, embodying emotion, consciousness, or spiritual transcendence. The analyzed examples — Faust, Carmen, Les pêcheurs de perles, Manon, Werther, and Thaïs — highlight three distinct expressive directions: Gounod’s spiritualized lyricism, Bizet’s sensual realism, and Massenet’s mystical introspection. The article offers a comparative reading of the ways in which the violin emerges as an implicit character in the drama, a voice of interiority, contributing to the definition of the French orchestral style and to the strengthening of the relationship between instrumental timbre and vocal expression.

Emotional Expression Support Methods in Music Therapy

2025-12-12T16:54:41+00:00

Music therapy has emerged as a powerful modality for facilitating emotional expression and psychological healing across diverse populations. This paper explores contemporary methods used to support emotional expression within music therapy sessions, focusing on both active and receptive techniques. Drawing from interdisciplinary research in psychology, neuroscience, and musicology, we examine how musical elements - such as rhythm, melody, harmony - can be strategically employed to evoke, regulate, and articulate emotions. The study categorizes support methods into three-fold primary domains: improvisational techniques, guided listening frameworks, and songwriting interventions. Special attention is given to the role of therapist-client interaction, cultural sensitivity, in enhancing emotional outcomes. Through qualitative analysis of case studies and clinical observations, the paper highlights best practices and proposes a model for integrating emotional expression support into personalized therapeutic plans. The findings underscore music therapy’s unique capacity to access and transform emotional experiences, offering implications for mental health professionals, educators, and researchers seeking holistic approaches to emotional well-being.

The Instrumental Concerto in 20th Century Music

2025-12-12T17:01:54+00:00

The merit of having recognized the ascending direction of the development of professional Hungarian music and the way in which it attains universality significance, and permanence belongs equally to Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, who, in the first half of the 20th century, going beyond the confines of urban folk and lute music, researched peasant music of the most authentic nature, which they incorporated into their cultivated musical works using their own means and styles, thus contributing to the creation and strong flourishing of Hungarian national musical culture. The Violin Concerto, written between 1961-62, represents a reference creation in the work of Kamilló Lendvay, standing out in the creation of the 20th century as a piece characterized by an innovative language, with folkloric valences, elements of orchestration, melodic-rhythmic and harmonic vigor that is remarkable.

Revitalizing Melodies from the „Caioni Codex” through Musical Arrangement: A Study of „Suite from Codex Caioni” by Dan Voiculescu

2025-12-12T17:18:07+00:00

The current conditions generated by a globalized society require the reconsideration and reinterpretation of folkloric materials. In this context, the semantic richness of the Codex Caioni—which reflects both the specific character of the musical culture crystallized in seventeenth-century Transylvania and the musical, stylistic, and aesthetic concerns of its author, in harmony with the evolution of musical life and the European trends of the era—acquires particular relevance. This paper aims to highlight how Codex Caioni, one of the most important collection of different genres of musical pieces of the 17th century, notated in tablature, was reflected in the Suite for string orchestra (1996) by Dan Voiculescu (1940-2009). We will describe the selected pieces from the Codex Caioni and discuss the elaboration, regarding the form, the intonational material, the harmony and polyphony, stressing the personal style of Dan Voiculescu, one of the most important representatives of Romanian Neoclassicism. A scholar of polyphony, Voiculescu not only restores the music of the Codex within a contemporary context, but also explores the relationship between Baroque art music and Transylvanian folk music, bringing to life a sound world situated at the intersection of local tradition and the European Baroque style.

From Pianoforte to AI-driven Performance: Reinventing the Piano through Technology

2025-12-12T18:17:48+00:00

The piano, since its invention by Bartolomeo Cristofori at the turn of the eighteenth century, has epitomized the intersection between musical artistry and technological innovation. From the early pianoforte, which radically expanded expressive possibilities beyond the harpsichord, through the industrial standardization of the nineteenth century and the electrification of the twentieth, the instrument has persistently mirrored broader socio-technological transformations. In the digital era, the piano has undergone unprecedented reconfigurations, becoming simultaneously a pedagogical tool, a compositional interface, and a platform for experimentation at the frontier of artificial intelligence. This paper traces the historical continuum of the piano, examining its evolution from mechanical craftsmanship to virtual simulation, with particular attention to the role of ICT in reshaping performance practices, educational paradigms, and modes of cultural dissemination. By situating AI-driven performance within this continuum, the study interrogates both the democratizing potential and the ethical challenges posed by algorithmic creativity. Ultimately, the piano emerges not merely as an instrument, but as a dynamic cultural artifact whose identity is continually reinvented at the nexus of tradition and technological modernity.

Therapeutic Function of Music: A structured plan and worksheet for anxiety patients

2025-12-12T18:24:00+00:00

Music therapy is increasingly recognized as an effective intervention for various medical and psychological conditions. Central to this practice is the Therapeutic Function of Music (TFM) theory, which employs musical elements within a structured framework to achieve specific therapeutic outcomes. Building on Hanson-Abromeit’s TFM Plan and its ante-hoc worksheet, the present study introduces a preliminary model for applying receptive music therapy to patients experiencing anxiety—both state anxiety and anxiety disorders. A theoretical worksheet was developed by integrating insights from a comprehensive literature review, aligning treatment aims with relevant theoretical frameworks and musical elements such as tempo, harmony, form, melody, and rhythm. The worksheet aims to provide clinicians with a structured, evidence-based approach for developing personalized playlists in receptive music therapy. This structured approach enhances information sharing among practitioners, fostering the standardization and optimization of receptive music therapy for anxiety management.