Aurel Stroe, Personality of Modern Romanian Music in the Context of XXth Century

Aurel Stroe, Personality of Modern Romanian Music in the Context of XXth Century COROIU PETRUŢA MARIA Music Department Transilvania University from Brasov Bdul Eroilor nr. 29 Brasov ROMANIA maniutpetruta@yahoo.com, http://www.unitbv.ro/muzica Abstract: Aurel Stroe is one of the most important romanian composers from the second half of the XXth century, an exceptional complex artist, who assumed his destiny during the communist era (constantly trying to avoid the contact with it and the inherent consequences, finally leaving the country). Aurel Stroe is the artist who left behind him no epigones; is almost impossible to understand his musical system (anyway, so diverse) in the absence of his personality. His ideas, his human profile, his thinking universe were those that continue to animate and inspire his art, his music. Aurel Stroe is according to international statistics one of the most performed Romanian composers on the scenes outside his native country. Key-Words: modernity, music, Aurel Stroe, Romania, aesthetics, composition 1 Introduction Aurel Stroe is one of the most important romanian composers from the second half of the XXth century, an exceptional complex artist, who assumed his destiny during the communist era (constantly trying to avoid the contact with it and the inherent consequences, finally leaving the country). Aurel Stroe is the artist who left behind him no epigones; is almost impossible to understand his musical system (anyway, so diverse) in the absence of his personality. His ideas, his human profile, his thinking universe were those that continue to animate and inspire his art, his music. Aurel Stroe is according to international statistics one of the most performed Romanian composers on the scenes outside his native country. Aurel Stroe was born on May 5, 1932 in Bucharest and this year we celebrate 80 years from his birth. He died on October 3, 2008 in Mannheim (Germany), but according to his will was brought and buried in his native country. Moreover, Aurel Stroe used to come every year in Romania, to spend a part of the suumer in Bucegi mountains, at Busteni, where he replenish his inspiration. Aurel Stroe studied music at the tender age, beeing the son of a famous and cultivated romanian pediatrician. He received a high quality artistic training with Maria Forino (piano) and Marțian Negrea (composition). He studied music at the universitary level in the Bucharest Conservatory. Aurel Stroe was a complete musician, composer, teacher and musicologist with an exceptional magnitude of the ideas, with their unique achievement. His works implied all coordinates of the musical composition, from symphonic and vocal-symphonic genre, to the chamber works and to those devoted to choral singing, being a pioneer of electronic music and an excelent composer for the dramatic works. His teaching career began in 1962 at the Bucharest Conservatory, were he taught Composition and Orchestration. As an associate professor, Aurel Stroe taught at the University of Illinois (USA, during 1985-1986), at the Normal School of the University of Strasbourg (1972), but also in Romania (Busteni and Piatra Neamt), as well as in Darmstadt (Germany). Aurel Stroe has held conferences, lectures, essays in the country and abroad (France, Austria, Germany), radio and television broadcastings. He published studies, esseys, articles, interviews, most of them so original, in the most prestigious journals of musicology and Romanian culture. Due to his merits, he received the highest Romanian cultural degree (Romanian Academy Award 1974), he became the owner of the title Chevalier des Arts et ISBN: 978-1-61804-096-1 227

Lettres of France (2002) and of the Herder Prize (Vienna 2002). 2 Problem Formulation Because very difficult historical conditions, the Romanian people has developed a rather late cultural and economic value, looking to the rest of Europe, losing the contact with economic and artistic reality of the Europe. Constantin Noica called the Romanian people people with early culture [1], a people who knew how to keep his constant values, although the Romanians were subject to very difficult conditions of survival and development. Maybe this turbulent historical context made a higher spirit of conservation in the Romanian cultural space, where they still exist today an authentic art, impossible to discover at the people around us. The romanian music of the XXth century has restored the connection between national and European space, between the values and the development of Europe and that of Romania. The Romanian people has a certain philosophical vision, detached from the reality, very close to the dream, fantasy, fairy and stories, to the possibilities of being and doing. Romanian territory always had two poles of reference to international space, with a special opening to Western Europe, and to Eastern area, too. Located at the confluence of geographical horizons, of the crossroads of history plans, Romanian land was always an object of dispute, which called for permanent defense and fight for preservation. Each culture has its values, vocation. As a people, it s necessary to follow them to express a genuine value, in order to preserve the specific elements in all European guidelines. According to Romanian philosophy, the native datas of our people are contemplation, the desire for purification and essentiality [1], elements that we can find in folklore, in our Orthodox faith (iconography and Byzantine Liturgy), in the sculpture of Brancusi, in the musical art of George Enescu. According to the musicologist Irinel Anghel, a series of musical Western influences manifested in recent decades of the romanian music. She classifies these aesthetic guidelines: neomodal music, neoclassical music, serial music, structuralism, bruitism and texture music, described as the scientistic fascination, devoted to the formal and constructivist side of the modern music [2]. In ther early decades of the XXth century, the essential intervention of George Enescu in our history of music made the exceptional accord between the Romanian music and the European one. On the compositional and performing plans, George Enescu gave us the momentum of connection to the European directions of the time. After the generation George Enescu-Mihail Jora-Paul Constantinescu, for several years, young artists as Ştefan Niculescu, Myriam Marbe, Aurel Stroe, Dan Constantinescu, Adrian Raţiu şi Cornel Ţăranu became promoters of the avant-guard, drawing the coordinates of the new romanian music from the incisive and profound modernity of the last Enescu s symphonic work (Simfonia de cameră, Chamber Symphony). The musicologist Valentina Sandu-Dediu discerns two types of approach to the modern mentality, reflected in romanian musical art: the radical modern plan (whose representatives were Ştefan Niculescu, Aurel Stroe, Tiberiu Olah, Anatol Vieru, Myriam Marbe şi Cornel Ţăranu) and the moderate modern plan [3]. Young composers have participated in musical events in Warsaw and Darmstadt after 1965, because after 1977 the ideological communist pressures materialized in the romanian art. The modal orientatiuon is not new: the modalism of 60 was used in theoretical and musical works by Aurel Stroe, Ştefan Niculescu, Adrian Raţiu, Myriam Marbe, Cornel Ţăranu şi Tiberiu Olah, important composers of the first generation of avantgarde. Aurel Stroe was, since his debut years, until the last moment of his life, a composer who has made a steady and decisive opposition to the communist regime [4], especially by his opera Orestia II (as well as Pedeapsa by Anatol Vieru, a brilliant colleague of his generation). Enescu has brought the national, traditional romanian elements in the universal context, expressing in the most profound and sensitive way the Romanian essences. His intense national genius was assimilated into European forms, contributing to the professional recognition of its value in XXth century music. Original and profound aspirations of ISBN: 978-1-61804-096-1 228

