The Influence of Romanian Folk Music on the Music of George Enescu

i

The Influence of Romanian Folk Music on the Music of George

Enescu, with special reference to Romanian Rhapsody, op. 11 no. 1,

Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3, and Impression d’Enfance

for Violin and Piano, op. 28.

Michael David Patterson

A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy (Music Performance) at

The University of Queensland in September 2009

The School of Music

ii

Declaration by author

This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously

published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in

the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that

I have included in my thesis.

I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including

statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures,

professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in

my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the

commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a

substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other

degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated

which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award.

I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the

University Library and, subject to the General Award Rules of The University of

Queensland, immediately made available for research and study in accordance with

the Copyright Act 1968.

I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the

copyright holder(s) of that material.

Statement of Contributions to Jointly Authored Works Contained in the Thesis

No jointly-authored works.

Statement of Contributions by Others to the Thesis as a Whole

No contributions by others.

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Degree

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iii

Published Works by the Author Incorporated into the Thesis

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Additional Published Works by the Author Relevant to the Thesis but not

Forming Part of it

None.

iv

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the support of my academic advisor, Dr. Denis Collins

and my practical advisor, Mr. Spiros Rantos.

Abstract

George Enescu (1881-1955) is the best-known Romanian composer and has been

widely lauded for his folk- inspired compositions. While folk music was an important

influence in Enescu’s music, it was always balanced by his passion for and intimate

understanding of late Romantic compositional techniques. The extent to which he was

influenced by the folk music of his homeland is a point of contention amongst some

of the leading Enescu scholars. The English-speaking representative, Noel Malcolm

believes that the influences in Enescu´s musical language were more diverse than

scholars have suggested prior to the 1989 revolution. He believes that the depiction of

Enescu as a folkloristic composer has contributed to his marginalisation and relative

obscurity. By contrast, scholars such as Boris Kotlyarov and Grigore Constantinescu

give greater weight to national characteristics in Enescu’s music. Enescu conceded

that some of his early works made direct quotation of Romanian folk melodies, and

that such an approach was limited in its possibilities. The composer’s more mature

works employ characteristics of folk music and its performance traditions without the

use of direct quotation.

This critical commentary will observe and comment on the folk influences in

Enescu’s compositions as well as noting the influence of Western traditions and

techniques. Due reference will be given to the work of Bartók, whose incisive study

of Romanian folk music remains one of the most substantial and detailed primary

sources today. In order to highlight specific examples of folk influence, as well as

other techniques, three of Enescu’s works are targeted for specific study, namely the

Romanian Rhapsody, op. 11 no. 1, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3 and his

Impressions D’Enfance for violin and piano, op. 28. Each work exhibits a tie with the

composer’s Romanian origins, but also with 19th and early 20thC composers such as

Brahms, Wagner, Debussy and Fauré. This critical commentary highlights the fact

that Enescu’s works display folk idioms and techniques developed using late-

Romantic techniques.

v

Keywords

Enescu, folk, music, compositions, Romania, Romanian, composer, traditional,

Bartók

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC)

190407 30%, 190409 70%

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CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION AND PRELIMINARY INFORMATION

ABSTRACT

CONTENTS

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

CHAPTERS

1 Introduction

2 Biographical Background

3 Enescu, Bartók and Approaches to Folk Music

4 Characteristics of Romanian Folk Music

5 Romanian Rhapsody, op. 11 no. 1

6 Impression d’Enfance for Violin and Piano, op. 28

7 Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no.3

8 Conclusion

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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iv

vi

vii

1

6

11

16

27

31

38

47

51

vii

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Page

1 Bihor area modal type.

2 ‘Heroic’ melody modal type.

3 Modal type for melodies with motif-structure.

4 Câmpie area modal type.

5 The Hicaz mode.

6 Hexasyllabic arrangement.

7 Octosyllabic arrangement.

8 Băla, Mureş county. 1914, transc. B Bartók

9 Rhythmic shift through displacement of the accent.

10 The uncertain mode.

11 A doina, Cintec Lung Cu Haulit from the Oltenia area (Alexandru

166).

12 An instrumental dance melody from the Hunedoara area (Bartók

409).

13 Enescu, Romanian Rhapsody, op. 11 no. 1, bars 1-4.



16 Enescu, Impressions d’enfance, op. 28, bars 1-2.

17 Underlying rhythm of Ménétrier´s opening melody.

18 The second phrase of Ménétrier.




22 Dorian mode with raised fourth degree.

18

18

19

19

19

20

20

21

22

23

26

26

28

28

29

32

32

33

34

34

35

36

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23 Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3, third

movement, bars 21-22.

24 Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3, first movement,

bars 1-5

25 Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3, first Movement,

bars 6-9.


second subject, bars 32-37 (with anacrusis).

27 Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3, start of the

development section, bars 38-41.


bars 63-64.

29 Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3, second


30 Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3, third


39

41

42

43

44

44

45

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1

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

In this critical commentary I will examine how George Enescu drew upon the folk

music heritage of Romania in the development of his musical language. This

discussion will be balanced with consideration of the composer’s formal music

education in Vienna and Paris and the reflection of this training in his compositional

output. Enescu is the best known and most celebrated Romanian composer to date

(Malcolm, “George Enescu”). The fact that he was influenced by folk music is

generally agreed upon, but the extent of this influence is a point of contention, as may

be seen in the monographs of Boris Kotlyarov and Noel Malcolm. Their respective

books, Enesco1 and George Enescu: His Life and Music are the most substantial

scholarly publications about Enescu in English (Waterhouse 118). Kotlyarov seems

willing to attribute most of the composers distinctive compositional features to a folk

music influence, while Malcolm is more sceptical, acknowledging folk influence but

presenting the composer as more cosmopolitan. Their contrasting views will be

balanced in this critical commentary, with due consideration of Enescu’s biographical

information and examination of some of his more representative works. Three specific

works will be targeted for more detailed discussion, namely the Romanian Rhapsody,

op. 11 no. 1, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no. 3 and Impressions D’Enfance for

violin and piano, op. 28. Each work exhibits a tie with Enescu’s Romanian origins,

but also with his education in Vienna and Paris and the influence of composers such

as Brahms, Wagner, Debussy and Fauré.

1 Translation from Russian to English by the Author.

2

Enescu was a ‘dyed-in-the-wool Wagnerian’ (Malcolm, Life and Music 75) living at a

time when composers were seeking alternative paths to the advanced harmonic idioms

developed by late nineteenth century composers. Exoticism, serialism, barbarism,

neoclassicism, folklorism, nationalism and dadaism were but a few of the many trends

explored by composers of this time (Vancea 6). Enescu, while patriotic and loyal to

his homeland of Romania was not, like Bartók, driven to compose for the good of the

nation (Suchoff 133). Nor did he conduct any detailed study or documentation of the

music of the Romanian people in order to imbue his compositions with its spirit. And

yet Enescu is hailed to this day as the greatest single exponent of Romanian music,

and as a folklorist whose music portrays the character of the Romanian landscape

(Malcolm, “Enescu in Bucharest” 31)2. However, Noel Malcolm has noted the lack of

study on the influence of church music on Enescu’s output (Malcolm, “Enescu in

Bucharest” 31). On both sides of the composer’s family there were strong ties with the

Romanian Orthodox church, and Enescu always remained a keen exponent: ‘I think

that the most difficult, necessary and urgently useful work that needs to be done in

Romanian music is that which is required by church music’ (qtd. in Malcolm, Life and

Music 27).

Enescu’s nationality was clearly an inspiration for such works as Poème Roumaine

and the two Romanian Rhapsodies, but he did not devote time to the study of folk

music. The composer’s exposure to folk music was restricted to what he would have

encountered in day to day life. Compared to Béla Bartók, his knowledge of folk

music, at an academic level, would have appeared minimal (see Chapter 3 below).

2 During the 1982 “Enescu Festival” in Bucharest, Malcolm was perplexed by what seemed to be an

exaggeration of the composer’s folk-music connection; “Again and again, we were told that Enescu

expressed the spirit of Romanian folk-music, of the Romanian landscape, or even, as the Chinese

pianist Li Ming-Chang informed us, of Romanian vegetation” (Malcolm, “Enescu in Bucharest” 31).

