(1940–2020)

Born in Pașcani, he studied composition with Mihail Jora at the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory in Bucharest. Already as a student, he won recognition as a leading representative of the 1970s Romanian music avant-garde, specifically its second and final generation. He aimed to return to primordial sources of music in art, in the spirit of creative recovery and universality. After 1965 he wrote works of the “open creation” type, conceptual and environmental music. From 1967 he became actively involved in Romanian spectralism. His works are strongly archetypal and aim to bring out the essence of sound.

Nemescu authored unique concepts of composition such as implosive (Spectacle pour un instant) and imaginary music, as well as the cycles of Multi-, Post-, Pre and Non-Symphonies, which reinterpret the symphonic form in the Byzantine spirit. In his last decades, his music took on a ritualistic, initiatory character. He wrote compositions designed for performance at a specific place and time, such as Gradeatia (1982),Natural-Cultural (1973–83), Sonatu(h)r (1986), Trisson (1987), and Finalpha (1990), as well as The Book of Hours dedicated to the 24 hours of day and night, presenting his Music of Altitude concept. The cycle is conceived as a journey of initiation, in which the individual pieces are to be performed in reverse order as in a 13-storey pyramid (from the underground levels to the eleventh floor). In the next stage of hisMusic of Altitude, Nemescu wrote a cycle on the individual minutes of the Fatal Hour, which should ideally be performed in a seven-level pyramid. Nemescu’s music continues to be performed worldwide, and he has an established position as one of the key figures in Romanian experimental twentieth-century music.

Selected works: Combinations in Circles for cello ensemble and tape (1965), Four Dimensions in Time – IV Illuminations for mixed choir and orchestra (1967), The King Will Die! for performer, clock, tape and multimedia events (1968), Concentric for ensemble and tape (1969),Spectacle pour un instant for piano, ensemble and tape (1974), Salve Regina for mixed choir and organ (1981), Metabizantinirikon for clarinet, violin and tape (1985), Centrifuga for piano and tape (1986), Alpha – Omega for saxophone(s), violin, percussion and tape (1988),NonSymphony no. 5 (1988–1992), Finalpha for trombone, percussion and tape (1990), String Quartet for Midnight (1993), Quindecimortuorum for 1 o’clock AM for two percussionists and wind orchestra (1994), PreSymphony no. 6 (1996–2000), Quintabeit for 5 o’clock AM forvoice, ensemble and tape (1998), Saecula – Saeculorum for tape (2000), PostSymphony no. 2 (2001), PluriSymphony no. 1 for mixed choir and orchestra (2002), RouaUruauor for 9 o’clock AM for flute, tuba, piano, percussion and tape (2002), OUA for 10 o’clock AM for ensemble and tape (2002–3), A=1 a music for Noon for 24 instrumentalists or orchestra and tape (2005); ErAImII or EAE ou EA for 1 o’clock PM for ensemble and tape (2006), Cristiascensicello for chamber ensemble (2007), ITintervallumBE orvallumBEITinter for 5 o’clock PM for clarinet, violin, piano, four percussions and tape (2009–10), Nativitas Quindeci for 11 o’clock PM for chamber ensemble (2012), Music of the Minutes 17–30 of a Fatal Hour for the first floor, chamber ensemble and tape (2015), EscaLiner for string orchestra, two percussion and tape (2017), Ephemeridae for six instrumentalists (2020).