Cornel Țăranu

Cornel Țăranu ([korˈnel t͡səˈranu]; 20 June 1934 – 18 June 2023) was a Romanian classical composer, musicologist, conductor and cultural manager. A native of Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania, he was always attached to this region, and contributed to cultural cooperation between Romanian and ethnic Hungarian musicians. He studied locally, at the Cluj Academy, assimilating the local avatar of neoclassicism, alongside influences from Romanian folk music—though his debut years also evidenced conformity with Socialist Realism, he was reportedly censured by the communist regime for keeping company with sidelined figures, such as the poet Lucian Blaga. A teacher at his alma mater, he furthered his studies abroad, at the Conservatoire de Paris, becoming an authority on, and posthumous disciple of, George Enescu. Braving controversy, he worked on completing unfinished scores by Enescu, including his Fifth Symphony and a musical poem, Strigoii. In parallel, he founded Cluj's Ars Nova, a chamber orchestra dedicated to contemporary classical music and performance art.

Țăranu's main compositions focus on orchestral work; he wrote two operas, vocal music for soloists and choirs, and critically acclaimed film scores. His style transitioned into a postmodernism with expressionist tinges, used mainly in his shorter pieces, but remained largely neoclassical in his four symphonies. His personal project was a musical companion to modern Romanian literature, directing him to explore various other sources of inspiration. Depending on context, his contributions were informed by folklore (Romanian, Romani and Greek), Byzantine music, and jazz. He also produced a number of distinctly historicist pieces, which took inspiration from political or descriptive texts in the history of Transylvania. Achieving mainstream recognition in the 1980s, when he won the Koussevitzky Prize, Țăranu maintained his reputation after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. A Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2002, he directed the music festival Cluj Modern, and was a long-serving vice president of the Union of Romanian Composers. His film work included collaborations with his brother-in law, director Nicolae Mărgineanu; he was also the son-in-law of psychologist Nicolae Mărgineanu Sr.