DIMITRIE CANTEMIR AND THE BOOK OF THE SCIENCE OF MUSIC, AN UNPRECEDENTED MUSICOLOGICAL DOCUMENT IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC

Abstract

Dimitrie Cantemir, a European encyclopedic scholar, composer, musicologist and theorist had a major contribution to the history of music by writing the first scientifically structured work dedicated to the Oriental music, designed in an erudite, European style. His Book of the Science of Music, a collection of over 350 compositions, nine of which were his own, outlined the theory and patterns of the 17^sup th^ and 18^sup th^ century Ottoman music, being written in a notation system which was also created by Cantemir himself. His document majestically reveals over the centuries Istanbul's three major ethnic communities, Turkish, Armenian and Sephardic, with their both secular and religious music. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Headnote

Abstract: Dimitrie Cantemir, a European encyclopedic scholar, composer, musicologist and theorist had a major contribution to the history of music by writing the first scientifically structured work dedicated to the Oriental music, designed in an erudite, European style. His Book of the Science of Music, a collection of over 350 compositions, nine of which were his own, outlined the theory and patterns of the 17^sup th^ and 18^sup th^ century Ottoman music, being written in a notation system which was also created by Cantemir himself. His document majestically reveals over the centuries Istanbul's three major ethnic communities, Turkish, Armenian and Sephardic, with their both secular and religious music.

Keywords: musicologist, theorist, Ottoman music, erudite style, unprecedented research, notation system.

Dimitrie Cantemir, a European encyclopedic scholar, orientalist, historian, philosopher, linguist, ethnographer, geographer, composer became also famous for his theoretical musicological contributions, and also for his original artistic creations, which offered him a world-wide fame, during his time and over the centuries, too.

It is meaningful that the first contacts which Cantemir had with the musical domain took place in his early youth. Due to his father's initiative, he had the privilege of being initiated into the study of Byzantine and Gregorian music by Ieremia Cacavelas1, a Greek scholar who originated from Crete, whom Constantin Cantemir had brought from Valachia especially for his son; Ieremia who was also a monk-priest, having studied religion, philosophy, as well as medicine, and had been appreciated by the famed Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettre ed arti as being among "illustri maestri, poliglotta famoso, compositore di musica e abile desegnatore''2. It goes without saying that those two years (1691-1693) during which Cantemir was his disciple were very significant for his future musical creations.

Cantemir arrived in Istambul in 1693, at the age of twenty, at first as an elegantly appointed diplomatic hostage, which was a way of assuring the Sultan that his home province, Moldavia, wouldn't undertake plans for independence. Later on he came as a diplomatic envoy of his father, Constantin Cantemir, the ruler of Moldavia.

Arriving in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, he goes deep into the study of music within the Academy of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate from the Phanar under the direction of Kremani Ahmed and Tamburi Angelicos both of them being famous teachers of musical interpretation, playing the kemânce and the tambur.

It was during this period that he began studying philosophy and Greek antique music with Meletius of Arta, Arabic with Nefioglu and mathematics and Turkish with Esad Efendi of Ioannina. It is not surprising that his excellent skills in studying and learning foreign languages, especially the Eastern ones, helped him learn the ''subtleties of Eastern music from Kemani Ahmet Efendi''3.

In that cultural background of Constantinople, for about twenty years he ardently studies Oriental culture and history, and obviously the technical, theoretical and practical notions of Turkish and Persian music. The end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century are as a matter of fact highly favourable for the Ottoman arts and of course for music, too. This was cultivated and privileged and those who created or played were highly honoured.

It is worth mentioning that the second half of the 17th century coincides with a continuous attempt of the Turkish artists to create an authentically Turkish style, to fiind their own artistic identity, distinguished from the scholarly music of Persian-Arabian tradition. Before that period the Persian, Syrian and Byzantine patterns had been considered to be the canon to follow.

Thus Cantemir became very well-known in the sphere of the Ottoman aristocracy, gaining the fame of being a virtuoso of Oriental instruments 4 , enjoying a vast repertory of instrumental music: the tanbur (a sort of longneckled lute, like a long guitar) and of the ney-flute (like the Romanian pipe), which were highly appreciated in Istambul. The scholar is often required to offer music classes to reputed people from the high society, aristocracy of the time. Once discovering the Turkish- Persian music, and becoming a maestro (usta) of this art, Cantemir turns to the best his exceptional musical gift, becoming highly appreciated as a composer, after writing his magnificent musical work The Book of the Science of Music (Kitâbu 'Ilmi'l-MûsÎkÎ 'ala vechi'l-Hurûfât)), which he dedicated to Sultan Ahmed III (1703-1730).

