When I download the music kindly offered by our contributors I create a folder for every composer and give their date of birth and death. I save the music by it’s title and date of composition. Therefore I have to do a lot of work in some cases. ;)
Perhaps other members would like to profit from my recent research on the last batch of uploads of Romanian music by
MVS.
It has often been very difficult to find information about the composers.
Some have not even a Romanian wikipedia entry.
Moreover Romania doesn’t have a Music Information Centre. (
http://www.iamic.net/members-web-sites/)
I don’t speak nor read Romanian but I will give an occasional link in case I couldn’t trace a substantial English source.
Of course, a great source is Michael Herman’s discography of EAST-CENTRAL EUROPEAN AND BALKAN SYMPHONIES which gives basic information on even the rarest figure.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/Balkan_discography/ECE_Balkan_Symphonies1.htmLiana Alexandra (1947-2011)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liana_AlexandraHer husband, composer Serban Nichifor, has written about her:
http://ro.scribd.com/doc/58735712/LIANA-ALEXANDRA-Confessions-About-Her-Music-Appendix-2011According to the worklist applied to this document the
Symphony No. 3 was written from
1982-83.
Vasile Herman (1929-2010)There is not even a Romanian wikipedia page.
Michael Herman has to update his entry on Vasile Herman; his namesake has passed away two years ago.
Ion Dumitrescu (1913-1996)The German wikipedia page is the most comprehensive. However, it dates the
Symphony No. 1 to
1955 instead of 1948. The
Symphonic Prelude is dated
1952, the
Concerto for strings 1961.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Dumitrescu_(Komponist)Zoltan Aládár (1929-1978)Only this Esperanto wikipedia page
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alad%C3%A1r_Zolt%C3%A1nMichael Herman gives
1972 as date of
Symphony No. 2.
Mihail Jora (1891-1971)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_JoraNicolae Beloiu (1927-2003) Here’s a substantial Romanian site, though not quite up to date.
http://www.crispedia.ro/Nicolae_BeloiuSigismund Toduţă (1908-1991) is certainly the most prominent – and the only one whose music I have heard before. He has his own website.
http://www.sigismundtoduta.org/en/home_en.php A lot of time has gone into this and I must confess that Romanian music is not even a favourite of mine.
Most likely I will never listen to any of the works for mere lack of time. ;D
