Dimitrie Cuclin Analyzing the Modes in the Romanian Folk Music
Dimitrie Cuclin Analyzing the Modes in the Romanian Folk Music

Summary/Abstract: The original and prolific composer Dimitrie Cuclin conceived a particular musical system, with metaphysical correspondences, implemented by him in his own creation. The theoretical model of his functional system could be a starting point of a new and coherent interpretation of the modalism in the Romanian folk song. Being nonconformist and provocative, Cuclin reconsidered the old tonal system, starting from neo-Pythagorean principles, and reorganized the musical functions and their relations following a personal logic, manifesting in his theories and compositions the obstinacy of a philosopher in scholasticism. The Tonic, the Dominant, the Subdominant and the Leading tone get roles which are sometimes in contradiction with the traditional musical logic, but their roles are redefined from the perspective of a movement between two parallel universes described in his metaphysical works. His musical thinking included the ideas of his contemporaries (Vincent d’Indy, Hugo Riemann) and is similar to those of Ernst Kurth, Wilhelm Worringer, but his meta-musical conception based on psychology and metaphysics led to a more subtle analysis of the Romanian folk modes and left a specific stylistic mark on his compositions inspired from the modal system, which are peculiar in the Romanian music. His music turns into an image of a superior world, and the understanding of its elements (the musical tonal functions) and their relations leads finally to the knowledge of the physical and metaphysical universe.

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