
Liana Alexandra Septefrati (born Liana Moraru; 27 May 1947 – 10 January 2011) was a Romanian composer, pianist, and music educator.
Biography
Alexandra was born in
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 ...
, Romania, on 27 May 1947. From 1965 to 1971, she studied at the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory (now the
National University of Music Bucharest
The National University of Music Bucharest (, UNMB) is a university-level school of music located in Bucharest, Romania. Established as a school of music in 1863 and reorganized as an academy in 1931, it has functioned as a public university since ...
) under
Tudor Ciortea
Tudor Ciortea (28 November 1903 – 13 October 1982) was a Romanian composer, musicologist, and music educator.
Life and career
Ciortea was born in Brașov and began his music studies under in Cluj. He went on to study at the Bucharest Conservato ...
and
Tiberiu Olah Tiberiu Olah (2 January 1928 – 2 October 2002) was a Romanian composer, teacher, and musicologist of Hungarian ethnicity.
Biography
Olah was born in Arpășel village, Batăr commune, Bihor County, the son of Ioan Olah, a notary, and Maria Olah ...
and took composition courses in 1974, 1978, 1980 and 1984 in
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.
She had a doctorate in musicology and taught composition, orchestration, and music analysis at the Conservatory from 1971 until her death in 2011. A prolific composer in the
neoromantic
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social movements, that exist after and incorporate elements from the era of Romanticism.
It has been used ...
style, Alexandra had over 100 of her works performed and published in Romania.
According to musicologist Octavian Cosma, she was "in her element with orchestral and chamber music, employing repetitive and evolving techniques, with melodic lines which suggest lyricism and meditation" and an instrumentation that used "a palette of delicate, pastel colours."
[ .] Iuliana Porcos described her work as ''"characterized by a clarity of orchestration and particularly by an evolving repetitive structure which induces a feeling of plenary meditation. Her composing style is defined by simplicity, accessibility and clarity, in accord with the 20th century composers’ wish to approach consonance (a new type of consonance), minimalism and archetype."''
Her music was associated with the "New Simplicity" movement by revewers of the 1980 Darmstadt Festival, who praised her ''Incantations II'' derived "in an original manner from elements of Rumanian folk music".
Alexandra married the Romanian cellist and composer
Şerban Nichifor in 1978. They performed together as Duo Intermedia from 1990 and were co-directors of the Nuova Musica Consonante - Living Music Foundation Festival.
Liana Alexandra died at her home in Bucharest on
10 January 2011 of a
cerebral hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...
at the age of 63.
On 12 January 2011, two days after her death, the broadcast ''Univers muzical românesc'' on
Radio România Muzical
''Radio România Muzical'', is a publicly funded radio station in Romania.
The station broadcasts music of a variety of genres, including symphonic, chamber music, operetta, choral music, folk, jazz, classical music, and soundtracks. It also bro ...
was dedicated to her. In May of that year, ''Liana Alexandra: Marturii despre muzica ei'' (Liana Alexandra: Confessions about her Music) was published by Editura Stephanus in a bilingual Romanian and English edition. Edited by Şerban Nichifor, the book is an anthology of writings on Alexandra's music by composers, critics and musicologists including
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 ...
,
Grete Tartler,
Robert Voisey, and
Jacques Leduc
Jacques Leduc (born November 25, 1941) is a Canadian film director and cinematographer.
Biography
Leduc began his career in 1961 working as a film critic for the magazine ''Objectif''. The following year, at the age of 21, he was hired as a came ...
. Later that month, her 1987 opera ''În labirint'' (The Maze) was performed in her memory by the
Banatul Philharmonic of Timișoara
The Banatul Philharmonic () is a musical institution in Timișoara, Romania. Established in 1871, it now comprises a symphony orchestra, professional choir, chorus and various chamber music, chamber groups. The Banatul Philharmonic operates in the ...
as the closing concert of the Timișoara International Music Festival (31 May 2011).
Prizes and honors
Alexandra's compositions have won numerous prizes and honors, including:
* 1975, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1988 - Prize of the Union of Romanian Composers
* 1979, 1980 -
Gaudeamus Prize
* 1980 - Prize of the Romanian Academy
* 1993 -
International Society for Contemporary Music
The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.
The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...
Prize
* 1997 - ACMEOR Prize of Israel
Selected works
Symphonic, vocal-symphonic and concert music
* Symphony I (1971)
* Cantata for women's choir and orchestra, verses by Lucian Blaga (1971)
* "Valences", symphonic movement (1973)
* Concerto for clarinet and orchestra (1974)
* Cantata II for soprano, baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra, verses by Lucian Blaga (1977)
* Cantata III "Country-land, country-idea" for women's chorus and orchestra, verses by Nichita Stanescu (1977)
* Symphony II "Hymns" (1978)
* Concerto for flute, viola and chamber orchestra (1980)
* Symphony III “Diacronies” (1981)
* Symphony IV (1984)
* Symphony V (1985-1986)
* Symphony VI (1988-1989)
* Symphonic poem "Jerusalem" (1990)
* Concerto for string orchestra (1991)
* Concerto for piano for four hands and orchestra (1993)
* Symphony VII (1996)
* Symphony VIII (1995-1996)
* Symphony IX "Jerusalem" (1970)
* Concerto for saxophone and orchestra (1997)
* "Pastorale" for wind orchestra (1999)
* Concerto for organ and orchestra (2002). Premiered at the Mihail Jora Concert Hall, Bucharest, 13 November 2002, with Radio Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Cristian Brancusi and Ilse Maria Reich as organist.
