Dimitrie Cuclin ( – February 7, 1978) was a Romanian classical music composer, musicologist, philosopher, translator, and writer.

Biography

Early life

Dimitrie Cuclin was born in the city of Galaţi, a port on the left shore of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

. His father was an immigrant from czarist Bessarabia, from the village of Cucleni, near the town of

Izmail Izmail (, , translit. ''Izmail,'' formerly Тучков ("Tuchkov"); ro, Ismail or ''Smil''; pl, Izmaił, bg, Исмаил) is a city and municipality on the Danube river in Odesa Oblast in south-western Ukraine. It serves as the administra ...

. He had studied music at the Theological Seminar of Izmail and at the Universities of Iaşi and

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. At the time of Dimitrie's birth he was a music teacher at the Vasile Alecsandri High School in Galați. His mother was of peasant origin, from the village of Pechea, located about 25 miles from Galați; she was a housewife. Dimitrie Cuclin completed his primary and secondary studies in his native city, where his father was his first music teacher. During high-school, he began to compose small musical pieces, which impressed the composer G.D. Kiriac, who thus suggested that Cuclin should go to Bucharest to study music.

Studentship

The young composer applied first at the Conservatory (1903), where he was rejected for being above the age limit, and then at the Royal Academy of Music (1904), where he was accepted at the section of Theory and Harmony. After three years of studentship in Bucharest, Cuclin obtained a scholarship for Paris. He failed to get into the Conservatory (he was not a brilliant violin player, although he was an acceptable one), but he was admitted at Vincent D’Indy’s Schola Cantorum, where he studied until his scholarship expired in 1914. Because of the government’s refusal to supplement his scholarship, Cuclin had to leave France without completing his studies, thus without a French university degree, but with an attestation from D’Indy that certified his competencies. In Paris he met his future wife, Zoe, born Dumitrescu, ex Damian (d. 1973). They were married in 1920.

Professorship

Once back in Romania, he was mobilised during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, but did not go to the Front. He played violin at the Orchestra of Iasi, conducted by

George Enescu George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher. Regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history, Enescu is featured on the Romanian five lei. Biogr ...

, in what was left free of the

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...

. After the War’s end, in 1919, he became a Professor at the Conservatory of Music, and had the title of the newly founded chair of Musical Aesthetics. Between 1922 and 1930 Cuclin taught in New York, at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and City College of Music. He returned to the Bucharest Conservatory in 1930 and remained there until 1948, when he retired. During the Second World War, in the times of the

National Legionary State The National Legionary State was a totalitarian fascist regime which governed Romania for five months, from 14 September 1940 until its official dissolution on 14 February 1941. The regime was led by General Ion Antonescu in partnership with the ...

, Cuclin was briefly the Director of the Conservatory, but he did not have the best relations with the

Legion Legion may refer to: Military * Roman legion, the basic military unit of the ancient Roman army * Spanish Legion, an elite military unit within the Spanish Army * Legion of the United States, a reorganization of the United States Army from 179 ...

, a fact that got him relieved of that responsibility.

Retirement

At the beginning of the Communist régime, Dimitrie Cuclin was condemned for political reasons to serve two years (1950-1952) in a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

at the Danube-Black Sea Canal. The event that fired up the regime’s reaction was Cuclin’s attendance at a musical soirée at the Goethe-Institute in Bucharest. He was thus imprisoned for being “

idealist In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to id ...

” and “ reactionary”. After this sinister episode, Cuclin was able to create again, and in fact it is in this period that he commenced his career as a symphonist. Towards the end of his life, he was close to being elected a correspondent member of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

, but the

proletkult Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" (proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolu ...

poet

Mihai Beniuc Mihai Beniuc (; 20 November 1907 – 24 June 1988) was a Romanian socialist realist poet, dramatist, and novelist. He was born in 1907 in Sebiș, Arad County (at the time in Austria-Hungary), and attended the Moise Nicoară High School in Arad ...

opposed the move. He died in

in 1978 from the complications of heart disease contracted while a prisoner in the communist work camps.

