Gheorghi Arnaoudov ( bg, Георги Арнаудов ; born 18 March 1957) is a Bulgarian composer of

stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

chamber Chamber or the chamber may refer to: In government and organizations * Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests *Legislative chamber, in politics * Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...

, film, vocal, and piano music. His work has roots in

minimal music Minimal music (also called minimalism)"Minimalism in music has been defined as an aesthetic, a style, and a technique, each of which has been a suitable description of the term at certain points in the development of minimal music. However, two o ...

Life

Gheorghi Arnaoudov was born in 1957 in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

and graduated in

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

with Alexander Tanev and contemporary music with Bojidar Spassov from the State Academy of Music

Pancho Vladigerov Pancho Haralanov Vladigerov (or Wladigeroff, Wladigerow, Vladiguerov, Vladigueroff; bg, Панчо Хараланов Владигеров ; 13 March 18998 September 1978) was a Bulgarian composer, pedagogue, and pianist. Vladigerov is arguably ...

. At the same time, he attended summer courses working with

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

and

Ton de Leeuw Antonius Wilhelmus Adrianus de Leeuw (Rotterdam, 16 November 1926 - Paris, 31 May 1996) was a Dutch composer. He occasionally experimented with microtonality. Life and career Taught by Henk Badings, Olivier Messiaen and others, and in his youth i ...

. His artistic career started in the early 1980s. At the same time, he did research work in the fields of

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

and

musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, ...

, as well as ancient far-Eastern and

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian c ...

Greek music The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its History of Greece, history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek folk music, Greek traditional music and Byzantine music. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originat ...

. He has won many international and national awards, including the Grand Prix of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(1985), the Golden Harp Prize from

Jeunesses Musicales Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) is the largest youth music non-governmental organisation in the world, created in Brussels, Belgium in 1945, with the mission to "enable young people to develop through music across all boundaries". JMI ha ...

(1985), the Special Prize of the Union of Bulgarian Composers (1986), and the

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his opera ...

International Prize for Music (1989). He is the author of scientific and theoretical articles in music, as well as of reviews in musical and scientific periodicals, mainly in the spheres of the aesthetics of modernism and postmodernism, communications in the music, the contemporary arts, musical semiotics, and the theory of contemporary music. In 2000 Gega New released a CD with Arnaoudov's music called "Thyepoleo. Orphic Mysterial Rites". The texts used by the composer are the original preserved Orphic hymns. For this project he consulted renowned Thracologist

Alexander Fol Alexander Fol ( bg, Александър Фол) (born in Sofia, Bulgaria on July 3, 1933; died in Sofia on March 1, 2006) was a Bulgarian historian and Thracologist. In 1957, he studied history at the University of St. Kliment Ohridski in Sofia ...

, who wrote the programme notes. To date Arnaoudov has produced numerous symphonies, oratorios, concertos and has won several international prizes. He currently teaches in the Theatre and Music departments of

New Bulgarian University New Bulgarian University ( bg, Нов български университет, also known and abbreviated as НБУ, NBU) is a private university based in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Its campus is in the western district of the city, known ...

. In 2009 he was appointed associate professor in Composition and Harmony. The antecedents of his music can be found in

Alexander Scriabin Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed ...

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...

, the

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...

and, more recently, in the work of

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...

and

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...

. The influence of composers like

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...

and

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...

is shown in the lack of any kind of conventional process or development. In a series of works of Gheorghi Arnaoudov composer's vision is directed towards attaining a new aesthetic of pure music (Adorno), aestheticizing renaissance sound purity. By using various techniques (including also techniques legitimizing the language of Musical Avant-garde) and their substance rethinking is achieved a new music-sensuous semantic field.

Works

Stage

*''Offertorium I''

dance theater Concert dance (also known as performance dance or theatre dance in the United Kingdom) is dance performed for an audience. It is frequently performed in a theatre setting, though this is not a requirement, and it is usually choreographed and p ...

after Herman Broch (1988) *''Offertorium II'' (after

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

) (1991) *''Transpatium'' (ballet) (1996) *''Choreordained'' (two-act ballet) (1996) *''"...the highest point of my inferiority..."'' (1998) *''"Black Box'',

(1998) *''Threshold'',

(2001)

Orchestral

*''Symphony No. 1'' (1984) *''Concerto for Orchestra'' (1986) *''Concerto grosso'' (1987) *''Kammerkonzert'' (1988) *''Symphony No. 2'' (1990) *''Laus Solis'' (1996) *''The Colour of the Light'' (1997) *''Variations on a Theme by Rachmaninov'' (2001) *'' Concierto Barroco'', after

Alejo Carpentier Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French an ...

(2007) *''"Liber Canticorum" Chapter I'' - Imaginary opera scenes, for soprano, tenor and orchestra based on a texts by

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

(2008) *''Passio et mors Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Liber Psalmorum'' for bass, soprano, choir and orchestra (2008) *''Hymns to the spring'', Nikolai Liliev (2008) *''Concerto for Violin, Strings, Percussion and Keyboards'' (2008–10)

Chamber

*''String Quartet No. 2'' (1988) *''Ritual III (Borges Fragment)'' (1993) *''Vihaya'' (1995) *''Thyepolia'' (1997) *''Kells'' (1999) *''Variations'' for two pianos and percussion (2001) *''Fantasmagorias – El libro de los seres imaginarios'' (Imaginarium super

) for string quartet (2010)

Vocal

*''Footnote (...und Isolde/ns Winkfall lassen)'' for soprano and chamber orchestra based on the poem "A Prayer" by

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

(1991) *''Summe Deus'' (1991) *''The Circle of Rites'' (1991) *''The Way of the Birds I'', for soprano, flute and violin (1995) *''The Way of the Birds II'' for soprano and chamber ensemble (1996) *''The Way of the Birds III'', for soprano, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion (1996) *''Thyepoleo'' (2000)

Piano

*''Paysages sonores'' (1983) *''Partita I'' (1984) *''Ritual I'' (1988) *''Incarnation in the Light (Ritual II)'' (1993) *''"...un pan de ciel au milieu du silence..."'', after

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...

(1993) *''Svarog Ritual'' (1994) *''Le temple du silence'' for two pianos (1996) *''Et iterum venturus'' (1997) *''Forgotten Songs'' (2005) *''Monodies'' (2009) *''Le Rappel des Rameaux'' (2009)

References

* Kostakeva, Maria 1994-2007.

Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik (MGG)'' is one of the world's most comprehensive encyclopedias of music history and musicology, on account of its scope, content, wealth of research areas, and reference t ...

(MGG) The Biographical Encyclopedia. Bärenreiter und Metzler. * Myers, Greg 2001.

New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

by Stanley Sadie. Oxford University Press. * Blum, Tobias. 2004
"Sakrale Einfachheit und wilde Energie"
''General Anzeiger'' (October 12). * Maycock, Robert. 2007

''The Independent'' (January 4). * Bruhn, Siglind 2014
"Europas klingende Bilder"
Eine musikalische Reise, Waldkirch: Edition Gorz ;Notes

External links

*
Classical Composers Database

Union of Bulgarian Composers Database

The Modern Word - Borges Music

The Modern Word - Joyce Music

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnaoudov, Gheorghi 1957 births Musicians from Sofia Living people Bulgarian classical composers 21st-century classical composers Male classical composers 21st-century male musicians