3

Nonetheless, elements of folk influence within his music are highlighted and lauded

by music scholars. In many cases, this exaggerated emphasis has resulted from the

political environment of Romania prior to the 1989 Revolution, in which the link

between composer and nation through folk music was highly regarded (Valentina).

Scholarly literature on Enescu is nowhere near as abundant as on other eminent

composers of Central and Eastern Europe. Malcolm´s monograph, George Enescu:

His Life and Music of 1990 is the most recent and substantial book about the

composer in English. His writings are widely referenced in recent journal articles, CD

liner notes and performance reviews. Although frustrated by writers who exaggerate

accounts of folk influence in Enescu’s music (Malcolm, Life and Music 11-12), he

presents a balanced approach that considers folk influences whilst not ignoring

Enescu’s many and varied influences from the West.

Kotlyarov’s monograph was used with caution in this critical commentary. As noted

by John Waterhouse (118), the book provides some insightful discussion of Enescu’s

music. However, some of the analyses are excessively florid and written in a way that

exaggerates the role of nationalism in Enescu´s musical language. With regard to

Enescu’s overtly Romanian works (Poème Roumaine, the two Romanian Rhapsodies

and the Sonata for Violin and Piano, no. 3) Kotlyarov’s fundamental assertions about

folk influence are undisputed. However, those made in discussion of other works,

such as Enescu’s first and second violin sonatas (34-35) and Dixtuor, op. 14 (74) for

woodwind seem more tenuous. Consider for example Kotlyarov’s remarks on the

Sonata for Violin and Piano, no. 2: ‘Enesco uses a very rapid bow tremolo which in

4

piano-pianissimo makes the violin sound like a cobza’3 (34). Kotlyarov chooses to

attribute the use of such techniques such as portamento and tremolo to folk influence

(34) without considering a possible French influence. Enescu was studying at the

Paris Conservatoire when he wrote this sonata, and would have been familiar with the

‘rapid bow tremolo’ in the first movement of Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano

(1897)4. Enescu’s use of tremolo is just as likely to be an impressionistic gesture as an

imitation of a traditional Romanian instrument. Kotlyarov, however is quick to

distance Enescu from impressionism, quoting Maxim Gorky: ‘in great artists [such as

Enescu] realism and romanticism are always combined’ (qtd. in Kotlyarov 45). This

sort of reference by Kotlyarov suggests that his writing was influenced by socialist

realist thinking (Pegg).

The most significant Enescu scholar, aside from Malcolm and Kotlyarov, is Pascal

Bentoiu, a Romanian composer and ethnomusicologist. He has published numerous

essays on Enescu along with one monograph, Capodopere enesciene (1984) for which

there is no published English translation. However, some of his writing is available in

English at The International Enescu Society website5. His brief article, “George

Enescu, the Composer” serves to confirm some of the more nuanced claims of

Malcolm. In particular, Bentoiu supports Malcolm’s view of the composer as a

marginalised figure whose oeuvre should not be consigned merely to the ‘national

school’. In contrast to Malcolm however, Bentoiu suggests it is the complexity of

Enescu’s mature compositions that is the primary reason for their relative obscurity

today (Bentoiu).

3 A cobza is a lute-like instrument that was widely used for accompanying the voice or melody

instruments in Romania around the time of Enescu (Rădulescu). 4 Ravel was friends with Enescu and would later entrust the first performance of his second sonata for

violin and piano to the Romanian (Menuhin 101). 5 <http://www.enescusociety.org/>

5

This Critical Commentary will refer to the writings of the aforementioned authors in

its exploration of folk influence in Enescu’s music, while making it clear that there

were other influences on his composing style that were possibly even stronger. Enescu

was excited by music of the Romantic era because it spoke to him emotionally and

with the same directness of communication that he intended to achieve in his own

compositions (Malcolm, Life and Music 38). Enescu said that music should ‘go from

heart to heart’ (qtd. in Malcolm, Life and Music 14). Although there were numerous

influences on his compositional style, this emotional emphasis was always at the core

of Enescu’s music. The three pieces studied in chapters 5-7 of this critical

commentary reveal not only characteristics derived from Romanian folk music, but

also the strength and importance of Western techniques in Enescu’s music. Chapters

2-4 are preparatory to the discussion of these pieces and consider the diverse

influences that formed part of the composer’s mature musical language.

6

Chapter 2

BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND

Despite remarkable ability as a violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher, Enescu

always considered himself to be principally a composer (Constantinescu 9). When

reading about his life, and about how he touched the lives of other great musicians, it

becomes clear that he was a remarkably facile musician, but also of very humble and

kind disposition. Noel Malcolm referred to his ‘extraordinary [and] total musicalilty

of mind’ (Malcolm, Life and Music 13). In his autobiography, Yehudi Menuhin

referred to Enescu’s musicality as an ‘incandescence surpassing anything in my

experience’ (Menuhin 84), and in the introduction to Malcolm’s monograph described

him as ‘the most extraordinary human being, the greatest musician and the most

formative influence I have ever experienced’ (Malcolm, Life and Music 9). Pablo

Casals described Enescu as ‘the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart’

(Malcolm, Life and Music 263).

Enescu was born in Moldavia, a region of Romania that was so regularly invaded

throughout history that its culture was rich with the influence of the East and the West

(Menuhin 98). Enescu learnt the violin from a local Gypsy6 fiddler until his

outstanding ability was recognised by Eduard Caudella, a professor of violin at the

Conservatory in Iaşi, and he was sent to Vienna to commence his formal education

(Malcolm, Life and Music 30). In Vienna, from the age of five Enescu was immersed

in the music of the great Viennese classical composers – Haydn, Mozart and

Beethoven – but it was music of the Romantic era, in particular the music of Wagner,

6 The word ‘Gypsy’ is used in this critical commentary in reference to itinerant musicians, and is not

specific to any ethnicity.

7

that most excited the young Romanian (Vancea 8). Enescu later made special mention

of Hans Richter who conducted The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and

the Der Ring des Nibelungen during Enescu’s time in Vienna (Kotlyarov 20). He said

that Wagner’s chromaticisms became ‘a part of his vascular system’ (Enescu, qtd. in

Kotlyarov 20). Many of Enescu’s works display other qualities that point to Wagner’s

influence: ‘elaborate forms, large proportions and intense sonority’ (Kotlyarov 20).

While in Vienna, Enescu studied composition with Robert Fuchs, whose other pupils

included Mahler, Sibelius and Wolf (Malcolm, “George Enescu”). After graduating

from the Vienna Conservatoire in 1893, the twelve-year old Enescu stayed on for one

more year of composition lessons with Fuchs. The influence of Fuchs’s counterpoint

teaching is apparent in Enescu´s celebrated Opus 1, Poème Roumain (1897) which is

abundant in thematic superimpositions (Malcolm, Life and Music 63).

Paris was to become the young Romanian’s next home. Enescu’s arrival in 1895 was

at a time when the city’s musical life was thriving as a result of strong government

support (Pasler). At the Paris Conservatoire he studied composition with Massenet

(1895–6) and Fauré (1896–9) (Malcolm, “George Enescu”). His early compositions

from this period are clearly indebted to the Germanic tradition, as exemplified by the

works of Schumann, Beethoven and Brahms. They also see the emergence of Fauré’s

influence, which was to become increasingly significant (Vancea 8). Enescu’s Sonata

for Violin and Piano, op. 2 no. 1, his Sonata for Cello and Piano, op. 26 no. 1, and the

Variations for Two Pianos on an Original Theme, op. 5 all date from this burgeoning

stage.

8

Enescu’s fondness for heterophonic compositional techniques was fostered in his

weekly counterpoint lessons with André Gédalge. The Frenchman was to remain

special to Enescu as the following extract attests:

I was, am and always shall be Gédalge´s pupil: what he gave me was a doctrine

to which I was already naturally attuned. […] Polyphony is the essential

principle of my musical language; I’m not a person for pretty successions of

chords. I have a horror of everything which stagnates. […] Harmonic

progressions only amount to a sort of elementary improvisation. However short

it is, a piece deserves to be called a musical composition only if it has a line, a

melody, or, even better, melodies superimposed on one another.

