[Ştefan Niculescu] Aphorisms of Heraclitus for 20 Voices (Score-Video)

Ştefan Niculescu - Aforisme de Heraclit pentru 20 voci (1968-1969) Performers: Marin Constantin / "Madrigal" Chamber Choir —————— Special Thanks to my friend ‪@工具人-p8n‬ for permission to reupload his video on YouTube! Here's the original link: www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Bweb6PEbP/ —————— Please note : The text in this performance is sung in Romanian, whereas the score displayed here contains French text underlay. This difference arises because the work was published successively by Editura Muzicală and Éditions Salabert; as the Salabert edition is far more readily accessible, it was chosen for the score-audio synchronization in this video. Aside from minor discrepancies in phonetic pronunciation, the singing in this recording essentially conforms to the original intentions of the score. The late 1960s marked a remarkably fruitful period in the composer’s early explorations. Having completed studies in electroacoustic music at the Siemens Studio in Munich and subsequently attended the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music over the following years, he organically integrated his earlier investigations with the techniques acquired during his electronic music training. This led to the creation of Formanţi for at least seventeen string instruments, which already displayed nascent principles of spectral music. The form of the piece derives from a continuous realization of all 14 formants. The conductor determines their sequence, but pairs of even- and odd-numbered formants must always remain connected. Each of these seven pairs may begin with either the even- or odd-numbered formant. These formants contain heteromorphic microstructures that integrate into larger macrostructures characterized by heterophonic coloration. A closely related work is Eteromorfie . These compositions not only extended the composer’s early stylistic investigations, but also provided crucial points of reference and an early foundation for his later systematic exploration of the relationships among traditional Byzantine chant, heterophonic polyphony, and spectral techniques. In this work, heterophony can be understood as an open avenue for musical development. This effect—resembling a continuous oscillation between monophonic unison and polyphonic, improvisatory elaboration—closely echoes the musical concepts of East Asian composers such as Isang Yun; Niculescu’s inspiration, however, is rooted in ancient Greek philosophy. The composer discovered that throughout his explorations of heterophonic color and heterophonic polyphony, the musical syntax was subordinated to a higher-order principle: unity and diversity can coexist simultaneously—a mode of thought central not only to Heraclitus, but to ancient Greek philosophy as a whole. Grounded in this philosophical framework, the composer seeks to address the dialectic of the One and the Many in music. This relationship unfolds not only successively across time, but also manifests in simultaneous coexistence; or more precisely, the two form a unity of opposites, mutually generating one another. The work comprises seven sections, each based on an aphorism by Heraclitus. The movements may either follow one another without pause or be performed in an order freely chosen by the performers—a structural flexibility inherently suggested by the nature of the text itself. The surviving fragments of Heraclitus appear as though detached from a continuous whole, originally belonging to a much larger treatise. While each individual fragment contains self-sufficient meaning, its significance is only fully realized when the fragments are apprehended as an overarching totality, regardless of the sequence in which they are arranged. Consequently, the musical form can emerge either from the discontinuity among the sections—articulated through the stark contrasts between settings of different texts—or through the free permutation of the aphorisms, or even be governed entirely by purely musical criteria. Depending on the sequence chosen, the expressive meaning of the music shifts accordingly. This performance follows the sequence of aphorisms below: 1. I searched into myself. 2. When we are alive, our souls are dead and buried within us; but when we die, our souls revive and live. 3. This ordered cosmos, which is the same for all, was made by neither god nor man; but it always was, is, and shall be an ever-living fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures. 4. From the One, all things arise! 5. If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it. 6. How could anyone hide from that which never sets? 7. In changing, one finds rest. (Description provided by ‪@工具人-p8n‬) —————— I do not own neither the score, nor the recordings used in this video. This is only for educational purposes. If you have any complaints regarding copyright issues, please write to me directly at asorabji20(at)gmail(dot)com before submitting a report to YouTube and I will remove the video ASAP.