AFCN 2022

Between January and June 2022, the REVIVART Association carried out the project Recovery and valorisation of calophonic irmoas from the 18th and 19th century music collections, in partnership with the National University of Music in Bucharest, the Centre for Studies on 19th Century Music, the National Library of Romania, the Trinitas TV station of the Romanian Patriarchate, the Lumina radio station of the Diocese of Severin and Strehaia, the “Chesarie Episcopul” Theological Seminary in Buzău, the “Sf. Grigorie Teologul” Orthodox Theological Seminary in Craiova, the “Sf. Nicodim” Theological High School in Târgu Jiu, and Elit Funerare, as sponsor.

During the implementation of the project, the team of specialists led by Prof. Nicolae Gheorghiță, PhD, researched over 2,000 psaltic musical manuscripts from 20 libraries in the country and Mount Athos, identifying unique creations unknown to the general public. Almost 420 theseisuri (formulas) in the old notation were collected from the manuscripts, which are equivalent to approximately 1,150 musical formulas in chrysanthemic notation, with the help of which 13 songs were recovered after a silence of 300 years. Of these, 10 pieces were presented in 10 musical interpretation workshops, posted on the Facebook page of the REVIVART Association, and printed on CD. YouTube

  • Ten workshops on Byzantine musical paleography were also organized as part of the project. YouTube
  • Also, between April 1 and May 17, the second edition of the Sebastian Barbu-Bucur National Byzantine Music Interpretation Competition was held, during which nine prizes were awarded. The six performances on the podium (first, second, and third place in both categories) were uploaded to the REVIVART Association’s YouTube channel. YouTube
  • On May 12 and June 27, the Psalmodia ensemble of the National University of Music Bucharest held two concerts to promote the semiographically recovered creations, which were also broadcast on the association’s YouTube channel. Live YouTube 12 mai Live YouTube 27 iunie
  • Towards the end of the project, the audio CD “Kalophonic heirmoi. 17th-19th Century” (187 copies) recorded by the academic ensemble Psalmodia, as well as the volume “Irmoasele calofonice: catalog analitic, exighisire, transcriere și românire” (310 copies)¸ by researcher Cătălin Cernătescu from the National University of Music. These were distributed free of charge to the beneficiaries of the project. The volume was published in both print and e-book formats.