(qtd. in Malcolm, Life and Music 56-57).

Enescu’s Octet for Strings, op. 7 is clearly indebted to Gédalge in its extensive use of

contrapuntal techniques (Malcolm, Life and Music 78). For instance, the first

movement involves a prolonged fugal interplay between the first violin and the first

viola parts. The second movement continues the contrapuntal sensibility with its

highly energetic fugato (Malcolm, Life and Music 79).

As a composer, Enescu achieved his first large-scale success with Poème Roumain

which was completed in 1897. Aside from its successful première in Paris in 1898, the

work was a huge success when the composer conducted it in the Romanian capital of

Bucharest (Malcolm “Enescu”). The work is rich in melodic superimpositions and

thematic transformation, two techniques of which Enescu seemed particularly fond

(Kotlyarov 35). Although thematic transformation was used extensively by Liszt, it is

9

more likely to have been Wagner’s transformation of leitmotifs in the Ring which

inspired Enescu, as this was a work that he had memorised in its entirety (Menuhin

101). Enescu’s first Cello Sonata uses the technique so extensively that the thematic

material becomes fatigued through all its convolutions (Malcolm, Life and Music 72).

Ensescu was not the first Romanian composer to create symphonic works based on

Romanian folk melodies; he was following in a tradition established towards the end

of the nineteenth century by composers such as Alexandru Flechtenmacher (National

Moldavian Overture), Iacob Mureşianu (Stephen the Great) and Ciprian Porumbescu

(Romanian Rhapsody) (Malcolm, Life and Music 62). Enescu’s foray into the use of

quotation was short-lived and certainly atypical of his mature compositional style

(Malcolm, Life and Music 12). His later works harnessed folk-like qualities without

actually quoting melodies (Constantinescu 9-10). The composer’s attitude to

incorporating folk melodies in symphonic works was cautious:

I believe that popular [i.e. folk] art is good in itself. To employ it in symphonic

works amounts to enfeebling it as if diluting it in water. Every composer must

inspire himself by his own means. I know only one exception, and it applies to

rhapsodies where folk tunes are fitted to one another and not worked out. A

popular melody can be developed by one means only – by a dynamic

progression, by repeating it without alterations, without artificial endings or

intercalculations…I wrote my rhapsodies in a purely instinctive way and only

later tried to find out what inner requirement had induced me to choose that

form. (qtd. in Kotlyarov 34)

10

These comments from a 1952 interview with Enescu echo writings of Claude Debussy

from around the year 1900. The latter consistently denounced the act of taking

melodies from the folk music, writing once to a Hungarian friend:

Your young musicians could usefully take inspiration from them, not by

copying them but by trying to transpose their freedom, their gifts of evocation,

colour, rhythm … One should only ever use the folk music of one’s country as a

basis, never as a technique.

(qtd. in Lesure)

Enescu graduated from the Paris Conservatoire in 1899, then began a ‘divided

existence’ that revolved around two centres — one being an apartment in Paris, and

the other a house in the Romanian countryside (Menuhin 99). Most of his performing

and conducting duties were centred in Paris, while most of his composing was done in

Romania. Enescu’s greatest passion was for composing music (Constantinescu 9), but

he often complained that his hectic touring schedule left him with too little time to this

activity (Malcolm, Life and Music 82).

11

Chapter 3

ENESCU, BARTÓK AND APPROACHES TO FOLK MUSIC

A comparison with the work of Bartók is useful when assessing Enescu’s interactions

with Romanian folk music. Both composers were exposed to Romanian folk music,

but Bartók’s approach to understanding its characteristics was far more scholarly than

Enescu’s. During the period 1908-1918 Bartók conducted thorough and systematic

study of Romanian folk music through fieldwork in Romanian villages and

transcribing music of the peasants (Alexandru 120). His subsequent

ethnomusicological publications observed the characteristics of Romanian folk music

in great detail. Enescu’s exposure to folk music, by contrast, came from childhood

exposure to Moldavian fiddlers and Gypsy bands, and from his first years of violin

tuition with the Gypsy fiddler, Lae Chioru (Malcolm, Life and Music 30). Under

Chioru’s tutelage Enescu learnt many folk melodies including those that would later

appear in his Poème Roumain and Romanian Rhapsodies. While it may be useful to

draw parallels between the careers of Enescu and other composers inspired by folk

music – such as Karol Szymanowski, Arnold Bax, Zoltán Kodály, and Franz Liszt –

Bartók is the most relevant reference point due to the timeframe of his career, and his

extensive research of Romanian folk music (Botstein 142).

In the early years of Bartók’s career he was driven by an overriding patriotism which

led him to become passionate about folk music research. He embarked on a

systematic study of Hungarian peasant music in 1905, with a view to incorporating his

discoveries into a new musical style (Erdely 27). In September 1903 he wrote to his

mother:

12

Everyone, on reaching maturity, has to set himself a goal and must

direct all his work and actions toward this. For my part, all my life,

in every sphere, always and in every way, I shall have one objective:

the good of Hungary and the Hungarian nation. (Suchoff 133)

In the early years of Bartók’s career, the Hungarian War of Independence (1848-49)

was still relatively fresh in the people’s minds. Hungarians were a proud people who

looked to their music to help build national morale and strengthen the nation’s sense

of identity (Erdely 27). Bartók’s musicological work in the early twentieth century

went far beyond popular renditions of folk music by bands in the major cities. He

sought to document the ancient, traditional music of the Hungarian people, to

understand its ancestry, and to thereby compose music with a true national spirit

(Bratuz 29-30). In order to achieve this, Bartók undertook extensive musicological

work in Hungary and Romania. He studied, recorded and transcribed thousands of

peasant performances in scores of villages. Many of these villages were around the

border of Hungary and Romania, including many in Transylvania which became part

of Austria-Hungary after 1867, and then part of the Kingdom of Romania after World

War I.

Between 1908 and 1918 Bartók collected around 3500 Romanian folk tunes

(Alexandru 120). His was not the first substantial collection of notated Romanian folk

melodies, although its precedents were scarce. One of the earliest examples, Musique

Oriental, 42 Chansons et Dances Moldaves, Valaques, Grecs et Turcs by François

13

Rouschitzki was published in 18347. Bartók’s transcriptions, however, offer

significantly greater detail, with thorough attention given to each subtlety of

performance such as ornamentations, tunings and slides (Erdely 32). At no stage did

Bartók attempt to harmonise or Westernise the material. In addition to documenting

the melodies, he gathered contextual information relating to the social function of the

music. For example, the first volume of Bartók’s Rumanian Folk Music contains

information on the occasions where dances would take place, and a detailed

description of the choreography involved (Bartók 27-41).

As a composer, Bartók’s earlier work was in keeping with evolving Romanticism as

developed by Brahms and Wagner, and he dabbled in a popular nationalistic style that

was reminiscent of Liszt (Suchoff 133). His 1903 parody of the Austrian national

anthem in the Kossuth Symphonic Poem was received with great enthusiasm by the

public (Suchoff 133). This work was premiered in the same year that Enescu

conducted his Romanian Rhapsodies in Bucharest for the first time. The works of

both composers were symptomatic of their formal training and the stylistic currents of

the time (Vancea 8). Neither composer was writing in their mature representative

style, rather, they were experimenting with new-found techniques in the context of a

popular musical framework (Vancea 8).

After 1907 Bartók’s immersion in folk music started to become obvious in his

compositions, as an increasing number of genuine Hungarian and Romanian

folklorisms permeated their structure and tonality (Gillies). The Fourteen Bagatelles

op. 6 (1908) are a good example of Bartók’s compositional style from this pivotal

7 Rouschitzki´s collection was published in the town of Iaşi, which was by coincidence the birthplace

of Enescu.

14

time. These pieces display a new simplicity in texture and various compositional

devices that are suggestive either of the influence of his recent folk music

investigation, or of contemporaneous trends by other Western composers (Gillies).

