User:Esir15amgd/Liviu Tempea

Liviu Tempea (n. 2 January 1860 – d. 26 June 1946) was one of the first professional musicians from Banat, reknown pianist of his time, also being gifted with remarcable composing skills (although he was self-taught in this area, his obvious talent is shown in his few works). He was an important personality in the musical life of Banat and Transylvania, at the beginning of the 20th century, imposing in the most diverse sociocultural circles the values of classical music. His erudition, a certain academic distinction (after the Great Union, he was a piano teacher in the Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art, Cluj-Napoca) gave him the aura charismatic personality, significant for the Romanian cultural manifestations in Banat and Transylvania. Unfortunately, as many others (there is a list of Transylvanian composers formed under the musical guidance of Iacob Mureșianu, whoose names sank into oblivion), Liviu Tempea was not often mentioned in the local press or in the documents of the age. Therefore, the reconstruction of his biography and of his remarcable artistical profile presented as a passionate musichological adventure, with unexpected musical, historical and literary connections.

1. Childhood and first years
Liviu Tempea was born in 2 January 1860 in Lugoj, where he graduated the primary, gymnasium and highschool studies. Some of his school coleagues and close friends were Ioan Popovici-Bănățeanul and Victor Vlad Delamarina. His father, Iosif Tempea, originating from Toracu Mare (today in Serbia), priest and Romanian Language and Literature professor in Timișoara, Caransebeș and Lugoj, was known as a founder of the "Desceptarea" ("The Awakening") magazine (Lugoj, 25 December 1879 / 6 January 1880 – 7 April 1881), one of the first Romanian publications in Banat, but also as the author of some remarcable studies and handbooks dedicated to the Romanian language: "Stilul și poetica limbei române" ("Style and poetics of Romanian language") (Lugoj, 1882) and "Handbook for topic, lyric and didactics of Romanian language" (Published by the author, Lugoj, 1886). He was blessed, as a child, with the musical education of Iosif Czegka, significant artistical personality in Lugoj in that period (conductor of the Romanian Reunion of Singing and Music) and of Wilhelm Schwach, music professor at the State Gymnasium of Lugoj. Afer graduating highschool,took part in the emulations organized by the General Assembly of the Romanian Theatre Funding Society (Lugoj, 29-30 September 1888), playing one of his first piano compositions, the "Romanian Thalia".

2. Academic studies
He studied the piano at Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna with Iulius Epstein. While in Vienna, he frequented the courses of the Faculty of Medicine, gaining the „absolutor”, without the bachelor exam (the „rigorous”). He was part of the organizing committee for the celebrations dedicated to the General Assembly of ASTRA (Lugoj, 15 / 27-16 / 28 August 1896), Banat being affiliated to the Transylvanian association. With the occasion of the choral emulation, that took place in the "Concordiei” garden, Liviu Tempea accompanied the Choir of Chizătău with the piano ("Fiii României" / "Sons of Romania" by Gavriil Musicescu) and during the festive concert that took place the next day on the Town Theatre stage, performing the Romanian Reunion of Singin and Music, conducted by Ion Vidu, he performed Chopin, "Polonaise" in E flat minor. The piano accompaniment of the of the choir from the second act of the Verdi's "Otello", opus that allowed the intervention of Tempea, was played by  Elena Dobrin. At the party organized at the end of the ASTRA assembly, the guests danced, among others, on the music of the Walz of ASTRA (composed by Tiberiu Brediceanu) and the Quadrilul of ASTRA, Liviu Tempea's creation.

