Music 507: Seminar in Music Composition and Theory

George Enescu's opera Oedipe: technique and innovation

(Fall 2006)

Time: F 10-11:50
Room: 1188 Music Building
Credit: 2 credits
Prerequisite: Graduate standing in music composition theory, or consent of instructor.

George Enescu's opera Oedipe one of his foremost achievements, is a very complex work typical of his mature style. Its musical language does not easily fit in any of the categories commonly recognized in the first half of the 20th century. The seminar will analyze substantial fragments of the work while dealing extensively with its historical background, contemporary cultural life in France, Romania, and Austria as well as with the myth of Oedipe and its various interpretations.

Among the topics to be discussed:

• Historical perspective
  Enescu's life and times: composer, violonist, pianist, conductor, teacher; musician with an uncommon memory and musical culture
  Yehudi Menuhin's testimonials
  brief history of Romania
  fin du siecle Vienna; the fall of an empire
  France: the Third Republic and the Dreyfuss affair
  France: intellectual trends - philosophy, literature, art, and music
  
  nationalism and cosmopolitan atmosphere
  Parisian salons of Romanian aristocrats; the royal family; Maruca Cantacuzino
  Edmond Flegg and his libretto - a personal insight
  exile following communist takeover of Romania
  Enescu and the UIUC School of Music
  
  
• The story
  the myth of Oedipus and its interpretations
  Flegg and Enescu propose a different riddle
  echoes from Wagner - anticipating Camus: Gotterdammerung, Parsifal and the Myth of Sisyphus
  "blind" destiny, hubris, violence, self-inflicted punishment, and apotheosis
  a unexpected interpretation based on modern physics
  
  
• The music of George Enescu
  brief introduction to East-European folklore
  East-European "devices" in Enescu's music:
  • ison
  • heterophony
  • microtonality
  • parlando-rubato
  • mi-voix or sprechstimme (as in "bocete" - funeral songs), etc.
  a quick look at fragments from other Enescu works:
  • Prelude from Suite for orchestra # 1
  • Third violin and piano Sonata
  • Piano Sonata in fa #"
  • Impressions d'enfance"
  • Suite for orchestra # 3, "Villageoise"
• OEDIPE
  melodic structures; tonality, modes, and "artificial" scales
  rhythmic structures
  counterpoint, heterophony, and harmony
  themes and/or Leitmotifs, musical form
  orchestration
  vocal writing, the relationship between music and text
  extended techniques
  
  
  
• Performance aspects
  a comparative listening of five recordings:
  • Charles Bruck, Paris, 1955, concert recording (with Antoine Golea comments, in French)
    
  • Constantin Silvestri, Bucharest, 1958, live recording
    
  • Mihai Brediceanu, Electrecord LP, Bucharest 1964
    
  • Lawrence Foster, EMI CD, 1989
    
  • Ian Hobson, Krannert performance, 2005
    
  vocal challenges, potential ensemble problems, coaching and rehearsing
  performers' views, critics' comments
  staging history
  
  
  
• Defining Enescu, the composer
  traditional and cosmopolitan trends; influences
  nationalist inclinations and innovation
  forma fara fond -"form without substance" - theory
  Enescu's answer; an extraordinary capacity to internalize music
  Enescu's singular role in Romanian music: was he the founder of a national school ?
  

Due to the amount of material to be covered students will contribute through class presentations on some of the above topics. The final grade will be based on these contributions and on a substantial final paper. The exact topics will be chosen (not exclusively) from the following categories and according to each person's background and abilities:

• in-depth musical analysis of a scene
• comparative and critical appraisal of available recordings
• performance challenges - lecture demonstration
• comparison with other musical (Stravinsky's "Oedipus rex"), artistic (Max Ernst's painting, Pasolini's film), and literary works (Robbe-Grillet's Les gommes).

Reserve listening

Sever Tipei may be contacted at 333-6689, in his office (Rm 5052 MB) during office hours or

email:

s-tipei@uiuc.edu

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