Carmen Petra Basacopol (5 September 1926 – 15 October 2023) was a Romanian composer, pianist, musicologist and academic teacher. She taught at the National University of Music Bucharest, between 1962 and 2003, and at the Rabat Conservatoire in Morocco in the 1970s. As a musicologist, she achieved a PhD from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1976, with a dissertation about three Romanian composers who had influenced her, George Enescu, Mihail Jora and Paul Constantinescu, composers representing essential features of Romanian music.
She composed music of many genres, with a focus on chamber music, including compositions with the harp; her works have been performed internationally. Her music has been described as stylistically diversified, "defined by the freshness of inspiration, the elegance of construction and the ability to communicate directly with the listener through the simplicity of melodic and harmonic expression".
Biography Petra Basacopol was born Carmen Petra in Sibiu on 5 September 1926. She had family homes in both Sibiu and Câmpia Turzii; her mother, Clementina, was a graduate of the Timișoara Municipal Conservatory, who encouraged her to take up visual arts (her first and lasting passion), as well as piano—which Carmen studied from the age of five. Though she received a diploma (presented to her by composer Sabin Drăgoi) during a national music festival, she focused on literature, and, from 1946, took up formal studies in philosophy at the University of Bucharest. She graduated in 1949. She was then enrolled at the Bucharest Conservatory of Music, graduating in 1956. Her professors included Ioan D. Chirescu (music theory), Leon Klepper, and Mihail Jora (composition), Paul Constantinescu (harmony) and Tudor Ciortea (musical analysis), Nicolae Buicliu (counterpoint), Theodor Rogalski (orchestration), Ion Vicol and Ion Marian (choral conducting), Adriana Sachelarie and George Breazul (music history), Tiberiu Alexandru and Emilia Comișel (folklore), and Silvia Căpățână and Ovidiu Drimba (piano).
Petra debuted as a composer at this stage, contributing a series of rondos and suites, before moving on to sonatas and symphonies inspired by her direct experience of peasant life in Țara Moților and Crișana. She took an award at the 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin, 1951. In 1953, she won the George Enescu prize of the Romanian Academy. She was awarded at the 4th World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Bucharest in 1953, then at the 5th edition, held in Warsaw in 1955. The Mannheim Hochscule presented her with a special prize for composition in 1961.
Petra became teaching assistant at the Bucharest Conservatory in 1962, later becoming lecturer (1966–1972); by 1965, she had been included on the steering committee of the Union of the Composers and Musicologists of Romania (UCMR), and was regularly featured with articles in the trade magazine, Muzica. She also attended classes at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1968, with György Ligeti, Erhard Karkoschka, , Christoph Caskel, Saschko Gawriloff, and Aloys Kontarsky. She then taught harmony, counterpoint, music history and improvisation at the conservatory of Rabat, Morocco, between 1974 and 1976.
Petra Basacopol received her PhD in musicology from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1976, with a dissertation entitled "The Compositional Art of Great Romanian Composers: Enescu, Jora and Constantinescu", focused on three composers who had influenced her, Enescu and two of her teachers. She felt that these composers represented essential features of Romanian music, distinguishing it from other music.
Petra Basacopol then returned to Bucharest, teaching musical analysis and harmony at the Conservatory from 1976 to 2003. Petra Basacopol attended conferences, lectures, scientific communications in Romania and abroad (France, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe). She authored research, published in trade journals and for Radio România Cultural. She was a jury member of the Harp Contest in Jerusalem in 1979, and of the Valentino Bucchi Composition contest in Rome in 1986. She repeatedly received the UCMR's annual prize—in 1974, 1979, 1981, 1985, 1987, 1999 and 2003. She was also awarded the George Enescu Prize of the Romanian Composers Academy in 1980, knighthood in the Order of Cultural Merit, and in 2017 the UCMR's Grand Prize for her life's achievements.
Personal life Petra Basacopol was married to Alexandru Basacopol, a physician whom she met when attending a performance of Enescu's Œdipe in Bucharest. Their first child, a boy, was born in 1964. The Basacopols lived for a while in Rabat, where she founded a music school and gave piano lessons to children, also teaching at the conservatory. Their son Paul Basacopol became a singer at the Romanian National Opera, Bucharest.
