Due to his long career as a composer and pedagogue, S. Toduţă can be considered as one of the leading exponents of the glorious generation of Romanian teachers who propelled Romanian art into the orbit of universality.
Vasile Herman: Compozitor şi Dascăl, in the journal “Actualitatea muzicală” No. 33, Bucharest, 1991.
Maestro Toduţă is that seigniorial, princely figure with a medieval name, Sigismund, who knew how to sway to the primordial, archaic, aulos-like sounds of a legendary musical past and turn their precious saps into the essence of the masterpieces that we know today and will forever cherish.
Cornel Tăranu: In memoriam Sigismund Toduţă, in the “Tribuna” journal, Cluj-Napoca, June 18-24, 1991.
Just as Enescu called himself a symphonist and allowed his contemporaries to penetrate the secrets of his creative brilliance and artistry, one can say that the chief hallmark of S. Toduţă’s music is the polyphonic spirit. Juxtaposed with symphonism, his polyphonic thinking acts as a generating factor for his harmonic language, while also determining the general character of his writing style and suggesting strategies of form articulation. The personality of the style thus educed – as the sum of the language elements – is therefore easily recognizable.
Dan Voiculescu: Polifonia în creaţia corală a lui S. Toduţă, in “Lucrări de Muzicologie”, vol.
14.
Far from betraying an archaistic attitude or a “nostalgia of the past”, the presence of Baroque and Classical architectonic principles in some of S. Toduţă’s works is the expression of artistic intentions with multiple meanings.
Hans Peter Türk: Variaţiunile pe ostinato în creaţia lui S. Toduţă, in “Lucrări de Muzicologie”, vol. 14.
Ample wavelengths represent in turn the in-depth study and meditation on the proposed theme, the study and elaboration of the thematic material and the design of the architectonic structure, the crafting of the technical devices – the expression of a poetic discourse that grows with the work, the finishing touch and the final chord. Composer Sigismund Toduţă’s creative journey represents a flourishing era and we believe that the ideas expressed in his sonatas and symphonies are part of our living musical material of today, which both he and the other Romanian composers will continue to create.
Romeo Ghircoiaşiu: Momente în evoluţia stilistică a lui S. Toduţă, “Lucrări de Muzicologie”, Cluj-Napoca, vol. 14.
… The abundance of modal procedures … denotes the essential and permanent presence of the modal in Sigismund Toduţă’s works. This character of permanence justifies … the existence of a true program by which modalism is applied by the composer, in which we recognize the concentration, synthesis and at times anticipation of certain procedures that the Romanian musical thinking has resorted to during the last decades.
Gheorghe Firca: Caracterul modal al muzicii lui Sigismund Toduţă, in “Lucrări de Muzicologie”, vol. 14.
The sound world of Sigismund Toduţă’s music is a modal world par excellence, notable particularly in his instrumental music, but even more striking, varied and diversified in his choral works… The composer had the courage, artistic conviction and scientific determination to explore a musical realm which …, according to many composers, seemed already devoid of harmonic novelties.
Terényi Ede: Conceptul armonic al lui S. Toduţă în lumina muzicii sale corale “a cappella”, “Lucrări de Muzicologie”, Cluj-Napoca, vol. 14
Each one of his works, and particularly the latest ones, infallibly raise Toduţă’s fame near the heights reached by our great Enescu. The piano concerto … was breathtaking and of an overwhelming grandeur. From the very first sharp-edged chords reminding of the hajduks’ ballads, to the apotheosis marked by the grandiose bells that herald the fulfilment of a long-dreamed ideal, from the intimate, internalized, almost tense beginning, to the growing, turbulent, though at times lyrical appeasement, all amply and frantically converge towards the luminous realm of the spirit.
Alexandru Paşcanu: Un ethos inconfundabil, in the “Tribuna” journal, Cluj-Napoca, January 14, 1988.
An outstanding personality, apparently destined for the big stage, Sigismund Toduţă composed his music with the same care with which he controlled even his smallest communication gestures. His manner of speaking was unmistakable, regardless of where it was produced. Dominating his peers with distinguished authority, the Maestro passed over to his disciples some of his proverbial professional strictness, which over the years fuelled the growth of a solid Romanian school of composition. The current musical prestige of the city of Cluj is largely owed to Sigismund Toduţă who, along with Antonin Ciolan, made a decisive contribution to its integration among the great European cultural centres.
Valentin Timaru, Musicology Symposium, Deva, 1997.
