"tremurcutremur" (2008) by Diana Rotaru - played by "The Peärls Before Swïne Experience" 
(http://www.swinepearl.com)

tremurcutremur

RED HOT (2015/17) for clarinet, violin, cello and piano 
1. Ballerina
2. Amoris Chaconne [min.3:33]
3. Wolf on a Hot Tin Roof [min. 8:25]

Performing: PROFIL Ensemble
Diana Mos - violin
Emil Visenescu - clarinet
Mircea Marian - cello
Adrian Maier - piano
Live rec. from the International Week of New Music, Bucharest, June 27, 2021

***
RED HOT is inspired by one of the most famous and bizarre fairytales, “Little Red Riding Hood”, that has circled European folklore since the 10th century; but inspiration was drawn as well from various cinematographic sources, such as Tex Avery’s brilliant cartoon from 1943 (where the characters are sexualized and urbanized) or Jan Kounen’s short film Le Dernier Chaperon Rouge (1997), starring Emmanuelle Béart, a surrealist jewel in which the grotesque and the nightmarish balances an idealised and profoundly strange vision of the forrest. Each of the three parts is based on a distinct repetitive pattern: Ballerina (Kouen inspired) is a music box dominated by thirds that gradually deteriorates; Amoris Chaconne is an imaginary spiral-constructed film music (inspired by the structure of a real film, Los amantes del círculo polar by Julio Medem, 1998); finally, Wolf on a Hot Tin Roof is a visceral ludic imaginary folk music (a paraphrase on another famous love story, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958). The work is a commission of the Romanian Union of Composers and Musicologists and written for Mercury Quartet.

RED HOT (PROFIL ensemble)

"I like" (2013) is a piece dedicated to the amazing Anat Spiegel, who gave its world premiere during InnerSound International New Arts Festival (30.08.2013 @ the Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest). e.e.cummings' brilliant poem brought to life the image of a love confession, bashfully written in letter-form, that gradually turns into a vivid erotic trance that borrows from the imagery of Hollywood divas (Ava, Marilyn)and feminine archetypes (from child to femme fatale).

"i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite a new thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which I will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh...And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill
of you under me you quite so new "
(e.e.cummings)

I LIKE (2013) for voice, typewriter and tape

Chant du sommeil (“Song of sleep”, 2007) for violin, cello, piano and percussion 

In his poem with the same title, Lucian Blaga uses Sleep as a metaphor for Death and Reconection with the ancestors, with the past, with Nature. During sleep, time annihilates itself, projecting us into a silent place with no memories. I tried to suggest this dream-like, hypnotic, non-temporal atmosphere through a mostly monotonous, obsessive music that slowly develops itself on horizontal layers. 

The work is a commission of Ensemble XXI, that gave its world first performance during the Why Note Music Festival in Dijon, 2007.



Chant Du Sommeil (2007)

"Shakti" - concerto for saxophone(s) and ensemble
Daniel Kientzy, sax.
Tokyo Sinfonietta, conductor Yasuaki Itakura

Shakti

SORESCIANA - 3 songs on lyrics by Marin Sorescu
Irina Ungureanu - soprano
Sorin Petrescu - piano

Soresciana: Inno

Soresciana: La ruota

Soresciana: La conchiglia

Live recording of Glossolalia (2010) for violin and prerecorded sounds (“tape”) @ Stockholm Cultural Night, Stockholm Cultural Institute, April 25th 2015 - with a short presentation by George Kentros (violin)

“Speaking in tongues” (glossolalia) can be easily replaced with “writing music”, especially these days, when composers seem to have distanced themselves so much from the public. I’ve chosen this title for it’s meaning of “invented language”, which is what every composer is seeking – to find their own, different language, sometimes even from a work to another.

Glossolalia for violin and pre-recorded sounds is a very short study on the idea of obsession and on the elasticity of musical time.  The seemingly spontaneous sonorous flow alternates between claustrophobic chromatisms - that slide, serpent-like, around pedal notes - and diatonic echoes with a strange lullaby quality. 

