Noi istorii ale muzicilor românești [New histories of Romanian types of music] – The most important editorial publication in the Romanian musicology of recent years

Abstract

Abstract The vast work Noi istorii ale muzicilor românești [New histories of Romanian types of music]1 (816 pages), published by Editura Muzicală in 2020 was a project of the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union, represented by composer and university professor Adrian Iorgulescu, a project meant to mark the celebration of a century of activity of the organisation. The two volumes of the New histories, coordinated by Valentina Sandu-Dediu and Nicolae Gheorghiță, reflect the fulfilment of a long research project, begun in the 1990s, with a view to reassessing the musical past of Romania, expressing ideas verified in time through repeated analyses. The coordinators’ vision is edified through the following directions: 1. the joining of all musical genres – Byzantine, folkloric, military, academic, jazz, entertainment – and creating a modern perspective on the types of Romanian music; 2. using the tools of modern musicology – interdisciplinary relating, archival and recent bibliography, an objective, critical, accessible style, efficient and orderly elaboration; 3. removing all influences of the communist ideology reflected by the writings about music in the second half of the 20th century by assimilating the ideas formulated by historians after 1990; 4. capitalising on foreign authors’ writings about Romania and about Romanian music, but also on last-minute research on international music for the synchronisation with the contemporary manner of historical research.