Romanian music have the perspective of the universal recognition [5], and Aurel Stroe significantly contributed to the appreciation of the Romanian musical values in the second half of XXth century. Aurel Stroe is the exponent of an intense avant-garde, but not an eccentric one. He built a personal universe of ideas that feed not only from music, but also in mathematics, physics, philosophy, theology, visual arts and other fiels of human knowledge. Trying to understand the art of Aurel Stroe, the listener must exceed that curiosity and wonder that stirs his music and feel the neecesity to live in his ideational universe [6]. Aurel Stroe composed in all genres, including electronic music. His opera works in began in 1969 with Asta nu va primi Premiul Nobel ( This work will not get the Nobel Prize ), continuing with Pacea lui Aristofan 1973 ( Aristofan s Peace ), with the exceptional Closed City trilogy ( Trilogia cetății închise ) - 1973 1988 after Eschil s libretto ( Agamemnon / Orestia I 1973, Choeforele / Orestia II 1983, Eumenidele / Orestia III 1988). His opera creations show not only his musical genius, but also a remarkable gift to create and sustain intense, complex and profound playwrights. Scene spirit marks not only his opera works, but his symphonies, concertos and chamber music. Conciliul Mondial ( The World Council 1987) and Copilul şi diavolul ( Child and devil 1989) are his last operatic works. His symphonic music is, in my opinion, the most representative part of his componistic effort. It contains all original data and musicological concepts built by Aurel Stroe. Scherzo simfonic (1951) was a promising debut of an exceptional symphonic career; Simfonia pentru orchestră mare ( Symphony for large orchestra 1954), Uvertura burlescă ( Ouverture burlesque 1961), Arcade (1962), Laude I (1966), Canto I (1967), Laude II (1968), Canto II (1971), Simfonia ( Symphony 1973), Accords et Comptines (1988), Ciaccona con alcune licenze (1995), Preludii lirice ( Lyrical Preludes 1999), Mandala cu o polifonie de Antonio Lotti ( Mandala with a polyphony by Antonio Lotti 2000). Aurel Stroe himself was not interested in writing and publishing his musicological ideas. That s why it s very important trying to understand them from the source, from the author, a very difficult task, being aware that a long process of initiation is needed because of his interdisciplinary thinking. We have the moral duty to raise awarness to contemporary listeners and to write all these information in order to preserve it for the next generations. Aurel Stroe thinked, still a teenager, the essence of music from different historical and geographical points of view. Time music and its reflection in the musical work concerned especially his work, Rever c est desengrener les temps superposees (When we dream, we separate the overlapping times). The notion of classes of compositions was valued by the composer since 1960-1970. Along with Scelsi, we consider that the paternity of Aurel Stroe on major ideas of contemporary aesthetics (morphogenetic music, the theory of classes of compositions, the concept of nonevolution) should arouse great interest [7]. Aurel Stroe was a pioneer of formalized music, working at the Computing centre in Bucharest with prof. Grigore Moisil and Ştefan Niculescu. For eight years, he writed the article Compositions and classes of compositions ; Aurel Stroe was concerned in mathematical formalization of musical art. Romanian musician Aurel Stroe is the first artist to write a musical work by computer, a detail today little known, even less recognized. Since 60, Aurel Stroe initiated morphogenetic music in Romania, in accordance with the principles of R. Thom s catastrophne theory. Aurel Stroe used mathematical theories according to which objects can be ordained: Thom (catastrophe theory), Prigogine (theory of dissipative structures), Ruelle (chaos theory and strange attractors), Mandelbrot (fractal theory) [8]. In those years were based his main coordinates of his compositional technique: composition with several tuning systems ( multimusics ) illustrates the general idea of complexity (manifested by the presence of several incommensurable cultural paradigms, ranked as a palimpsest). 3 Problem Solution Composer Dan Dediu distinguished three original qualities of Aurel Stroe s music: trezvia (the vigilance, in monks s language, ISBN: 978-1-61804-096-1 229