Awards and distinctions

*1913 - The First Prize for Composition at the First Edition of the International Festival "George Enescu" from Bucharest *1934 - The Prize of the

for the ''Treatise of Musical Aesthetics'' *1939 - The National Prize for Composition *1955 - The State Prize *1969 - The Order "Meritul Cultural" *1978 - The Great Prize of the Union of the Composers from Romania

Music

Cuclin created a symphonic corpus containing 20 symphonies, and he was a representative of the monumental in symphonic writing. Some of his symphonies last the length of a whole symphonic concert (the twelfth, which is the longest, lasts 6 hours). Operas: *''Soria'' (1911) *''Ad majorem feminae gloriam'' (1915) *''Trajan and Dochia'' (1921) *''Agamemnon'' (1922) *''Bellerophon'' (1925) *''Meleagridele'' (1958) Symphonies: *''Symphony no. 1'' (1910) *''Symphony no. 2'' (1938) *''Symphony no. 3'' (1942) *''Symphony no. 4'' (1944) *''Symphony no. 5'' (1947) with soloists & chorus *''Symphony no. 6'' (1948) *''Symphony no. 7'' (1948) *''Symphony no. 8'' (1948) *''Symphony no. 9'' (1949) *''Symphony no. 10'' (1949) with chorus *''Symphony no. 11'' (1950) *''Symphony no. 12'' (1951) with soloists & chorus,5, 10 and 12 are mentioned as choral symphonies in Strimple, Nick (2002, 2005, 2008). ''Choral Music in the Twentieth Century''. Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press, p.179 (in 2005 edition). . . *''Symphony no. 13'' (1951) *''Symphony no. 14'' (1952) *''Symphony no. 15'' (1954) *''Symphony no. 16'' (1959) ''Triumph of Peace'' *''Symphony no. 17'' (1965) *''Symphony no. 18'' (1967) *''Symphony no. 19'' (1971) *''Symphony no. 20'' (1972) ''Triumph of the Peoples Union'' Concertos: *''Violin Concerto'' (1920) *''Piano Concerto'' (1939) *''Clarinet Concerto'' (1968) Other works: *''Romanian Dances for Orchestra'' (1961) *''Tragedy in the forest'' (1962), ballet He is also the author of 3 string quartets & numerous other chamber, piano pieces, sacred choruses & songs. In addition to these, Cuclin composed sonatas, madrigals, melodies of folkloric inspiration, etc. A detailed list of his works & bibliography is contained in Viorel Cosma's "Muzicieni romani" (Bucharest 1970). As a composer, Cuclin is an exponent of the French school, following the line of

César Franck César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in modern-day Belgium. He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was pa ...

and Vincent D’Indy.

Literature

Cuclin wrote a lot of poetry, of which only a small part is published, and was also a translator of poetry.

Original works

Cuclin wrote in Romanian, English, and French. His literary works comprise theater plays, opera librettos, and poems. Among his published volumes, the following are the most important: *''Destinée mystique. Poésies diverses'', Bucarest : Imprimeries Independența, 1919 (in French) *''Poems'', Bucharest, Tiparul Oltenia, year unknown (in English) *''

Doina The doina () is a Romanian musical tune style, possibly with Middle Eastern roots, customary in Romanian peasant music, as well as in Lăutărească. It was also adopted into klezmer music. Similar tunes are found throughout Eastern Europe an ...

s and Sonnets'', Bucharest, Tiparul Oltenia, 1932 (in Romanian) *''Sofonisba: Versified Tragedy in One Prologue and Three Acts'', Bucharest, Tipografia Presa, 1945 Cuclin's poetry follows the antebellic paradigm of the

Romanian literature Romanian literature () is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language. History The development of the Romanian literature took place in parallel with tha ...

, imposed by such writers as Heliade Rădulescu, Bolintineanu, Alexandrescu, Alecsandri,

Eminescu Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active memb ...

, Vlahuţă, Coşbuc and Goga. He cultivates especially the sonnet, of which he has a musical understanding: the sonnet was for him the literary equivalent of a sonata. It is no wonder that, in the '70s, he failed to have a new poetry volume published: his style was long time outdated.

Translations

As a translator, Cuclin made himself remarked by his translation of Eminescu's poems in English: ''Poems'', Bucharest, I.E.Toroutiu, 1938. He translated also from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

the first two books of

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''

Fasti In ancient Rome, the ''fasti'' (Latin plural) were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for simil ...

'', published by the same editor, year unknown.

