Ștefan Niculescu (July 31, 1927 – January 22, 2008) was a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

composer. Niculescu was born in

Moreni Moreni () is a municipality in Dâmbovița County, Muntenia, Romania, with a population of 22,868. The city is in the eastern part of the county, on the border with Prahova County. It is located east of the county seat, Târgoviște, and about ...

, Dâmbovita. He was credited with introducing his own brand of heterophony, a technique based on superimposing melodic material onto variations of itself in order to create textures that are propelled by thematic energy as well as by the more common textural factors of density and levels of activity. This creative approach bears similarities with

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

micropolyphony Micropolyphony is a kind of polyphonic musical texture developed by György Ligeti which consists of many lines of dense canons moving at different tempos or rhythms, thus resulting in tone clusters vertically. According to David Cope, "micropol ...

, but important aesthetic and stylistic differences set them apart. Niculescu's work as a teacher made him a mentor to a whole generation of younger Romanian composers, among them Dan Dediu. Niculescu's work ''Ison II'' for wind and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

permutates simultaneous segments of a diatonic melody producing a reverberating complexity of sound which is held together by a strong sense of modal clarity. ''Opus Dacicum'' for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

applies similar textural explorations but with a stronger sense of harmonic movement, often with a Wagnerian lushness that lends this music a sensuous appeal a world apart from Ligeti's cluster-oriented sonorities. Among his honors are many awards from the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

and The Society of Romanian Composers. He also received awards from the Académie des Beaux-Arts in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

(1972), the International Record Critics Award (1985), and the Herder Prize in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(1994). In the 1970s he contributed to the popularization of modern music by organizing public listenings in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

together with Şerban Stănciulescu.

References

Niculescu, esteemed Romanian composerObituary
Romanian composers People from Moreni 1927 births 2008 deaths Herder Prize recipients {{Romania-composer-stub