The Oriental classical music in the Romanian Principalities during the time of Dimitrie Cantemir. The tanbûr on the Romanian territory

Abstract

The Oriental classical music represents a cultured music specific to the Oriental area and encountered at the Court of different political rulers. It appears as a “salon” music at the princely and noble Courts and it is intended for the political and social elite. Its emergence and development corresponds to the Western symphonic music. In the Romanian Principalities the Oriental classical music – Ottoman and Persian – appears as guided by the same coordinates, being taken from Constantinople by the Romanian political rulers. Thus, it represents not just another kind of music which can be listened at the princely court on special occasions, but also a manifesto of political power. The connection between this type of music, Dimitrie Cantemir and the Romanian Principalities resides in the fact that the Moldavian ruler and writer has had a very important role in the development of Ottoman classical music in a time when it was emerging from Persian ‘guardianship’. Dimitrie Cantemir was not only an excellent performer of the tanbûr, one of the instruments specific to this music, but also a composer, collector and a theoretician of Oriental classical music. Through the present material, we will try to show how the Oriental classical music developed in the Romanian Principalities and to observe the presence, circulation and importance of the tanbûr in these territories.