Pagini alese din creaţia corală religioasă a compozitorului Costică Andrei

Abstract

The composer Costică Andrei was one of the leading advocates of the Romanian musical composition style in the 2nd half of the 19th century and the 1st decade of the 20th century. He graduated from the “Sf. Ap. Andrei“ Theological Seminary in Galați, in 1948, the summer before this important Orthodox theological education institution was abolished by the communist regime. Costică Andrei followed musical training at the Conservatory in Iași, Cluj and Bucharest. His style of musical composition was influenced by the composers Tudor Jarda and Sigismund Toduță. His religious choral creations include the Songs of the Holy Liturgy, Hymns and prayers and Christmas carols. All of these were published in his volume entitled Choirs – Religious music, published at Editura Muzicală (Musical Publishing House), in 2004. The modal structures are significant in his religious choral compositions. Syntactically, the author
combined the use of two compositional processes: the polyphony and the harmony. Chromaticism is also pronounced in his creation, especially when exploring the prosodic requirements of the religious texts that he used. The sound of his songs often presents similarities with the medieval music, which is due to parallel melodic movements, elliptical chords and the use of the unison as background for the thematic phrases. Nonetheless, imitations, the use of the stretto, alterations along musical themes, as well as other processes which give vigor and originality to his compositions are present throughout his creation. Therefore, the religious music of Costică Andrei carries within itself a note of uniqueness and it is intrinsically appropriate to and for the church, due to the way that religious texte were used.