All four sections of the work (the very simple ABAB form) are structured on the idea of pedal-notes (“ison” in Romanian – found in traditional music as well as Byzanthine rite music). The four centers of the four sections (E, F, D and C#) form a chromatic figure, which is the essence of the two “A” segments, that create a meta-dirge song / meta-folk music through heterophonic overlapping (the tape = the violonist playing the same music in different distorted strata). The “B” segments use a descending motif (two hexatonic scales alternated) and a very simple “Romanian carol-like” melody.

The work was written for the great violonist George Kentros, who premiered it in Sweden in 2011 (EBU Ars Acustica, live broadcast at Studio 7, Radiohuset, Malmö, 12.04.2011).

"Glossolalia" for violin and tape / George Kentros live @ ICR Stockholm

"The Last Cry of the Unicorn II" (2007) – for alto saxophone, trombone and string quintet
Performed by Ensemble Reconsil Vienna, Roland Freisitzer, conductor
27.10.2015 Vienna, Arnold Schönberg Center, concert realised in partnership with KulturKontakt Austria

The unicorn is used here as a symbol of a dying era, an era of dreams, myths, purity, ideals and hope, but also as a symbol of the artist, a fabulous creature living in a world that doesn’t seem to need him anymore. The soloists – the saxophone and the trombone - are two aspects of the same “voice”: the death song of the unicorn, while the string ensemble is an echo, a shadow projected by this song. The climax of the work involves a little stage movement when, in an almost ritualic manner, the soloists play percussion instruments. 

This piece is written in memory of Romanian director Cristian Nemescu and all other young artists who were brutally stopped from their search. “The Last Cry of the Unicorn” was originally written as a duo for alto saxophone and trombone. This larger version is dedicated to Profil Ensemble. 


Last Cry Of The Unicorn II - Ensemble Reconsil Vienna

"enter no silence" (on lyrics by e.e. cummings) performed during the 26th edition of TAKEFU INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
Takefu Bunka Center Main Hall, Friday 11th September 2015 
Toshio Hosokawa & His Friends 
"Toshio Hosokawa's 60th anniversary concert"

Soprano:Maki Ota; Flute: Yoshie Ueno; Clarinet: Nozomi Ueda; Piano: Junko Yamamoto; Percussion: Tomoko Kasai, and Conductor: Seitaro Ishikawa 

enter no silence - TAKEFU 2015

"Debumessquisse" for piano (2007)
Rome / April 1st / Sala Casella della Filarmonica Romana
Alessandro Viale, piano
Live recording

As the title itself suggests, this short piece was inspired by the aquatic atmosphere from Debussy’s and Messiaen’s piano works. The apparently free structure is actually based on the continuous variation, in a kaleidoscopic manner, of an initial musical gesture. The work is dedicated to Satoko Inoue, who performed it for the first time in Tokyo in 2008.

"Debumessquisse" played by Alessandro Viale

"Meanders" for bass flute and alto sax

Claude Delangle, sax
Klaus Schopp, fl

performed during Takefu International Festival, 2009

Meanders

LUT for 2 cellos (live rec, open air)
Performing: Duo Cello Jaya
Ella Bokor, Mircea Marian
Wor dedicated to the Golescu Villa & Duo Cello Jaya
Part of the ARTS DISTRICT Project 2017
World premiere @ Villa Golescu (Campulung-Muscel), June 10th 2017

LUT (Duo Cello Jaya)

SOLOMONARUL
World premiere live rec at the Takefu International Music Festival 
14.09.2018, Bunka Center Main Hall
Mario Caroli, alto flute

In Romanian mythology, the solomonar is a shaman-like figure that can control and ride the dragon (balaur) with the aid of incantation, a whip and sometimes a small wooden toaca (semantron). By controlling the dragon and riding it among the clouds, the solomonar controls the rain. I have used a fragment from an old incantation from the Apuseni Mountains, that could be translated as follows: “Come, abundant rain, / Swell up the small river / The solomonar has passed by / He who rides with the dragon / He whipped his whip / He climbed on it / And kept spinning / The rain has started”. A ritual dance-mechanism, where lots of percussive effects are used, evolves into a climax that suggests the “start of the rain” that pours and melts into the Earth, giving birth to a final lament-song. This short work is dedicated to the great flutist Mario Caroli, whose magic sound can tame all dragons, and is written for the wonderful Takefu International Music Festival.

