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George Enescu (1881-1955) is known primarily today in conjunction with the world of violin playing. Celebrated as a violin virtuoso throughout the capitals of Europe and North America in the first half of this century, and later admired as a teacher of luminary talents such as Yehudi Menuhin, Arthur Grumiaux, and Ida Haendel, Enescu exerted a considerable influence on the developments of the international music scene. This was nowhere more apparent than in Paris and Bucharest, cities in which Enescu spent most of his life active as performer, conductor, and composer. As his career progressed, Enescu dedicated an increasing amount of time and energy to composition, producing an impressive list of works, many of which were of monumental proportions. Contemporary with Bartok and Kodály, Enescu found himself caught in the current of nationalism that asserted itself in Europe during the first decades of the twentieth century. Seeking a personal, expressive idiom in which he could fuse the musical elements of both Western tradition and his native Rumanian folk heritage, Enescu experimented with diverse compositional trends and styles. Expanding the reaches of tonality with heightened chromaticism, in which microtonal as well as modal inflections were both to play significant roles, Enescu’s idiom evolved into a highly plastic language, comprising a great variety of stylistic characteristics. In order to assimilate the heterogeneous elements into one unified expression, Enescu relied on traditional compositional techniques such as sonata form, cyclic thematic structure, and motivic development. The focus of this paper is to examine to what extent these compositional techniques are incorporated into his work and to direct attention to those elements, i.e., both structural and non-structural, that were most distinctive of Enescu’s musical style. Owing to its concentration of key stylistic elements and its stature as perhaps the most accomplished piano composition in Enescu’s output, the Sonata for Piano in D Major, Op. 24, No. 3 (1934) will serve as model for this analytical study. Chapter One provides by way of an introduction a brief overview of the formative years in Enescu’s life and defines the position of the Sonata within the complete ceuvre. Chapters Two, Three, and Four constitute the main body of the paper and contain analyses of each of the Sonata’s three movements. In these chapters discussion revolves around the more significant structural features of the work such as the overall cyclic design, simultaneously examining the methods Enescu employs to integrate folk inflection throughout the Sonata. Chapter Five comprises the summary. The most significant features of the Sonata are recapitulated and parallels to numerous other works are drawn, in an attempt to present the Sonata as a culmination of Enescu’s compositional style.

George Enescu (1881-1955) is known primarily today in conjunction with the world of violin playing. Celebrated as a violin virtuoso throughout the capitals of Europe and North America in the first half of this century, and later admired as a teacher of luminary talents such as Yehudi Menuhin, Arthur Grumiaux, and Ida Haendel, Enescu exerted a considerable influence on the developments of the international music scene. This was nowhere more apparent than in Paris and Bucharest, cities in which Enescu spent most of his life active as performer, conductor, and composer. As his career progressed, Enescu dedicated an increasing amount of time and energy to composition, producing an impressive list of works, many of which were of monumental proportions. Contemporary with Bartok and Kodály, Enescu found himself caught in the current of nationalism that asserted itself in Europe during the first decades of the twentieth century. Seeking a personal, expressive idiom in which he could fuse the musical elements of both Western tradition and his native Rumanian folk heritage, Enescu experimented with diverse compositional trends and styles. Expanding the reaches of tonality with heightened chromaticism, in which microtonal as well as modal inflections were both to play significant roles, Enescu’s idiom evolved into a highly plastic language, comprising a great variety of stylistic characteristics. In order to assimilate the heterogeneous elements into one unified expression, Enescu relied on traditional compositional techniques such as sonata form, cyclic thematic structure, and motivic development. The focus of this paper is to examine to what extent these compositional techniques are incorporated into his work and to direct attention to those elements, i.e., both structural and non-structural, that were most distinctive of Enescu’s musical style. Owing to its concentration of key stylistic elements and its stature as perhaps the most accomplished piano composition in Enescu’s output, the Sonata for Piano in D Major, Op. 24, No. 3 (1934) will serve as model for this analytical study. Chapter One provides by way of an introduction a brief overview of the formative years in Enescu’s life and defines the position of the Sonata within the complete ceuvre. Chapters Two, Three, and Four constitute the main body of the paper and contain analyses of each of the Sonata’s three movements. In these chapters discussion revolves around the more significant structural features of the work such as the overall cyclic design, simultaneously examining the methods Enescu employs to integrate folk inflection throughout the Sonata. Chapter Five comprises the summary. The most significant features of the Sonata are recapitulated and parallels to numerous other works are drawn, in an attempt to present the Sonata as a culmination of Enescu’s compositional style. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

In Romanian, the word lăutari refers to highly skilled professional Romani (Gypsy) musicians. By interacting with Romanian culture and tradition, the lăutari settled down in the country and developed a unique musical tradition. Their music is characterized by intricate, elaborate, and refined ornamentation; its execution requires a highly level of technique. George Enescu, regarded as Romania's most influential musician, was affected by lăutari music. He created a unique musical language that recreates Romanian character by using lăutari elements. This dissertation examines how to approach Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3 and perform it by understanding the characteristics of lăutari music as well as the work's use of such lăutari violin techniques as diverse expressive slides, vibrato, double stops, various ornaments, artificial harmonics, imitation of folk instruments, and a variety of bow strokes. Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3 is regarded as a challenging work in the violin literature requiring a high level of violin technique. Although the standard violin repertoire is enormous, many violinists are looking to rediscover new and challenging repertoire, distinguish themselves from others, and promote themselves as professional performers. Therefore, this study should help violinists to approach the idiomatic violin writing of Enescu's sonata, especially its lăutari techniques and style.

In the world of chamber music, programmatic suites are more rarely composed and consequently more rarely presented in recital than other musical forms. Perhaps partially for this reason, George Enescu's Impressions d'enfance for violin and piano, his last chamber piece written in the tumultuous year of 1940, has been overlooked for a long time; even the composer himself did not make a recording of this seldom performed piece. This dissertation examines Impressions d'enface in order to explore the relationship between the underlying Romanian folk rhythmic and melodic patterns, to provide an analysis, as well as to serve as a performance guide to assist performers in surmounting the technical challenges and thus create a more effective ensemble. I hope this dissertation will encourage more duos to experiencing the joy of George Enescu's richly fulfilling Impressions d'enfance for themselves.