Iancu Dumitrescu (born 15 July 1944) is a Romanian
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
composer.
Life and works
Dumitrescu was born in
Sibiu
Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
. He received a master's degree in composition in
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 ...
, where his teachers included
Alfred Mendelsohn. Later, he studied conducting and philosophy with
Sergiu Celibidache
Sergiu Celibidache (; 14 August 1996) was a Romanian conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher. Educated in his native Romania, and later in Paris and Berlin, Celibidache's career in music spanned over five decades, including tenures ...
, who led Dumitrescu to engage with the philosophy of
Edmund Husserl
, thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations)
, thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view
, thesis1_year = 1883
, thesis2_title ...
and apply the principles of
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
to music.
He began composing his mature works in the early 1970s. In 1976 he founded the
Hyperion Ensemble, which he describes as "a multimedia group dedicated to experimental music". Several of Dumitrescu's early works for solo contrabass were recorded by the noted avant-garde bassist
Fernando Grillo.
Dumitrescu has composed a large body of works for acoustic instruments and ensembles as well as works combining acoustic and electronic sounds and works composed entirely using tape or computer. In its emphasis on long tones that undergo transformations of timbre, Dumitrescu's music can be loosely grouped with that of Italian composer
Giacinto Scelsi
Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi (; 8 January 1905 – 9 August 1988, sometimes cited as 8 August 1988) was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French.
He is best known for having composed music based around only one pitch, ...
and with the
spectral music
Spectral music uses the acoustic properties of sound – or sound spectra – as a basis for composition.
Definition
Defined in technical language, spectral music is an acoustic musical practice where compositional decisions are often inform ...
of fellow Romanian
Horațiu Rădulescu
Horațiu Rădulescu (; 7 January 1942 – 25 September 2008) was a Romanian-French composer, best known for the spectral technique of composition.
Life
Rădulescu was born in Bucharest, where he studied the violin privately with Nina Alexandres ...
and the French composers of the spectral school.
Dumitrescu describes his music as "acousmatic" but disclaims a relationship with the
acousmatic music
Acousmatic music (from Greek ἄκουσμα ''akousma'', "a thing heard") is a form of electroacoustic music that is specifically ''composed'' for presentation using speakers, as opposed to a live performance. It stems from a compositional trad ...
of French
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, ...
pioneer
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (English pronunciation: , ; 14 August 1910 – 19 August 1995) was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His innov ...
. He accepts the "spectralist" label, though he distinguishes his work from some others in the spectral school in that it is not
serial. Dumitrescu has said that "I think of myself as a spectralist, but in completely different way from the French".
dumitrescu.english.html
Dumitrescu was married to fellow composer Ana-Maria Avram (1961–2017); they have more than 20 joint CD releases on their Edition Modern label. Recordings of Dumitrescu's works have also been released by Edition RZ, ReR Megacorp, Generations Unlimited, and other record labels. He is represented by Editions Salabert.
References
External links
Iancu Dumitrescu homepage
* ttp://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/7/contents.html Interviews with Dumitrescu and Avramtranslated into English, in ''Monk Mink Pink Punk'' #7
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dumitrescu, Iancu
1944 births
Living people
Musicians from Sibiu
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Spectral music
Male classical composers
20th-century male musicians
21st-century male musicians