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

Specific elements of Cuban music, evolution

Florin Balan — 2024-01-31

Although there is a substantial variety of educational materials that generally address jazz, improvised, harmonic moment, composition and orchestral arrangements, there is very little analysis of Cuban composers of music for Afro-Cuban jazz ensembles. The paper focuses on transcription, analysis of the background of the works selected by Chucho Valdes for the group Irakere, with emphasis on the selected passages for the rhythmic-harmonic section. Fundamental elements of Cuban music, including the executions of the clave formulas, the African rhythmic cells that subsequently influenced the bebop style, the Cuban vocabulary and dance music are addressed and provide the basis for analysis.

Cornel Taranu ou La lecon sur le contraste

Amalia Szucs-Blanaru — 2024-01-31

Cornel Taranu became history. Among the works he has left us are four piano miniatures composed in the 1960s. We have set out to analyse two of them, Contrast I-II, looking at the musical contrasts that are at the basis of the genesis of these two works. We are referring to the rhythmic, dynamic, tempo, register, texture and organization contrasts of the sound material. The results show that the two works can stand alongside any other piano composition of the universal creation of the second half of the 20th century.

Copy (the Music) and Share (the Tape). On the Institutionalization of “Piracy” in the Polish People’s Republic

Darius Brzostek — 2024-01-31

The article concerns practices related to the so-called the “second circulation” of musical materials in the Polish People’s Republic. This phenomenon is studied in relation to the issues of contemporary economics, technological progress and, above all, issues of social institutionalization. The author considers the problems of reception of popular music in the country behind the Iron Curtain and methods of providing access to various types of recordings and their official and alternative tracks.

The bassoon between tradition and avant-garde in the Romanian school (last half of the 20th century beginning of the 21st century)

Maria Chifu — 2024-01-31

This article explores the evolution of the bassoon in the Romanian school of music from the late 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century. It examines the cultural and political context that influenced the development of the Romanian school of composition and the diversification of artistic currents. The article highlights the technical improvements in the bassoon and the contributions of Romanian bassoonists in expanding the repertoire for the instrument. It also discusses the exploration of new effects and sounds in contemporary compositions. The article showcases notable works in the Romanian school of music, including Nicolae Brânduș' "Melopedie & Fugue," Maya Badian's "Capriccio," Ștefan Niculescu's "Monophonie – Sonata," and Violeta Dinescu's "Satya II." Overall, the article emphasizes the fusion of tradition and avant-garde elements in the Romanian school of music and the continuous push to expand the boundaries of the bassoon.

Multidisciplinary Improvisation Consort in Brasov

M. Conceicao — 2024-01-31

Interacting electronic processing and spatialization with acoustic instruments has been done by many performers over the past years. This consort aims to continue the exploration of musicianship through technological interaction along with visual music inputs by means of video artistry collaboration. We thrive in improvising and reacting to each other by what is presented in terms of sound and image, where ultimately a musical outcome is presented to the audience.

Aurel Stroe: Morphogenetic Conception on Music (The Entropic Uncertainty and the “Death” of Musical Structures)

Petruta-Maria Coroiu — 2024-01-31

Aurel Stroe is one of the greatest composers and thinkers of the Romanian musical art in the post-Enescu period. Shaper of musical consciousness, author of great originality, he can be placed – in music and thinking – at the border between science and art, between art and music, between philosophy and mathematics. His art is infused by concepts taken over from all of these fields, out of which we will deal here with the ones connected to uncertainty, entropy and poeticism.

