George Enescu, the leading figure of 20th century Romanian classical music, was born and grew up in the Moldavian area of Romania, a region with specific cultural and linguistic characteristics, whose features were even more noticeable in his time, before the pressure of today's dominant academic model has diluted the dialectal features. What is known as the Moldovan "voice" (grai moldovenesc) has very particular pronunciation features, some of which are still recognisable to this day in older people. Starting from a detailed study of the sonorous elements of this very characteristic pronunciation, which combines a marked rise in the frequency of the voice sound on stressed syllables with a prolongation of these syllables and with other particular aspects such as the palatalisation of some consonants.

 

This thesis also suggests a re-reading of the ambivalent figure of Enescu as performer and composer, carried out through the observation of the different rhythmic systems of the folkloric traditions to which he had access and which his music echoes, as well as the few but important recordings he has left us as a pianist.

 

In this thesis, these parameters are applied to piano performance through the filter of the Romanian rhythmic system known as "parlando rubato", a system whose rhythm varies according to pronunciation. Taking as a reference a wide repertoire, and in particular the Sonata op. 24 no. 1 and the Pièces impromptues op. 18 by Enescu, I propose to create a personal interpretation based on a non-arithmetical rhythmic idea, which rethinks the sense of the rhythmic proportions present in the score from a coherent and argued framework, which allows to re-create the written rhythmic figures by converting them into rhythms and intensities proper to the pronunciation of the Moldavian voice.

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https://ria.ua.pt/handle/10773/34970?fbclid=IwAR3WOkq4sr5U_WAy9omGMyDadTyWHc8te2TF2NcuycDnUIeQqczkcCwtOgw