Anatol Vieru

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Anatol Vieru (born June 8, 1926 in Iași ; † October 8, 1998 in Bucharest ) was a Romanian composer and conductor of Jewish origin .

life and work

Vieru studied from 1946 to 1951 at the Conservatory in Bucharest, among others with Leon Klepper , Paul Constantinescu and Constantin Silvestri, and from 1951 to 1958 at the Moscow Conservatory , especially with Aram Chatschaturjan . In Moscow he is a fellow student of Edison Denissow , Alfred Schnittke , Sofia Gubaidulina and Tiberiu Olah .

From 1947 to 1950 Vieru also worked as a conductor at the Opera Națională Bucureşti . His public debut as a composer marked the Suita în stil vechi ( Suite in the old style , 1945); this is followed by the flute concerto (1954–1955), the first two string quartets (1955 and 1956) and the oratorio Miorița (1957). In 1962 he became known in the West when he received the prestigious Prix ​​international de composition musicale Reine Marie-José in Geneva for his cello concerto, written in the same year. His composition for string quartet and a percussionist Trepte ale tacerii ( Steps of Silence , 1966) was commissioned for the Koussevitzky Foundation . He took part in the Darmstadt summer courses , and his orchestral composition Sonnenuhr (Clepsidra I) was premiered at the 1969 Donaueschinger Musiktage .

In the same year one of his most important chamber music works follows, Sita lui Eratostene (named after the sieve of Eratosthenes ) for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano. Here principles are already emerging that will determine his future work: For his neomodal system he assimilates suggestions from composers as diverse as Bartók , Enescu , Webern , Messiaen and Shostakovich . He has been involved in intuitive set theory since the late 1950s , and in the 1960s he became aware that the ordinary musical ear also perceives scales as sets in the mathematical sense of the word. As a result, Vieru does not practice serialism , but instead uses mathematical operations to establish modes from which he derives the musical parameters. This process converts in various forms from - called clepsidra ( sundial ), site ( sieve ), écran ( screen etc.) - not to reduce it to a uniform manner, which could determine what it is, à la Vieru to write. Vieru was known for his non-conformism and declared an art of living based on inner motives as his most important goal.

In 1973, when a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service enabled him to spend a year in West Berlin , he composed his second symphony. Returning to Bucharest, he wrote two operas: Iona based on the drama of the same name by Marin Sorescu and based on drawings by MC Escher (1972–1975, premiered in Bucharest 1976) and Praznicul calicilor ( The Festival of the Cripples ) based on the comedy of the same name by Mihail Sorbul ( 1978–1980, world premiere in Berlin 1990). His tragic third symphony La un cutremur ( From an earthquake ) was written from 1977 to 1978 in response to the Vrancea earthquake in 1977 .

In parallel to his compositional oeuvre, Vieru taught intensively until the end of his life: since 1955 he has been professor of orchestration and composition at the Bucharest Conservatory. In 1978 he did his doctorate in musicology with Sigismund Toduță at the Conservatory in Cluj with the work De la moduri, spre un model al gândirii muzicale intervalice ( From the modes to a model for interval musical thinking ). The essay Cartea modurilor ( The Book of Modes ), published two years later, emerged from this work, to which a second part was added in its English version from 1993 ( The Book of Modes ). Vieru notes similarities between his own ideas about the compositional application of mathematical operations and those of American composers and musicologists. He publishes studies and lectures in Darmstadt , Jerusalem , universities in the USA and Canada . He comments on his own works and composition methods as well as on musical postmodernism in general , which he considers less a fashion trend or school than a historical situation in which modal, tonal and serial techniques coexist. This situation requires the abandonment of exclusivist tendencies and an effort to integrate such different compositional methods. Vieru's contributions to music theory are collected in the two volumes Cuvinte despre sunete ( Words on Tones , 1994) and Ordinea în Turnul Babel ( Order in the Tower of Babel , 2001).

Compositions

  • Concerto for flute and orchestra (1954–1955)
  • 8 string quartets (1955, 1956, with soprano 1973, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1987 & 1991)
  • Concerto for violoncello and orchestra (1962)
  • Trepte ale tacerii ( Stages of Silence ) for string quartet and a percussionist (1966)
  • 7 symphonies: No. 1 Oda tacerii ( Ode an das Schweigen , 1967), No. 2 (1973), No. 3 La un cutremur ( From an earthquake , 1978), No. 4 (1982), No. 5 (after Mihai Eminescu for choir and orchestra, 1984–1985), No. 6 Exodus (1989), No. 7 Anul soarelui calm ( The year of the quiet sun , 1992–1993)
  • Sundial (Clepsidra I) for orchestra (1969)
  • Sita lui Eratostene ( Sieve des Eratosthenes ) for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano (1969)
  • Iona. Opera based on the drama of the same name by Marin Sorescu and based on drawings by MC Escher (1972–1975, world premiere in Bucharest 1976)
  • Concerto for clarinet and orchestra (1974–1975)
  • Praznicul calicilor ( Das Fest der Krüppel ), opera based on the comedy of the same name by Mihail Sorbul (1978–1980, world premiere in Berlin 1990)
  • Memorial for orchestra (1990)
  • Ultimele zile, ultimele ore ( Last Days, Last Hours ), opera based on Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Bulgakov (1990–1995)

Theoretical works

  • Cartea modurilor. Bucharest: Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România 1980
  • The Book of Modes. Bucharest: Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România 1993
  • Cuvinte despre sunete. Bucharest: Editura Carta Românească 1994
  • Ordinea în Turnul Babel: Însemnări despre muzică. Bucharest: Editura Hasefer 2001

Awards

Among the most important awards that Vieru received in the course of his life, apart from those already mentioned (the Prix ​​international de composition musicale Reine Marie-José 1962 and the composition commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation in 1966), the Premiul de compoziție George Enescu (1946), the Herder Prize (1986) and the Marele Premiu al Uniunii Compozitorilor și Muzicologilor din România (1996).

Known students

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article by Valentina Sandu-Dediu, the main source for this article (Weblink: http://www.cimec.ro/muzica/evenimadd/simn2004/ZiuaV.htm )
personal data
SURNAME Vieru, Anatol
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Iași
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1998
Place of death Bucharest