Author: Rev. Prof. Codruț-Dumitru Scurtu (“Saint Nicholas” Theological Seminary, Râmnicu-Vâlcea)
Keywords: music, choirs, harmony, conductors, composers, concerts
Abstract:
One of the key elements for the development of the harmonic choir music during the 19th century was the psaltic notation system reform, that took place in all Romanian provinces, but also the organization of the Romanian school system, the introduction of harmonic choirs in the service of the Church, the increasing number of ecclesiastical and secular publications, and the apparition of ever more teachers, psaltes and choir conductors. The historical and geographical context has provided a series of esthetical, stylistic, and interpretative influences. We have noted chronologically the first publications with harmonic notation, using both the linear and psaltic notation. The activity of the choirs was encouraged by the liturgical, folklore, and patriotic repertories, which formed a genuine harmonic choir tradition that persists until the present day. Another list presents the optimal conditions for the development of secular and religious harmonic choir music during an age of synthesis that valued everything which was good and authentic, but also a time for processing and harmonizing the inherited musical thesaurus. We can therefore observe an ever more arduous search for a national cultural specificity. The Great Union of 1918, and then the election of the first Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church (February 4th, 1925) also influenced the (already national) choral activity, which was stimulated by the creation of priest choirs, whose main purpose was to better involve the servants of the Church in the Romanian cultural environment. Almost all educational institutions and ecclesiastical organisations, as well as numerous rural cultural organisations included among the provisions of their statutes the creation of harmonic choirs. The present study also lists the names of the choirs and conductors, as well as their history, presenting complete evidence of the personalities of the harmonic choir tradition from the beginning until now, so that their memory will always be preserved in our hearts.
Pages: 222-243