Cantemir's musical work, The Book of the Science of Music is considered by specialists to be a unique document from many perspectives: first, as an extremely important source of information regarding the theory, style and forms of the 17th century Ottoman music, and also as one of the most picturesque illustration of musical life of one of the foremost Oriental countires 5 . This collection entirely follows the Ottoman tradition 6 , but it also brings a few substantial innovations among which the most important one is a system of musical notation based on the Arabian alphabet, a notation invented by Cantemir himself, of course, and which remained in use well into the 19th century.

The musical treatise itself is joined by a collection of 355 instrumental compositions among which nine are his own. It constitutes the most important collection of 16th and 17th centuries.7 Ottoman instrumental music which has survived up to the present, being the major source of information concerning the music of the Ottoman composers from these centuries.

The notation invented by Cantemir for writing the Turkish compositions of that time is a system of alphabtical and numerical musical writing (ebdjedÎ ve'adedÎ) which uses 33 combined alphabetical signs from the Arabian alphabet as well as Arabian figures from 1 to 8, for the 33 sounds from the musical scale based on the tonal capacity of the tambur. This had a length of two octaves plus one tone.

Cantemir shows that it is within these thirty-three signs that the whole music is comprised, as all musical sounds and all possible compositions can be rendered through them. They are sufficient for composing all melodic patterns, making up the basic 'vocabulary', just as the 24 letters of the alphabet were the source of so many languages. As Cantemir himself showed in the History of the Ottoman Empire, his method of musical notation was an invention which the Turks had never known about. The idea of using the alphabetic signs (the letters) for marking musical notes had been used ever since the 9th century by the Arabic theoriticiens, who had taken this over from the Ancient Greeks8.

From a certain point of view, music is an infinite science, since the patterns, the structures of its composition are boundless, nevertheless it is at the same time limited, since it uses a definite number of modes.

The theory according to which the component structures of music are infinite is taken over by Cantemir from the ancient Greek theoreticiens.

The axiom according to which it is stated that the components are infinite (anima ki terkibata nihayet yok) is the guideline through which the Romanian erudite illustrates his new theory on creating musical modes.9

A way of widening the range of possible modal structures in music is consonance and dissonance. Through these notions Dimitrie Cantemir expresses the 'sympathy' and 'attraction' that a sound has towards another sound and the possibilities of substitution and mixture between two sounds, the familiarity between the modes. He refers to five types of consonances, according to the intervals between the two sounds.

The dissonance or the lack of correspondence between the sounds (that is their non-consonance) has itself five forms. This happens when the instrument is not correctly tuned, when the musician does not obey the mode structure, when he does not play sounds accurately, or when he changes the musical mode from a composition to another within the same suite. The author makes detailed reference to the affinity of a certain sound towards others, based not only on the interval between sounds but also on the tonal consonance.

All the ideas concerning the modes, which are expressed by Cantemir in the first part of the treatise, are unprecedented, being illustrated for the first time in the Turkish music literature. The treatise majestically reflects his scientific research for creating a logical paradigm in a field which was up to that time devoid of a real theoretical support, and to assert a new theory based on a scientifical and practical method. Dimitrie Cantemir collects in his treatise a highly precious collection of instrumental compositions, the most important from the end of the 17th century. As a matter of fact, Cantemis's collection is the only instrumental one from the literature of Turkish classical music.

Interestingly, Dimitrie Cantemir asserted himself in the domain of musical composition, too. His creations, which have been preserved in the original notation system is only part of his whole original creations written by the erudite. At present it is considered that about 43 musical works (mostly instrumental ones) belong to him, these being transcribed into the western notation by Rauf Yekta, Suphi Ezgi, Halil Can, Iacob Ciortea.

Cantemir's erudition was also expressed in another musical area: the musical acoustics. He refers to his own invention: a mathematic instrument of musical sonometry, capable of measuring the height of temperate and non-temperate sounds natural and artificial, simple and composed sounds.

Around 1700, Cantemir himself remarks in his History of the Ottoman Empire: 'Europeans may fiind it strange that I refer here to the love of music of a nation which Christians regard as barbarian'10. He admits that barbarianism possibly reigned during the period when the empire was being formed, but the author states that once the great military conquests had finished, the arts, 'the ordinary fruits of peace, found thier place in men's minds. The following lines come as a conclusion, which may appear to be very surprising to the European readers: I would even venture to say that the music of the Turks is much more perfect than that of Europe in terms of metre and the proportion of words, but it is also so difficult to understand that one could hardly be put to find more than a handful of individuals with a sound knowledge of principles and subtleties in this art'11.

His impressive learning and cultural experience are obviously mirrored in his creations; the religious dimension of his musical work are also to be taken into consideration when referring to Cantemir's cultural legacy ant to his musical creations in particular. As a matter of fact, his works illustrate his vast knowledge of Orthodox-Christian religion, as well as Islamic one, which are an important source of his musical creations.

His reflections on the Byzantine music lay emphasis on his well-known musical culture, since Byzantine music is achieved by his own national and spiritual identity and later on by means of his education in the spirit of the Orthodox Christian religion.

