labyrinthes d’adrien by costin miereanu or the topology of ruptures and junctions

Abstract

Pioneer of experimental and avant-garde music, Costin Miereanu is appreciated for the boldness of combining radically different musical substances. Trained by Algirdas Julius Greimas and following a solid musical education in Bucharest, Darmstadt and Paris, Miereanu used semiotic analytical tools to lay the foundations for his compositional attitude. Beginning with early ’80s, he has created works in which direct conceptual correspondences with the theory of sign and signification represent the premise of the musical narrative. Consequently, the musical material becomes secondary, Miereanu being primarily concerned with the temporal evolution of the musical form he labels accidentée: examined à la loupe, it reveals complex labyrinthine structures, sound worlds inhabited by “characters”, tensions, battles, coups de théâtre, and poly-stylistic antagonisms. This article examines the composer’s preference for the archetype of the labyrinth, which inspired him to create works dominated by the aesthetics of the irregular, of the opposition between continuity and discontinuity.