Dimitrie Cantemir, Hespèrion XXI, Jordi Savall – Istanbul: The Book of Science of Music (2009)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,29 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,13 GB | Full Artwork: 786 MB
Label/Cat#: Alia Vox # AVSA9870 | Country/Year: Spain 2009 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, World Classical
Jordi Savall’s continued interest in Mediterranean traditions brings him to Sephardic and Armenian music centered in Istanbul and an author who wrote The Book of the Science of Music, a volume that he discovered as he was preparing his earlier program Orient–Occident. Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723) had two brief spells as Prince of Moldavia but is better known as a leading intellectual of Eastern Europe and the only one with a reputation known in the West. His interesting background and career, told in the notes, need not be summarized here, but he grew up at the Sultan’s court while his father and brother were successive princes of Moldavia under the Sultan’s protection. Succeeding as prince, he transferred his allegiance to the tsar with disastrous results and spent his last 12 years in exile in Russia. His book contains 355 works, including nine of his own compositions, all notated in a system of his own devising. Seven works on this disc are makam taken from this source, another seven tracks are improvised preludes to each of them, and the remaining seven tracks are devoted to Sephardic and Armenian selections, the former drawn from Isaac Levy’s modern editions. Four other makam from the same book were heard in Orient–Occident.
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