George Enescu: First Tour in Bessarabia

Aurelian Danila — 2024-01-31

Interwar Bessarabia was an unknown territory both for the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic and Socialist Romania. Nothing was written on either side of the Prut River. If someone dared to recall an intriguing and much-wanted life between the Prut and Dniester rivers during that period, they were likely to be subjected to lessons of true. At least that was the case in the MSSR. The Democratic Republic of Moldova, established on January 24, 1918, followed by the Declaration of the Country Council on March 27, 1918, breathed fresh air into the region between the Prut and Dniester rivers, a breath that had been absent for over a century. In the very first days of the Great Union, thanks to the warm-hearted Onisifor Ghibu from Ardeal, the greatest musician of all Romanians, George Enescu, arrived in Chisinau from Iasi with his orchestra for a few days’ tour. The concerts he presented on March 24, 25, and 28 were events difficult to compare with anything that had occurred over the years, unless we recall the nearly forty concerts given by Enescu himself in various towns of Bessarabia, where, alongside great performers like Nicolae Caravia, he delighted audiences with exceptional music. The significance of these tours is further underlined by the fact that, due to the genius musician, an opera theater was established in Chisinau (premiering " Faust" on August 6, 1918) and the creation of a Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts (January 1, 1919).

Rhythm and metre in Leos Janacek’s early theoretical concept

Leonard Dumitriu — 2024-01-31

This piece of research focuses on the first theoretical study published by Leoš Janáček and the way in which the composer understands to include contemporary and ancient philosophical and aesthetic principles in his thinking. We see how the author subordinates his theoretical musical thinking regarding rhythm and metre, as well as his concept of accents and nuances to those principles. My study sheds light on some unclear expressions, on other downright daring and novel ones, attempts to explain them and references the great Czech musician’s subsequent theoretical contributions. Beyond statements and hypotheses, the conclusion that I have reached constitutes an impulse to continue the research and go thoroughly into the theoretical concepts set forth by one of the greatest thinker-musicians of humanity.

Co(ho)quet(us) for two flutes by Diana Rotaru: Performing Peculiarities

Anastasia Gusarova — 2024-01-31

This article is dedicated to the analysis of the piece “Co(ho)quet(us) for two flutes” written by Diana Rotaru, a young-generation Romanian composer, in 2011. It examines the new methods of sound production on the flute, linking them with musical language, the architectonics of the piece, as well as the composer's explanations and remarks about the flute's role in her oeuvre, the significance of these new sound production methods, and her relationships with famous contemporary flute performers. Emphasis is given to modern flute playing techniques such as Aeolian sounds, slap-tongue, and tongue-ram.

Serbian choral music from the first half of the 20th century

V. Ibanescu — 2024-01-31

In the period of the building up of Serbian musical life, the first professional musicians were foreign artists, and then, in the second half of the century, domestic professional personnel were also formed. Serbian choral composers were educated in various European centres, such as Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Rome and Leipzig. The work of numerous Serbian singing societies in the 1830s paved the way for the quality of some choirs, especially those in Belgrade, to be noticed on the international scene in the era of Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac. When the era of S. S. Mokranjac was over, according to many, a "new era" for Serbian art began, and the tradition of the time was not only not abandoned, but also expanded and flourished.

Great personalities of military music. Ioan Vlăduță – head of music, general inspector of military music, composer, military

Cristina Mioara Ioan — 2024-01-31

The history of military music records the work of several great personalities of the genre, capable soldiers and accomplished musicians. Their musical, organizational and military activity directly influenced the existence of military and civilian fanfare bands in Romania. Ioan Vlăduță is a representative name for the first half of the 20th century, going through all the stages from band boy, instrumentalist, conductor, band leader, to the supreme position of general inspector of Romanian Military Music. His life intertwined compositional, conducting and coordinating activity - both in peacetime and during the years of the First World War, at the front.

Beethoven’s C minor and the anxieties of inner conflict from the perspective of the Piano and Violin Sonatas

Mihaela Itigan — 2024-01-31

Causing a radical change to the musical language at the turn of the 19th century, Beethoven is the composer of a profound musical discourse which expressively exploits a ceaseless alternation between rhetoric and virtuosity, thus elevating music to new stylistic and aesthetic heights. In consonance with the darkest entities of Beethoven’s emotional plane, the C minor tonality has the quality to emphasize the symbolic character of music typical of the analogies created between its own sonorities and the different, mostly febrile, states of mind. Under the aegis of an authentic and evolutive vision, the piano and violin sonatas follow the ascending path of the musical language, the composer focusing attention on his works according to experienced emotions and conveyed artistic message. Therefore, the composer will begin his first period of creation works in a classically aesthetic pattern which, gradually elaborated, will be centered on the pathetic C minor of the piano and violin sonata op. 30, no. 2.

