Horațiu Rădulescu

Born in Bucharest in 1942, Rădulescu developed his spectral technique of composition — drawing on Byzantine and Hindu music alongside the physics of sound — before leaving Romania in 1969 to settle in Paris. Among his first Parisian works was Credo for nine cellos, employing his spectral methods. He attended Darmstadt courses given by Cage, Ligeti, Stockhausen, and Xenakis, and later studied computer-assisted composition at IRCAM. His catalogue of over 100 works includes six string quartets, five piano sonatas, and a piano concerto. His approach to spectral music is widely held to be distinct from those of French contemporaries Grisey and Murail. He died in Paris in 2008.