* Computer music (2003) - Bassoon Quartet, Barcarola, Pastorale, Dancing Visions (12 variations), 1 CD
* Computer music (2004) - Rhythms (8 Studies), 1 CD
Opera
* ''The Snow Queen'', children's opera after
the story by
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fai ...
(1978)
* ''În labirint'', chamber opera (1987)
* ''Chant d'amour de la Dame à la Licorne'', chamber opera set to verses by Etienne de Sadeleer (1995)
Chamber music
* Sonata for solo flute (1973)
* Music for clarinet, harp and percussion (1972)
* Lyric Sequence for clarinet, trumpet and piano (1974)
* Two sequences for soprano and chamber orchestra (1976)
* "Collages" for brass quintet (1977)
* "Incantations" II for violin, viola, cello and piano (1978)
* "Consonances" I for trombone quartet (1978)
* "Consonances" II for clarinet and piano (1979)
* "Consonances" III for solo organ (1979)
* "Consonances" V for solo organ (1980)
* "Images interrupted" for
woodwind
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments.
Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Ree ...
quintet (1983)
* "Cadenza" for violin (1983)
* "Pastorale" for bass clarinet and piano (1984)
* "Allegro veloce e caratteristico" for organ (1985)
* Sonata for six horns (1986)
* "Larghetto" for string chamber orchestra (1988)
* "Intersections" - sonata for horn and piano (1989)
* Music for Het Trio (1990)
* "A tre" for flute, clarinet, and bassoon (1991)
* "Cadenza" III for piano (1992)
* Sonata for piano (1993)
* "Fantasy" for cello and piano (1994)
* "Poem for Romania", "Poem for Madona from Neamt" for soprano and piano, texts by Eugen Van Itterbeek (1994)
* "Consonances" VI for
recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...
quartet (1997)
* "Five movements" for violoncello and piano (1997)
* "Consonances" VII for solo harp (1998)
* "Parallel musics" for saxophone, cello and piano (2001)
* "Incantations" III for cello and tape (2002)
Books
* ''Componistica muzicală: Un inefabil demers între fantezie şi rigoare'' (Musical composition: An ineffable act between fantasy and mathematical rigor). Editura
Universității Naționale de Muzică, 2005
Discography
Alexandra was a member of the
Vox Novus
Vox Novus is a New York City-based organization consisting of composers, musicians, and music enthusiasts which presents and supports new music. Vox Novus was founded by Robert Voisey to promote contemporary composers in 2000.
This organization w ...
consortium. Several of her compositions for the consortium's
60x60
60x60 is a collection of 60 electroacoustic or acousmatic works from 60 different composers/artists, each work 60 seconds or less in duration. 60x60 project showcases sixty new works, each sixty seconds or less, by sixty composers in a continuo ...
project appear on:
* ''60x60'' (2004–2005). Vox Novus VN-001
* ''60x60'' (2006–2007). Vox Novus VN-002
[Eddins, Stephen. Review: ''60x60'' 2006–2007 ]AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
. Accessed 23 April 2013.
Her 1981 choral work ''Soarele Si Luna'' appears on:
* ''Contemporary Music IV'' - music by Paul Constantinescu, Pascal Bentoiu, Liana Alexandra, Laurentiu Profeta, ''et al''. Conducted by
Marin Constantin
Constantin Marin (27 February 1925 – 1 January 2011) was a Romanian award-winning musician, conductor, and composer.
Biography
Marin was born in Bănești, Prahova, Urleta, Prahova County, Romania. He was the founder in 1963 of the and had ...
, 1998, re-released 2005. Electrecord 260
Symphonies number 2, “Imnuri”, and number 3, “Diacronii”, were released on Electrecord LP ST-ECE 02183, recorded in 1977, performed by the Romanian Radio & Television Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Iosif Conta and Liviu Ionescu.
References
Further reading
* Tartler, Grete (1984). ''Melopoetica''. Editura Eminescu (Romanian)
External links
*
* Nichifor, Şerban (ed.) (2011)
''Liana Alexandra: Marturii despre muzica ei'' (Liana Alexandra: Confessions about her Music) Editura Stephanus (bilingual version in Romanian and English on
archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...
)
*
/www.youtube.com/user/lianaalexandra Liana Alexandra's official YouTube channelWorks by and about Liana Alexandraon
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandra, Liana
1947 births
2011 deaths
20th-century Romanian classical composers
Romanian women classical composers
Romanian women composers
National University of Music Bucharest alumni
Academic staff of the National University of Music Bucharest
Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen
Romanian women music educators
20th-century Romanian women composers
Musicians from Bucharest
20th-century Romanian educators
20th-century Romanian women educators