Background
NICULESCU, Stefan was born on July 31, 1927 in Moreni Dimbovita. Son of Lazar Nieuleseu and Maria Niculescu.
NICULESCU, Stefan was born on July 31, 1927 in Moreni Dimbovita. Son of Lazar Nieuleseu and Maria Niculescu.
Academy of Music and Theatrical Art, Bucharest College, of Engineering, Bucharest, C. Porumbescu Conservatory of Music, Bucharest.
He was credited with introducing his own brand of heterophony, a technique based on superimposing melodic material onto variations of itself in order to create textures that are propelled by thematic energy as well as by the more common textural factors of density and levels of activity. This creative approach bears similarities with György Ligeti"s micropolyphony, but important aesthetic and stylistic differences set them apart. Niculescu"s work Ison II for wind and percussion permutates simultaneous segments of a diatonic melody producing a reverberating complexity of sound which is held together by a strong sense of modal clarity.
Opus Dacicum for orchestra applies similar textural explorations but with a stronger sense of harmonic movement, often with a Wagnerian lushness that lends this music a sensuous appeal a world apart from Ligeti"s cluster-oriented sonorities.
In the 1970s he contributed to the popularization of modern music by organizing public listenings in Bucharest together with Şerban Stănciulescu.
Married Colette Demetrescu in 1952.