Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
7. PAST ARE THE YEARS…/ TRECUT-AU ANII… for tenor and vocal ensemble (1969) 11:18
Marius Vlad, tenor; The Antiphonia Chorus, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Gheorghe Costinescu, conductor
This work was completed concomitantly with the “Treatise on Musical Phonology.” The treatise established a hierarchy of vocal sounds according to phonetic and pure musical criteria, with practical applications to musical composition and performance. Specific vocal emissions and articulations, as well as whispered and whistling sounds, have been chosen to suit the prolonged sonorities required by the Romanian poem.
The text is set forth in its entirety by the solo singer, while the vocal ensemble consistently reorganizes and transforms the linguistic material. Through various types of vocal production, it isolates, prolongs, superimposes and mixes sounds in a way analogous to procedures used in electronic music. Since the phonetic aspects of the original text have been systematically musicalized, the work can only be sung in Romanian. In this recording, the Romanian poem and the English translation are read before the performance by the soloist and a member of the ensemble, respectively.
The work was originally published and premiered under the French title “Comme de Longs Nuages…” .
G. C.
“Drawing upon the small chorus as an arsenal of special effects (moaning, whistling, wheezing, etc.) while the soloist sings the Romanian poem in a more or less straight-forward fashion, Mr. Costinescu has built an imaginative sound surface that translates the bitter nostalgia of the text with considerable dramatic impact.”
– Peter G. Davis, The New York Times
composers.com
7. PAST ARE THE YEARS…/ TRECUT-AU ANII… for tenor and vocal ensemble (1969) 11:18
Marius Vlad, tenor; The Antiphonia Chorus, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Gheorghe Costinescu, conductor
This work was completed concomitantly with the “Treatise on Musical Phonology.” The treatise established a hierarchy of vocal sounds according to phonetic and pure musical criteria, with practical applications to musical composition and performance. Specific vocal emissions and articulations, as well as whispered and whistling sounds, have been chosen to suit the prolonged sonorities required by the Romanian poem.
The text is set forth in its entirety by the solo singer, while the vocal ensemble consistently reorganizes and transforms the linguistic material. Through various types of vocal production, it isolates, prolongs, superimposes and mixes sounds in a way analogous to procedures used in electronic music. Since the phonetic aspects of the original text have been systematically musicalized, the work can only be sung in Romanian. In this recording, the Romanian poem and the English translation are read before the performance by the soloist and a member of the ensemble, respectively.
The work was originally published and premiered under the French title “Comme de Longs Nuages…” .
G. C.
“Drawing upon the small chorus as an arsenal of special effects (moaning, whistling, wheezing, etc.) while the soloist sings the Romanian poem in a more or less straight-forward fashion, Mr. Costinescu has built an imaginative sound surface that translates the bitter nostalgia of the text with considerable dramatic impact.”
– Peter G. Davis, The New York Times
composers.com