Solomonarul (Mario Caroli, flute)

Fly in Amber (2010) for saxophone quartet - SATB
Comissioned and dedicated to Stockholm Saxophone Quartet

Ispired by the visual world of Scottish painter Graeme Todd.
Like many of Todd’s works, the three short pieces are three imaginary landscapes, apparently monochromatic,  that overlap different levels of perception or memory.  The four saxophones  (SATB) are treated as an organ, a single voice with different inflexions, the soloistic moments being very rare. (...) "Very delicately but stubbornly hypnotical", the last part, explores another means of hypnotic trance: the repetitive mechanism.



Fly in Amber - part 3

"Some reeds and some air moving them" for accordion
Dedicated to and premiered by Klemen Leben
Helsinki Music Centre, 16.04.2019 "TimeMachine, Zeitgeist" recital

20190416 TimeMachine, Zeigeist

Some reeds and some air moving them

Chorals and Music-Boxes (2005) for orchestra
National Radio Orchestra
Horia Andreescu, conductor

Chorals and Music-Boxes

Diana Rotaru: Wonderland (2019) for solo clarinet and clarinet quintet
1: White Rabbit
2: Cheshire Cat - for solo clarinet and purring choir
3: Mock Turtle Blues (Lacrymosa Remix and Multiphonic Soup)
Dedicated to Emil Visenescu (soloist and conductor) & CLARINO Ensemble (clarinet students at NUMB)
Live rec from world performance @ International New Music Week Festival in Bucharest, May 20th, 2019, National University of Music, "Enescu" Hall

Wonderland

Diana Rotaru - VERDE (2015/16)
Written for and performed by GREEN THING Ensemble:
Matei Ioachimescu - flute
Natalija Isakovic -violin
Ana Topalovic - cello
Alfredo Ovalles - piano
***
VERDE was written during my Artist-in-Residence stay in Vienna (2015)- residency made possible by the Federal Austrian Chancellery and KulturKontakt Vienna. I started from Federico García Lorca’s poem, "Romance sonámbulo", that has a surreal, almost hypnagogic quality, as well as musicality. I use some fragments from the text like sonorous objects, spoken or whispered by the performers, the word “verde” which means “green” in Spanish as well as in Romanian, being a proeminent obsession. 
***
Live Rec from the concert during "Craiova Muzicala 43" contemporary music festival, Craiova Philharmonic Hall, November 2016

Verde (Green Thing Ensemble)

Meander (Asako Inoue, sax)

"Hannya" for noh voice and string quartet
Live rec from premiere - Tokyo, 20.10.2020
Ryoko Aoky, noh
'ensemble no'
Yasutaka Hemmi, 1st violin 
Yoshu Kamei, 2nd violin 
Takahiro Yasuda, viola
Aki Kitajima, cello

***

Written for the great Ryoko Aoki and ensemble-no, “Hannya” started from my obsession with the Hannya mask in Japanese Noh theatre and, at the same time, with the myths about snakes in ancient Romanian folklore. The characters that wear the Hannya mask are women or souls of women that became demons, often in the shape of snakes or dragons, because of strong negative emotions, such as jealousy or obsession. In Romanian mythology, the snake is often a benefic symbol, but through successive ritualic transformations, it becomes a “zmeu”, a hominoid creature with “evil”, perverted characteristics. So, in a very general way, in Japan the human becomes a snake through malefic emotions, while in Romania the snakes become malefic by acquiring human traits. 

I found this interesting and I chose very short fragments from the very famous “Dōjōji” play as a basis for a sort of chamber music - monodrama piece that mixes Noh theater text with Balkan musical influences. A “Balkan Noh-mini play” of sorts. Ryoko’s character is a monster, but a monster in pain that, through telling her own story, seems to find redemption in the end. The storytelling thus becomes a ritualic act of purification. The work is divided in 6 small sections – 1. Story, 2. Monster, 3. Lament, 4. Dance, 5. Echoes.

***

Text from “Dōjōji” [ENG translation]:

1. Story

Once upon a time, in this province, there was a lord of the manor in Manago who had a daughter. A chief of mountain priests visited the sacred shrine of Kumano from Oshu annually and stayed at the lord’s house every year. 

