GREGORIAN MELOS IN THE CATHOLIC ENVIRONMENT IN 20TH CENTURY MOLDOVA
GREGORIAN MELOS IN THE CATHOLIC ENVIRONMENT IN 20TH CENTURY MOLDOVA

Summary/Abstract: In a geographical area that was relatively sheltered from a strong influx of the dominant Catholic culture and religion of the Occident, the Romanian territory and former historical region between the Eastern Carpathians and the Prut River, Moldova housed many Catholic communities in the 20th century. In addition to the religious and cultural educational factors, these communities preserved a rich musical repertoire of the purest Gregorian modalism. From the beginning I will launch two big questions related to the proposed topic, to which I intend to give suitable answers. The first question is: Why was Latin preferred, for centuries, to the native language for liturgical singing? And the second question that complements the first, is: Why is it that in the Catholic Church of today the native language is preferred, with Latin only used partially or occasionally? In this presentation, I propose a four-point analysis, where I will develop the following subjects: 1. Gregorian music in the context of the Catholic Church; 2. Religious documents concerning Catholic sacred music of the twentieth century; 3. Sacred and Gregorian music in the twentieth century Moldova; 4. Catholic religious music schools in the twentieth century.

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