GHEORGHE BURADA (1831-1870) – A FORERUNNER OF MUSIC OF IAŞI
GHEORGHE BURADA (1831-1870) – A FORERUNNER OF MUSIC OF IAŞI

Summary/Abstract: The contribution of Gheorghe Burada (1831-1870), composer and conductor of Iaşi, to the musical life, musical education and to religious and lay musical composition is important as it represents one of the first steps in knowing, understanding and applying the composition principles of Western tonal music – not heard of before the beginning of the 19th century. Gheorghe Burada was the conductor of the first choir singing religious harmonic music and also the first to teach musical theory and solmization at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Art of Iaşi. He composed both lay and religious music, yet his scores were never published. In the works he authored, lay and religious – now preserved at the Special Collections Department with Mihai Eminescu Central University Library – the principles of tonal classical music can be recognized, in a simpler, more rudimentary, yet effective form, lacking, however, genuine artistic mastery. His main religious composition, Divina Liturghie a Sf. Ioan Gură de Aur, having as a subtitle “music that was partly adapted from Russian and partly being an original composition by G. T. Burada, Iassie” he introduced harmonized melodies belonging to the Russian-Ukrainian lithurgic repertoire and original melodies created in the same style and adapted using mainly harmonic techniques, while he very rarely employed elements of immitative polyphonic techniques. The ratio text – music is not neglected, the composer adequately illustrates the meaning of the lithurgic text. Elements of musical agogic and dynamics are also present in his scores, which make the musical discourse more expressive, at the same time proving Gheorghe Burada’ good musical training as well as his experience as a conductor of church choirs.

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