Myriam Marbé – Avant-garde and Ideological Neutrality

Myriam Marbé (1931-1997) was part of the Golden Generation of Romanian composers, involved in developing the technique of composition following the model of the European avant-garde. This objective was at odds with the aesthetic of socialist realism officially promoted in the 1950s and 1960s. The composer managed to avoid political conformism due to her style, in which she combines innovative language with musical and spiritual sources of Romanian folklore. The artist’s creative prestige reached a first climax with the famous work Ritual for the thirst of the earth (1968). The interest in capitalizing on ancient forms of expression can also be seen in the work for children's choir and orchestra, Chiuituri (1978). The chiuituri express irrepressible joy, jubilation, but also a type of folkloric manifestation that is specifically Romanian. Myriam Marbé creates an imaginary place of the joy of living. In the article dedicated to this work, Thomas Beimel depicts the Romanian political context of the late '70s in detail. “There are hardly any reasons for such jubilation as expressed in Chiuituri, during the Romanian dictatorship, beyond propaganda formats. The piece is very suitable to illustrate the aesthetic freedoms possible during this regime” Another work by the composer, Des-Cântec (1985), presents a study of melody and its possible functions. The creation refers to two different designs: a Delphic hymn and a quote from a work by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Delphic hymn is articulated in a contemporary manner, while Bach's fragment changes character and appears in the manner of a doina. Myriam Marbé was not concerned with quotes, but with working with songs of different registers and origins that are in a process of permanent metamorphosis.