Studii si Cercetari de Istoria Artei : Teatru, Muzică, Cinematografie (Dec 2017)
Muzică şi literatură din epoca fanariotă în manuscrise din România
Abstract
The present study stems from comparative research on four manuscripts housed in the library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest, which contain secular music and come from the late 18th – or early 19th – century. It is well known that the notation for writing down secular music is that of the Byzantine tradition, but with markings pertaining to the "makam" and "usul" of the respective piece. The lyrics are adopted from the literary repertoire of wide-circulation throughout cosmopolitan society that characterized the Phanariot era, which casts this type of musical expression in the context of, to use a contemporary term, “entertainment music”. In particular, a large number of the song-lyrics come from "Erotos Apotelesmata" (1792) and the poetry of Athanasios Christopoulos (1811). In the present study, since no Romanian translation of "Erotos Apotelesmata" has been so far available, I offer the Romanian version of the third story, cross-referenced among the four manuscripts that contain the musical versions. Insofar as the documentary material is concerned, among the most important sources is the manuscript that belonged to Petros Peloponnesios who, very likely, was also the compiler (BAR gr. 927). For the purpose of musical documentation, I have also included the modern edition of one song, as well as a table of the makams and their corresponding modal signatures of the Byzantine neumatic system.
