(b. Bucharest, 23 February 1936 – d. Bucharest, 27 Oktober 2016)
Lieder on poems by Miquel Martí i Pol
(folk music), Ovidiu Drimba and Eugenia Ionescu (piano) and Mansi Barberis (canto).
After his graduation he worked at the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company, but was not allowed to promote to an employee position due to political reasons, having to do with the clash between Coman’s family history and the socialist regime. Regardless of this he was permitted to collaborate with the national radio for many decades, for broadcasts and interviews. He worked as a researcher at the Folk Music Institute within the Romanian Academy, from 1959 – 1963. It was
Writing them down and analysing them led to his essay about the Romanian folk music in that region, . In 1963 he started teaching harmony (assisting Ion Dumitrescu’s class) and counterpoint at the Bucharest Conservatory. He held a professorship from 1992 until the end of his life, for the last 2 decades teaching composition as well.
He composed the cantata ( , 1959) for chamber orchestra, mezzosoprano, tenor, mixed choir and children choir on the lyrics by Nina Cassian. He wrote a
(1959, rev. 1984). His chamber music works include over 100 pieces for piano, two piano sonatas (1956, 1970), one sonata for violin and piano (1957),
( (Monody) for cello solo (1984).
He wrote over 100 works for voice and piano on the lyrics of Mihai Eminescu, Tudor Arghezi, George Bacovia, Ion Pillat, Mariana Dumitrescu, Emil Botta, Sapho, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Emily Dickinson, Carl Sandburg, Ogdon Nash, Josef Attila, Guilaume Appolinaire, Ioanna Tsatsos, Ghiorghios Seferis, Rainer Maria Rilke, Eugenio Montale, Giuseppe Ungaretti. The songs composed on his own poems include ( ), a cycle of 7 songs for baritone and string quartet (1958). For teaching purposes, he wrote over 4000 harmonic exercises, in tonal, modal and modern fashion. Nicolae Coman was awarded with the Romanian Union of Composers and Musicologists Prize in 1969, 1977 and 2009.
As a musicologist, he published in the 60’s and 70’s essays about the harmonic language of the Romanian contemporary song (lied), as well as about the fusion between music and other arts. He edited piano collections with contemporary works written by Romanian composers. A critical se’s songs – one of the most famous folk singers of all times in Romania -
was also released in that period. In the last decade of his life he wrote about teaching harmony and about the integral chromatic system in harmony.
The importance of poetry in Nicolae Coman’s life and work cannot be understated. He wrote more the 5000 poems, a small part of them being published in 2004 and other igniting the creative
Hrisanide, Sorin Vulcu, Livia Teodorescu-
the works of Catalan poets was one of his passions, which led to closely studying writers like Miquel Martí i Pol, Bartomeu Rosselló i Porcel, Joan Maragall and others. Coman was equally a composer, a poet and a teacher, living in a very particular bubble of creativity and unworldly perception. His sense of playful creation and warmth touched his every activity, constantly engaging in word plays and dwelling on the richness of words, as well as sounds. One of his favourite personal concepts was poemusic, a technique of organising lyrics by musical laws, using vowels as sound and words as melody. This led to a fusion between the two types of creation, allowing poetry to sing and music to speak.
A poetic sense is also at the core of his composition style, the melody always lying at the centre of his musicality. This can especially be seen in his lieder for voice accompanied either by piano or other instrument combinations – not to mention the creative melodies and lyrics he wrote for jazz and pop. The sound of his music is deeply personal and refined, and his language constantly engaging with the expansion of the modern harmonic vocabulary. He had a profound sense of admiration for Maurice Ravel, Alexandr Scriabin, Serghei Prokofiev, George Enescu, Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen. Those echoes are mixed with Romanian folk modalism, personal harmonic strategies (among which we name the integral chromatic system) and the richness of asymmetric rhythms. All of those traits give Coman’s music vitality and a sense of modernity connected to the eastern European sound.
As the Romanian translator of four published volumes of Catalan poetry, composer Nicolae Coman has selected seven of the most beautiful poems by Miquel Martí i Pol, an emblematic figure of modern Catalan lyricism. From these seven gems, the composer has composed a monumental cycle dedicated to a high voice and the piano. Beauty, thematic variety and lyrical intensity were the criteria for selection and the trigger for musical inspiration.
