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Dan Turcanu - Three Nocturnes for French horn and piano
I was born in the Republic of Moldova into a family with a long line of professional classical musicians as well as virtuoso folk music players. My musical studies began with violin and piano. At the age of 8, my family repatriated to Bucharest, Romania and I was enrolled into the ‘George Enescu’ National School of Music. Later, I went on to study classical composition at the Bucharest National University of Music.
Upon graduation, I was attracted to the idea of exploring the world of folk music in an attempt to break away from the reflexes of the classical music. My first opportunity came with an internship with the National Historical Park in Sitka, Alaska, where I worked on restoring music manuscripts brought by the imperial Russian missionaries to the native people of Alaska. My second opportunity took me to the United Arab Emirates which opened doors to my interacting with Syrian, Lebanese, North African and Iranian musicians who graciously introduced me to their folk music and traditional instruments. Later developments in my personal life led me to explore Chinese and South East Asian music.
Due to the global pandemic, I had the chance to work with many French horn players who frequently asked me to arrange or compose for them to play while stuck at home. To date, I have gathered a collection of more than 250 arrangements and compositions for the French horn.
In my collection of Nocturnes for French horn and piano, Nocturne No.1 ‘Sentimental Story’ is a poem written by the Romanian poet Nichita Stănescu ‘Poveste sentimentală’. As an experiment, I studied the musicality of the poem by reciting it dramatically and transcribe the rhythm and intonation of the words into music notes. That became the melody carried by the French horn while the piano expresses the mood of the poem, lyrical and with introspective melancholy.
Nocturne No.2 ‘The Armenian Picture’ describes the picture of two newlyweds during the deadly march to exile in the Armenian genocide. The young couple is walking with a large group, surrounded by death and sorrow. The power of the image depicts the strength and moral power couple, with the union of their marriage in a time of despair, perhaps with the certainty of death lingering. The music has scenes of emotional dances trying to express the beautiful dances of a wedding in tragic times.
Nocturne No.3, similarly to ‘Sentimental Story’ is a musical translation of a personal poem dedicated to Annie, my muse, where the particularities of the words are transformed into a melody carried by the French horn while the piano recreates the dreamy and evocative mood of the poem.
Dan Turcanu
German preface not available ...
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