3. 1896-1899
After finishing the academic studies (1896) he lived in Bucharest for a short period, where he worked as a private piano teacher and accompanist, then parted to Iași, giving Gavriil Musicescu a letter of recommendation from the tribune of Lugoj, Coriolan Brediceanu. In Iași, Tempea continued his studies, applying at the Conservatorry of Music and Declamation, in the same time frequenting the courses of the Faculty of Medicine. Through Șt. O. Iosif, he met the prince Leon Ghika, who invited him to Dumbrăveni, in 1897, where he (the prince) had estates that icluted the village of Ipotești. In Dumbrăveni, hypothetical place of Mihai Eminescu's birth – according to the testimony of a servant of the Balș family (the former proprieter of the estate), who had supposedly seen the child „carried on the arms by the old man, as a baby in swaddling clothes” – he started a mixed choir of peasants, in Bucovina being one of the first Romanian musical formation of this kind. After a short stop in Cluj (after his brother's departing), wher he founded a choir of students in the autumn of 1897, he went to Viena, to acquire a degree that confirmed his studies at the Faculty of Medicine, document necesary for the bachelor exam. Next year (1898) he returned to Bucharest, where he continued his old artistic preoccupations, also attracted by medical studies. Here he may have had contacts with Constantin Rădulescu jr., A brilliant surgeon at "Eforiei" Hospital, the uncle of his former colleague and childhood friend Victor Vlad Delamarina, collaborator of Corneliu Diaconovich in the elaboration of the Romanian Encyclopaedia. In the capital of Romania, an intense cultural life was throbing, sustained by a whole array of cultural personalities from Banat and Ardeal: Aurel C. Popovici (German and English teacher), Ioan Slavici (Director of the "Oteteleşanu" Institute), George Coşbuc (The House of Schools), Ion Bianu (Library of the Academy), Şt. O. Iosif, Ilarie Chendi, Zaharia Bârsan and others. Liviu Tempea continued the activities in Dumbrăveni, establishing a male choral (unique, at that time, in Bucharest), in which the intellectuals of Banat and Transylvania, the so-called "wanderers of the national ideal", exclusively co-opted. The "wanderers", refugees in Bucharest after the Memorandum Trial, met twice a week at the "Wilhelm" brewery (on Edgar Quinet Street, opposite Capșa, near the "Brus" pharmacy), where they rehearsed with the help of a rented harmonium. Among the chorists were: Preda (future director of the "Vasiliu Bolnavu" Foundation), Petrescu-Sadea (director of the "Zamfirescu" Chocolate Factory), Remus Caracaş (director of a commercial school), Gheorghe Demeter (interpreter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Ilarie Chendi, Zaharia Bârsan, journalist Gheorghe Stoica, Petre Ciorogariu (institutor, German teacher and musician from Vărădia, Caraş-Severin County), Valeriu Teconţi (printer, translator and editor of Eminescu in German) and others. George Coşbuc frequently attended the rehearsals, which became a pretext for meeting the people of Banat and Transylvania. In 1899, Liviu Tempea's choir held his first concert at the "Opler" hall, also benefiting from the support of the Cultural League.

4. Sibiu
From Lugoj, the Bucharest musicians turned to Sibiu to take part in the events organized by the "incident" of the General Assembly of ASTRA, including the inauguration of the Association Museum. Enthusiastic to the reception, the members of the "Carmen" Choral Society comitee sent a thank-you letter to the Romanian Reunion of Singing and Music, the epistle signed by Leon Ghika (president) and Petrescu-Sadea (secretary), addressed to G. Dobrin, president of the Lugoj Reunion. A response letter, sent to Mr G. Kiriac, was signed by G. Dobrin and Cornel Jurca, Secretary of the Reunion. Tempea actively starred in Sibiu, leading the Romanian Singing and Music Reunion (conducted by Gheorghe Dima until 1899), after Augustin Bena, but also as a teacher at the Girls School of ASTRA. He debuted with the choir of Sibiu, as a conductor, but also a concert pianist, on October 13 1909, presenting his own composition, "Rugăciune" ("Prayer"), lyrics by Mihai Eminescu, as well as works by Huber, Dima, Wagner (duet from "The Flying Dutch", soli: V. Triteanu and O. Mureșianu) and D. Popovici-Bayreuth, and as a pianist, the "Evenings in Vienna" of Schubert-Liszt and Scarlatescu's "Romanian Variations". On the occasion of the ASTRA celebrations in Sibiu in November 1909, he presented his controversial composition "La arme!" ("To the guns!"). After the concert he had a funny dialogue with the teacher I. Crişan, the conductor of the mixed peasant choir from Sălişte:

„– Mister Tempea, your "La arme!" is not ugly, but I sing the real one!

