Musical instruments illustrated in the painting of the “Saints Peter and Paul” church within Cetățuia Monastery in Iași
(Abstract)
The Cetățuia Monastery in Iași, founded by Gheorghe Duca, during the second half of the 17th century, represents, through its painting, another testimony of certain episodes belonging to the Romanian musical history. This time, as it happens with the painting of other churches built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, the illustration of psalms 148, 149 and 150 indicates a music of oriental, Persian or Ottoman origin, which confirms the content of some written sources attesting to the presence of such music in the Romanian Principalities. Byzantine-style church painting allows the painters to introduce everyday elements in certain situations, some of them being the musical instruments used at the Princely Court at that time, musical instruments generally indicated by the texts of the illustrated psalms. Due to this painting, we can nowadays get an idea regarding the music of that age. The short analysis of the musical elements in the Cetățuia Monastery painting, added to others, contributes to finding out as many details as possible about our musical history.