Die Geburt eines neuen Melos
Thomas Beimel
For most people in the world there is no question: if there is music, there is melody. But for a composer who was born in Germany the subject is more complicated. In the time of fascist dictatorship, the emotional aspect of music served as an important tool for propaganda, in order to manipulate the masses. Subsequently, melody as conveyer of emotions fell into disrepute. In Germany till today any attempt to establish a new melos is regarded with scepticism. From the perspective of a composer living at the beginning of the 21st century, I find George Enescu’s work quite appealing. The Romanian composer developped different strategies in order to discover a new melos. Therefore, melody became a structural element of the musical discourse in works such as Prélude à l’unisson, Carillon nocturne, and the Sonata for piano in f-sharp minor. I’ll extend my analysis toward the composition of Myriam Marbe, Des-Cântec.
Discovery of an Original Letter of Ioan AndreiWachmann
Smiljka Kitanović
Little is known about the early life of prominent 19th century Romanian musician, Ioan Andrei Wachmann. Most of his pre-1848 documents and letters disappeared, likely in the 1847 Bucharest fire. His obscure familial connections impeded inquiry into historical sources outside of Romania. Recently discovered in Budapest City Archives, among documents of a Buda weaver family, Wachmann’s 1836 letter is the earliest extant letter penned by the musician. In this personal letter he discusses his work and domestic life, and sheds light on an ambiguity: the birth year of his son Eduard, another prominent 19th century Romanian musician.
Artificial and/or Natural Modes in the Choral Music of Liviu Glodeanu
Grigore Cudalbu
In addition to specific modes of the traditional music (from the oligochordic to the heptachordic), the artificial modes represent for Romanian composers a way to enrich the musical language in the last decades of the 20th century, some of them creating their own modal systems. This study analyzes elements of musical language in the choral works of composer Liviu Glodeanu, from the perspective of both adjectives: natural – adopting and / or adapting existing natural modes in folklore; artificial – extraction of a mathematical model on which are built and developed the modes; we refer for example to the modal system created by Anatol Vieru, and based on set theory.
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