While Bartók probed the riches of his country’s folk music, Enescu was strengthening

his musical bonds in Paris. Here he wrote a number of chamber works showing his

affinity with his composition teacher, Gabriel Fauré. These include the Sept Chansons

de Clément Marot (1908) and the First Piano Quartet (1909). Certain Romanian folk

characteristics inevitably permeated his output, as in Dixtuor (1906) where a number

of passages are clearly indebted to the free flowing modal ornamentations of the

doina8 (Malcolm 104). But as Enescu’s musical language began to mature, it became

increasingly clear that his techniques could not be easily pigeon-holed. His synthesis

of Western and indigenous Romanian music was becoming more seamless and natural

(Malcolm 82).

Constantinescu states that Enescu was ‘thoroughly conversant’ with the folk music of

Romania (9). However, there is no evidence of there having been a methodology to

Enescu’s acquisition of such knowledge. Noel Malcolm tells us that in the composer’s

later years ‘he took a close interest in current research, and influenced the thinking of

the Romanian ethnomusicologist Constantin Brăiloiu.’ (Malcolm, Life and Music 24).

However, Malcolm does not qualify this statement, and is quick to move the focus of

Enescu’s folk awareness away from areas of research and into an emotional context.

Malcolm draws our attention to the appeal that the folk idiom of the doina had to

8 The Doina is a free-flowing style of song or instrumental melody. See chapter 4 of this critical

commentary.

15

Enescu, not because of any technical aspects, but because of ‘its expressive qualities’

(Malcolm, Life and Music 24).

It is clear that Bartók approached the understanding of folk music characteristics in a

fundamentally different way to Enescu. His knowledge was more academically

grounded, and was demonstrated through his numerous ethnomusicological

publications. As a result of his almost obsessive dedication to folk music research,

Bartók’s mature works invariably display strong evidence of folk influence. On the

other hand, Enescu’s mature style did not consistently exhibit the influence of folk

music characteristics. His Piano Quartet, op. 22 no. 2 and opera Oedipe, op. 23 are

examples of this. The former is more French than Romanian and owes considerable

stylistic debt to Fáure (Whitehouse), while the latter is strongly rooted in late romantic

techniques, including the use of leitmotifs (Kotlyarov 126). The influence of

Romanian music can be found in Enescu’s late music, but it is not always a primary or

pivotal in dictating its style. Therein lies the most significant point of departure in a

comparison with Bartók’s compositional response to folk music.

16

Chapter 4

CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANIAN FOLK MUSIC

Before approaching the technical aspects of Enescu’s compositions it is necessary to

survey some of the characteristic elements of Romanian folk music. These include

performance characteristics (ornaments, portamento, pitch nuances and so on) as well

as structural characteristics such as modality, rhythm and form. Folk music and dance

are an integral part of the Romanian peoples’ life (Alexandru 6), playing an essential

role in occasions such as ‘nunta’ (marriage), ‘înmormântarea’ (burial), ‘botezul’

(baptism), ‘colinde’ (carol singing) and fertility rituals (Rădulescu). Romanian folk

music is usually performed by professional musicians (‘lăutari’), many of whom are

gypsies. The nature of the music varies depending on type of event, and the area in

which it takes place. Romania was historically prone to invasion and shifts in its

borders, and as a result its folk music exhibits the influence of many surrounding

areas (Malcolm, Life and Music 21). Enescu spoke of Romanian music as a

‘composite of Arabic, Slav and Hungarian music, possessing nevertheless its own

peculiar character, which you won’t find in the music of other peoples’ (qtd. in

Malcolm, Life and Music 22). As a result, Romanian folk music is rich in its variety of

meters, rhythms and modes.

It is possible to spend much time defining what is meant by ‘folk music’ in the

Romanian context. Constantin Brăiloiu, one of the most important Romanian

ethnomusicologists of the early twentieth century (Rouget), noted that it was common

for the words ‘folk’ and ‘peasant’ to have interchangeable meanings in musicological

studies (Brăiloiu 390). Bartók, whose ethnomusicological publications remain the

17

most substantial primary source of about Romanian folk music in English, largely

conformed to this idea. Bartók also stressed the importance of avoiding the study of

urbanised versions of folk melodies, which he considered less pure (Bartók 4). His

definition of folk music is, ‘all music which the village folk spontaneously use as

expression of their musical instinct and feeling’ (Bartók 5). The following is a very

brief explanation of some of the important characteristics of Romanian folk music. Its

aim is to provide a basis for the discussion of Romanian folk characteristics in the

three specific works studied in Chapters 5-7.

Modality and Romanian Dance Music

Having transcribed over two thousand five hundred melodies from villages in

northwestern Romania, Bartók was able to ascribe certain modal tendencies to the

different genres of folk music he encountered. While Bartók’s classifications do not

cover all types of Romanian folk music, or all of the areas within Romania, his

analyses remain amongst the most insightful. More recent scholarly literature on the

topic, including the work of Gheorge Oprea continues to use similar systems to

categorize modal tendencies. Bartók divided the instrumental dance music into five

types, indicating the most common mode used for each.

Example 1 shows the mode most common in Bihor dance melodies, with the final

tone indicated as the second note of the mode. This points to a common feature of

dance melodies from the western parts of Romania and adjoining Serbia, namely that

the ‘finalis’ of most melodies is one step above the tonal centre (Marković 29).

18

Ex. 1. Bihor area modal type.

In the ‘heroic’ type of melody the fourth degree is sometimes raised, creating an

augmented second between the third and fourth degrees (Ex. 2). The sixth degree is

either major or minor (Bartók 48).

Ex. 2. ‘Heroic’ melody modal type.

The ‘Ardeleana’ genre of dance melody is similar to the ‘Heroic’ type, and usually

features the same mode with the mobile fourth and sixth degrees. The difference is in

the rhythm which in this instance is generally restricted to equal sixteenth note values

(Bartók 49).

Motif-structure melodies are the fourth type of instrumental dance melody specified

by Bartók. These melodies are generally restricted to a pentachord in range,

occasionally stretching to the sixth (Ex. 3). The fourth tone is sometimes raised,

creating a tritone with the tonal centre.

19

Ex. 3. Modal type for melodies with motif-structure.

The modal characteristics of vocal music are similar to those of their instrumental

counterparts, although as an exception Bartók mentioned the Câmpie area, a hilly

region in central Transylvania. Here he notes a predominance of an anhemitonic

(without semitones) pentatony (Ex. 4).

Ex. 4. Câmpie area modal type.

The influence of Turkish modes is particularly apparent in the Muntenia area of

Romania (Malcolm 22). Prominent amongst these modal collections is the Hicaz

which features an augmented second between the second and third degrees (Ex. 5).

Ex. 5. The Hicaz mode.

Romanian folk musicians do not generally play with what Western musicians would

consider accurate intonation. Bartók observed that ‘the minor-second interval is

mostly too wide…’ (Bartók 16). Such deviation from even temperament was

20

inevitable considering the origins of the modes included countries like Turkey where

semitones varied considerably in their width (Garfias 103). The variability of

temperament was a characteristic that Enescu exploited in his Sonata no. 3 for violin

and piano, as discussed below in the chapter on this work.

Meter and Rhythm

Brăiloiu was able to observe some commonality in the rhythms of the vocal music he

studied. He noticed a tendency to use a ‘bichronal rhythmic system’, which employed

a pair of durations (one long and one short) each corresponding to a syllable of sung

verse (Alexandru 112). Example 6 displays a hexasyllabic arrangement wheras

example 7 is octosyllabic. The sequence of the rhythmic values is not always the same

(Ex. 8). This rhythm is found in most examples of the ‘colinde’ (carol song)

(Alexandru 112). The regular arrangement syllables was referred to as ‘syllabic

giusto’ by Brăiloiu (Alexandru 112).

Ex. 6. Hexasyllabic arrangement.

Ex. 7. Octosyllabic arrangement.

21

Ex. 8. Băla, Mureş county. 1914, transc. B Bartók.

