Archaic Ontologies Nowadays: Music of Rituals

Authors: Luminiţa Duţică, Gheorghe Duţică

Abstract:

Many of the interrogations or dilemmas of the contemporary world found the answer in what was generically called the appeal to matrix. This genuine spiritual exercise of re-connection of the present to origins, to the primary source, revealed the ontological condition of timelessness, ahistorical, immutable (epi)phenomena, of those pure essences concentrated in the archetypal-referential layer of the human existence. The musical creation was no exception to this trend, the impasse generated by the deterministic excesses of the whole serialism or, conversely, by some questionable results of the extreme indeterminism proper to the avant-garde movements, stimulating the orientation of many composers to rediscover a universal grammar, as an emanation of a new ‘collective’ order (reverse of the utopian individualism). In this context, the music of oral tradition and therefore the world of the ancient modes represented a true revelation for the composers of the twentieth century, who were suddenly in front of some unsuspected (re)sources, with a major impact on all levels of edification of the musical work: morphology, syntax, timbrality, semantics etc. For the contemporary Romanian creators, the music of rituals, existing in the local archaic culture, opened unsuspected perspectives for which it meant to be a synthetic, inclusive and recoverer vision, where the primary (archetypal) genuine elements merge with the latest achievements of language of the European composers. Thus, anchored in a strong and genuine modal source, the compositions analysed in this paper evoke, in a manner as modern as possible, the atmosphere of some ancestral rituals such as: the invocation of rain during the drought (Paparudele, Scaloianul), funeral ceremony (Bocetul), traditions specific to the winter holidays and new year (Colinda, Cântecul de stea, Sorcova, Folklore traditional dances) etc. The reactivity of those rituals in the sound context of the twentieth century meant potentiating or resizing the archaic spirit of the primordial symbolic entities, in terms of some complexity levels generated by the technique of harmonies of chordal layers, of complex aggregates (gravitational or non-gravitational, geometric), of the mixture polyphonies and with global effect (group, mass), by the technique of heterophony, of texture and cluster, leading to the implementation of some processes of collective improvisation and instrumental theatre.

Keywords: Archetype, improvisation, instrumental theatre, polyphony, ritual.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1315591

References:

[1] Gheorghe Duțică, Romanian Compositional Horizons. București: Editura Muzicală, 2016.
[2] Gheorghe Duțică, Universul gândirii polimodale (The Universe of Polymodal Thinking). Iași: Junimea, 2004.
[3] Luminița Duțică, Concertul pentru orchestră în creaţia compozitorilor români: vol. I Tipologii Ansambluri, vol. II Repere stilistice – Modele ale genului (Concerto for Orchestra in Romanian composers creation: vol. I Typologies - Ensembles; vol. II Stylistic References - Models of the genre). București: Editura Muzicală, 2013.
[4] Alexandru Pașcanu, Bocete străbune (Old laments). București: Editura Muzicală, 1973.
[5] Alexandru Pașcanu, Festum hibernum. Străvechi tradiţii ciclice (Festum hibernum. Ancient Cyclic Customs), choral poem for mixed choir. Bucureşti: Editura Muzicală, 1980.
[6] Umberto Eco, Opera deschisă. Formă şi indeterminare în poeticile contemporane (The open work. Form and indetermination in contemporary poetics), translated by Cornel Mihai Ionescu. Piteşti: Paralela 45, 2002.
[7] Myriam Marbe, Ritual for the Thirst of the Earth. București: Editura Muzicală, 1970.
[8] Valentina Sandu-Dediu, Muzica nouă între modern şi postmodern (The new music between the modern and the postmodern). Bucureşti: Editura Muzicală, 2004.
[9] Despina Petecel-Theodoru, De la mimesis la arhetip. Încercare hermeneutică asupra ideii de Adevăr în opera de artă (From mimesis to archetype. Hermeneutical attempt about the idea of Truth in the work of art). Bucureşti: Editura Muzicală, 2003.