Facial Expression in Italian and French Opera Acting at the Turn of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Perspective of the Encyclopedic Sources

Małgorzata Lisecka — 2024-01-31

The expressive qualities of acting in opera – both French and Italian – in the 18th century were highly valued. My analysis will include comments made on this subject by J.J. Rousseau in his famous “Dictionnaire de musique”, followed by other encyclopedists of the late 18th and early 18th/early 19th centuries, especially French. Although it was agreed that correct singing technique was a sine qua non condition for performing an opera role, meeting this condition was only the beginning of a difficult path, the aim of which was to express affect using various stage means. I will show that the facial expression recommended to opera actors aimed primarily at presenting values consistent with bourgeois ethics and aesthetics derived from sentimentalism, in line with the new direction of development of opera theatre in social life, especially in France.

“Leonardo dreams of his flying machine” - stylistic aspects. Inside Eric Whitacre’s fascinating musical world

A.M. Melinte — 2024-01-31

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is among today’s most popular musicians. Born in Nevada in 1970, Eric is a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music (New York). Charles Alan Sylvestri’s poem “Leonardo dreams of his flying machine” is a dramatic story of hope and optimism that takes the listener on a great adventure into the great unknown. Leonardo functions as the agonist of the poem who is “tormented” by his need to fly and touch the sky. Leonardo da Vinci was certainly the definition of a true "Renaissance man". Da Vinci is also regarded as one of the greatest inventors to have ever lived; his notebooks are filled with sketches and notes for inventions that were far ahead of his time. What must have been going through his mind when he was coming up with these revolutionary ideas? That is the question that composer Eric Whitacre and poet Charles Anthony Silvestri attempt to answer in this piece, “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine”.

The Suite for Piano in the Creation of George Enescu and Constantin Silvestri - Tradition and Originality

Ioan Mihailescu — 2024-01-31

The composers George Enescu and Constantin Silvestri played an important role in the evolution of the piano suite genre in the Romanian music of the 20th century. The Piano Suite in D major op. 10 (1901-1903) by G. Enescu combines elements of baroque origins with elements of French music (present especially in the music of Ravel and Debussy) and elements of folklore influence from genres of Romanian traditional folk music (doinas and dances ). The Suite III op.6 no. 1 (1933) by Constantin Silvestri includes pieces that feature an Expressionist theme. The melody is defined by a fusion between improvisation and rigorous organization. The presence within the same piece of some songs of diatonic structure with intensely chromatic songs stands out. The two suites for piano reflect the concern of the composers G. Enescu and C. Silvestri to widen the sphere of expression of a traditional framework, achieving this through the originality of their compositional language.

Musical Interpretation / Performance as Spiritual and Educational Phenomenon

Manuela Mihailescu — 2024-01-31

The interpretive act is a phenomenon per se, for which the performer invests all his energy from the desire to express the meanings of musical creations. If we relate the musical phenomenon to silence, we undoubtedly observe that it lives its own existence as a spiritual autonomous construction, being an entity that we integrate through experience, through listening, thus fulfilling, in us, even a purifying role. The performing musician goes through a real spiritual itinerary, starting from decoding the score to perceiving its musical meaning, then working to sculpt the sound image that he wants to reproduce. Performing a concert with an audience is the continuation of the initiatory path, this time also for the audience. The importance of musical interpretation is thus revealed both on the level of higher cognition, training for the performer, and on the level of educating the public in the spirit of perceiving higher levels of consciousness.