Bartók found that most of the Romanian instrumental music he studied could be

reduced to a skeleton rhythm of four quavers per bar. Many of the melodies were

sixteen bars in duration although roughly a fifth were half that length (Bartók 42). The

quaver skeleton rhythm is fleshed out with various combinations of semiquavers and

quavers:

or or

Further variation is possible. In particular, the ‘heroic’ type of melody tends to use a

regular dotted rhythm (Bartók 43):

Another variation of particular note can be found in pieces that have been exposed to

Bulgarian influence. The ‘bulgarization’ of Romanian music involved the addition or

subtraction of a semiquaver value from the bar of a fast piece (r=M.M. 150 or more).

The result is a distinctive, limping feel that can be found in the folk music of Bulgaria,

Romania and Turkey (Bartók 43). Another Bulgarian influence on Romanian folk

music performance is the accenting of alternate semiquavers. This occurs either on the

beat, or on the off-beat, the latter possibility acting as a substitute for accentuation

which would ordinarily be provided by a second, chordal instrument (Bartók 43).

22

The broader sense of structure is generally achieved with symmetric combinations of

phrases, e.g. two two-bar phrases making up a four bar melody, etc. Sometimes a

rhythmic shift is achieved by displacing the accent at the beginning of a phrase. In the

following example a letter denotes a crotchet value (Bartók 43).

OR

Ex. 9. Rhythmic shift through displacement of the accent.

Doina

In the early eighteenth century, the great Moldavian voivode (general) Dimitrie

Cantemir was active as a philosopher, historian, composer and scholar of music. In his

Descriptio Moldavine the word doina is used in the title of any song that recalls the

heroic deeds of Moldavian people (Alexandru 49). Nowadays this term is applied

more liberally to songs, whether vocal or instrumental, whose rhythm is free and

protracted, and whose mood is generally sad (Alexandru 49). Bartók used the term,

‘parlando rubato’ to describe the rhythm of such free melodies that would often

involve improvisation around a melodic framework (Malcolm “Enescu”). The ‘Hora

Lunga’ of Hungary and the ‘doina’ of Romania are examples of folk song that use a

‘parlando’ rhythm.

Similarities in the free improvisatory vocal melodies of the broader area including the

Ukraine, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey have subsequently been drawn (Nixon), but

the doina is distinguishable by its unique inflections, ornamentations and vocal

effects. While Bartók was fascinated by this type of music from an

23

ethnomusicological standpoint, Enescu spoke more of its emotional significance

(Malcolm 24). The dreaming, melancholic qualities of Romanian folk music are most

obvious in the doina, and it is these qualities that Enescu considered most important

when recreating the character of Romanian music (Malcolm 22).

The doina often portrays a sense of mournfulness and was originally performed by a

solo singer. Its long improvised phrases involve a delayed resolution to the final note

via florid ornamentation and emphatic recitative style declamation (Nixon).

Instrumental groups of two or more players may set the melancholic doina over a

drone (Nixon) or against a fast and regular accompaniment with ironic poignancy

(Lloyd 20). Adding to the sense of freedom is the frequent use of an ‘uncertain mode’

(Rădulescu) where the third, fourth and seventh degrees of the scale are variable (Ex.

10)9.

Ex. 10. The uncertain mode.

Instrumentation

Many of the instruments used in Romanian folk music have their origins in either

Turkey or Western Europe (Rădulescu). This is indicative of the influence of nomadic

musicians (gypsies) and of the willingness of the Romanians to adapt their traditional

music to more contemporary, popular sounds (Malcolm, Life and Music 25). The

violin, cymbalum, panpipes, cobza (lute) and the accordion are examples of

instruments adopted by Romanian folk musicians during the nineteenth and twentieth

9 The symbol indicates that a note should be raised by a quarter-tone.

24

centuries (Rădulescu). Native instruments such as the fluer (flute or whistle), bucium

(alphorn) and cimpoi (bagpipe) have been used for significantly longer. Bartók’s

observations about these instruments are particularly useful because of their high level

of detail, and because they resulted from field work during Enescu’s lifetime.

The most common instrumental combination used by folk musicians in the Moldavia

area, where Enescu was born, was violin and cobza10

. In more recent times, the

cymbalum (hammer dulcimer) has overtaken the cobza as the popular choice of

chordal instrument (Lloyd 16). The type of cymbalum used in the Moldavia region

usually had between twenty and twenty-five courses of strings, giving it

approximately a two-octave range of chromatic notes. It is played with two hammers,

one in each hand, lending itself particularly well to arpeggiated chordal

accompaniments. Unlike the Hungarian version of the instrument, there is usually no

pedal damper system employed.

The type of violin used by peasants and gypsies in Romania is identical to that of the

Western tradition. In some regions, however, a flatter bridge is fitted to the instrument

to enable the playing of three string chords with the bow (Bartók 16). Such an

instrument would invariably be designated an accompanying role. It is rare for

Romanian folk musicians to play higher than first position on the violin, although

some gypsies would do so on the E string as a show of virtuosity (Bartók 16). While

there is a cliché of Hungarian Gypsy violin music being full of glissando, portamento

and vibrato, this is not an accurate description of Romanian folk violin playing. The

use of such techniques is generally only for humorous effect (Bartók 17)

10

A cobza is a nine stringed lute-like instrument used to provide chordal accompaniment (Lloyd 16).

25

The peasant flute (fluer) is used throughout Romania. Made of wood, it is similar in

design to the Western recorder and is configured to play a diatonic major scale

(Bartók 17). The third, sixth and seventh degrees frequently deviate from standard

Western tuning, delivering a pitch that sits somewhere between the major and minor

possibilities (Bartók 17). Two different types of vibrato are used on the peasant flute.

The first involves a fluctuation of pitch while the second produces a varying intensity

of sound.

Ornamentation

Romanian folk musicians employ a variety of ornaments in all genres of instrumental

and vocal music. Trills, turns, mordents and acciaccaturas are employed widely in

instrumental dance melodies (Bartók 69-658). Vocal doinas tend to exhibit florid

improvisatory passages and dense ornamentation including a distinctive vocal

ornament known as a ‘noduri‘. This vocal decoration sounds almost like hiccup and is

achieved via an abrupt glottal gulp (Alexandru 51).

Although there is a dearth of scholarly writing about ornamentation in Romanian folk

music performance, the transcriptions of Bartók and Brăiloiu are sufficiently detailed

to reveal the richness of this practice. Instrumental dance melodies display frequent

use of trills, mordents and acciaccaturas but only very seldom employ portamento

which is more frequently found in vocal doinas (Bartók 17). Examples 11 and 12 use

standard western notation for ornaments along with the following symbols:

1. The symbol indicates a slight lengthening of the note.

2. The symbol indicates a slight shortening of the note.

26

3. An arrow pointing up indicates the note was played or sung sharper than notated.

4. An arrow pointing down indicates the note was played or sung flatter than notated.

5. A diagonal arrow indicates a portamento

6. A crosshair notehead in Ex. 11 indicates use of a ‘noduri’

Ex. 11. A doina, Cintec Lung Cu Haulit from the Oltenia area (Alexandru 166).

Ex. 12. An instrumental dance melody from the Hunedoara area (Bartók 409).

27

Chapter 5

ROMANIAN RHAPSODY, OP. 11 NO. 1

Enescu’s two Romanian Rhapsodies, composed in 1901, have far outshone any of his

other works in terms of their popularity and frequency of performance. This was a

point of frustration for the composer because he felt that their relative simplicity did

not represent his mature compositional style (Malcolm, Life and Music 12). The

difference between the Romanian Rhapsodies and his other works exhibiting

Romanian influence is that the rhapsodies contain direct quotations of folk melodies.

Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 is essentially a pastiche of popular folk melodies, to which

Enescu applied Western harmony and simple contrapuntal techniques. In stark

contrast with many of Enescu’s mature works, this piece has a simple sense of pulse

and meter within each section.

