Gheorghe Firca celebrated his birthday on April 15th 2010, a suitable occasion to invite him to reveal to us some thoughts regarding his main domains of activity: composition and musicology. In the following interview, you will be able to find out more about the musician's desires for further achievements, as well as the meaning of some notions like Harmony and Memory:

What do you remember about your first contact with music and what determined you to follow this particular domain?

As any child who had received a particular type of education, I began studying the piano; I have grown more and more fond of music, I have also learned to play the cello a little bit and, subsequently, I went to the Musical High-school in Timisoara.

The Harmony and Memory's reflections had a great significance within your scientific endeavours. Can connections be made between the musical sounds and human's perception of time?

Harmony is a domain of thinking and of musical fulfilment, as opposed to Memory's reflections which is more of a metaphor, if you refer to the title of my book: Memory is a psychic gift given to man, which keeps him in contact not only with his existence, but also to the Universe.

A significant part of your musical creations is inspired by the Romanian tradition. What do you think about the return to tradition in our times ?

Postmodernism is a revival, if not a reinvention of tradition; the anchorage into tradition can still cast a slight disbelief upon the creator- seen as a character that cannot surpass the historic past as well as his own one. Further on, regarding the compositional field, I intend to elaborate a piece of work for the pipe organ that would put forward the spirit of the orthodox liturgy and in which I could harness something from its musical treasure.