Sources of 18th Century Music

Panayotes Chalatzoglou's and Kyrillos Marmarinos' Comparative Treatises on Secular Music

by Eugenia Popescu-Judetz and Adriana Ababi Sirli

Pan Yayincilik Publishers, Istanbul, first edition January 2000, ISBN 975-8434-05-5, 156 pp., 12x159x233mm

http://www.pankitap.com

Written by two outstanding Romanian scholars, Prof. Eugenia Popescu-Judetz, and Dr. Adriana Ababi Sirli, this book has set itself the task of rendering in detail two 18^th century Greek manuscript musical treatises on Oriental secular music written as a structural comparison between Turkish and Byzantine chant musical traditions.

The two treatises presented in this work were written, one by Panayiotes Chalatzoglou of the Great Church as an attempt at providing a musical theory-based comparison between the melodic patterns of Byzantine chant and Turkish secular music, and the other by Kyrillos Marmarinos, archbishop of Tinos, a practical treatise on Oriental musical traditions, especially of Turkish secular music, explained in terms of the musical knowledge of the theorists and practitioners of Byzantine chant of his time.

For scholars pursuing research projects in the area of Byzantine musicology, "Phanariot" music, religious and secular musical practice in 18^th-19^th century Ottoman-dominated countries, this book will be perceived as an indispensable tool.

Sources of 18^th Century Music would have actually been an appropriate title for the entire series of works published by Pan Yayincilik Publishers of Istanbul, Turkey, and including, beside this title, two other books, namely Prince Dimitrie Cantemir. Theorist and Composer of Turkish Music and Tanburī Küēük Artin. A Musical Treatise of the 18^th Century both by the Romanian scholar Eugenia Popescu-Judetz.

Prince Dimitrie Cantemir

Theorist and Composer of Turkish Music

by Eugenia Popescu-Judetz

Pan Yayincilik Publishers, Istanbul, first edition October 1999, ISBN 975-7652-82-2, 224 pp., 15x159x234mm

http://www.pankitap.com

The present work by Eugenia Popescu-Judetz is a revised and enlarged edition of the original Dimitrie Cantemir - cartea ştiinţei muzicii written in Romanian, and published by Editura Muzicală of Bucharest in 1973. After introducing the complex personality of Dimitrie Cantemir as multiple scholar (historian, musicologist, philosopher), music composer and ruler-statesman against the troubled historical background of 18^th century political developments, the author takes the reader into the intricacies of this unique theoretical treatise, its methodology and challenging innovations with respect to the use of musicological terminology and an alphanumeric musical notation.

Richly provided with musical examples in the form of staff-notated transcriptions of the whole range of musical genres presented in Cantemir's Turkish-language manuscript, this book will be perceived as compulsory reading by all researchers interested in following the evolution of Oriental music and understanding the influence Oriental musical traditions brought to bear on the corresponding development of Eastern chant all through the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

TANBURĪ KÜĒÜK ARTlN

A Musical Treatise of the Eighteenth Century

by Eugenia Popescu-Judetz

Pan Yayincilik Publishers, Istanbul, first edition March 2002, ISBN 975-8434-33-0, 204 pp., 15x158x233mm

http://www.pankitap.com

In this third title of what could be termed a series of restitutions of sources of 18^th century music the author, Eugenia Popescu-Judetz, tackles the legacy left by Tanburi Artin, also known as Küēük Artin, an Armenian musician to the Istanbul court of sultan Machmud I, in the form of a MS treatise on Turkish music written in Turkish transliterated with Armenian characters. The philological task alone of reading and interpreting correctly the information provided in such an unusual form is a considerable one for philologists. Compounded with the difficulties of extracting appropriate musicological knowledge from a mass of Turkish-Persian expressions, the author had to solve the additional task of making the reading of this book a philological-musicological undertaking accessible to a readership encompassing not only the Turcologists.