The nature of this work draws immediate parallels with the (almost contemporaneous)

work of Bartók. In 1902 Bartók wrote the preliminary material for his Symphony in

E-flat (BB25), a work that combined late Romantic techniques with the melodic and

rhythmic characteristics of popular Hungarian music. Neither composer was satisfied

with his early attempts to mesh the characteristics of folk music with those of

Western art music (Gillies and Malcolm, George Enescu).

The opening of Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 makes use of a simple two-

phrase folk melody, “Am un leu şi vreau să-l beu” whose text is about about having a

small amount of money and wanting to spend it on alcohol (Chotil Fani 2005). Enescu

divides the basic melody into two phrases, giving the first to the clarinet and the

28

second to the oboe (Ex. 13). The second occurrence of the clarinet phrase (bar 3) is

embellished with ornaments, namely acciaccaturas, of which two start below and one

above the main note. This style of ornamentation is typical of that employed

spontaneously by Romanian folk musicians in instrumental dance music (see above,

page 25).

Ex. 13. Enescu, Romanian Rhapsody, op. 11 no. 1, bars 1-4.

Romanian folk music is almost exclusively monodic11

, a fact that Enescu recalls

through unaccompanied solo lines during the first eight bars (Rădulescu). From bar 9

Western influence emerges in the form of a diatonic harmonisation of the melody,

incorporating predominantly parallel thirds (Ex. 14). The strings and harps join in bar

20, providing a harmonic and rhythmic bed on which the first theme is repeated.


11

Traditional Romanian music is monodic, except for those songs that employ a drone. This occurs

frequently in music performed on the Romanian bagpipe (cimpoi). However, Western style chordal

accompaniment and occasionally melodic harmonisation do occur in Romanian Gypsy bands (tarafuri)

(Rădulescu).

29

It becomes immediately apparent in this work that Enescu is emphasising the folk

melodies by restricting thematic development, and treating orchestration in a way that

is transparent and does not distract from the melodies. This is clear when Enescu

introduces the next melody, “Hora lui Dobrică”. The octosyllabic framework (see

above, page 20) governs the rhythmic feel of the accompaniment provided by the

harps, celli and basses.

While Enescu has maintained the essential melodic and rhythmic elements of the folk

tune, he has added two key elements that remove it from its purest form. First, he has

applied diatonic harmony to the melody, using the first and second violins along with

the violas to sound all three notes of the A major chord (Ex. 15). Second, he has

ornamented the melody in a florid manner and pitched it in a transposition that is

above the first position on violin, which was more commonly used by professional

peasant musicians (Bartók 16). These two facts point to a more urban realisation of

folk melodies, where lăutari performed in bands and took greater liberties with

performance in order to show off their virtuosity (Lloyd 16). This approach is

continued in the following sections which make use of the folk melodies: “Mugur –

mugurel” (bud, small bud); “Ciobănaşul” (the small shepherd); “Ciocârlia” (the lark)

and “Hora morii” (the round of the mills).

30


Although Enescu always showed a great appreciation for the music of the late

Romantic era, his treatment of well-known folk melodies is characterised by restraint:

‘The simpler the way a folk melody is presented, the more brightly that melody

shines…’ (Enescu qtd. in Constantinescu 10). The orchestration of the Ciocârlia12

section (from rehearsal mark 24) is a good example of this. Enescu divides the

orchestra into ‘on’ and ‘off’ beat instruments, distributing the notes of each chord

amongst the treble (off-beat) instruments. The composer’s input is minimal and the

melody is given complete focus13

.

Enescu has added clever textural elements to the orchestration, such as arpeggiation

by the harps in the manner of the Romanian cymbalum (Kotlyarov 9,10). But aside

from the orchestration and the manner of weaving the folk melodies together, there is

very little in this work that represents Enescu’s own musical language (Malcolm, Life

and Music 65). It involved the application of simple Western harmonic practices to

Romanian folk melodies — a treatment that stands in stark contrast with Enescu´s

mature orchestral writing, which was prone to extremes of detail and variation

(Malcolm, “George Enescu”).

12

This melody has its best-known incarnation in the form of a violin and piano arrangement by the

great Romanian violin virtuoso Grigoraş Dinicu, edited by Jascha Heiftetz. 13

Bartók also used this approach in some of his earlier works for piano, where ‘the folk melody is

mounted like a jewel’ (Gillies).

31

Chapter 6

IMPRESSIONS D’ENFANCE FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, OP. 28

This work is divided into ten short movements, of which I will examine two in some

detail – “Ménétrier” (The fiddler), and “Vieux mendiant” (The old beggar). These

movements demonstrate different ways in which Enescu was able to express folk

influence in his mature compositions. While in the Romanian Rhapsodies there is a

sense of restraint in Enescu’s use of harmonies and chromaticism, Impressions

d’enfance offers a more expansive musical language. The work employs a wide

variety of musical devices and styles, including folk music idioms, musical

onomatopoeia, impressionistic tone-painting, and Romantic compositional techniques

to depict scenes from his childhood.

The first movement, “Ménétrier” contains the most overt reference to Romanian folk

music, both by nature of its title (meaning Gypsy fiddler) and by its rhythmic and

modal content. It does not make direct quotation of Romanian folk melodies, but

rather uses modes and technical devices to express the character of Romanian folk

music. Of the ten movements, “Ménétrier” is the only one written for unaccompanied

violin. By omitting the piano from this movement Enescu evokes the image of the

“lautar” or Gypsy fiddler playing alone and points to the monophonic tradition of

Romanian peasant music. Its initial playfulness is articulated by simple dance

rhythms, the regularly dotted semiquavers suggesting the influence of what Bartók

described as ‘heroic’ melodies (Bartók 48).

32

The first bar presents an immediate ambiguity of key or modality. If the listener

perceives B as the root note then a simple B minor tonality is implied. However, if the

listener perceives G as the root (as suggested by the anacrusis F#) then the aural

perception is that of a Lydian mode which is common in northwestern areas of

Romania such as Bihor and Cluj (Alexandru 66). The recurrence of the note G at the

beginning of the second phrase (marked a’ in Ex. 16) acts to reinforce the latter

possibility.

Ex. 16. Enescu, Impressions d’enfance, op. 28, bars 1-2.

The succession of melodic cells a-b-a’-b’ is built on a simple underlying rhythm (Ex.

17), that is consistent with the sorts of rhythms observed by Bartok in Romanian

instrumental dance music (see page 21). This rhythm could easily form the basis of a

folk melody, but Enescu alters it in a way that is more consistent with Western

techniques. The tied note B obscures the rhythmic emphasis at the beginning of the

phrase, and the following accents are on the third and fourth beats of the bar

confusing the sense of pulse.

Ex. 17. Underlying rhythm of Ménétrier ´s opening melody.

33

In the second part of the melody (Ex. 18) Enescu uses the technique of structural

displacement that Bartók identified in traditional Romanian dance music (see above,

page 22). Each letter name represents a melodic idea, a crotchet in duration (except

for the first occurrence of ‘d’ which is longer to exaggerate the tempo reduction at that

point). Rather than using a symmetrical pattern like a-b-c-d-a-b-c-d, Enescu uses the

pattern a-b-c-d-b-c-d-b-b-c. The treatment of melodic cells in this example is similar

to that observed by Bartók in Romanian folk music (Bartók 45). Use of structural

characteristics like these allowed Enescu to go beyond the limitations of recreating

folk music, whilst maintaining strong references to its traditional idioms.

Ex. 18. The second phrase of “Ménétrier”.

Enescu’s treatment of structural characteristics also takes what is common in

Romanian folk music and extends upon it. For example, it is common in Romanian

folk music to exercise simple repetition of melodies, but in “Ménétrier” Enescu

develops and alters the melodies (Bartók 48). Notice that the melodic fragments b and

b’ in Example 18 have been altered in the second appearance of the melody (Ex. 19).

The movement then proceeds with further development of melodic ideas via

chromatic transposition, inversion and other Western techniques.