The cycle is a subtle example of the combination of text and music. Without being programmatic, the lieder capture the intimate atmosphere of the poems, transposing it musically in a way in which the music does not depend entirely on the words. Each lied can also be enjoyed without knowledge of the text - although knowledge of the text certainly gives the works a deeper dimension. The connotations of the poetry appear in the complex language of the piano accompaniment and its musical reflections. In the composer's conception, that something which is is placed on the first plane, as metalanguage, followed on the second
plane by the , on the third plane by the which is combined with the , on the fourth plane by the , and on the fifth plane by the multitude of which arise from all these, carried in particular by the piano writing.
Although miniatures in form, the lieder present a rich panorama of compositional techniques and harmonic procedures that are specific to Nicolae Coman. The essential element, however, which gives unity to the whole cycle, and which is a defining element of the composer's style, is the
special care for melody. Even if they often derive from underlying harmonic principles or contain intervals that are difficult to sing, the lieder have an inherent melodicity, which is found in the voice, the accompaniment and the interplay between the two. Thus, for all the complexity of the harmonic language and the singing difficulty of the vocal line, the performer always has a safety net, a melody or a note to which he can relate for orientation. Also, on the melodic parameter, the use of certain melodic 'memes' throughout the cycle should be mentioned - also a unifying factor. We are talking here in particular about certain motivic forms, which are based on descending lines and intervallic versatility.
Besides the melody, the typical flavor of the composer's music is given by the very specific harmonic language and its luxuriant setting on the piano. All the pieces can be given as examples of the use of certain harmonic techniques, but the interesting thing is their combination and the neo-modal ambience that is always preserved. At all times we can refer to a functional center, or we are on the move towards one - delayed by certain transitions. The harmonic language is often based on - fragments in which the chromatic integral harmony appears in a few beats or measures, condensed, and fragments in which the combination of modes build the chromatic total
– what Victor Giuleanu calls . That is, we are dealing with dodecaphonic harmonic relations, where the twelve sounds are functionally related in certain harmonic configurations. Another harmonic tool specific to the composer is the use of fourth and fifth harmonies. We also notice the cohesion given by the melodic cadences. Yet another specific element is the geometric harmony - the use of the mirror technique between the two piano planes. Basically, a mirror is placed between the piano staves, and the chordal structure on one piano stave is a mirror representation of the other. In addition to these techniques, we can also talk about the lush use of median harmonic relationships (thirds), harmonies of seconds and sevenths, the use of certain intervals or chords thematically, the use of poly-chords and chords with added notes.
Formally, most lied’s follow the ternary pattern. Of particular note is the way the composer delineates the sections by the difference in harmonic and piano writing, texture and registration. Thus, the contrast between the sections is not just a matter of using one mode or another, or of changing the melodic paradigm, but of all these factors enriching the discourse and giving a distinctly homely feel to the return of the early section. Most works feature a varied return of the first section, others are accompanied by a codetta or coda. Although the lieder display a wide array of compositional means, the cycle as a whole is unified though diverse, highly sing-able though not facile, (the lied itself being a miniature genre) but significant as a cycle, by the poems chosen and in their musical adaptation.
The seven poems are titled: ( ), ( ), L’am ( ( ( (
( ). Together they form a harmonious sequence, according to the vision of the composer-poet, who translated them into Romanian. It should be noted that the poems appear in songs, in their original Catalan version. Here are the texts in Catalan and their English approximate translation.
L’ombra del mar ha fet callar els ocells. The shadow of the sea has silenced the birds.
Ara el so fosc de les destrals oscades The dark sound of the shifting axes
se sent molt lluny. feels very far away
Agito el gobelet i llanço els daus. I shake the goblet and roll the dice. La sort és una noia que em mira sempre Luck is a girl who always looks at me des del fons del temps from the depths of time
i té els ulls clars and has clear eyes
i riu maliciosament. and laughs mischievously.
La quietud com un estar en les coses, Stillness as a being in things,
i l’ordre per fer encara més intensa and the order to make the stillness even
la quietud. more intense.
Puc retrobar la pau I can find peace again
si em cerco en el mirall de les paraules. if I search it in the mirror of words.