The book is structured into an introduction, the Turkish-language text of the treatise proper, an English-language commentary, a set of terminology tables, a treatise synopsis, and a glossary. There are numerous staff-notated musical examples to illustrate the musicological subjects touched upon in Küēük Artin's treatise. A useful list of references is provided at the end of the book.

Modele de profesionalism: Ό Απόστολος Κώνστας ο Χίος και η συμβολή του στη θεωρία της Μουσικής Τέχνης

de Thoma K. Apostolopoulos

Editor Gr. Stathis, Atena, 2002, ISBN 960-86798-1-8, 364 p., 30x173x241mm

După aproape două decenii de la fondarea ei, la recomandarea mitropolitului Serbion şi Kozanes, Dionysios Psarianos, seria "Studii" a Fundaţiei de Muzicologie Bizantină a Bisericii Elene continuă publicarea tezelor de doctorat despre tema Artei Psaltice, teze conduse de către Gregorios Stathes īn cadrul Departamentului de Studii Muzicale al Universităţii Naţionale şi Kapodistriene din Atena.

Prima dintre aceste teze (numărul 4 īn seria "Studii") este Apostolos Konsta Hios şi contribuţia lui la arta muzicală (Ό Απόστολος Κώνστας ο Χίος και η συμβολή του στη θεωρία της Μουσικής Τέχνης, Αθήνα 2002) de Thoma K. Apostolopoulos. Editat cu o mare probitate ştiinţifică şi un profesionalism muzicologic desăvīrşit, volumul – ce numără 361 de pagini – constituie o contribuţie decisivă la analiza operei teoretice a unuia dintre marii muzicieni constantinopolitani de la finele secolului al XVIII-lea şi īnceputul secolului XX: Apostolos Konsta Hios.

Cercetarea lui Thoma K. Apostolopoulos, grupată īn trei ample secţiuni, se orientează, cu predilecţie, spre opera sa teoretică şi pe reliefarea poziţiei sale mult mai tradiţionaliste şi conservatoare īn opoziţie cu Ŗcoala Patriarhală a lui Chrysant de Madyt. Īmpărţită īn două capitole, partea I a tomos-ului investighează aspectele biografice şi formative ale lui Apostolos, opera sa muzicală (creaţia muzical-teoretică, categoriile de manuscrise īn care opera sa a circulat, activitatea de exeget etc.), pentru ca īn partea secundă autorul să īnchine tratatului propriu-zis nu mai puţin de 157 de pagini grupate īn trei capitole: 1. Abordarea temei, 2. Structura Teoretikonului lui Apostolos, 3. Cuprinsul Teoretikonului. Un adevărat summum al celor mai semnificative elemente ale artei muzicale bizantine (emphonoi and aphonoi characters and their energy, argies, echoi, phthores, parallage, metrophony, martyriai, exegeses, thesis etc.), această secţiune indică o concepţie atent elaborată şi o privire analitică multilaterală īn analiza subiectelor supuse cercetării.

Partea a III-a este grupată īn trei capitole, īn următoarea structură: 1. Exemplele muzicale ale Teoretikonului, 2. Theseis-urile dificile, 3. Aplicarea acestora pe creaţii cunoscute.

Personalitate semnificativă īn spaţiul muzicii eclesiastice de la cumpăna celor două veacuri, Apostolos rămīne nu numai un important copist, exeget, compozitor, ci, mai ales, un mare teoretician şi autor de tratat muzical fără de care, cu siguranţă, cultura muzicală bizantină ar fi fost mult mai săracă. Dincolo de contextul istoric, politic şi cultural al timpului, autorul impune o tratare ştiinţifică şi originală a unui subiect de mare actualitate īntr-o perioadă de adevărată criză la nivel conceptual şi teoretic. Prin seriozitatea evidentă şi amploarea informaţiei, cercetarea lui Apostolopoulos se īnscrie ca o lucrare care va deschide porţile unei noi etape īn cercetare şi care, deopotrivă, va īnrīuri metodologia muzicologiei bizantine īn sfera teoretică a acestei arte.

Nicolae Gheorghiţă