HISTORY OF A FORGOTTEN PASSACAGLIA: THE SYMPHONY NO.3 “OVID” FINALE BY SIGISMUND TODUŢĂ

Abstract

From the perspective of a new century and millennium, preoccupied with the new directions in the stylistic evolution of language, be it musical or otherwise, a retrospective look over the works of an overwhelming personality of Cluj-Napoca musical life such as Sigismund Toduţă creates a bridge towards a past which yet has mysteries to be solved.[1] Hundreds of pages dedicated to Sigismund Toduţă were written[2] - musicologist, founder of cultural institutions as well as founder of the Cluj composition school – yet every time their authors would state that they had much to learn from the Maestro while finding answers to their own dilemmas. Unsolved mysteries regarding the life and works of Sigismund Toduţă remain, one of them being the subject of the present lecture: what was the reason for relinquishing the final passacaglia in Symphony no. 3, dedicated to the equally mysterious Latin poet Ovid, whom he greatly admired. At the Sigismund Toduţă anniversary symposium in 2004, the author of the present text presented an aesthetic analysis of the symphony, accompanied by a historical recording. The analysis of the third and last part, the Passacaglia[3], was difficult because the original score was missing, the author only working with the piano reduction, in a form which did not match any of the two interpretations (Chisadji and Elenescu). The score, printed in 1975, contains additional passages, which do not appear in the interpretations, showing the composer’s constant strive for an ideal version. In July 2009, composer Dan Voiculescu, one of Toduţă’s disciples, managed to obtain the manuscript score from the Library of the Composers’ Union in Bucharest. In 2013 the manuscript score of the final part of the Symphony was offered to us by the secretary of the “Sigismund Toduță” Foundation and we renewed the research. There are quite important differences between the manuscript and the two interpretations with the composer’s participation; therefore, putting together one final version of the score could be a challenge for the present composition class. For a musicologist, diving into the written text, deciphering and revealing its message remain essential. The most “recent” complete interpretation belongs to the Symphonic Orchestra of the RTR conducted by Emanoil Elenescu and dating back to October 16, 1981. After two decades of absence from the concert programs (27 years), conductor Romeo Rîmbu conducted Symphony no. 3 on May 15, 2008 with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Sibiu, without a finale however, as the score was considered destroyed. In 1975 only the first two parts of the symphony were printed (!), a unique situation, as Toduţă has never composed a symphonic work in two parts. The critics’ appreciation, as well as the acclaim won by the performance of the Symphony prove the author’s compositional mastery and entitle him to new rehabilitation. Hopefully, it will not take a millennium, as in the case of the Symphony’s protagonist.

[1] The present paper was presented on May 17, 2013, during the first edition of the “Sigismund Toduță” International Festival with the theme “Stylistic directions in contemporary musical writing”, May 13-18, 2013.

[2] A graduate of the Cluj music school, Sigismund Toduţă (May 17, 1908 – July 3, 1991) composer, musicologist and eminent professor carried on the legacy of his predecessors, Gheorghe Dima, Augustin Bena, Mihail Andreescu-Skeletty, Marţian Negrea, George Simonis, his musical education being a synthesis of the composition schools in Romania, Berlin, Paris and Vienna. He perfected his contrapuntal compositional style during his doctoral studies at the "Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra" in Rome, with a thesis focused on Renaissance polyphony (1936-1938), as well as during the composition classes with Ildebrando Pizzetti, a leading authority in Gregorian chant and medieval polyphonic writing. Professor Pizzetti’s personality left its mark on Toduţă’s creative writing as well as on his later stylistic orientation: the cultivation of a national music, while abandoning the Romantic or Verist influences.

[3] Part which does not appear in the score printed by Editura Muzicală, Bucharest, 1975 (!).