Author: Rev. Prof. Domin Adam (Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Alba-Iulia, "1st December 1918" University)
Keywords: manuscript, Nicolau Cristea, Dimitrie Cunțan, music, song, tradition, Church, orality, notation
Abstract:
The printing of Dimitrie Cunțan’s songs, at the end of the 19th century, contributed made them the best known and most common songs in the Church of Transylvania, although they are only a guideline for the practical interpretation of voices, just as the manuscripts of Nicolau Cristea, analysed by the present study. This Transylvanian manuscript on the voices of Church music, dated 1879, precedes by a decade the well-known printed works of Dimitrie Cunțan. By presenting this almost unknown manuscript, along with the 1925 attempt of Timotei Popovici to popularise a review on the songs edited by Cunțan, presenting some different church songs that were in use, and by adding the mention of Professor Dobre Sorin from the Faculty of Theology of Sibiu concerning a musical manuscript of Iosif Micu, predating the works of Dimitrie Cunțan, we can prove that his songs are certainly not unique or singular, given the other works on church music written before those printed under his name.
Pages: 32-48