– You do? By whom is it?

– By a man from Bucovina, named Meahul! ”.

In order to clarify the true author of the song, Tempea introduced the teacher Crişan to Octavian Goga, Octavian C. Tăslăuanu and Tiberiu Brediceanu, who had attended the festivities of ASTRA and who knew the true history of the song. In Sibiu, Tempea conquered the audience through his solo intervention as well, confirming his reputation as a virtuoso pianist.

On July 1 (old rite) 1914, a festive celebration dedicated to Mihai Eminescu was held at the ASTRA festive hall in Sibiu at the age of 25 years after his death. After evocating the poet's personality (OC Tălăuanu and O. Goga) and a lyrical recital, the ASTRA Choir, conducted by I. Crişan, interpreted several opuses, including two works signed by Tempea, "Rugăciune" and "Marș" ("March"), the sums resulting from contributions were intended to raise a bust of the poet.

5. Cluj
After the Union, Tempea was part of the first teaching staff of the Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art in Cluj, an institution founded by Tiberiu Brediceanu in 1919 (officially inaugurated on March 28, 1920), as a piano assistant professor, along with a pleiad of great musicians: Ana Voileanu (piano), Ionel Crişianu (singing), Hermann Klee (musical theory-solfegio, harmony and score reading), Gheorghe Dima (solfegio and choir), Augustin Bena and Tiberiu Brediceanu. Among his famous students were Sabin V. Drăgoi and Zeno Vancea (also from Lugoj), who will keep his memory alive: "Besides Ana Voileanu, I also studied the piano with Liviu Tempea, a pianist from Lugoj. His grandfather [his father, Iosif Tempea] had made the first Romanian-Latin grammar, from which I also learned the first Romanian spelling. Liviu Tempea was an excellent pianist and a good composer. He was the first to make a piano setting of folk dances from Banat. They were also printed, but with time they were forgotten”. Since 1940 he has been present in Timișoara, where he has an important artistic activity at the two major cultural institutions in Cluj, refugees in the Banat capital after the Vienna Dictation, the Romanian Opera and the Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art. He was a piano virtuoso, an unprecedented improviser, putting his talent in the service of Romanian folk music, being a worthy follower of his predecessors' aspirations, Ştefan Perianu and Sofia Vlad-Rădulescu (Victor Vlad Delamarina's mother ), pioneers of the instrumental processing of folk chant: "''I must emphasize the name of the pianist Liviu Tempea, born in Lugoj, a former professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Cluj. It is undeniable that mr. Liviu Tempea was the first talent in Banat that gave importance to the improvisation of Romanian music. Equipped with a real musical talent, being also an excellent pianist, Mr. Tempea knew how to impressively perform the dances and native songs from Banat. The ease of highlighting the most difficult song, then accompaniment, of a genuine improvising spirit, gave us some music pearls in Banat. What a shame that these interpretations are not even on cardboard cards todaWhat a shame that these interpretations are not even on gramophone records today''”. In Cluj, Tempea was one of the most appreciated accompaniment pianists in vocal music concerts: "Apart from the Romanian Opera, music lovers could attend a concert where good music was made: the concert of the bass Petre Marcu given with the contest of Ana Rozsa. He sang Mozart, Verdi, Schubert, Rossini, Dima, Brediceanu, etc. [...] Mister Tempea's accompaniment made us regret that we see him so seldom at the piano in front of the audience" ("Tomorrow's Society", Cluj, II, 7, 1925, 114). He also acted as an accompanist in Lugoj, collaborating with the lyric artists Grigore Teodorescu (baritone) and Mihăilescu (tenor), soloists of the Romanian Opera in Bucharest, on October 4, 1919, on the stage of the Municipal Theater, and with Traian Grozăvescu, on the same stage, on October 12, 1919, in a recital that benefited from the Military Music Competition. Tempea's accompanying talent, but also his solo interventions, awoke the admiration of the chronicler: "Among the songs of his reign, Liviu Tempea dazzled us with piano pieces, his own compositions, woven on known folklore motifs, with brilliant artistic variations, performed by the author himself, with a stunning fire and amazing technique. Seldom so much temperament and art together. The fingers' agility is so bravuraous that, if you looked away from the piano, enjoying the brilliant virtuosity of Mr. Tempea solely with the hearing, you have the feeling that the tones that drip like beads are trills of nightingales. The audience, animated at maximum, celebrated mister Tempea, still the son of Lugoj, with ovations and acclamations, making him to give, as an extra, some other musical pearls".

