Anatol Vieru

Anatol Vieru ( born June 8, 1926 in Iaşi, † 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, Leon Klepper, Paul Constantinescu and Constantin Silvestri and 1951-1958 at the Moscow Conservatory, especially in Aram Khachaturian. In Moscow he is a fellow student of Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina and Tiberiu Olah.

From 1947 to 1950 Vieru is active as a conductor at the Opera Naţională Bucureşti. His public debut as a composer marks the Suita în style vechi (Suite in the Old Style, 1945); It was followed by the Flute Concerto (1954-1955), the first two string quartets (1955 and 1956 ) and the oratorio Mioriţa (1957). In 1962, he is known in the west as he gave the important Prix de composition musicale Reine international Marie -José receives for his arisen in the same year Cello Concerto in Geneva. His composition for string quartet and a percussionist Trepte ale tacerii ( levels of Silence, 1966 ) is a work commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation. He assumes the Darmstadt Summer Courses in part, and his orchestral composition sundial ( Clepsidra I) will be premiered at the Donaueschingen Music Days 1969.

In the same year one of his most important chamber music works, Sita lui Eratostene follows (named after the Sieve of Eratosthenes ) for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano. Here already crystallize out principles that will determine his future work: For his neomodales system he assimilated ideas of such diverse composers such as Bartók, Enescu, Webern, Messiaen and Shostakovich. Since the late 50s, he deals with intuitive set theory, and in the 60s he realizes that even the ordinary musical ear rezipiert scales as sets in the mathematical sense of the word. Vieru practiced consequently no serialism, but he shall, by mathematical operations modes, from which he gains the musical parameters. This method converts it in various forms from - called clepsidra ( sundial ), site (screen ), écran (shield), etc. - so as not to reduce to a uniform fashion which could determine what it is, à la Vieru to write. Vieru was known for his non-conformism and explained its central aim is a founded on inner motives of life.

1973, when it makes a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service to spend a year in West Berlin, he composed his second symphony Tachycardies. Back in Bucharest, he wrote two operas: Iona after the eponymous drama by Marin Sorescu and drawings by MC Escher (1972-1975, first performance in Bucharest 1976) and Praznicul calicilor ( The Feast of the cripple ) after the eponymous comedy by Mihail Sorbul ( 1978-1980, world premiere in Berlin 1990). His tragic Second Symphony La un cutremur ( from an earthquake ) produced from 1977 to 1978 in response to the earthquake in Vrancea 1977.

Parallel to his work as a composer exerts Vieru until the end of his life a keen interest in teaching from: Since 1955 he is professor of orchestration and composition at the Bucharest Conservatory. In 1978 he received his doctorate in Musicology at the Conservatory in Cluj Sigismund Toduţă with the work De la moduri, speak un model al gândirii muzicale intervalice ( Of the modes become a model for intervallic cal musical thinking ). From this work, two years later published treatise Cartea modurilor emerges ( The Book of modes), which is extended in its English version in 1993 by a second part ( The Book of Modes). Vieru notes similarities between his own ideas on the compositional application of mathematical operations and those of American composers and musicologists. He published studies and lectures in Darmstadt, Jerusalem, at universities in the United States and Canada. He expressed this to his own works and methods of composition as well as generally to musical postmodernism, which he less for a fashionable trend or school holds as for a historical situation, coexist in the modal, tonal and serial techniques. This situation requires the task exclusivist tendencies and an effort to integrate these various methods of composition. Music Theoretical Contributions Vierus are gathered in the two volumes Cuvinte despre sunete ( words about sounds, 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 ( levels of silence ) for string quartet and a percussionist (1966 )
  • 7 symphonies: No. 1 tacerii Oda ( Ode to the Silence, 1967), No. 2 Tachycardies (1973 ), No. 3 La un cutremur ( From an earthquake, 1978), No. 4 (1982 ), No. 5 ( by Mihai Eminescu for chorus and orchestra, 1984 - 985), No. 6 Exodus ( 1989), No. 7 Anul Soarelui calm ( the year of quiet sun, 1992-1993)
  • Sundial ( Clepsidra I) for orchestra ( 1969)
  • Sita lui Eratostene ( Sieve of Eratosthenes ) for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano (1969 )
  • Iona. Opera based on the eponymous play by Marin Sorescu and drawings by MC Escher (1972-1975, first performance in Bucharest 1976)
  • Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (1974-1975)
  • Praznicul calicilor ( The Feast of the cripple ), opera based on the eponymous comedy by Mihail Sorbul ( 1978 to 1980, world premiere in Berlin 1990)
  • Memorial for Orchestra ( 1990)
  • Ultimele zile, ultimele ore ( last day, last hour ), opera based on Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Bulgakov (1990-1995)

Theoretical works

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

Awards

Among the most important accolades received Vieru in the course of his life, count than those mentioned above ( the Prix International de composition musicale Reine Marie -José in 1962 and the commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation 1966) the Premiul de compoziţie George Enescu (1946 ), the Herder prize ( 1986) and the Marele Premiu al Uniunii Compozitorilor şi din România Muzicologilor (1996).

Known students

Donaueschingen Festival 1977 Vrancea earthquake Gheorghe Dima Music Academy Herder Prize Integrated Authority File
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