34


In the section marked “Con Brio”14

Enescu used a distinctive technique derived from

Romanian music, namely the alternation between major and minor modal degrees15

(Rădulescu). Initially16

the modal finalis is ambiguous and there is a prolonged

oscillation between G sharp and G natural (Ex. 20). The note A then resolves itself as

the modal root and there is an alternation between C sharp and C natural (the third

degree) above it. Wheras Enescu had used a similar alternating third degree in his

Romanian Rhapsody no. 1 (Ex. 21) in a section that quotes the popular folk melody

Ciocârlia, his use of the same modal technique in Impressions d’enfance is manifested

differently in that it forms part of an original melody.


14

Page 4, system 4, bar 2 of the Salabert Editions publication of 1952. 15

See “uncertain mode” on page 23 above. 16

From page 4, system 4, bar 4 of the Salabert edition.

35


In addition to these modal characteristics are a number of instrument-specific

techniques that allowed Enescu to point to Romanian folk performance without

quoting folk melodies. His explicit notation of open-string usage17

along with the

prevalence of the open fifth in this movement (especially just before the “piú

largamente”) are characteristic of Romanian folk violin performance (Bartók 17). At

the end of the movement the open D and A strings are played using pizzicato and bow

effects. While such techniques are rarely used by peasant musicians, they were

frequently employed by gypsies for the sake of humour or virtuosity (Bartók 17).

The “Vieux mendiant” (the old beggar) movement is a departure from the preceding

movement, “Ménétrier”, in a number of ways. It is more representative of the Western

influence in Enescu’s style, specifically that derived from the French school of the

early twentieth century (Kotlyarov 90). Enescu’s composition teacher, Gabriel Fauré

taught a harmonic language of expanded tonality and modality which is evident in

“Vieux mendiant” (Nectoux). There are a number of instances of stacked thirds

resulting in seventh and ninth chords such as the B half-diminished ninth chord in the

ninth bar, the D minor seventh chord in the twelfth bar and the C7 augmented chord in

the thirteenth bar. Although the sustained opening chord of this movement is in D

17

For example in the “Con Brio” section, in bars 2-10, and in the second system of page 5.

36

minor, there is no stable sense of tonality and Enescu does not use a key signature.

The first nine bars of the piano part are based on a mode that is common in Romanian

folk music, namely the Re-mode (Dorian) with a raised fourth (Ex. 22)18

(Alexandru

116). The violin part during the same passage, however, is in C minor adding to the

sense of tonal polarity between the violin and piano parts.

Ex. 22. Dorian mode with raised fourth degree.

In conveying the image of “An Old Beggar”, Enescu said that he had in mind a

‘cheerless and stifled sonority’ (qtd. in Kotlyarov 90). He achieves this through

sustained dissonance and use of the lower registers of both instruments. Enescu

develops the opening statements of the violin and piano with increasing levels of

chromaticism, further destabilising the sense of tonality (Kotlyarov 90). The advanced

chromaticism, tonal effects and programmatic nature of this movement remove it

almost entirely from the sphere of folk influence and into that of twentieth century

Western music.

The two movements, “Ménétrier” and “Vieux mendiant” are representative of the

broader style of Impressions d’enfance. In their depiction of scenes from Enescu’s

childhood they display certain characteristics of Romanian folk music but but also

contain features that may have been drawn from impressionistic works of early

twentieth century France (Ocneanu). Romanian folk music idioms are used more as

gestures than as the basis for the musical or modal structure of each movement. The

18

This mode is a ‘Heroic’ melody modal type as described by Bartók (see page 18).

37

most explicit use of folk characteristics is in the “Ménétrier” movements that portrays

a Romanian Gypsy musician. The other movements make extensive use of harmonics,

glissandi and other tonal effects to mimic animals, objects and parts of the scenery.

38

Chapter 7

SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO, OP. 25 NO. 3, DANS LE CARACTÈRE

POPULAIRE ROUMAIN

In the subtitle to the third sonata for violin and piano Enescu deliberately uses the

word ‘caractère’ rather than ‘style’. An interview in 1928 found the composer eager

to emphasise the distinction: ‘I don’t use the word “style” because that implies

something made or artificial, whereas ‘character’ suggests something given, existing

from the beginning’ (qtd. in Malcolm, Life and Music 183). Published in 1926, this

sonata shows the Enescu´s mature response to folk music influence. He implies in his

statement that the Romanian characteristics of the piece were not deliberate, studied

or contrived, but rather were naturally part of his musical language (Malcolm, Life

and Music 183). This is in contrast with earlier works such as the Romanian

Rhapsodies which Enescu considered relatively void of his personal compositional

input (Malcolm, Life and Music 64). In this chapter I will focus on the first movement

of this sonata and how it demonstrates Enescu’s synthesis of Western and Romanian

folk elements. In order to identify some of the principal melodic ideas I have used

capital Roman numerals (I, II, etc.) in the musical examples (Exx. 23 and 24).

Enescu’s third Sonata for violin and piano is rich in ornamentation including trills,

mordents and turns as well as pitch nuances. In Example 23 the note E is raised by a

quarter-tone as indicated by the symbol (see also Ex. 10 above). Enescu uses the

symbol to notate the gradual portamento up from the open D string to a C that has

also been raised by a quarter-tone. Enescu was not the only composer of the early

twentieth century to use quarter-tones. In 1925, one year prior to the publication of

39

Enescu’s sonata, Robert Schmitz19

had arranged performances of Charles Ives’ Three

Quarter-Tone Pieces for two pianos in New York (Burkholder and Wiecki 5). Bartók

used similar pitch gradation in the original version of his Sonata for Solo Violin,

BB124 (Rushton). Neither of these composers used quarter tones to recreate folk

music practice (Gillies, Burkholder), and it is not certain that Enescu did either. His

use of quarter tones in Ex. 23 narrows the semitone interval between the notes E and

F, contradicting Bartók’s observation that Romanian folk violinists tended to widen

the semitone intervals (Bartók 16). It is more likely that Enescu used these pitch

variations as expressive tools to heighten the intensity of certain modal degrees

(Kotlyarov 86).

Ex. 23. Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no.3, Third Movement, bars 21-

22.

Enescu described the sonata to the American violinist, Benno Rabinoff as a ‘fantasy

on the life and soul of the gypsy fiddler…’ (qtd. in Kotlyarov 86). As such it displays

some of the modal characteristics that the gypsies brought from neighbouring areas

such as Turkey, Hungary and Bulgaria. This fact is evidenced by the frequent use of

augmented seconds. The melodic contour at the beginning of the piano part features

two augmented seconds, from C to D sharp, and from F to G sharp. The scale

featuring such augmentation between steps 3-4 and 6-7 is often referred to as a Gypsy

scale or a Hungarian scale (Anon “Gypsy Scale”). Although frequently used in

Hungarian Romantic music, its Arabic origins were no doubt familiar to Enescu, who

19

Head of the Franco-American Musical Society.

40

referred to such Middle Eastern influences in his interview with Bernard Gavoty

(Malcom Life and Music 23). As the performance of traditional music in Romania

was customarily dominated by nomadic gypsies, Romanian folk music evolved to

incorporate musical features of surrounding countries (Rădulescu and Malcolm Life

and Music 23).

The piano part starts with a descending modal figure and the violin enters in contrary

motion with a chromatic line (I in Ex. 24). These two motifs are the first of four

principal ideas that form the thematic basis of the first subject. Enescu used sonata

form to bind this movement together, subjecting each motif to extensive manipulation

and development (Kotlyarov 74). For example, the technique of thematic

superimposition is evident from the outset where the violin introduces motif I over a

premonition of motif II in the piano part (Ex. 24). Enescu has also made use of

thematic transformation, reversing the notes of motif II to generate the ascending idea

II’ (Ex. 24). The movement proceeds with close imitative interplay between the violin

and the right hand of the piano during which motif II eventually gives way to a new

idea, motif III (Ex. 25). These developmental techniques are derived from Enescu´s

Western composition training, and as with many of his compositions he manages to

generate an extensive amount of musical material from a few ideas (Malcolm, Life

and Music 72, Kotlyarov 76).

41

Ex. 24. Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no.3, First Movement, bars 1-5.

