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Festival commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of George Enescu 2-3 December 2005 Abstracts of papers to be presented at the conference at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Romanian Cultural Center 2-3 December 2005 Mihaela BUHAICIUC (State University of New York, Stony Brook), Elements of style in Enescu’s Sept chansons de Clement Marot Composed in 1908, the cycle of songs on Clement Marot’s poems constitutes an early synthesis
of Enescu’s main aesthetic that will evolve and preside over his entire oeuvre. The melody is structured on short motives,
some of them based on Romanian folk themes, others based on medieval modes. His melody adopts the monodic principle,
occasionally constituting unisons with the piano accompaniment. The harmony, characteristic more of the nineteenth century,
changes modal structures but still keeps a diatonic tint. The polyphony is organically embodied in the melodic design.
Enescu’s divisionary concept of rhythms expands to parlando rubato and giusto. His form favors cyclic shapes with succinct
developments and rapid dynamic progressions. Richard BURKE (Hunter College, City University of New York), Enescu’s Oedipe: Confronting operatic modernism When Ildebrando Pizzetti set out in 1909 to write
Fedra, his first completed opera, he was urged by the publisher Ricordi
to create a work that would be “free of all Wagnerian prejudice, free of every Straussian excess, and of every Debussyan
affectation”. His model for the new opera was Paul Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe-bleue from 1906. In Ariane, Dukas, an admirer of
Wagner, Strauss, and Debussy, produced a work that acknowledged all three composers yet imitated none of them. Ilias CHRISSOCHOIDIS (Stanford University), From Romanian folklore to Greek nationalism: The cultural migration of Nikos Astrinidis In the years of the Ottoman Empire, thousands of Greeks settled along the shores of the Black Sea in search of fortune and
security. The Greek diaspora became especially prominent in the regions of modern Romania. Nikos Astrinidis (b.1921) was born
in Bessarabia into the prosperous family of a Greek merchant and his Russian-Romanian wife. This multinational heritage
allowed him to idolize Greece as a spiritual motherland, while shaping his artistic outlook in the vibrant culture of post-WWI
Romania. As a young composer, he found inspiration in Romanian folklore and a model for its treatment in the works of Enescu.
By his late teens, he had composed two extensive rhapsodies for piano, the second of which he would later perform to Dinu
Lipatti in Bucharest. Ruxandra CRISTEA (Université de Montréal), Enescu – composer: Serialism in the second suite for piano in D major, op. 10 Winning the Pleyel award given by the Paris review Musica in 1903, the suite in D major, op. 10, was the first important
piece in Enescu’s piano repertoire following his earlier work of 1897 Dans le style ancien, in g minor, op. 3, which was
considered more like a school exercise. The four-movements composing the suite are often played independently influencing
the entire meaning of the cycle. Serialism, one of the characteristics of Enescu’s musical language, helps us to see the
connection between the pieces and the importance of the suite presentation as a whole. Following the development of the
musical motive up to the point where the initial cell becomes almost unrecognizable, we become aware of the leading thread
and the melodic line comes out very clearly from the polyphonic scene. This compositional technique gives originality to the
music and offers a constant “game” of interpretation, which in turn enables us to discover and underline the hidden beauty of
Enescu's work. In this paper I will concentrate on the development and the variation of the initial motives with the hope of
promoting Enescu's music as well as facilitating its understanding. Dinu GHEZZO (New York University), Modal–tonal tendencies in George Enescu’s sonata no. 3 for piano and violin In the process of bringing the style and sound of “lautari” in a formal chamber music framework, Enescu not only
reinvents the “lautari” practice, but expands its tonal limits into a new light, merging in
the process the modal and the tonal tendencies of his time. The modal-tonal floating used by Enescu in this sonata presents
an important reconsideration of the “national” style much in use in many European centers. It is also a tendency closely
related to the French tonal-modal experiments of the beginning and up to the third decade of the century. Marin MARIAN BĂLAŞA (Romanian Academy of Sciences, Bucharest), On the real geographies of Enescu’s inner worlds When addressing the mental, psychological and spiritual meanings that Enescu encoded in his musical language, one
cannot overlook terms such as sentimentality, idyllic, dream-like state of mind, maternal and childhood fixation, folklorism,
ruralism, pastoralism, and passeism. All of these terms are consistent and revealing within the framework of a psychoanalytical
approach (that has yet to be attempted in Romanian musicology). This is, in fact, the attempt at not being romantic, i.e.,
dismissing a romantic discourse, when discussing Enescu’s psychological romanticism. In the paper I will set aside prudishness,
poetical euphoria, and mythologizing respect, all elements that characterize Enescu’s romantic admirers, since I consider
such attitudes to be totally ineffective instruments for a sober, neutral, distant, and thus academic, knowledge. Hence, I
will speak about Enescu as a product of his abysmal psychology, especially since modern psychoanalysis (including the
post-Adler and post-Lacan ones), have turned voice and musical composition and performance into themes of exceptional
exegetical and hermeneutical relevance. I will focus less on the favorable historical and political context of “sentimentalism”
and “idylism” (by the turn of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century), although these aspects are very
useful to the comprehensive understanding of the topic; yet, I will do so because that type of historicism is too largely
available. Therefore, I will insist on the illustration of the psychoanalytical fundamentals of sentimentalism in Enescu’s
life, thinking, and music. I will also underline the “paradox” of founding universally valid dramatic themes and discourses
on local folk motifs and personal reminiscences. My thesis, which does hold a generous intellectual and polemic/challenging
potential, stresses that Enescu did not live by and compose through an ideology (be it a very personal one), but only by and
through his abysmal pride, his personal sentimentalism, his subjectivity that is psychoanalytically identifiable as prenatal
and maternal fixation. Antoni PIZÀ (Foundation for Iberian Music, The Graduate Center, CUNY), Enescu's Spanish crossroads: How a Romanian Shaped Spanish musical nationalism To some ears, Enescu’s music might sound more “Spanish” than that written by some Spanish
composers. Indeed, his music had an important influence in the creation and development of the Spanish nationalistic
(Andalusian) musical idiom. He knew intimately some of the major Spanish musicians, including Casals, with whom he often
performed chamber music throughout Europe and, in addition, many of his students settled in Spanish-speaking countries
influencing successive generations of composers and performers. Even a popular 1940's Hollywood film, Three Darling
Daughters, jumbled up Manuel de Falla’s “Ritual Fire Dance” and Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody performed by José and
Amparo Iturbi. Furthermore, nowadays, most performers of Albéniz’s Rapsodia española prefer Enescu’s 1910 orchestration
to the arrangement done by Tomás Bretón (the quintessential zarzuela, and therefore “Spanish”, composer). Enescu’s music,
nowadays, continues to be very popular in Spain, where his music is regularly performed and enjoyed by vast audiences.
