National University of Music Bucharest

About: National University of Music Bucharest is a education organization based out in Bucharest, Romania. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Musical & Shadow (psychology). The organization has 7 authors who have published 8 publications receiving 17 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitatea Națională de Muzică București & U.N.M.B..

Light and shadow as instruments of literary and visual metaphor in Liviu Rebreanu’s The Forest of the Hanged

Abstract: Starting from their basic role as elements of literary, cinematographic and theatrical description, light and shadow develop a close relation in all these three arts. They exceed their primary purpose and become involved in the process of narrating the events and setting the mise-en-scene. Even more, they are also engaged in changing the atmosphere, visualizing the images, modifying the reader’s or viewer’s attention, increasing or diminishing the dramatic intensity, conferring dynamic effect, accumulating meaning and revealing symbolic, philosophical, psychological and metaphysical significance to literary, cinematographic and theatrical artworks. Transferred from literature to cinematography and theatre, light and shadow have to adjust their means of expression so that to correspond to the specificity of each art. Taking after the techniques in the art of drawing, naming the tree-dimension perspective and chiaroscuro, light and shadow bring new aesthetic values to theatre and cinematography. Regarded as instruments of creating literary and visual metaphors, light and shadow highly influence the perception of the images outlined by them. The study aims to take into discussion the manner in which light and shadow may be employed as instruments of creating literary as well as visual metaphors. At the same time, it analyses the transposition of a metaphor generated by light and shadow from literature to cinematography and theatre as in Liviu Rebreanu’s “The Forest of the Hanged”.

StressFree--A Tool for Stress Determination and Treatment through Computer Music Generation

Abstract: This paper describes a framework for determining stress by measuring the heart rate and treating it through computer music generation. We present a practical and computationally inexpensive technique for measuring the heart rate using the low-end video cameras already present in a wide range of consumer electronics. Our method for treating stress is based on music therapy using computer generated music. Currently the heart rate monitor application and the computer music generation tool are implemented. Further work includes the analysis of heart rate variability and the integration of the framework on a smart phone.

The Beginnings of Romanian Composition: Between Nationalism and the Obsession with Synchronizing with the West

Abstract: Romanian composition in the nineteenth century went through rapid changes, moving from a Greek-oriental sound world to a Western European one. It is interesting to examine, in this context, the musicians’ quest for a ‘national’ sound and identity. Analysis of piano miniatures or vaudeville, the favourite genre of the Romanian audience in the first half of the century, shows eclectic combinations of urban folk music with sources of inspiration borrowed from popular foreign melodies. The second half of the century seems to be marked in modern scholarship by premieres: some composers are included in Romanian history just for the merit of writing the first Romanian symphony, the first string quartet, the first opera, and so forth. Their work led towards the constitution of a ‘national language’ adapted to genres borrowed from contemporary Western European music. In addition to demonstrating these ideas in the work of a number of Romanian composers (Josef Herfner, Ioan Andrei Wachmann, Anton Pann, Alexandru Flechtenmacher, Ludwig Anton Wiest, Carol Miculi, George Stephanescu, Constantin Dimitrescu, Gavriil Musicescu, Eduard Caudella, George Dima, Ciprian Porumbescu, Iacob Muresianu, Dumitru Georgescu Kiriac, Alfonso Castaldi, Eduard Wachmann), the present article also encompasses two case studies. The first is Franz Liszt’s tour through the Romanian Countries, which offers a clearer image of the popular ideas circulating within the musical scene of the time. Liszt’s initiative to emphasize the national spirit through folk quotations reworked in rhapsodies should have inspired Romanian musicians; we will see whether this actually happened. The second case study concerns the musical life of Bucharest around 1900, when the directions of Romanian modern music were being traced, and cautious and selective steps were made toward harmonizing with Europe began.

DramAcum – The New Wave of Romanian contemporary dramaturgy

Abstract: During the nineties, a new theatrical trend developed. It was called New European Drama or New Writing. It was represented by authors such as the British Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill or the German playwright Marius von Mayernburg. The classical theatre will never be able to return to itself, unless giving the spectator the utopian sense of life that only a staged play could perform, not from a delusive perspective, but from a real and personalized perspective, giving a certain meaning to reality. Being against the conservatory type, the authors put an end to all the theatrical conventions. They considered that it had to come to a point of changing the old patterns, of introducing new themes, new structures, new means of performing in the attempt of seducing and shocking the audience. Most of the dramatic texts focus on the plots about hard human existence such as racism, madness, suicide, sexuality, drug addiction and any type of abuse. The language is vulgar and slangy. All the dramatic texts when performed on stage invade the personal space of the people watching, who is now considered one of the characters. It is not only the dramatic text that is taken into consideration, but the performance itself. The new type of theatre developed in Russia, Poland and Romania, giving specific projects (Teatr.doc, The Drama Laboratory and DramAcum). All were influenced by the verbatim dramatic style performed in theatres under the slogan of the in-yer-face. The study intends to explore the importance of the Romanian theatrical project – DramAcum, as a new type of theatre and dramaturgy.