General aspects of Dumitru Capoianu's music in the feature film Adventures in the Danube Delta

Titiana Mirita — 2024-01-31

Romanian film music of the 20th century was a very well-developed field, especially in terms of symphonic music. However, research and musicology studies on this cinematic period are at the beginning, as there is little information on this area. Dumitru Capoianu is among the composers with an already established career in concert music who have also taken the step towards film music. Its adaptability to the script was realized in soundscapes of extended durations or in melodic themes that became a sound exponent of the characters and the action, transposing in them moral valences, particularities of age, tensions and also musical illustrations of the video landscape. All these qualities and the compositional patterns that he and other Romanian composers followed can also be observed in the feature film Adventures in the Danube Delta (1973), part of the particularities of the musical language elements used closely related to the script being presented and analyzed in this article.

Contexts for integrating classical music in vulnerable educational environments

Gelu Neagu — 2024-01-31

Intersectional intervention on educational policies in 21st century society is noted as a viable alternative in disadvantaged educational settings. In this direction, a well-reasoned educational policy facilitates access to education and knowledge for a significant number of students. The vision of each teacher, and in general of an educator, must be aimed at comprehensive educational policies, consistent with educational ideals and the agreed school curriculum, the skills of each educator being evident in the way they can adapt and apply classical or modern educational strategies or concepts, capable of producing much needed change in the evolution and school performance of the beneficiaries of this social service. The involvement of music education in the formation of the modern pupil's personality can be the foundation on which to build an equitable and inclusive education system, providing pupils with valuable opportunities to develop cognitive, social and emotional skills.

Musical connections: Nadia Boulanger and her artistic legacy in Romania

Cristina Pascu — 2024-01-31

The article delves into Nadia Boulanger's artistic legacy in Romania, examining the profound influence of her teachings and the nuanced ways in which her distinctive personality resonated with Romanian musicians. Nadia Boulanger, a figure of intricate complexity, defies easy categorization, yet her indelible impact on the 20th century remains unquestionable. A composer, conductor, and educator, she became a beacon for virtually every prominent musician of her era. Moreover, her significance is heightened by the fact that she was one of the pioneering women in the field of composition. Nevertheless, there were also select Romanian artists who were fortunate recipients of her guidance. Through the prism of testimonials and meticulously preserved archival documents, we will summon their presence: Maria Cernovodeanu, Dinu Lipatti, Florica Musicescu, Cornel Țăranu. This commemoration stands as our tribute to 30 years of Francophonie in Romania and the craftsmen who contributed to it.

Twentieth Century Compositional Techniques Applied to Jazz: Pitch-Class Sets in Jazz Composition and Improvisation

Paulo Perfeito — 2024-01-31

This paper presents a speculative method to coalesce traditional jazz improvisation with techniques and elements of post-tonal composition. Throughout the 20th century, erudite composers came up with several aesthetic and conceptual developments but jazz, until very recently, did not move in the same direction. To maintain a fruitful collaboration between composers and improvisers, if the pallet of compositional techniques available to the jazz composer expands, I would argue that a similar development must occur in the field of improvisation. For composers, this paper proposes creative processes supported by pitch-class set theory and, in the interest of coherence and unity with pre-composed material, it offers a complementary approach to soloists.

Converter System writing and isobematic language in Christopher Bochmann's ESSAY XVIII

Goncalo Pescada — 2024-01-31

Christopher Bochmann, one of the most prominent composers and pedagogues of our time, is the only composer in Portugal, at this moment, to include in his catalogue 4 works that integrate the Accordion in the midst of contemporary music. Using isobematic language as a starting point and form of expression, Bochmann composed for Solo Accordion, Accordion in Chamber Music, Accordion in Ensemble and Concert for Accordion and Orchestra. In this article, we are going to investigate the work Es-say XVIII and how the composer organizes the form, structures the musical ideas and builds the idiomatic writing for Accordion using the converter system.