His opera Oedipe, for instance, had a successful run in Barcelona during the 2003 season. All this could indicate
that,
in the popular mind, both musical idioms (Spanish and Romanian) are often perceived as similar (i.e. exotic). Enescu’s
nationalism, thus, seems to go beyond his
Romanian borders to crossover to the Mediterranean shores of Spain. Christina PLACILLA (Winston-Salem State University), Doïna, Brâu and Batuta: Romanian folk elements in George Enescu’s Concertstück
George
Enescu (1881-1955) wrote his Concertstück for viola and piano in 1906 at the behest of the Paris Conservatoire
for their competition jury. The work is a virtuosic tour de force that incorporates elements from the Romanian folk tradition
such as the doïna, the brâu, and the batuta. The doïna is a lament in the parlando rubato style of storytelling present in
the Romanian musical practice. Both the brâu and the batuta are dances with gender-specific associations commonly found in the
region. In his Concertstück Enescu created a Romanian rural scene by using his ethnically inspired musical voice. He was
known for his association with the Societatea Compozitorilor Romani and the ideals that he and his contemporaries set forth
to create art music with distinctly Romanian features. In this lecture recital, the tenets of this Romanian national school
will be presented, such as the usage of parlando rubato and doïna, traditional dance structures (brâu and batuta), as well
as their combination in creation of the Romanian nationalist identity. Also will be shown how Enescu use these elements in
the creation of his ideal national character. Enescu wrote that “if we have something to say, let us say it in our own manner;
otherwise, let us be silent.” The lecture recital will conclude with a performance of the Concertstück. Jörg SIEPERMANN (Freue Universität Berlin), The importance of having been Enescu When in 1955 the communist regime in Romania installed the late Enescu as a national icon by reintroducing the Enescu
competition and renaming the state philharmonic orchestra, this came as a relief to most members of Romania’s musical
life, as astonishing a decision as it was. For regarding Enescu’s deeply contrapuntal music, that asks for closer inspection,
his orientation to European absolute music traditions, and his affinity for the royal family in the past, he could easily have
been considered as a “formalist” composer. However, the communists began to build monuments instead. Luana STAN (Université de Paris IV Sorbonne & Université de Montréal), George Enescu’s musical influence on the following generations – reality or identity justification?
When researching Romanian music, George Enescu appears to be the principal composing figure in all dictionaries and music
histories. For researchers, outside Romania, the available information on Romanian “art” music is oftentimes restricted to
folk music and Enescu’s folk-influenced music. Cornel ŢĂRANU (Bucharest), Enescu in the light of an unfinished work: Caprice roumain The sketches of the Enescu’s Caprice roumain were written during a long period of time, starting in 1925 and
finishing in 1949. The fact that Enescu was returning to them again and again proved that he did not want to abandon
them. The sketches do not resemble very much one another: the first version seems to be more chromatic, and the second
one more diatonic. The whole work was conceived in four movements: the first Ben moderato; the second, a bit more moving,
having a rhythm of the hora; the third a Lento; and the final movement, Allegro vivace. The orchestrated version of the
first movement is also incomplete, but it is absolutely certain that the missing pages have been lost, because Enescu
always used to orchestrate continuously. The orchestrated version does not correspond with any of the known variants,
but it resembles more the first version of 1925. The existence of the orchestrated pages in a definitive version of the
first movement persuaded me to take a risk of orchestrating the missing parts of the composition. After completing the
first movement, I transcribed the second and third movements, first omitting the final one which is in sketches very
incomplete, but later on reconstructing it, too. This attempt resulted in a composition of 25-30 minutes, which is
significant since it is the only concerto for violin and orchestra by Enescu. Dumitru VITCU (Bucharest), Reflections on Enescu’s American musical itineraries
The general artistic, scientific, and human interest to discern both the national specificity and the universal
valences of Enescu’s work, as well as the example of a whole life dedicated to music, man, work, good, and peace,
inspire and motivate any search to identify all the constituent elements of a global image. Although spectacular news,
both interpretative and factual, is quite unlikely, specialist long-term routine estimates show that certain fine points,
gradations, even changes are both necessary and possible. A field which, despite substantial theoretical and documentary
contributions, is still appealing to researchers due to the opportunities it provides to reveal, strengthen or refine
points, ways and means to get access to Enescu’s universe is the American perspective of reception made possible by
thoroughgoing study, or re-examining the rich information to be found in the American libraries and archives, or in
the memory of former witnesses, cooperators or disciples of the famous Romanian musician, spread everywhere from coast
to coast. Enescu conference program |