Philosophy

Works

Cuclin had a permanent preoccupation for

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

all his life and he wrote several versions of a work called ''A Treatise of the Metaphysics''. The earliest such treatise that is available in manuscript is entitled ''La théorie de l’immortalité'' (1931), and an abridged version in Romanian, realised by Cuclin himself, was published only in 1990. The latest integral version of a ''Traité de la métaphysique'' dates from the ’50, most probably after Cuclin’s release from the labour camp. There are indications that Cuclin wrote at least four versions of the treatise, in French and Romanian, but those could not be found, as they are buried in the private collections. This last book-length treatise has two subtitles, namely, “A theory of nothingness” and “Towards a new aspect of Marxism”. Cuclin had the naivety to think that the official Marxism could incorporate his philosophy. We have several published compressed versions of his metaphysical system, some being to his disciples which noted them after a lecture or oral exposition of the master, and one being written by Cuclin himself (in Cuclin 1986), thus more reliable . Other published works with philosophical content are ''Musique: science, art et philosophie'' (Cuclin 1934), in the documents of the Eighth International Congress of Philosophy from Prague and his innovatory ''Treatise of Musical Aesthetics'' (Cuclin 1933). The first part of this treatise is a partial exposition of his metaphysical vision, the foundation of his

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

Ideas

General overview

The system of Cuclin is a form of

idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected t ...

, but not one very easy to characterise. It is a musical panpsychism, claiming influence from the

Pythagorean Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * Ne ...

thought, and showing the Absolute to be a living system of harmonized functions, in continuous expansion. It has been suggested that his particular brand of idealism be called “functionalist idealism” (Rusu 2002). During the communist period, the philosophy of Cuclin was considered a materialist dualism (Matei 1985, Tănase 1985), point of view contested by Rusu.

Concept of metaphysics

Cuclin's explications concerning the title of his ''Traité de la métaphysique'' are of great value for the understanding of his vision. Thus, we have “a treatise” and not “the treatise”, because metaphysics can be exposed in many treatises; and we have “of the metaphysics”, and not “of metaphysics”, because there is but one “metaphysics”. “The metaphysics” is, in fact, more like “the metaphysical realm” for Cuclin, or the domain of the transcendence. Thus, he proposed to produce one of the possible surveys of this domain.

Method of metaphysics

The method of Cuclin is the logical enquiry, followed up to an absurdity, or violent contradiction. The contradiction is the sign of reaching the truth, because the truth is found in logical reasoning, not in reason. An absurdity is the sign that the reason does not agree with the results of the logical reasoning, but is not a sign of unreality or falseness. Rather the opposite is true, that the point of view of the reason is unreliable and many times false. With this almost

Eleatic The Eleatics were a group of pre-Socratic philosophers in the 5th century BC centered around the ancient Italian Greek colony of Elea ( grc, Ἐλέα), located in present-day Campania in southern Italy. The primary philosophers who are associa ...

method, Cuclin reaches some sort of spiritualist

monism Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...

, which will be briefly presented in the following lines. But firstly we will note another methodological aspect of Cuclin's metaphysics, namely the contribution of the “ science of music” to the knowledge of the reality. The science of music is not a science of the sound, because the sound is not essential to music. The phenomenon of the “enharmony” and the fact that each sound can have different functions in different chords proves to Cuclin that the sound is only the contingent bearer of a “function” which can have other contingent bearers, like emotion and feeling. The “function” is determined as a degree of movement of the soul, towards pleasure or pain. Thus, the music is literally done with the soul, not with the sound, and it passes from the sound into the soul in virtue of this invariant which is the function. The science of music, then, provides us with the laws of the function, the ultimate component of reality.

Cosmology

The process of degradation that commences with the pure essence and ends with the pure substance is called by Cuclin “the separation of essence”. In this process of separation are generated diverse entities which are a mixture of substance and essence, where one of these aspects is prevalent. Actually, every extant thing is a mixture of essence and substance in different proportions. The first element into which the essence separates is the magnetism (or magnetic field), from which is further separated the electricity, followed by light and so on until the living matter is obtained. This cosmology, mostly fantastic, bears the influences of

evolutionism Evolutionism is a term used (often derogatorily) to denote the theory of evolution. Its exact meaning has changed over time as the study of evolution has progressed. In the 19th century, it was used to describe the belief that organisms deliberate ...

and voluntarism, with a trace of Hegelianism.

