Ionel Doru Popovici (February 17, 1932 – March 5, 2019) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, musicologist, writer and musical concerts manager.

Biography

Ionel Doru Popovici was born in

Reșița Reșița (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a city in western Romania and the capital of Caraș-Severin County. It is located in the Banat region. The city had a population of 58,393 in 2021. It administers six villages: Câlnic (''Kölnök''), Cuptoare (''Kupt ...

, Romania, a city close to the border of what was formerly Yugoslavia, now

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. His father was Ioan Popovici, a surgeon who was assassinated in 1959 in the

Gherla Gherla (; ; ) is a municipality in Cluj County, Romania (in the historical region of Transylvania). It is located from Cluj-Napoca on the river Someșul Mic, and has a population of 19,873 as of 2021. Three villages are administered by the city: ...

political prison, accused of being an "Enemy of the Romanian State" because he helped write the Hungarian Counter-Revolution. His mother, Eugenia Popa, was the daughter of an

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

priest. Popovici graduated from the Constantin Diaconovici Loga High School in

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

in 1950 and in the same year decided to pursue a musical career. He moved to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

where he was admitted to the Ciprian Porumbescu Music Conservatory from which he graduated in 1955 with a degree in composition. Popovici studied under

Mihail Andricu Mihail Andricu (22 December 1894, Bucharest – 4 February 1974, Bucharest ) was a Romanian composer, violinist, and pianist. He studied with Alfonso Castaldi, Robert Klenck and Dumitru Kiriac. Andricu graduated from the National University ...

Mihail Jora Mihail Jora (; 2 August 1891, Roman, Romania - 10 May 1971, Bucharest, Romania) was a Romanian composer, pianist, and conductor. Jora studied in Leipzig with Robert Teichmüller. From 1929 to 1962 he was a professor at the Bucharest Conservato ...

Paul Constantinescu Paul Constantinescu (; 30 June 1909, Ploiești – 20 December 1963) was a Romanian composer. Two of his main influences are Romanian folk music and Byzantine chant, both of which he used in his teaching. One of his students was composer Margar ...

in harmony, Martian Negrea in counterpoint, Theodor Rogalski in instrumentation, and Zeno Vancea in music history. In 1966, Popovici married Alina Musat, a music teacher, musicologist, and author of ''

Ottorino Respighi Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions ra ...

'', (Ed. Muzicala, 1972). Starting in 1968 Popovici made regular trips to

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

, Germany, and studied modern composition technique 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 music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

, and

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and enginee ...

. He became an

SACEM The Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music or SACEM () is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original songwriters, composers, and music publisher A mus ...

member, a French professional association that collects payments of artists' rights. In the same year he started working as a musical editor in the Romanian Radio Society. From 1970 to 1990 he was employed as a musical journalist by the '' Saptămîna'' newspaper, conducted by the writer

Eugen Barbu Eugen Barbu (; 20 February 1924 – 7 September 1993) was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondent member of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended tha ...

. Since 1990 he has been a History of Music professor at

Spiru Haret University The Spiru Haret University is a private university in Bucharest, Romania, founded in 1991 by the president of Tomorrow's Romania Foundation, Aurelian Gh. Bondrea, as part of the teaching activities of this foundation. The university claims this h ...

Music

Popovici's work can be divided into three stages:

Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

with works such as "The Piano Sonata" (edited at Leipzig, Ed. Peters), "The Violin and Piano Sonata", "Wires Quartet" and many

lied In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

s. The Serial

Dodecaphonic The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale ...

, (he is the first Dodecaphonic composer in Romania), "Mariana Pineda", "Prometheus", "Homage to Palestrina", "The Pigeons of Death", "August Night", "Homage to Tuculescu" quintet (edited in Paris, Ed. Salabert), "Trio" (for violin, cello, piano), Symphony no. 1, 2 and "Homage to Eminescu" (Edited in Paris, Ed. Salabert); Post-

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

with the "Statornicie", "The Prostitute" operas, Symphony no.1, 2, Byzantine Poem, "Byzantine Hymns", "The Wedding"

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, and "Codex Caioni".

Books

Popovici wrote 33 books about the history of music, novels, musicians biography studies, and numerous poems using

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metre (poetry), metrical but rhyme, unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th cen ...

Awards

*20 Romanian Composers Union awards (1953–present) *Pro Musica award (Budapest) *The Yugoslavian Composers Society Prize *The Romanian Academy Prize *The "Tristan Tzara" medal *"Comendattore d'Italia" title (1982)

Listen

"Imn Bizantin", performed by Collegium Byzantinum, Aachen – Aix la Chapelle

References

Viorel Cosma Viorel Cosma (30 March 1923 – 15 August 2017) was a Romanian musician and teacher who came to wider prominence as an exceptionally prolific musicologist and a pioneering lexicographer. Through his scholarship he also achieved distinction as a ...

: "Muzicieni Romani". Lexicon, (Editura Muzicală, 1970) *Alfred Hoffman: "Orizonturi muzicale", (Editura Muzicală, 1979) *Iosif Sava – Luminita Vartolomei: "Mic Dictionar de Muzica, Bucharest, (Ed.stiintifica si enciclopedica, 1979) *Dan Zamfirescu: "Via Magna", Bucuresti, (Ed. Eminescu, 1970) {{DEFAULTSORT:Popovici, Doru 1932 births 2019 deaths People from Reșița Romanian composers Place of death missing