INTERFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN THE SYMPHONIC AND CONCERTO WORKS BY ADRIAN POP – (3) SOLSTICE FOR ORCHESTRA

Abstract

The current study is part of a series of analytical approaches undertaken on the symphonic-concerto oeuvre of Cluj composer Adrian Pop. Following the chronological order of the works and keeping as a reference their common source of inspiration – namely the Romanian folklore –, the conclusion seeks to highlight the way in which the composer’s individuality relates to both the trends of contemporary language and the European cultured musical tradition, without attenuating the signs of the local stylistic matrix. Like the other works under analysis so far, Solstice is based on a melody taken from the Romanian local repertoire, namely that of Pomuț răzmurat, a “Carol of the Sun”. The carol’s ritualic background is linked to the most significant moment in a farmer’s life – the winter solstice – also pointing to the idea of the repeating year, a recurring theme in folklore and mythology. The coordinates of the mioritical space described by Blaga’s philosophy are also present, the undulating motion, the taste for the ornamental and picturesque, the preference for the manifestation of the organic finding their musical correspondences in parameters such as form, writing, tempo, timbre etc. Last but not least, the programmatic dimension of the ideate substratum is captured by the composer Adrian Pop with an extraordinary power of suggestion, through interferences of tradition and modernity.