Piano
SKU:
HL.14040983
Piano. Composed by
Theodor Grigoriu. Music
Sales America. Classical.
Book [Softcover].
Editions Musicales
Transatlantiques
#ETR001822. Published by
Editions Musicales
Transatlantiques
(HL.14040983).
French.
The
Modal Column is a cycle
of paired pieces for
piano, starting from the
classical structure-
prelude-fugue - used by
Bach in Das
wohltemperierte Klavier.
The modes that are being
used have a relatively
simple octavizing
structure, hence an
almost infinite variety
of combinations that can
generate a large number
of pieces, impossible to
exhaust by a composer.
Therein lies the idea of
a column, in the sense
given by Brancusi, i.e.
an endless succession of
modules.
In the
vision of the author, the
mechanism of the mode is
a secondary (ancillary)
aspect, the primary goal
is deciphering the ethos
incorporated in it.
The prelude-fugue
structure hypostatizesthe
musical discourse at the
two possible extremes.
free-constructed. While
Romanian music rules in
free areas, like any old
music with an (especially
oral) tradition, the
constructed pieces start
from Dutch (Flemish) or
Venetian polyphony, which
precedes the idea of
fugue, understood as a
technology of the
movement (dynamics) of
sound, after the models
of Giovanni Gabrieli or
Ockeghem.
The
Modal Column is first of
all the presentation of a
melodic world but, as the
subtitle indicates, also
an investigation into the
ethos of Romanian music.
The forms in which the
pieces are thought are
simple, non-ostentatious,
the whole cycle being in
fact a musical workshop,
whose better parts may be
worth including in ampler
works. Before the
succinct description of
the six couples in Books
I and II, a few
observations, necessary
from a musicological
point of view:
- 1. The modes are rich
in nostalgia, with even
graver nuances in the
livelier movements.
- 2. It is well-known,
that all the columns -
Egyptian obelisks,
ancient ornamental
columns - have scenarios
engraved on them.
Trajan's Column describes
the wars against the
Dacians and their defeat.
George Calinescu says,
'Trajan's Column is
beautiful, but let us not
forget that the Dacians
are in chains on it.' The
Romanian melos is
millennia-old and was but
little influenced by
historical.
Before I Forget