Petra Basacopol died on 15 October 2023, at age 97.
Works Petra Basacopol composed for orchestra, opera, chamber ensemble, harp, piano, voice, and ballet performance, often using themes and instruments from folk music. Among more than 80 opuses, chamber music has a special place, especially music for the harp. She expanded the expression of the harp, typically associated with delicacy and transparency, by aggressive and strident sonorities, by hammering on the wood, playing close to the table, glissandos and syncopated rhythms, with "archaic sounds" used to "translate inner movements of the soul".
Her works include:
Theatre music 1970 – Fata și masca, Op. 32, ballet 1980 – Miorița, Op. 47, ballet after a libretto by Oleg Danovski 1983 – Inimă de copil (A Child's Heart), Op. 52, opera for children in two acts after the book of the same name by Edmondo De Amicis 1986–1987 – Ciuleandra, Op. 54, ballet in two acts after Liviu Rebreanu 1988–1990 – Apostol Bologa, Op. 58, opera in two acts after Rebreanu's Pădurea spânzuraţilor (Forest of the Hanged) 1995–1996 – Cei șapte corbi (The Seven Ravens), Op. 73, ballet for children
Vocal-symphonic music 1966 – Crengile, Op. 26, vision for moving choir and orchestra 1966 – Moartea căprioarei, Op. 27, ballad for strings orchestra, clarinet, piano, percussion and solo baritone 1967 – Un cântec despre jertfe mari și despre lumină, Op. 28, cantata 1970 – Pulstio vitae, Op. 33, for harp, clarinet, xylophone, bells, percussion and moving choir
Symphonic music 1956 – Symphony, Op. 6 1959 – Symphonic Suite "Țară de piatră", Op. 13 1961 – Piano Concerto, Op. 19 1962 – Symphonic Triptic, Op.20 1963 – Violin Concertino, Op. 21 1965 – Violin Concerto, Op 25 1975 – Concerto for Harp, String orchestra and Timpani, Op.40 1981 – Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 49 1982 – Cello Concerto, Op. 51 1994 – Concerto for Flute and Chamber orchestra, Op. 71 1996 – Concerto for Harp and String orchestra "Rituale", Op. 75
Chamber music 1950 – Flute Suite, Op. 3 1952 – Cello Sonata, Op. 4 1954 – Violin Sonata, Op. 5 1957 – Three Sketches for oboe and piano, Op. 8, No. 2 1957 – Seven songs for soprano and piano, Op. 8, No. 1 1958 – Three Lieder for mezzo-soprano and piano, Op. 9, No. 1 / Three Lieder for soprano and piano, Op. 9, No. 2 1959 – Piano Trio, Op. 11 1959 – Lieder for mezzo-soprano and piano, Op. 12, No. 1 / Seasons for soprano and piano, Op. 12, No. 2 1960 – Images from Valea Crișului, Op. 16, No. 1, for harp and violin 1961 – Sonata for Flute and Harp, Op. 17 1961 – Three Lieder for soprano and piano, Op. 18, No. 1 1963 – Five Lieder for tenor and harp, Op. 22, No. 1 1964 – Nostalgia for baritone and English horn, Op. 23, No. 1 1964 – Opium Flower, Op. 23, No. 2, for baritone and piano 1965 – Two Lieder for soprano and piano, Op. 18, No. 2 1968 – Ofrnade, Op. 29, two lieder for soprano and piano 1969 – Divertimento for harp, wind quartet, double bass, and xylophone, octet, Op. 30 1971 – Two Lieder for bass and harp, Op. 22, No. 2 / Propas, Op. 34, three lieder for soprano, flute and piano 1972 – Elegy for violin and piano, Op. 35 1972 – Moments for trumpet and piano, Op. 36 1974 – Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon, Op. 39 1976 – Cântece haiducești for baritone and piano, Op. 41, No.1 1977 – Acuarele argheziene, Op. 91, No. 2, two lieder for soprano and lion 1978 – Craiul munților, Op. 43, quartet for flute, violin, cello and