Musicians from Brașov: Constantin Catrina – An integrated approach to Musical Folklore

Abstract

Constantin Catrina (1933-2013), a musician whose destiny was linked to the city of Brașov, carried out a diverse and consistent activity, materialized in numerous volumes, studies and articles. C. Catrina manifested himself in multiple fields: as a historian, chronicler of musical life, lexicographer, Byzantinist musicologist, composer, folklorist, pedagogue and cultural manager. While in the last two decades of his life he dedicated himself mainly to Byzantine musicology, the thousands of pages comprising his research work have remained, to this day, outstanding landmarks in the Romanian ethnomusicological literature. Apart from sketching a portrait of the musician, this paper summarizes his contributions to the field of musical folklore, emphasizing the way in which, throughout his career, he contributed to the collection, promotion and conservation of the folklore from the curvature area of the Carpathians. Through his research work and entire career, C. Catrina has remained a model researcher dedicated to highlighting the cultural values of the Romanian village.