George Bălan

George Bălan (born March 11, 1929 in Turnu Măgurele , Romania ) is a former Romanian philosopher , musicologist and aphorist .

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After completing his studies at the University of Bucharest, he got a job as a lecturer at the Bucharest Conservatory. As a full professor of music aesthetics , he taught there until 1977.

From 1949 George Bălan was editor of the respected music magazine Contemporanul . In the sixties, under his direction and moderation, a series about the great composers and important musical topics was broadcast on radio and television. In his broadcasts he repeatedly emphasized the importance of conscious listening, without which the work of the composers and performers could not really be appreciated.

Balan completed his intensive studies at the Lomonosov University in Moscow with his doctoral thesis “On the philosophical content of music”. In 1970 he finished his studies in Orthodox theology with a dissertation on "The Theology of Love".

Balan's work in Romania and abroad was shaped by the tireless search and research in the fields of music and philosophy. The publication of his research results, which he presented in numerous books and writings in Romania, he continued in Germany with undiminished creativity. Many of his books have since been translated into six languages.

In addition to his literary work, he reached a large audience through his numerous public lectures in the great concert halls of Romania. However, his free thinking and his courageous statements soon became suspicious of the totalitarian Ceausescu regime of the time.

In 1977 George Bălan left his Romanian homeland for political reasons and settled in Germany (Bavaria).

In 1979 he was given a teaching position for "The Philosophy of Music" at the University of Munich . In the same year he developed the Musicosophia method and founded the first Musicosophia school in southern Bavaria, which he named "Brucknerianum" (named after the composer Anton Bruckner).

After a four-month stay in the USA in 1985, he moved the institute to St. Peter in the Black Forest - in the immediate vicinity of Freiburg - and named it International Musicosophia School, School of Conscious Music Listening. In the same year, George Balan received German citizenship.

To this day, George Bălan and his colleagues work to make the music of the great masters accessible to many people with the help of the Musicosophia method.

bibliography

Major works

• Muzica, artă greu de înţeles? , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1955–1956, 1960.
• The Philosophical Content of Music , Dissertation, Moscow, 1961.
• Enescu - mesajul, estetica , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1959–1960.
• Enescu - viaţa , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1962.
• Gustav Mahler , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1962.
• Tragicul , Bucureşti, 1961–1962.
• Muzica, temă de meditaţie filosofică , Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1955–1956, 1960.
• Sensurile muzicii , Editura Tineretului, Bucureşti, 1965.
• Innoirile muzicii , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1966.
• Eu, Richard Wagner , Editura Tineretului, Bucureşti, 1966.
• Dincolo de muzică , Editura pentru Literatură, Bucureşti, 1967.
• Întrebările conştiinţei wagneriene , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1968.
• În dialog cu Emil Cioran , Editura Cartea Românească, Bucureşti, 1968–1969, 1996.
• Noi ṣi clasicii , Editura Tineretului, Bucureşti, 1968.
• Venirea antimuzicii , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1968.
• Procesul lui Socrate , Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1968–1969, 1993.
• În căutarea Maestrului , Editura Institutul European, Bucureşti, 1968–1972, 1999.
• Pelerinaj oriental , Bucureşti, 1965.
• Le sens de la musique , Bucureşti, 1965.
• Arta de a înţelege muzica , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1970.
• Meditaţii beethoveniene , Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1969–1970.
• Via meditativa , Editura Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1972–1974, 1997.
• Cazul Schönberg , Editura Muzicală a Uniunii Compozitorilor şi Muzicologilor din România, Bucureşti, 1974.
• Iniţiere muzicală , Bucureşti, 1974.
• Pneumatologie-Morţii noştri , Bucureşti, 1973–1974.
• Mică filosofie a muzicii , Editura Eminescu, Bucureşti, 1975.
• Nebănuitul Eminescu , Editura Universal Dalsi, Bucureşti, 1975, 1984, 1999.
• O istorie a muzicii europene , Editura Albatros, Bucureşti, 1975.

Web links

• Official website of the Musicosophia

Portal: biographies  - classical music