piano / Moroccan Poems, Op. 42, three lieder for mezzo-soprano and wind quartet 1979 – Variations on a Macedonian-Romanian Theme, Op. 44, for harp and cello 1980 – Tablouri dacice, Op. 46, trio for pan flute, vibraphone and cello 1984 – Cântecele vieții, Op. 53, cycle of five lieder for soprano and piano 1987 – Trio, Op. 57, for flute, harp and clarinet / Sângele pământului, Op. 55, three lieder for bass and piano 1991 – Ecouri, Op. 63, for 2 harps 1991 – Triptych for pan flute and harp, Op. 64 1992 – Divertimento, Op. 67, for wind quintet 1993 – Imne, Op. 65, for soprano and piano / File de acatist for voice and flute (low voice and piano lieder), Op. 70 1994 – Musica per cinque, Op. 72, for flute, harp, violin, viola and cello 1996 – Songs of Exile, Op. 74, seven songs for soprano and piano 1998 – Triptych, Op. 79, for soprano and piano 1999 – Character Pieces, Op. 80, for oboe and piano 1999 – Lamaneto, Op. 82, for two flutes and percussion 2000 – Dramatic Sonata, Op. 83, for cello and piano / Psalms of David, Op. 84, five lieders for soprano and piano / Meșterul Manole, Op. 85, five lieders for soprano and piano 2001 – Viziuni dansante, Op. 86, for violin and piano / Naive paintings, Op. 91, for instrumental ensemble 2002 – Serenada, Op. 92, for four cellos / Fantasy, Op. 94, for horn in F and piano / Măiastra, Op. 95, for instrumental ensemble / Hymn II, Op. 93, four lieder for soprano and piano / Îngerul a strigat, Op. 96, three lieder for soprano and piano 2003 – Legandă, Op. 97, for violin and organ / Elegy, Op. 96, for harp and clarinet / Duo, Op. 100, for violin and viola / Cântece imaginare, Op. 99 for soprano and piano / Diptic bucovian, Op. 101 / Cântece naive pentru Nichita, Op.102 / Mărturisiri, Op. 104 for mezzo-soprano and piano 2004 – Piccolo Sonata, Op. 105, for flute, contralto flute in G and piano / Variațiuni pe o temă elegiacă, Op. 106, for two harps / Tristeți bacoviene, Op. 107, for low voice and piano
Choral music 1960 – Fetelor, surorilor, Op. 16, No. 2, for women's choir 1979 – Seasons, Op. 45, No. 2, for two-part children's choir 1980 – Salutul păcii, Op. 48, No. 2, for two-part women's choir 1992 – Psalmii, Op. 66, for mixed choir 2001 – Sacred Songs, for mixed a cappella choir
Instrumental music 1949 – Rondo for piano, Op. 2 1956 – 24 Imagini pitorești for piano, Op. 7 1958 – Solo harp Suite, Op. 10 1973 – Solo flute improvisation, Op. 37 1978 – Cinci miniaturi pentru copii, Op. 45, No. 1, for piano 1980 – Odă, Op. 48, No. 1, for double bass solo 1981 – Solo Cello Suite, Op. 50 1987 – Incantațiile pământului, Op. 56, for harp 1990 – Imagini europene, Op. 59, for harp / Prelude, Interlude and Postlude, Op. 60, for organ 1992 – The Jungle Book, Op. 61, seven pieces 1993 – Mica sirenă, Op. 69, for harp 1997 – Three Dances, Op 76, for harp 1998 – Seven Visions of the Prophet Ezechiel, Op. 78, for organ 2001 – Improvisations, Op. 87, for piano / Incantațions, Op. 88, for horn / Fantasy, Op. 89, for bassoon
Recordings Petra Basacopol's compositions were recorded first in Romania by Electrecord. In the 1960s, her Violin Concertino was recorded by soloist George Hamza and the Romanian Radio Studio Orchestra conducted by Ludovic Baci, ECE O404. Her Violin Concerto No. 2 was recorded in the 1970s, by soloist Ștefan Ruha and the Romanian Radio Orchestra conducted by , combined with Dan Constantinescu's Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, ECE 607.