Horatiu Radulescu

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The Romanian-French composer Horatiu Radulescu (Horaţiu Rădulescu) was born in Bucharest on January 7 1942. He is best known for the spectral technique of composition which he has developed since the late 1960s. He studied the violin privately with Nina Alexandrescu, a pupil of Enescu, and later studied composition at the Bucharest Academy of Music (MA 1969), where his teachers included Niculescu, Olah and Stroe, some of the leading figures of the newly emerging avant garde. Upon graduation Radulescu left Romania for the west, and settled in Paris. One of the first works to be completed there (though the concept had come to him in Romania) was Credo for nine cellos, the first work to employ his spectral techniques. This technique "comprises variable distribution of the spectral energy, synthesis of the global sound sources, micro- and macro-form as sound-process, four simultaneous layers of perception and of speed, and spectral scordaturae, i.e. rows of unequal intervals corresponding to harmonic scales." In the early 1970s he attended classes given by Cage, Ligeti, Stockhausen and Xenakis at the Darmstadt summer courses, and by Ferrari and Kagel in Cologne; later, from 1979 to 1981, he studied computer-assisted composition and psycho-acoustics at IRCAM.

Radulescu's spectral techniques, as they evolved through the 1970s and beyond, are quite distinct from those of his French contemporaries Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail. He has a large catalogue of works (now spanning more than 100 compositions), including six string quartets, five piano sonatas, a piano concerto, and many works for unconventional ensembles.

In 1974, Radulescu became a citizen of France, having lived in Paris since 1969. He presently lives in Switzerland.

[edit] Selected works

Taaroa (1969) for orchestra
Credo for 9 celli (1969)
Flood for the Eternal's Origins (1970) for global sound sources
Everlasting Longings (1972) for 24 strings
in ko 'tro - Mioritic Space (1973) for 11 recitors, string orchestra, electronic and nature sound
Capricorn's nostalgic crickets (1972/1980) for seven identical woodwinds
Hierophany (1973) recitation in 42 languages with 42 children
Wild Incantesimo (1978) for 9 orchestras, 162 players
Lamento di Gesù (1973-75) for large orchestra and 7 psalteries
A Doini (1974) for 17 players with sound icons (bowed vertical concert grand pianos spectrally retuned)
Thirteen Dreams Ago (1978) for 11x3 strings –11 live with two pre-recordings (or 33 strings live)
Doruind (1976) for 48 voices in 7 groups
Do Emerge Ultimate Silence (1974/84) for 34 children's voices in groups with 34 spectrally tuned monochords
IVth String Quartet – "infinite to be cannot be infinite, infinite anti-be could be infinite" (1976-87) for 9 string quartets, ie 8 (spectral scordatura of 128 strings) around the audience and one in the center
Outer Time (1980) for 23 flutes or 42 gongs or trio basso or two spectrally retuned grand pianos or 8 brass - 4 trumpets and 4 trombones
Inner Time (1983) for solo clarinet; Inner Time II (1993) for 7 clarinets
Iubiri (Amours) (1980/1) for 16 players & sound icons (if live, another 3 players)
Clepsydra (1983) for 16 players with sound icons
Das Andere (1983) for viola sola or cello solo or violin solo or double bass solo tuned in perfect fifths
Astray (1983/84) for two duos: each of one player with 6 saxes & of one player with a sound icon - score on color slides
Awakening infinity (1983) for large ensemble of 25 players
Frenetico il longing di amare (1984) for bass voice, octobass flute, sound icon
Dizzy Divinity I (1985) for (bass, alto or grand) flute
Sensual Sky (1985) for ensemble: fl in G, cl., alto sax, trombone, sound icon, violin, viola, cello, double bass
Intimate Rituals (1985) for 4 sound icons with or without other soloists
"forefeeling" remembrances (1985) for 14 identical voices
Christe Eleison (1986) for organ
Mirabilia Mundi - music for the Speyer Basilica (1986) for 7 large groups - up to 88 players
Byzantine Prayer (1988) for 40 flautists with 72 flutes
Dr. Kai Hong's Diamond Mountain (1991) for 61 spectral gongs and soloists
2nd Piano Sonata - "being and non-being create each other" (1991)
Animae morte carent (1992/95) for oboe d'amore and spectral piano
3rd Piano Sonata - "you will endure forever" (1992/99)
Angolo Divino (1993/94) for large orchestra
Amen (1993/94) for organ
Fifth String Quartet - "before the universe was born" (1990/95)
Piano Concerto "The Quest" (1996)
Sixth String Quartet "practicing eternity" (1992)
Fourth Piano Sonata "like a well ... older than God"" (1993)
Amor medicabilis nullis herbis (1996) for soprano, clarinet and violoncello
lux animae (1996) for violoncello or viola (2000)
l'exil interieur (1997) sonata for cello and piano
Fifth Piano Sonata "settle your dust, this is the primal identity" (2003)
Cinerum (2005) for four voices and ensemble