Mihail Berezovski, an illustrative composer for the choir liturgic music in Bessarabia of the pre- and interwar period
Mihail Berezovski, an illustrative composer for the choir liturgic music in Bessarabia of the pre- and interwar period

Summary/Abstract: The present study offers a style analysis of choir musical creation for the Liturgy by the composer Mihail Berezovschi, a major personality of music from Bessarabia, active in the first half of the 20th century. The monodic sources of the Liturgy, Vesper and Matin, as well as their adaptation are analysed. The findings indicate that Mihail Berezovschi is a continuer of the esthetics of the Russian school of choir composition regarding his own melodic inventions and the their harmonic adaptation. In terms of harmonization, his adaptations of psaltic music do not differ greatly from his original pieces, especially as they mainly resort to the main tonal steps in which the psaltic voice is rendered and less to the secondary steps; moreover, modulation is not accomplished through remote tonalities, but mainly through the tonality of the basic relative (major or minor, accordingly). Sometimes the harmonic version of the main tonality is used for harmonization, especially when the melody modulates in a chromatic voice (II, VI). As a rule, homophonic harmonization is preferred, while the harmonic pedal of the ison is absent, which normally accompanies psaltic chanting. The simplification of the ornaments, the tonal harmonic arrangement of the melodic contour along with the absence of the ison somewhat dispel the natural charm of the psaltic monody; for these reasons, Mihail Berezovschi’s choir adaptations are closer to Western music for Liturgy of the harmonic choral than from Romanian choir adaptations of tono-modal writing for the Liturgy.

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