Zeno Vancea

Zeno Vancea. Photo sourced from the Romanian Wikipedia

Zeno Octavian Vancea (b. October 8, 1900, Bocșa, Caraș-Severin County - d. January 15, 1990, Bucharest ^[2]) was a Romanian composer, musicologist, music critic, choir conductor, pianist and teacher.

He studied in Lugoj with Ion Vidu and Iosif Willer, in Cluj with Gheorghe Dima and Augustin Bena, then in Vienna, at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium (1921-1926, 1930-1931) with Ernst Kanitz, with whom he studied counterpoint and composition. ^[3] Subsequently, he adhered to atonalism and the principles promoted by the second Viennese school (Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg), principles that would be found, selectively, throughout his creation, without completely giving up the traditions of the Romanian school. While in Vienna, he also worked as a choir conductor at the Orthodox Cathedral in Vienna.

He also taught history of music at the Târgu Mureș Conservatory (1935-1940 and 1945-1948) and at the Timișoara Conservatory (1940-1945).

He then became the general director of artistic education in Bucharest (1949-1950), a professor at the "Ciprian Porumbescu" Conservatory in Bucharest (1952-1968), secretary (1949-1953) then vice president (1953-1977) of the Union of Composers and Musicologists in Romania. He also worked at Revista Muzica (1953-1964) and was its editor-in-chief between 1957-1964.

Laureate of the "Gottfried von Herder" Prize of the University of Vienna (1974).

Works

• Banat Rhapsodies no. 1 (1926) and no. 2 (1928)
• Two Folk Dances for Orchestra (1931)
• Priculiciul (ballet suite) (1931)
• Triptych Preamble. Intermezzo, March (1958)
• Five Pieces for String Orchestra (1964)
• Sinfonietta no. 2 (1967)
• Symphonic prologue (1974)
• Sonata for organ and string orchestra (1976)

Film Music

• Life does not forgive (1958)

Marching Band Music

• Military Rhapsody (1958)

Choral Music

• Psalm 127 (1927),
• Liturgy for mixed choir on pew songs from Banat (1928)
• Liturgy no. 2 on pew songs from Ardea l (1938).

Writings

He wrote numerous musicology studies, as well as two important volumes on the history of Romanian music in the 19th and 20th centuries. His written work includes:

• "Romanian choral church music" - printed at Mentor Publishing House (Moravetz) in Timișoara (1944)
• "History of universal and Romanian music" (1938)
• "George Enescu" (1964)
• "Studies and essays" (1953-1964)
• "Romanian musical creation in the XIX-XX centuries", two volumes (vol.I 1968, vol.2 1979)
• "Musical studies and essays", Music Publishing House, Bucharest, 1974.

Awards

• First mention of the composition "George Enescu" (1934)
• Third Prize for composition "George Enescu" (1936)
• Second Prize for composition "George Enescu" (1937, 1938)
• First Prize for composition “George Enescu” (1943)
• State Prize (1954)
• Creative Prize of the Union of Composers (1968, 1975, 1977)
• Gottfried von Herder International Prize of the University of Vienna (1974)
• Corresponding member of the Berlin Academy of Arts, GDR (1975)

References

1. Martha Popovici: Conversations with Zeno Vancea , Music Publishing House, 1985
2. Ioan Tomi: DICTIONARY - 123 composers, conductors, musicologists personalities of the musical culture from the historical Banat, Editor: „Banatul“ Philharmonic Timișoara, 2009
3. Academy of the Romanian People's Republic, Romanian Encyclopedic Dictionary , Politică Publishing House, Bucharest, 1962-1964
4. Constantin-Tufan Stan, Zeno Vancea - biographical stages and musical accomplishments , Tim Publishing House, Reșița, 2007

Text adapted from the Romanian Wikipedia