Scholarly record

ROMANIAN MUSICAL LANDSCAPE IN THE RENAISSANCE

D. C. Ibanescu

Abstract

Under the influence of the Renaissance humanist trend, the Romanian musical space is experiencing a period of transformation and flourishing in a diverse and effervescent musical landscape. Being under the influence of Western music, the Romanian musical life assimilates and accepts the Renaissance elements in particular manifestation forms, specific to the historical-geographical space of the historical regions known as the Roman Countries (Principalities). For more than two centuries, numerous European countries, including the Romanian Countries, have witnessed the development and flowering of the Renaissance culture. In the Romanian space, numerous personalities and schools emerge in this period and put their mark on the musical life. A bridge between Western and Eastern type culture, the Romanian musical space gradually absorbs the ideas and art of the flourishing Renaissance culture. The nobility courts of the principalities of Moldova, Transylvania and Muntenia employ instrumentalists from Europe, especially from Italy, and the rulers start paying considerable attention to the artists, the royal courts of the Romanian Principalities becoming real bridges to Renaissance humanist ideas. The Transylvanian humanists are influenced by the Italian and German Renaissance. Rulers of the Romanian Principalities welcome or accompany guests with music. In this respect, we find a meaningful mention in Paul Strassburg's account of his journey to the Romanian Country in 1632. Instrumental music gradually makes its way in town reunions or family meetings, giving musical life a new dimension, but about a professional artistic movement, we can speak in the Romanian space mainly in the field of organ music, the lute being practiced especially in the royal courts and only sporadically in the houses of wealthy people from the developed cities. Regarding vocal music, the main factor that facilitated the penetration and approach of the polyphonic repertoire is the church choral singing integrated in the lay register of the choirs in Renaissance-type schools. We can also speak of "service music", that of the turners (watchers) and trumpeters, in Transylvania and Moldova. The theatrical-musical manifestations bloom, sustained and encouraged both in the space of the court events and in the cities. We can conclude that the interest of musicologists and interpreters for the discovery of new documents regarding the musical revival on the Romanian territory has been, especially in the last decades, a constant and not at all coincidental.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/SWS.ISCAH.2019.2/S19.063

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