Artistic creation and immortality

The human being is a culmination of the substantialisation of the essence; from here the reverted process can begin, that of the re-essentialisation of the substance. The first process, the separation of the essence or its substantialisation, was also called analysis. The process of the re-essentialistion of the substance is called synthesis. Through this synthetic process which is the human creation, the re-essentialised substance can be transposed as a magnetic double in a great harmonic system, which is the image of the pure essence, regarded as re-essentialised substance. Thus, the essence stand in front of itself and, with the help of the human creation, takes consciousness of itself. This implies an

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...

of creation and a theory of

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immorta ...

. Through his creations the man constitutes a magnetic double of his

personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, m ...

, which is integrated in the great harmonic system which is the Essence. Thus, by contributing through creation to the becoming self-conscious of the Essence, the man becomes also immortal.

Influence

Although isolated from the community of the philosophers, Cuclin had private disciples which assimilated his philosophy (e.g. Ion Bârsan). One of his students, Alexandru Bogza, wrote in solitude a philosophical system, called "the critical realism" (no connection with the homonymous American philosophical movement), published posthumously. This system bears the traces of a certain Cuclinian influence (Cuclin is quoted several times by Bogza), but the depth of this influence is yet to be assessed.

References

Operone page about Cuclin

Works by Cuclin

*(1933) ''Treatise of Musical Aesthetics'' (in Romanian), Bucharest, Tipografia Oltenia *(1934) ''Musique : science, art et philosophie'' (in French), paper delivered at the Eighth International Congress of Philosophy from Prague *(1983) ''A Polemical History of Music'' (in Romanian), Iași, Junimea *(1990) ''The Theory of immortality'' (in Romanian), Galați, Porto Franco

Secondary literature

General

*Bârsan, Ion (1995) ''Conversations with Dimitrie Cuclin'' (in Romanian), Galați, Porto Franco *Bârsan, Ion (1997) „Dimitrie Cuclin – Landmarks of his Biography and Creation” (in Romanian), ''Revista de etnografie și folclor'', nr. 5-6 *Istratty, Ella and Smântânescu, Dan (1985) ''Conversations with Dimitrie Cuclin'' (in Romanian), Bucharest, Editura muzicală *Moldovan, Nicolae (2001) ''Dimitrie Cuclin. The Man, the Thinker, and the Composer'' (in Romanian), Galați, Alma

Musicological

*Brâncuși, Cristian (2006) ''The Musical Aesthetics in the View of Dimitrie Cuclin'' (in Romanian), Bucharest, Editura Universității Naționale de Muzică *Ticulescu, I. (1933) ''Dimitrie Cuclin – Critical Study on his Life and Works'' (in Romanian), Bucharest *Tomescu, Vasile (1956) ''The Creative Path of Dimitrie Cuclin'' (in Romanian), București, Editura muzicală

Philosophical

*Matei, Dumitru (1985) “Some Observations concerning Dimitrie Cuclin's Metaphysics: the Theory of Existence” (in Romanian), ''Revista de filozofie'', nr. 6 *Matei, Dumitru (1986a) “The Cuclinian Theory of Man” (in Romanian), ''Revista de filozofie'', nr. 5 *Matei, Dumitru (1986b) “Dimitrie Cuclin on Immortality” (in Romanian), ''Revista de filozofie'', nr. 6 *Rusu, Bogdan (2002) “An Outline of Dimitrie Cuclin's Metaphysics” (in Romanian), ''Eidos'', nr. 2 *Surdu, Aexandru (2002) “Dimitrie Cuclin's Urge for Philosophy” (in Romanian), in ''Confluențe Cultural-filosofice'', București, Paideia *Tănase, Al. “An Original Philosophical and Aesthetical System of Music” (in Romanian), foreword to Istratty and Ștefănescu (1985) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuclin, Dimitrie 1885 births 1978 deaths 20th-century classical composers People from Galați Romanian classical composers Schola Cantorum de Paris alumni Inmates of the Danube–Black Sea Canal Recipients of the Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic Male classical composers 20th-century male musicians 20th-century Romanian philosophers