ROMANIA: Musical consultant for the Evangelical church in Romania, Kurt Philippi, transcribes old musical scores in order to reveal Romania's lost musical heritage

Record ID: 643706

  • Title: ROMANIA: Musical consultant for the Evangelical church in Romania, Kurt Philippi, transcribes old musical scores in order to reveal Romania's lost musical heritage
  • Date: 28th June 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF URSULA PHILIPPI PLAYING FRAGMENT FROM AN OLD SCORE WRITTEN FOR ORGAN
  • Embargoed: 13th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Romania, Romania
  • Country: Romania
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVACNWR2NFZTBF40IKCNZQTMS951
  • Story Text: Old trumpets are hanging from the ceiling, boxes with old musical scores and manuscripts fill up the shelves and in the middle of it all there is Kurt Philippi, keeper of Romania's musical heritage, sitting at the desk of his cramped office, transcribing notes. Recently thousands of baroque manuscripts have been discovered, which are now held at the National Archives in the Transylvanian town of Sibiu.
    "After the massive emigration of the Saxons in 1990/91 they left behind their houses, churches, schools, cultural centers and the archives of the communities and in this archives you could find old musical scores," Philippi, keeper of Roman Evangelical church music library, explained. Being the musical consultant to the Evangelical church as well as the conductor of the Sibiu Bach choir, it wasn't a question for him to recover and save this musical heritage found in the abandoned archives.
    Often it takes months to transcribe manuscripts. Philippi discovered a little known adaptation of the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, a Bach cantata, works by Johann Sartorius, Knall, Corelli and a host of local composers. So far he has worked on more than 20 scores, part of them being recorded and released on CD.
    Philippi is helped by his wife Ursula, a well-known organ player in Romania, in the task to resurrect the music, which was once the pride of the region.
    "These documents, which are actually quite rare in Transylvania show us today at what a great professional level the musical service in the churches used to be," the musician said. A good reason for the music-loving couple to take on the laborius task. If notes are missing, Kurt Philippi has to consult composers in order to fill in the gaps. For Philippi a way to re-connect with the history through music. "It's important that this archive is open for anyone who needs to have access to these values, because at the first sight this looks like it only has local value, but studying the scores in detail we notice that this music is related to the culture of central Europe."
    Revealing a lot of musical surprises, Philippi said the people of Transylvania could be proud of their long lost musical heritage.
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