Dimitrie Cantemir – primul muzician român de anvergură europeană. Reflectări și recunoașteri în cultura occidentală și românească (I)
Dimitrie Cantemir – the first Romanian musician of European magnitude. Reflections and recognitions in Western and Romanian culture (I)

Summary/Abstract: If the previous centuries, starting with the one Dimitrie Cantemir lived in, focused on the philosophical, historical, orientalist, ethnological, literary, etc. ideas of the scholar, the XX century brought under the magnifying glass the figure of the musician Dimitrie Cantemir, in his multiple poses: musical performer, music theorist, creator of a musical semiographic system, professor, musicologist, author of musical anthologies and, in fact, the first Romanian musician of European magnitude recognized as such in Western culture. We started from the premise to which other specialists also subscribe and namely: Dimitrie Cantemir is as much a musician as a historian, orientalist, philosopher or writer. The present musicological and culturological paper integrates the recent discoveries of Cantemirian manuscripts, which reach the number of approximately 200. It aims to add weight to the musical activity of the illustrious precursor that remained in the shadows, despite the release of some Cantemirian songs in the European musical circuit (including in Mozart’s creation) and the fact that his name is quoted in multiple specialized Western publications. Under these conditions, the proposed study expands on the novel aspects of the activity of the musician Cantemir as a brand representative of universal and Romanian music. From the latter perspective, Cantemir is inscribed in the constellation of the great Romanian psalmists such as: Mihalache Proto-psalmist, Vasilache Proto-psalmist, Ianuarie the Singer, Macarie the Hieromonk and Anton Pann. His works offer us important observations regarding the particularities of Romanian liturgical music and references to its theoretical framework. His interpretative activity on the tanbur and ney, his contribution to shaping musical organology, the expansion of considerations on the Romanian folk repertoire, the diversity of genres and species of this cultural layer are highlighted.

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