6. Creation, inovation and musical style
In the field of composition, he was a self-taught person, showing a predilection for the miniature genres: lieder and secular choral creations ("Mi-a trimis bădița dor" / "My man sent me longing", "Pârâiașul" / "The little stream", "Mândra mea de astă-vară" / "My woman from last summer", "Trecui valea" / "I've crossed the valley") and religious, represented by hymns (Ro. pricesne) and settings for lectern songs ("Axion of the Assumption", "To You, Lord, I Hopesd"). According to Zeno Vancea, he was "one of the few composers who, 30-40 years ago, already had a clear vision of a Romanian cult music". As a literary support of his vocal pieces he used lyrics from O. Goga's creation ("Moon, Moon"), G. Coşbuc ("Lullaby"), M. Eminescu, Ștefan O. Iosif and I. Popovici-Bănăţeanul ("At the grave"). His masterpiece, the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom (Lito Schildkraut, Cluj, 1933), written for a cappella mixed choir, dedicated to Archbishop Nicolae Ivan, the first bishop of the newly established eparchy of Vad, Feleac and Cluj, and Andrei Baron of Șaguna, composed in linear polyphonic style, bears the mark of an obvious contrapunction craft. The themes of the Liturgy are inspired by old lectern songs collected and noted by Father Dimitrie Cunşanu, a former teacher of church singing at the Archdiocese Seminary "Andreian" in Sibiu. Along with the two Axions, the Liturgy is a "real pearl of our church repertoire", affirming affinities with Kiriac's style, in which sense Tempea may be considered a representative of Kiriac's compositional school in Transylvania. His pianistic works, little known and played today ("Dansul ielelor" / "Dance of the wicked fairies", "Dor de țară" / "Longing for country", fantasy dance for solo piano, "Haiduceasca" / "Outlaws' dance", "Mărunțica" / "The tiny girl" and "Sub fagi" / "Under beeches"), inspired by the melody of popular Banat dances, shine through color and vivacity, the composer professionally exploiting the technical resources of the piano. Among the minor creations that marked the beginning of his compositional activity during the period of study, one can mention the accompaniment of the monologue "Niţă Panjen", composed by Coriolan Brediceanu. He was one of the first professional musicians in Banat, his personality being a mark on the evolution of the Romanian cult music in the first half of the 20th century. Its inherited composition, not sufficiently analyzed and performed, could offer unique data on the specificity of the cult Byzantine folk singing in Banat, giving significant details regarding the aspects of the transition process from the dilettante musical manifestations to the professionalization of the interpretative and composing act in this cultural area.

Liviu Tempea passed to the eternal ones in Cluj, on June 26, 1946, a year after his return from the refuge in Timișoara and the resumption of the academic activity, leaving enough artistic achievements for the posterity, clear arguments to honorary place him in the history of Romanian music. Through his episodic presence at Dumbrăveni, as a guest of Prince Leon Ghika, he gave Bucovina one of the first mixed peasant choir. He reflected in his memories the memorable sequences of the festivities occasioned by the unveiling of Eminescu's bust at Dumbrăveni in 1902, offering literary historians and musicologists significant pages for the reconstruction of the cultural landscape of the early 20th century.

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