Schlüsselbegriffe der rumänischen Nachkriegsmusikwissenschaft: Spiritualität und Ethos. Eine Fallstudie: Theodor Grigoriu, Modale Säule
Key Concepts of Romanian Post-War Musicology: Spirituality and Ethos. A Case Study: Theodor Grigoriu, Modal Column

Summary/Abstract: In direct connection with the research on the concepts of the national and the universal that have persistently crossed post-war Romanian musicology, I intend to start investigating two other favourite notions in writings on music: spirituality and ethos. All these have to do with the ideological lines drawn during the communist regime (I will refer to the period after 1971), and with the need of musicians to submit to harsh censorship. The examples selected come from the writings of composers who, while in their scores they could more easily avoid the watchful eye of the censors, in their articles or books they had to justify their choices, either towards the Western avant-garde or nationalistic. The composer Theodor Grigoriu (1926-2014) is chosen as a case study because he repeatedly refers to the concept of ethos in his essays and interviews from the 1970s and 1980s. A brief analysis of the piano cycle Columna modală [Modal Column] (1985-1987), subtitled Investigations into the Ethos of Romanian Music will follow precisely the transposition of the (metaphorical) concept into the composition itself.

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