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Odăgescu [Odăgescu-Ţuţuianu], Irinalocked

Odăgescu [Odăgescu-Ţuţuianu], Irinalocked

  • Octavian Cosma
  • , revised by Antigona Rădulescu

Updated in this version

updated and revised, 28 May 2015

(b Bucharest, Romania, May 23, 1937). Romanian composer. She graduated from the Music Conservatory in Bucharest, studying composition under the guidance of Alfred Mendelsohn and Tiberiu Olah (1957–63). Since 1967, she has taught score-reading at the Bucharest University of Music. She obtained various national and international prizes, including the silver medal at the International Contest for Polyphonic Music in Ibague-Columbia, 1981, the “Global Music Days” prize in Graz, 1982 (for the choral piece De doi (‘Of Twos’)), and the medal and diploma at the ‘Viotti-Valsesia Vercelli-Italia’ composition contest, 1982. Her music is played in both Romania and abroad (the piece Youth everlasting and life without end was commissioned by the London Schubert Players and had it’s première in London, in 2005). She obtained the PhD in musicology from the National University of Music Bucharest. Her compositions blend European traditions with more modern techniques. Her music has oscillated between a chromatically-enhanced modal, serial language and aleatory technique. Especially in the genre of the ample choral poem, strongly dramatized, she managed to create a personal style apparent in the melodic characteristics (influenced by the Romanian folk ethos and the Byzantine ethos), the choices at the level of harmonic and polyphonic writing and the inventiveness of instrumentation. Odăgescu’s writings include didactic books on score-reading.

Works

(selective list)

Orchestral

Passagalia, 1966

Piscuri [Peaks], 1970

Improvizaţii dramatice [Dramatic Improvisations], 1972

Momente [Moments], concertino, 1974

Bătălia cu facle [Battle with Torches], choreographic poem, 1977

Cântec înalt [High Song], choreographic poem, 1983

Cetatea de pământ [The Earth Fortress], sym. poem), 3 antiphonal choruses, orch, spkr, 1985

Tinerețe fără bătrânețe și viață fără de moarte [Youth everlasting and life without end], nar, 2005

Chamber and solo instrumental

Variaţiuni pe o temă populară din Bihor [Variations on a Popular Theme from Bihor], pf, 1961

Str Qt, 1963

Sonata, vn, pf, 1967

Scherzo-Toccata, pf, 1968

Sonata, va, 1982

Muzică pentru 2 piane şi percuţie [Music for 2 pianos and percussion], 1983

Choral

Tinereţe [Youth] (M. Dumitrescu), orch, 1963

Oglindire [Mirroring] (Dumitrescu), 1970

Zi de lumină [Day of Light] (M. Negulescu), orch, 1974

De doi [Of Twos], 1976

Cântând plaiul Mioriţei [Singing the Realm of the Mioriţa], 1977

Rugul pâinii [The Stake of the Bread] (I. Crânguleanu), 2 reciters, perc, 1977

Balada (I. Melinte), 1978

Pe nimb de vulturi [On a Circle of Vultures] (V. Voiculescu), 1981

Urare de dragoste [Good Wishes for Love], 1983

Iia românească [The Romanian Shirt], 1985

Chemarea pământului [The Call of the Earth], reciters, perc, 1985

7 Cântece de nuntă [7 Wedding Songs], 1989

Tatăl nostru [Our Father], 1996

Cântarea pătimirii noastre [The Singing of Our Torments/Suffering] (Octavian Goga), 2000

Timpul pământului [Time of the Earth], reciters, perc, 2002.

Bibliography

  • C. Sârbu: ‘Irina Odăgescu: creaţia corală’, Muzica, vol.1/4 (1990), 48–76
  • S. Summerville and J. O’Leary: ‘8th International Congress of Women in Music: Bilbao, Spain, March, 18–22, 1992’, International League of Women Composers Journal, vol.6 (1992)
  • R. Arzoiu: ‘Portrete: Irina Odăgescu-Țuțuianu’, Muzica, new ser., vol.8/4 (1997), 4–16
  • V. Cosma: Muzicieni din România: Lexicon, vol.7 (Bucharest, 2004)
  • V. Sandu-Dediu: Rumänische Musik nach 1944 (Saarbrücken, 2006)