Primitivism in Early 20th Century French Music: Darius Milhaud’s La creation du monde

M.D. Rucsanda — 2024-01-31

The first decades of the 20th century, particularly the post-war era, brought about numerous philosophical and cultural changes. Exoticism and orientalism were concepts that still governed arts and music, however the philosophical concepts that lay beyond the use of exotic or oriental themes was gradually altered. Exoticism represented more than the possibility for artists to create an idealized elsewhere, inspired by the contact with foreign cultures and their artistic products. It also offered artists the opportunity to express the complex meaning of various symbols associated with exoticism. In this context, Western society gradually turned toward a new aesthetic that could provide artists with an apparent connection to the roots of mankind. Primitivism, associated with folk art and mythology, represented a utopic state, prior to civilization or colonialism, but at the same time, it offered the possibility to explore certain archetypal symbols and express their possible meaning through art. Art nègre, represented by African and African American art and music, was most often associated with this aesthetic of primitivism, and influenced the works of Western artists. French composer Darius Milhaud returns to the theme of origins and creation in the work La création du monde, which combines elements associated with the concept of primitivism, with jazz music and Western compositional techniques.

Elements for a lesson: Beethoven Sonata op. 53 „Waldstein”

Constantin Sandu — 2024-01-31

Beethoven Sonata op. 53 "Waldstein" serves as a pretext for the analysis of some elements of interpretation, normally used in the pedagogical process: the formal conception, the tempo, the logical organization of the musical material, the pedal and the orchestral sonority of the composer's piano music. Exploring my experience of more than four decades, both as a pedagogue and as a performer, the text tries to bring readers closer to the stylistic characteristics of Beethoven's piano music and to my personal conception of the interpretation of these works.

Training the musical attention: Towards a new generation of methods in music education

Laszlo Stacho — 2024-01-31

A crucial aspect of musical ability is a music-specific empathic capacity that enables the performer to uncover subjective meanings from musical materials and fully feel them during performance. Based on insights from both theoretical and empirical research into the psychology of music performance and from pedagogical practice, this capacity is thought to rely on a more general empathic ability and can be nurtured easily in most people, including those scoring rather poor on standard musical aptitude tests measuring “melodic”, “rhythmic”, or “harmonic” skills. In my paper, I present the theoretical bases of a new pedagogical approach for nurturing in musicians the capacity of feeling the elements of musical meaning in real time (in the act of performance): I introduce a new theory of musical expressiveness by defining, from a psychological point of view and from the perspective of the performer’s phenomenology, the various layers of musical meaning (the “what” system) and the temporal-attentional abilities that enable to express them in real time (the “how” system). The paper concludes with a short introduction to a novel implementation of the above model of performer’s phenomenological processes into performance teaching: a full training of musical attention called “Practice Methodology”.

Beethoven’s Italian Concerto (Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58)

Dinu-Mihai Stefan — 2024-01-31

We know that composers from all times have found inspiration sources in either popular music or in music written by their predecessors or their colleagues and that no music has been completely isolated within a geographical boundary because the whole purpose of it was to be shared with the public and to convey a wide range of emotions and interesting reactions from people who were more or less familiar with the performing side of this art. There were times, from the 15th to the 18th and even the 19th century in Europe, both Western and Central, when even the news of the day was brought in through music, being sung and performed in front of ordinary people by different versions of minstrels or troubadours who also used very basic instruments in conveying their messages. Is it possible that Beethoven used Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as an inspiration source when writing his Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58? I will endeavour to show some similarities between the works which could be credited for such an act of translation or transforming existing musical material into innovation.

Composition Techniques Specific to the Arabic Musical Language in Kareem Roustom's Violin Concerto No. 1

M. Suciu — 2024-01-31

The Violin Concerto by K. Roustom stands out as a distinctive fusion of compositional styles, positioning itself uniquely within contemporary violin compositions. Rather than eliminating precedents, the concerto embraces a convergence of structurally and ideatically diverse directions, resulting in a harmonious and unified end product. The creative process, starting from seemingly unrelated hypotheses and concluding in a cohesive manner, finds precedent in various musical examples across different eras. The concerto's complex profile, revealed through analysis, reflects a mixture of elements that resist facile extraction or definition. The diversity of languages interwoven into the works' architecture lends them significant value, offering interpretive richness from initial reception to deep analytical exploration. Simultaneously, the imperative of originality underscores the nature and implementation of the directions within the concerto. Complemented by the composers' mastery, educational backgrounds, and intellectual capacities, the concerto exemplifies authenticity and value, contributing to the evolving landscape of contemporary creative expressions.