Byzantine Musical Tradition in Romanian Orthodoxy

The music of Byzantine origin was an objective reality as well as an inseparable part of the cultural and artistic past of the Romanians. This special art was preserved, developed and carried on in an obvious traditional spirit by means of the manuscripts of a number of Romanian musicologists and copyists with good knowledge both of the neumatic writing and of chanting, who founded schools within some of the larger monastical sites, such as the School of Neamt (15th century), the Music School of Putna (15th-16th centuries), that of Schei of Brasov (at the end of the 15th century), or that of the Metropolitan Church of Bucharest (17th-18th centuries). The old Byzantine music was preserved and spread through manuscripts whose writing was based on the monodic church singing of the orthodox rite.

The old Byzantine music manuscripts to be found in Romania are important not only because of their Romanian cultural heritage, they are important to all the countries of the Orthodox rite. The musical and literary content of these manuscripts has its roots in Byzantium, wherefrom it spread during ensuing centuries to all Orthodox peoples. They preserve the musical brilliance of mediaeval Byzantium in all its greatness and purity both in creation and the neumatic notation.

The Byzantine monody as well as that of the Byzantine tradition had a special evolution in the Romanian countries, and bore the mark of certain stylistic elements considerably different from those of other Orthodox centres. These stylistic characteristics may be easily noticed in the creation of some major Romanian composers, who have worked in this area over the centuries: Evstatie the protopsalt of Putna, Dometian Vlahu, Teodosie Zotica (15th-16th centuries), Iovascu Vlahu, Vlad Gramaticu, Hieromonk Filotei (17th - 18th centuries), Hieromonk Macarie, Anton Pann, Ghelasie Basarabeanu, Dimitrie Suceveanu, Ioan Popescu-Pasarea (19th-20th centuries), etc.

Titus Moisescu