Variu, Dan

Dan Variu – Dixtuor

(b. 10 October 1983, Satu-Mare)

Deutsches Vorwort nicht vorhanden …

Dan VARIU (b. 10 October 1983, Satu-Mare) studied composition with Hans Peter Türk and Cornel Țăranu at the „Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, where, in 2016, he has received his PhD degree with a thesis entitled Style as a compositional parameter, written under the supervision of professor Cristian Misievici. His theoretical endeavors are complementary to his musical language, based on polistylistic contrasts that create a wide range of aesthetic effects, from humorous to tragic, resulting in several chamber, choral, symphonic and operatic works played in several concert halls in Romania, Moldova, Germany and France.

Among his works one can mention: La bulciugu mirelui – meditație asupra unei balade din Țara Oașului (meditation on a traditional ballad from the Land of Oaș) for a storyteller, choir and large orchestra (2006), Axiome (Axioms) for chamber orchestra (2008), Noi umblăm să colindăm… (We go caroling…) for six choral ensembles and soloists (2008), Mediewalzer for small orchestral ensemble (2009), Interior with a gentleman playing a lute and a lady singing for baroque ensemble (2011), Suomisaundi for contemporary music ensemble (2013), Transfigurare (Transfiguration) for string quartet (2013), The Funky Goat for large orchestra and soloists (2013), Ouverture, Grande Entrée et Passecaille – fragments of stage music for Le roi se meurt by Eugen Ionesco (2015), Folcloritmic for solo percussionist (2017), Răspântii. O poveste românească (Crossroads. A Romanian tale) – a frescOpera in three acts, on a libretto by Cosmina Timoce-Mocanu (2018), Bună seara! (Good evening!) for a choral ensemble (2019), BarTikTók for string quartet (2020).

Composed in 2005 and played in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, this Dixtuor was meant to be a reply to two other Romanian pieces entitled also Dixtuor, one by George Enescu (1906) and the other by Sabin Drăgoi (1955), to mark 100 and 50 years respectively from their creation. Writing in this age of postmodernism, where the western cultural model (in this case, the French model) lost the hegemony it once had a century ago, and the creation of a Romanian national style was no longer a political and ideological goal like it was a half-century ago, but is now, simply, an artistic choice of the author, Dan Variu proposes a piece that centers around a polystylistic blending between the academic musical traditions of central and east Europe (Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, Witold Lutosławski) and the local musical traditions of Romania (Byzantine-orthodox music and folk music from his native northern Transylvania, namely the regions of Oaș and Maramureș). Structured in the Classical Sonata form, the Dixtuor creates a uniform stylistic space developing Bartókian motifs (1st subject group) and Byzantine-Bartókian motifs (2nd subject group) using techniques characteristic to Modernity (polytonality, modern counterpoint, controlled aleatoricism, textural writing, moving cluster etc.), culminating in a Transylvanian folk banter of the 1st subject.

Read also Romanian full preface (German version not available) > HERE