an awake and active presence), the bizarre condition and the possibility to formulate problems and trying to find an answer. First quality refers to the ability of music to catch you in its message, to get deeply involved in it s developing, so you can not stop to listen it. This situation is something rarely seen in music history [11]. The bizarre quality of his music refers to an unusual and unexpected profile, but objective also. The third quality consists in formulating problems and trying to find an answer, through music. His art is a permanent reflection in sounds. Aurel Stroe goes beyond style, discovering the dramatic principles underlying his work, the cultural paradigms that support his thinking. Romanian spirit of tragedy is not explosive, is the implosion. That s why we can not discerne it as tragic, said Constantin Noica about the Romanian soul [12]. However, the humanity and the discretion that characterized each gesture of composer Aurel Stroe make him a withdrawn figure of Romanian music, an artist who has avoided public exposure of his person, a remarkable musician who promoted his ideas only through music. Detached from the requirements of his age, highly original and unique, Aurel Stroe has created a deeply personal space in which to express himself with the highest precision. Listening to his music, we can hear the soft words of the great Romanian painter Ştefan Luchian; he said at the end of his life, when he painted his famous flowers, beeing in sufference and poverty: what else to paint, than flowers... I won t paint hurricanes, earthquakes, disasters, fire, ruins... I paint flowers... [13]. I tried to write about Aurel Stroe with the privilege of being close to him in the last 15 years of his life. I learned that the personality of an artist is the object of faith, not of knowlegde [14]. 4 Conclusion The musicological effort to capture all the multilayered meanings of art and personality of the composer Aurel Stroe is one if the most rewarding. At the end of our the presentation of the great Romanian composer Aurel Stroe, I present the poetic metaphor that seems to characterize, in my opinion, the human and artistic profile of our subject: the poem The Road ( Drumul ) by Marin Sorescu (one of the greatest Romanian poets), which reflects the singular mentality of our Romanian musician. Aurel Stroe was the man who has never renounced the principles that have not ceased to animate both his creation and life: Gânditor şi cu mâinile la spate merg pe calea ferată, drumul cel mai drept cu putinţă. Din spatele meu, cu viteză, vine un tren care n-a auzit nimic despre mine. Acest tren martor mi-e Zenon bătrânul nu mă va ajunge niciodată, pentru că eu mereu voi avea un avans faţă de lucrurile care nu gândesc. Sau chiar dacă brutal va trece peste mine, întotdeauna se va găsi un om care să meargă în faţa lui plin de gânduri şi cu mâinile la spate. Ca mine acum în faţa monstrului negru care se apropie cu o viteză înspăimântătoare si care nu mă va ajunge niciodată ( Full of thoughts, I go on the railway, the strainghtest way in universe. From behind me, a train comes with great speed, a train which did not hear anything about me. This train old Zenon is my witness will never get me, because I will always have an advantage over things that do not think. Or even if brutally it will pass over me, there will be always a man to go before him, full of thoughts, just like me now, when I hear the black monster approaching with terrifying speed. It will never get me ) [15]. References: [1] Noica, C., Jurnal de idei, Humanitas Publishing House, 1991. [2] Anghel, I., Orientări, direcţii, curente din a doua jumătate a secolului XX, Musical Publishing House, 1997. [3] Sandu-Dediu, V., Muzica românească între 1944-2000, Musical Publishing House, 2002. [4] Sava, I., Claviaturile timpului, Polirom Publishing House, 1998. [5] Niculescu, Şt., Reflecţii despre muzică, Musical Publishing House, 1980. [6] Dănceanu, L., Eseuri implozive, Musical Publishing House, 1998. [7] Anghel, I., Orientări, direcţii, curente din a doua jumătate a secolului XX, Musical Publishing House, 1997. [8] Idem. ISBN: 978-1-61804-096-1 230

[9] Goethe, J. W., Maxime şi reflecţii, Univers Publishing House, 1972. [10] Noica, C., Jurnal de idei, Humanitas Publishing House,, 1991. [11] Dediu, Dan, Cu Aurel Stroe prin cotloanele minţii şi bizareriile muzicii, http://dandediu.ro/writings/stroe_id_dediu.pdf. [12] Noica, C., Jurnal de idei, Humanitas Publishing House, 1991. [13] xxx, Mărturii despre Luchian, Meridiane Publishing House, 1966. [14] Ionescu, N., Curs de metafizică, Humanitas Publishing House, 1995. [15] Sorescu, M., Poezii, Eminescu Publishing House, 1985. ISBN: 978-1-61804-096-1 231