Elena Boancă. ”Personalități ale artei musicale: Vasile Herman” [Personalities of the musical Art: Vasile Herman] - Review

The monographic volume by Mrs. Elena Boancă, a musicologist showing a particular interest in the investigation of both historical and analytical aspects, represents not only a profound and relevant enterprise, but also a highly necessary one.

Béla Bartόk Bluebeard’s Castle – a new Avatar of the Myth of Orpheus?

Ever since its Greek and Roman mythological and literary sources during Antiquity, the myth of Orpheus has been of paramount importance in the edification of the Artist as a key-character of understanding Music as magic and Love beyond death. Over the course of millennia, the myth has underwent numerous transformations, reflecting cultural and creative views of each period. Up to this day, the myth of Orpheus continues to allure composers` creative imagination. Within the modern and even postmodern tempestuous avatars of the myth in musical creation, the myth stays true to revealing the creator`s inner landscape, his/her reflective searching, and the nature of love between life and death. The current essay proposes a set of correlations between the essential motifs of this ancient myth and the symbols in Béla Bartók`s Bluebeard`s Castle, in a quest for answering the question whether this iconic opera of modernity could be understood, to some extent, as a new avatar of the Orpheus myth.

Aspects of traditional folk Musical Language in the Work ”Suita a III-a bihoreană” by Tudor Jarda

The present work aims to highlight a choral score by composer Tudor Jarda, both from a structural analysis perspective and by presenting the context of its composition. Suita a III-a bihoreană [The Third Suite from Bihor] demonstrates an apposition of neomodal musical language with folkloric style composition techniques.

The Influence of Political Regimes on Romanian Psaltic Music in the Second Half of the 20thCentury

During the second half of the 20th century, the Romanian society was marked by two events that had a profound impact on its destiny: the establishment of the communist regime after the abdication of King Michael I in 1948, and the Romanian Revolution of 1989, which marked the end of this regime. The Byzantine monody has had a millenary tradition in this part of Europe, and the contribution of the local chanters to the perpetuation of Orthodox church music – also through their own compositions – is evidenced by the numerous manuscripts written by Romanian authors and by the works printed in the last two centuries. In 20th-century Romania, the music written in neumatic notation specific to the Orthodox Church manifested itself discontinuously due to the historical events mentioned above. The church chant in the traditional psaltic style managed to survive, despite being affected by the Communist Party’s decisions regarding the Church, namely the attempt to standardize the church chant. This paper captures the way in which the preservation of tradition and the perpetuation of church music succeeded through the difficult times of the communist period, with special emphasis on the religious music written in neumatic notation and on certain peculiarities of the period, due to the political regime. The musicians trained before the establishment of Communism – by teachers concerned with the preservation of the good tradition of church chanting, in monastic schools and prestigious theological seminaries of the interwar period – were the binding forces who ensured the rapid revival of the music of Byzantine tradition in the last decade of the 20thcentury and who enriched the repertoire of the Romanian churches with valuable original works.

Considerations on the Elements of Musical Language in ‘La casa di peste drum’ [At the House across the Road] by Tudor Jarda

When we speak about musical rhetoric, rhetorical figures, or elements related to musica poetica, we almost always automatically think about the Baroque and, why not, about Johann Sebastian Bach`s music. However, few of us realize that the roots of these notions trace back to the Renaissance, and even fewer will relate them to Martin Luther`s name and the Protestant Reformation. The principles of musical rhetoric developed mainly in the North German space, although they were also present in other countries such as Italy, France and England. It was Germany, however, that in those times most enthusiastically adopted and adapted the terminology, methods and structures of ancient rhetoric. In his Musica Poetica, the German musicologist Dietrich Bartel explains the rise of musical rhetoric in Germany as a consequence of Martin Luther`s view of music being embraced by the Christian believers. Over the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, musical rhetoric was continuously enriched and perfected, generating an extremely elaborate art whose focus was to find equivalences between rhetorical figures and musical intervals. Thus, music acquired a higher degree of accuracy of expression.

The Influence of Luther's View of Music on the Emergence of the Concepts of Musica poetica and Musical Rhetoric

La casa di peste drum [At the House across the Road] is, perhaps, Tudor Jarda`s most emblematic choral work, being the first composition of the 10 carols for mixed choir included in the volume Coruri [Choral Works] (1981). Dedicated to Maestro Dorin Pop and the Cappella Transylvanica choir, this work has been part of the ensemble`s repertoire since the publication of the collection, being also found in the repertoire of the most important Cluj and Transylvanian choirs. This paper aims to detail aspects of musical grammar in the choral work La casa di peste drum, highlighting the close connection between the text and music and its implications in the choral interpretation. The morphological and syntactic analysis also highlights certain characteristics of Tudor Jarda`s choral writing.

Komitas – An Icon in Armenian Music

Although the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Armenian composer, Komitas – celebrated with great respect in Armenian communities everywhere – took place last year, we believe that the importance of the work of this icon in Armenian music deserves and must be mentioned in any period. The author of this study has been concerned with the issue of Armenian music for a long time. During the in-depth studies in the field, the conviction of the need to talk about Armenian music – very little known in Europe – and about its famous representatives, of which the most important was and still is Komitas, was strengthened. At the same time, studying the life and work of this outstanding composer, the similarity of his life and career with that of Bartók Béla, sometimes even surprising, arose several times, despite the great geographical distance that separated them. In this article we will try to briefly present the biography and creation of the great Komitas, as well as some parallel elements in terms of life, research and works of the two composers, musicologists and ethnographers. Belonging to the same generation of musicians, they dedicated their lives to collecting, researching and processing authentic folk music, being concerned not only with the folklore of their own nation, but also with the music of neighbouring peoples. The activity and research of the two present remarkable similarities, and through their compositional activity they both succeeded in opening new perspectives, decisive for their descendants, the generations of composers of the twentieth century.