Dins meu s’encalmen tota llei de sons; All the laws of sound are embedded in me; fora hi ha els camps i el blau de les muntanyes outside are the fields andthe blue of the mountains amb un fistó melangiós de núvols. with a melancholy flurry of clouds.
Seia en un rabassell quan la vaig veure She was sitting on a bench when I saw her i duia uns mini-shorts color de rosa and she was wearing pink miniskirts
i una perruca rossa. and a reddish wig.
La conec fa molts anys, però canvia I've known her for many years, but she's changing de nom cada solstici. her name with each solstice.
Es va alçar lentament i amb la mirada She stood up slowly and with her eyes
va dir-me adéu, com sempre que la trobo said goodbye to me, as always when I found her.
No em demaneu d’on ve ni on va, Don't ask me where she’s coming from or where she’s going,
són coses these are things
que mai no arriben a esbrinar-se. that never come to light.
Un gall tocardà cantava l’hora A late rooster sang the hour
quan es va perdre platja enllà com sempre, as she got lost along the beach like always, i a poc a poc esdevenia blava. and little by little she turned blue.
El mar s’aquietà en posseir-la. The sea calmed down possessing her.
Mesura tot l’embruix Measure the whole enchantment
de les fulles tan verdes. of such green leaves.
M’enfilo pel brancam I sneak through the branches
i ara esclata la posta. and now the buds burst.
La veus, la quietud? Do you see it, the stillness?
Porpra endins de la tarda Purple in the afternoon
s’esfilagarsen veus voices broke out
anònimes i estranyes. anonymous and strange.
Dius que no em saps el nom You say you don't know my name
i això et desassossega. and that worries you.
Doncs bé, tots dos plegats Well, we’ll both run together
fugirem quan fosquegi. when it’s dark.
Tens la pell de color Your skin has the color
d’oblit i de tendresa. of forgetfulness and tenderness.
Just el color que escau Just the right color
al neguit de les fulles. for the uneasiness of the leaves.
Un sonet per a tu que em fas més clar A sonnet for you that makes clear to me tant el dolor fecund com l’alegria, both fruitful pain and joy,
un sonet amb els mots de cada dia, a sonnet with every day words,
amb els mots de conèixer i estimar. with the words to know and love.
Discretament l’escric, i vull pensar I write it discreetly, and I want to think que el rebràs amb discreta melangia, that you will receive it with discreet melancholy, com si es tractés d’alguna melodia as if it were a melody
que sempre és agradable recordar. that is always pleasant to remember.
Un sonet per a tu, només això, A sonnet for you, just that,
però amb aquell toc lleu de fantasia but with that light touch of fantasy que fa que els versos siguin de debò. which makes the verses come true.
Un sonet per a tu que m’ha permès A sonnet for you that allowed me
de dir-te clarament el que volia: to tell you clearly what I wanted:
més enllà de tenir-te no hi ha res. there is nothing beyond having you.
Cap arbre no concentra tanta llum No tree gathers as much light
com aquest que creix sol enmig as this one as it grows alone in the middle
del prat of the meadow
i delimite espai imoviments. and borders space and movements.
Amb música vinguda des del fons With music coming from the depths
de totes les edats farem un cant of all ages, we will make a song that
d’ara mateix, que ningú no podrà from now on, no one will be able to
ni dispersar ni vèncer. neither scatter nor overcome.
Parlo amb por de la por i amb goig del goig, I speak with the fear of fear and the joy of joy, i amb por i amb goig m’enfilo per les branques and with fear and joy I climb the branches fins a atényer l’insòlit. until I reach the unusual
Tarda endins, In the afternoon,
tot és or pur quan la claror s’esbalça. everything is pure gold when the light fades
Us proposo de compartir I propose we share
el misteri dels ulls i del desig, the mystery of eyes and desire,
perquè no hi hagi entre vosaltres i jo so that between you and me no stronghold cap reducte vedat a la tendresa. may be that forbids tenderness.
Així ens serà possible In this way we will be allowed
viure junts l’ambit dels somnis, to live together the realm of dreams, vast i profund com una mar immensa vast and deep as an immense sea,
i jo, potser seré per a tots vosaltres and I, perhaps, will be for all of you
més que un record more than a memory
i menys que una presència. and less than a presence.
PhD. Lavinia Coman PhD. Lucian Beschiu
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