Certain specialists show that Cantemir mastered the Ecclesiastical Slavon used in the choral psalmody in Romania and the other orthodox countries. So he had the immense privilege of getting in the know with the music of the canon Ecclesiastical tradition. In support of this we could mention his ties with Calinic II, the patriarch of Constantinople during 1694-1702, with Dosoftei II (1669- 1707) and his nephew Hrisant Notaras. Even during his 'exile' to Russia he actually continued to have very good relationships with the circles of the orthodox Church and Byzantine medium. Interestingly, his personal secretary himself, Ivan Ilinsky, had graduated from the Academy of Orthodox Theology in Moscow.

In his writings, as we have already stated, Cantemir also dealt with religious music, which he analysed from the perspective of the orthodox religion. For example he enlarges upon the music unfallibly accompanying the coronation ceremony of the Moldavian princes.

Cantemir also illustrates by means of conclusive examples that religious music is very tightly related to the ceremonies specific to the princely court: it is the case of the time when the prince is leaving for war: this is the scene when the prince goes to the bishop in order to receieve his blessing; all during this time, church choir is glorifyingg the prince, singing the Axion (Dignus est - in Latin).

Other passages of his writings provide the readers with very interesting details on the ceremonies of the religious services other than the Liturgy: the Vecernia (the evening prayer) when David's psalms are sung and the Utrenia (the morning prayer).

For a very long time Dimitrie Cantemir's music was preserved in a hardly accessible musical notation and in foreign languages which were not widely used in the scientific research, being away from any exegesis. An important contribution to throwing light upon Cantemir's musical creation was the research made by scholars like Burada, Ciortea, Breazu, Cosma, Popescu -Judetz, etc.

Thus, Cantemir's musical creation has remained a very precious artistic thesaurus, which is valued not only in Romania and Turkey, but also throughout the Balkans, and all over the world.

Footnote

1 Victor Ghilas, La musique religieuse dans l'oeuvre de Dimitrie Cantemir, in <Travaux du symposium international Le Livre. Les Roumains. L'Europe>. Editeur Bibliothèque de Bucarest, Bucuresti, 2011, p. 108

2 Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettre ed arti, Instituto Treccani, Roma, 1972, p 778

3 Namik Sinan Turan, http://www.turkishmusicportal.org/article.php?id=7&lang2=en

4 Victor Ghilas, Demersul teoretico-practic al lui Dimitrie Cantemir În muzica clasica turceasca, Sud-Est, Arta. Cultura. Civilizatie, Bucuresti, 2002

5 Ibidem. p. 110

6 This issue is extensively enlarged by Corina Dumitrescu and Dragos Radulescu, in Promotion of tradition in Dimitrie Cantemir's work, in the volume Dimitrie Cantemir A Prince among Philosophers and a Philosopher among Princes, Pro Universitaria, Bucuresti, 2011, p. 15-21

7 Eugenia Popescu-Judetz, Dimitrie Cantemir, Cartea Stiintei muzicii, Bucuresti, Editura Muzicala, 1973, p 35.

8 Tiberiu Alexandru, Folcloristica. Organologie. Muzicologie. Studii. Editura Muzicala, Bucuresti, 1980, p.231

9 Ibidem, p.56

10 Dimitrie Cantemir, Istoria Imperiului Ottoman. Cresterea si scaderea lui. Ed. Societatii Academice Române, Bucuresti, 1876, p. 724. The traslation into English belongs to us.

11 Ibidem, p. 725

References

REFERENCES

Alexandru, Tiberiu, (1980), Folcloristica. Organologie. Muzicologie. Studii. Editura Muzicala, Bucuresti.

Cantemir, Dimitrie, (1876), Istoria Imperiului Ottoman. Cresterea si scaderea lui. Ed. Societatii Academice Române, Bucuresti.

Dumitrescu, Corina and Radulescu, Dragos, in Promotion of tradition in Dimitrie Cantemir's work, in the volume Dimitrie Cantemir A Prince among Philosophers and a Philosopher among Princes, Pro Universitaria, Bucuresti, 2011.

Enciclopedia italiana di scienze, lettre ed arti, Instituto Treccani, Roma, 1972, p 778

Ghilas, Victor, (2002), Demersul teoretico-practic al lui Dimitrie Cantemir În muzica clasica turceasca, Sud-Est, Arta. Cultura. Civilizatie, Bucuresti.

Ghilas, Victor, (2011), La musique religieuse dans l'oeuvre de Dimitrie Cantemir, in <Travaux du symposium international Le Livre. Les Roumains. L'Europe>. Editeur Bibliothèque de Bucarest, Bucuresti.

Popescu-Judetz, Eugenia, (1973), Dimitrie Cantemir, Cartea Stiintei muzicii, Bucuresti, Editura Muzicala,

Turan Namik-Sinan,

http://www.turkishmusicportal.org/article.php?id=7&lang2=en