One day the lord teased his young daughter and joked that the mountain priest must be her future husband. The daughter grew up taking the story seriously in her childish mind.)

After years, when the mountain priest visited the lord’s house in Manago, the daughter came to the mountain priest’s room at night after people fell asleep and told him, “How long are you going to leave me alone? Please come marry me and take me to Oshu soon.” With her sudden request, the mountain priest was astonished but managed to soothe her. Then he ran away from the inn during the dark night, and came to this Dojo-ji Temple. In response to his request to help him, the priest and monks hid him in the bell by lowering it since any other suitable place was found.

2. Monster

My sin must have disappeared. I would go to observe the holy rite for the hanging bell.

When the moon has almost set, when the tide has almost ebbed, I had passed Komatsubara hazed by the mist from the ocean. As my heart hastens, I could reach the Dojo-ji Temple before sunset. I arrived at the Dojo-ji Temple.

3. Lament

Let me observe the rite of the renewed bell.
Would you please permit me to observe the rite.
I am different from other women.
I would like to offer a great dance.
I am different from other women.

4. Dance

Meanwhile, the daughter made up her mind not to let him escape and ran after the mountain priest. However, the water level of the Hidaka-gawa River was so high that she could not cross the river. While she ran up and down the river bank, her excessive attachment toward the man finally transformed her into a monstrous snake. The snake easily crossed the river and arrived at this temple. After searched him all over the temple, the snake felt suspicious of the bell on the ground. The snake held the crown of the bell between its teeth, coiled around the bell by seven-folds, and blew fire to it. When the snake hit the bell with its tail, the bell instantly melted down and the mountain priest disappeared together with the bell....

5. Echoes

My sin must have disappeared.

Hannya

"De simplici duplex II" for clarinet and orchestra (2005)
Dedicated to the wonderful Emil Visenescu
Performed by Emil Visenescu (clarinet), National Radio Orchestra, conductor Cristian Brancusi
[Photo: Virgil Oprina]

De simplici duplex II

One of the most visible young Romanian composers, Diana Rotaru (b. 1981, Bucharest) has written from chamber and orchestral music to chamber opera and soundtracks for multimedia or dance shows and short films. Her music explores different expressive directions, from hypnagogia or pre-oneiric aesthetics, feminine psyche, humor or imaginary folklore.

 

She is also active as a promoter of new music in Romania, as the artistic director of SonoMania new music ensemble (since 2012) and the main coordinator of the Romanian Music Information Center (CIMRO.ro).

 

Diana Rotaru has won numerous prizes, among which the Romanian Academy’s George Enescu Award (2010), the ISCM-IAMIC Young Composer Award (World Music Days, Vilnius, 2008), the Irino Prize (Japan, 2004) or the George Enescu Prize ex-aequo (Romania, 2003 and 2005). Her works have been commissioned by Ensemble XXI (Dijon), Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Pärlor för svin, Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Takefu International Music Festival, etc.

 

She was a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (autumn 2007), on a George Enescu grant from the Romanian Cultural Institute. In April 2011 she was an Artist-in-Residence at Villa Sträuli, Winterthur (Switzerland), at the invitation of Ensemble TaG, who performed her music in two concerts during that period (Verborgen in einer Muschel/ Hidden Inside a Shell – Theater am Gleis and Meet the Artist: Diana Rotaru -Villa Sträuli). In April-June 2015 she was Artist-in-Residence in Vienna, with a grant offered by the Austrian Federal Chancellery & KulturKontakt Vienna.

 

Diana Rotaru is currently teaching composition and music analysis at the National University of Music in Bucharest, where she studied with Ştefan Niculescu and Dan Dediu (2000-2005) and where she has a PhD in Composition (with the dissertation The Recent Trance and the Principle of Repetition in New Music, 2012). She also studied composition with Frédéric Durieux at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (2005-2006). She participated at different summer composition courses such as Acanthes (Metz, 2008), Voix Nouvelles-Royaumont (2002 and 2006), or the International Bartok Seminary (Szombathely, 2003), thus working with Jonathan Harvey, Savatore Sciarrino, Brian Ferneyhough or Michael Jarrell, among others. In September 2018 she was invited to be an assistant professor to Toshio Hosokawa at the Takefu International Music Festival in Japan.

dianarotaru

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