42


The second subject (Ex. 26) reveals more of the Romanian folk-dance character. It

does so through use of two rhythmic characteristics in the piano part, namely the off-

beat accentuation and the lilting dotted rhythm. The regular off-beat accentuation is

suggestive of the Bulgarian influence in Romanian music (see chapter 4 above). The

beginning of the development is heralded by a sustained G# in the violin part under

which the piano mimics the arpeggiation of a Romanian cymbalum (Ex. 27)

43

(Malcolm, Life and Music 72). The development section juxtaposes the melancholic G

sharp minor of the second subject against C# major. In a vertical sense, this could be

considered an instance of bitonality, a technique that had been explored by Ives and

Bartók, as well as famously by Stravinsky (Whittall). Horizontally, the superimposed

chords create the same dorian modal collection that Bartók observed in the ‘heroic’

dance melodies of Romania (see “Modality and Dance Music” on page 19).

Ex. 26. Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no.3, First Movement, second

subject, bars 32-37 (with anacrusis).

44

Enescu´s skill for thematic transformation is again displayed in the recapitulation

where he combines the notes of the first subject with the rhythm of the second (Ex.

28) (Kotlyarov 78).

Ex. 27. Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no.3, start of the development

section, bars 38-41.


45

French pianist, Alfred Cortot developed an understanding of the second movement through

discussion and performance with Enescu. He described the movement as ‘an evocation in

sound of the mysterious feeling of summer nights in Romania: below, the silent, endless,

deserted plain; above, constellations leading off into infinity’ (qtd. in Malcolm 187). The

composer’s French influences are more apparent in this movement than the other two.

Enescu´s approach to depicting the Romanian landscape is in parallel with that of Debussy in

works such as Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune in which chromatic passages are set against

pedal notes (Hurry 93). Enescu describes the desert plains of Romania with the incessant

repetition of the note B which is played with the instruction ‘sempre ped’. The sound of wind

across the plain is depicted by a chromatic run in the violin part (Ex. 29), the effect of which

is heightened by the instruction to play with the bow near the bridge.

Ex. 29. Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no.3, second movement, bars 20-

21.

The final movement of the Sonata has the feel of a lively Romanian dance. The

regular off-beat accompaniment (firstly with double stops in the violin part, and then

with staccato chords in the piano left hand) gives a regular rhythmic feel which

contrasts with the freer tempo of the first two movements. The melody is based on

Hicaz mode which is common in Romanian folk music but finds its origins in Turkey

(see chapter 4 above) (Reinhard and Stokes). While the tempo and character of the

46

final movement are decidedly brighter, there are distinct thematic connections with

the first and second movements (Kotlyarov 82). For example, the descending motif

from the first movement (II in Ex. 24) reappears in a more lively and rhythmic piano

figuration (bracketed figures in Ex. 30).

Ex. 30. Enescu, Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 25 no.3, third movement, bars 20-21.

For the composer, this work represented a more satisfactory approach to the use of

folk music characteristics in art music compositions (Malcolm, “Enescu Violin

Sonatas”). It is a dense interpolation of Romanian traditional characteristics and

techniques derived from Enescu’s composition training in Vienna and Paris.

The genesis of this compositional style extends from the composer’s second

Romanian Rhapsody, and includes crucial developments made in Dixtuor, op. 14 and

the Sonata for Piano, op. 24 no. 1. In the third movement of the piano sonata Enescu

portrays the atmosphere of the Romanian plains at night and he does so using

distinctly Romanian musical idioms without making direct quotation of folk melodies

(Malcolm, Life and Music 181). This sonata paved the way for much of the

atmospheric imagery of Impressions d’enfance and for his mature use of folk music in

the third sonata for violin and piano (Malcolm, Life and Music 181).

47

Chapter 8

CONCLUSION

Enescu’s use of Romanian folk music changed significantly between the writing of

his Romanian rhapsodies and his Impressions d’enfance. During the early years of his

compositional career he quoted folk melodies, orchestrating them with simple diatonic

harmony. Later works, such as Impressions d’enfance and the third sonata for violin

and piano display many features drawn from Romanian folk music but the melodies

are entirely original. These works also show more extensive thematic development as

well as the use of impressionistic gestures (Ocneanu). In many ways these later works

are more personal in nature, and reflect a greater depth of expression in terms of

musical substance and notational detail (Menuhin, “Georges Enesco” 41). It is little

wonder Enescu was upset that throughout his lifetime the public continued to favour

his relatively simple Romanian rhapsodies over his more mature compositions. Bartók

experienced similar disillusionment when he found his audiences preferred his

simpler early works such as the 1905 arrangement of the Rhapsody op. 1 and the

Piano Quintet to his more mature compositions (Gillies).

The three pieces studied in this criticial commentary reveal how Enescu’s treatment of

Romanian folk music material changed during his career. In his first Romanian

rhapsody, Enescu found presenting folk melodies in a Western harmonic context to be

limited in its expressive possibilities. He believed that the best way to serve an

existing folk melody was to minimise any treatment or development through Western

techniques (Constantinescu 10). In the Third Sonata for Violin and Piano and

Impressions D’Enfance the composer created new melodies and harmonies that drew

48

their inspiration from Romanian folk music. By removing himself from any

obligations to existing folk melodies, Enescu was afforded a wider palette of

compositional tools. He was able to apply liberal thematic transformation, modal and

scalar superimpositions as well as incorporate impressionistic gestures and late

nineteenth century developmental techniques.

Bartók’s extensive and region-specific study of Romanian folk music helped to focus

the discussion of folk influence in Chapters 5-7 of this Critical Commentary. Many of

the modal characteristics in Impressions d’enfance point to traditional dance melodies

of northwestern Romania (Bartók 48), whereas the Turkish sounding modes in the

third violin sonata are more common in the southern counties, Oltenia and Muntenia

(Lloyd 19). While some characteristics of Romanian folk music are region-specific,

cross-pollination of these idioms by transient gypsies was inevitable. Bartók

acknowledged the importance of Gypsy musicians in village life and did not exclude

their performances from his folk music collections or studies (Bartók 4). Gypsy

performance tendencies such as the use of extended range (higher positions on the

violin E string), pizzicato and glissando effects were observed in all three works

studied in Chapters 5-7. The Gypsy scale was also used in one of the main motifs of

the first movement of Enescu’s third sonata for violin and piano.

In their compositional careers, both Enescu and Bartók moved from simplistic

reference to folk melodies to a more expansive musical language that embraced many

techniques. While Bartók is known to have applied techniques of development to

traditional folk melodies (Leong 254), Enescu was vehemently opposed to the idea

(Kotlyarov 34). Both composers imitated folk melodies at times (for example

49

Enescu’s ménétrier movement of Impressions d’enfance, and Bartók´s Contrasts for

violin, clarinet and piano) but both believed that the best expression of folk music was

through unforced assimilation of characteristics (Leong 253, Kotlyarov 34). Enescu

achieved this objective most vividly in his third sonata for violin and piano.

Discussion of this work in Chapter 7 indicates that it uses features from Romanian

folk music as part of an extended range of compositional tools. These included

thematic superimposition and transformation — techniques in which Enescu was

highly skilled having studied Wagner’s music, especially his transformation of

leitmotifs in the Ring cycle. Enescu also made use of Western structural tools such as

sonata form to bind the thematic material together.

Enescu’s stature in the history of Western music history has suffered from the paucity

of scholarly study of his music, and from the emphasis given by some studies to folk

music influence and nationalistic features (Malcolm, Life and Music 11-12). Enescu’s

mature compositional language was the result of many musical influences.

Like all creative geniuses, Enescu did not passively submit to or adopt external

trends, much less assimilate such trends eclectically. It is nevertheless tine20

[sic] that Enescu was not indifferent to the novelty and the aesthetic values of

the French impressionism, whose language he assimilated, using it as forcefully

as he used his native Romanian values. (Ocneanu)

Although a greatly celebrated figure in his homeland, Enescu’s work went far beyond

its much highlighted folkloristic elements. If Enescu’s position in the history of

20

The author most likely intended to use the word “true” and not “tine”.

50

Western art music were diminished due to being consigned only to the Romanian

‘national school’ then this would be a great injustice.

51

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Documents

The Influence of Romanian Folk Music on the Music of George Enescu