Odăgescu [Odăgescu-Ţuţuianu], Irina
Odăgescu [Odăgescu-Ţuţuianu], Irina
- 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)