OZANA ALEXANDRESCU
Ikimatarul în manuscrise din România
Résumé
L’étude s’occupe de l’analyse des deux manuscrits de l’Oikematarion conservés en Roumanie. Partant d’une recherche comparée, nous avons reconstitué le contenu du volume, avec des lacunes, et nous avons mis en lumière le problème des témoignages apparemment notés d’une façon erronée ; un tel témoignage indique le point d’où la structure propre d’un certain mode se transpose sur d’autres marches, telle qu’elle est présentée dans les exemples offerts par la transcription.
Mots clés : Oikematarion, Hymne Acathiste, transposition
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NICOLAE GHEORGHIŢĂ
Observations on the technique of transcription (ΕΞHΓΗΣΙΣ) into the new method of analytical music notation of the Sunday koinonikon of the 18th century
Abstract
The phenomenon of exegesis (εξήγησις) of Byzantine music and of transcribing the old musical settings into the New Method of analytical music notation since the beginning of the 19th century is one of the extremely disputed subjects amongst musicologists. A true “apple of discord”, perhaps the practice of translating or interpreting the Byzantine music semiographic system is the best example to describe the totally irreducible mentality which has characterized and is still characterizing part of the researchers in the field with regards to this point. The discussions started from the difficulties in understanding the stenographic and mnemo-technical features of this notation and from the fact that both the oral tradition and the written one accredit the idea that the motivic formulas (theseis) in the old Byzantine music notation were semiographic units that focused on the melos or the real, truthful melody.
As it is well known, the construction system of the Byzantine melos and, implicitly, of the Sunday koinonikon, is one in which the basic unit is the thesis (the motivic formula) and the succession of theseis. Thus, I chose to study the exegesis technique for the Sunday koinonikon in the 18th century on basis of the formulaic character of this music and its relation with the psalm text. This analysis method is known as regressive collations (ἀναδρομικός παραλληλισμός), i.e. starting from the received tradition and going back, step by step, until reaching the medieval sources.
The current study presents the conclusions regarding the translation (interpretation) technique in the New Semiography of the eleven most important formulas (theseis) existent in the Sunday koinonika during the 18th century, beginning with the 42 Sunday creations of Daniel Protopsaltes (8 koinonika), Petros Lampadarios Peloponnesios (26 koinonika) and Petros Byzantios (8 koinonika), in the “interpretations” offered by the “fathers” of the New Semiography in the beginning of the 19th century: Gregorios Protopsaltes (1778-1821) and Chourmouzios Chartophylax (1770-1840).
Keywords: Church music, Byzantine chant, Sunday koinonikon, New semiography, Old system, exegesis (εξήγησις) of Byzantine music, motivic formulas (theseis)
ALEXEI YAROPOLOV
Znamenny scale – fait accompli?
Abstract
The author addresses one of the most sensitive topics of Znamenny chant: its scale. He tries to restore the “burned bridges” between ideographic and staff-notation of the Chant as he redefines and essentially generalizes the concept of scale as such. The possibility to artificially construct ad hoc many scales sounding sometimes very similar to the scale suggested by the modern staff-notation is a serious argument to regard the “staff-notation based” deciphering from the 17th century (dvoeznamenniki) a pure game of chance. The constructed scales, presented in the paper, are different to “keyboard diatonica” and from one another and are never subject to the unified theorizing (unified nomenclature of degrees, etc). Critically commented is the practice to uncontrollably use the trivial pitch-symbols for deciphering, which ipso facto makes the probabilistic steps of unknown scales look as the ill-founded deviations from the diatonic scale steps, which are currently in use in the common musical education. This practice hinders the chance to acknowledge the right of the remote musical culture to rest on foundations that can be formulated both positively and explicitly, all the more so, as the usage of paleographic signs looks rather consistent. The resemblances and differences between musical cultures may be treated more liberally since no scale is seen a norm. The author is based on the writings of Russian musicologist and organologist Felix Raudonikas.
Keywords: Znamenny Chant, Deciphering, Paleography, Solmisation, Guidonian hexachords, Temperament, Tuning, Diatonics, Old-believers, Emergence, Mode, Glas, Aristoxenos, Tone, Accidentals, Metavola, Modulation, Mese, Paramese, Division of octave, Pomety, Cinnabar letters, Dvoeznamenniki
CONSTANTIN SECARĂ
Uvertura de concert op. 32 de George Enescu, de la „caracterul popular românesc” la sinteza limbajului muzical enescian
Abstract
A work of late maturity in Enescu’s creation, the Concert overture op. 32 is still the subject of lively discussion and heated controversy. Next to last in the order of the opus number established by the composer, the Overture reiterates, for the last time in Enescu’s creation, the composer’s interest in initiating and developing themes from an imaginary, figurative folklore. Based on existing studies of Enescu’s work as well as on conclusions having emerged from our own studies, the current material is a continuation of our investigation of Enescu’s style and aesthetic principles, containing its development on different levels of analysis and interpretation. Our former hypotheses concerning Enescu’s musical time are being examined from a new perspective, and several new concepts are advanced, with regard to certain aspects of the structure of this particular work: from the contradiction in terms apparent in its title to its construction on the basis of the principle of coincidentia oppositorum and its subtle development according to the ideal shape of a spiral, an hourglass or a Möbius strip (band). Having no pretense of exhausting its subject, our research is placed under the motto Ad narrandum, non ad probandum (In order to tell, and not to prove), thus leaving open the possibility of the expression of other points of view. The conclusions, which stem from the scholastic principle Forma dat esse rei (Form gives things their being), bring to the fore the potential of the continued study of Enescu’s oeuvre, its continued contemporaneity, and thus demonstrate the genius and perenity of this masterful creation.
Keywords: George Enescu; Concert Overture op. 32; aesthetic of musical form; musical time; music perception; topological analysis
VERA MOLEA
Aurel Ion Maican (III). Declinul unei cariere strălucite
Abstract
This paper is the last part of a monographic study on stage director Aurel Ion Maican, who contributed decisively to the making of Romanian modern theatre in the interwar period. After having traced back the beginnings of Maican’s career and his outstanding activity at the National Theatre of Jassy, the author brings to light little known facts regarding the artist’s work from late 1934 till his death in 1952. For the Romanian theatre it was a period of decay. Because of the insecure political climate in the late 1930s and the vicissitudes of the Second World War, theatre practitioners turned quite often to light, escapist entertainment. Under these circumstances, Maican moved from one city to another, staging mainly boulevard comedies, operettas and variety shows. In 1943, during the Romanian occupation of Transnistria, he was appointed director of Odessa National Theatre, where he worked for a season. When Romania changed sides and joined the Allies, Maican was imprisoned under false accusations, but he was eventually released without trial. After the war, the newly established Communist regime brought dramatic changes: theatres were nationalised in 1948, and an increasing number of propaganda plays were included in the repertoire. Maican worked mainly as a theatre director and as a professor at the Institute of Theatre, trying to fit in this new world. In the last part of his career, few were the productions in which the stage director succeeded to materialize his reformist vision. The troubled history of those years, as well as personal circumstances prevented Maican, once a brilliant innovative artist, from achieving his full potential.
Keywords: summer garden theatres, Marioara Cinski, Sică Alexandrescu, Theodor Kiriacoff, National Theatre of Odessa, scenery innovations
LUCIAN SINIGAGLIA
Henrik Ibsen în România (III)
Abstract
Part of a monographic study, this paper deals with the introduction of Ibsen's oeuvre in Romanian culture and its significant influence among theatre practitioners. In the third chapter, the author continues to analyse the contribution of Romanian theatre thinkers to the exegesis of Ibsen. He then traces back the history of The Wild Duck and Rosmersholm on Romanian stage, from the late nineteenth through the twentieth century. The paper provides data regarding the casts and crews engaged in the production of the two plays, and it includes excerpts from several theatre reviews.
With his keen sense for both human inner conflicts and the wider social picture, the Norwegian playwright was a major challenge for actors, stage directors, scenographers; by drawing the history of staging Ibsen in Romania, the author also offers a glimpse into the evolving mentality of theatre-going public and the development of theatrical language.
Keywords: Mihail Sebastian, Petru Comarnescu, Ibsenian exegesis, Romanian stage, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm
NOTE [Notes]
IOLANDA BERZUC
Emil Botta şi Mihai Popescu: în oglinda spartă
RECENZII [Book reviews]
Vasile Vasile
Paul Constantinescu. Despre „poezia” muzicii (Argument, notă asupra ediţiei, transcrierea textelor, note şi comentarii de Sanda Hîrlav-Maistorovici, Ploieşti, 2004); Stelian Ionaşcu, Paul Constantinescu şi muzica psaltică românească, p. 95
Lucian Sinigaglia
ANCA FLOREA, Opera Română. Deceniul şase. 1971-1981, Editura D&C, Bucureşti, 2009, p. 99
DESPRE AUTORI [About the authors]
