Romania: Daniel Croner, music day

This envelop is rather unremarkable save for the postmark. And it is somewhat blurry. It seems the Music Lovers Circle of the Romanian Philatelic Society was busy in 1990, as this cover looks much like others they prepared that year. Their name does not appear on this cover, but the looks is strikingly familiar.

ziua internationala a muzicii (the international day of music)

October 1 1990

The line above Croner's name is blurred but a couple of the words seem to read composition/composer and organist. His dates are given 1655-1740. I have never heard of Croner before, but was able to find a couple of websites that had information about him and his compositions

http://www.musicstamps.com/mjoomla/index.php/c/1285-croner-daniel

A review of a recording that includes some of his works:
http://pamelahickmansblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/romanian-organist-and-harpsichordist.html
Daniel Croner (1656-1740), apparently a native of Kronstadt (now Brasov, Romania), a theologian and composer of organ music, completed four books of organ tablatures. A scribe, he was known to have spent four years copying works from the Brasov manuscript, mostly for his own use and for the Lutheran service. The Magnificat 8 toni, from the Brasov manuscript, consists of five verses, based on a traditional cantus firmus, probably originally alternating with sung chant. In four of them, the cantus is presented in long note values in the pedals, with the two manuals creating contrapuntal lines boasting much imitation. Garai’s playing offered an informed glimpse into the articulate and imaginative style of German pre-Bach organ composition, conservative and unpretentious in nature, yet innovative and certainly not lacking in dissonance.

A concert performer comments on some of the works he performs, including b Croner:
http://regizene.ro/html/2017/en/index.php/artist/fazakaz-adam-sandor-ro/
Daniel Croner, born in Brașov, was a Transylvanian Saxon composer, organist and theologian. His legacy includes several manuscripts which contain shorter pieces, such as the three compositions included in the programme: a toccata in the South German style, a bicinium-adaptation of the chorale “Ich ruf zu dir Herr Jesu Christ” (“I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ“), a fugue for four voices.

https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n90622695/
Since I had not heard of him before, I was curious if Croner had any organ music available. A WorldCat search revealed some possibilities. I have requested on title from Duke University.

Daniel Croner has an association with the Marienkirche or Schwarze Kirche (Black Church) in Kronstadt. The facade of the current instrument, by Buchholz in the late 1800's (itself the subject of a Romanian stamp in recent years) is not that shown in the postmark above. There was, however, an instrument prior to this which may be the basis for the postmark. This article gives a great deal of information about the organs' history at this church.

 

The stamp on the cover is a very common 1.50 lei stamp from the 1982 "Popular Arts" (folk art) series, showing a (rather ornate) wooden scoop. Scott #3104

Romania: Rupea organ

This cover shows an organ facade in the postmark, and also includes a full-color cachet of the same instrument. The cover was postmarked October 1, 2001 in Rupea, Romania.

ForumArte Romania 

was born out of a desire to contribute to the promotion and diversification of the cultural life of the Braşov area, to the awareness of the integrating role of the culture for the city and its people. Through creative impulses and novel events, the foundation aims to combine traditions with contemporary. Three key elements define the work of the Foundation: Education, Music and Heritage.
 
Their site has a fairly detailed discussion of the Rupea organ along with several helpful photographs. It would seem that the church in which the organ is located underwent renovations beginning in 2005. By 2008 the organ was re-installed in a second church and work undertaken upon it. It was then that an inscription was found within the instrument, dating it to at least 1699. It is believed the original organ was built by Zackarias of Crit. The restoration was done by S.C. Construcţii Orgi şi Tâmplărie S.R.L. The latter's site gives some nicely detailed photos and a stoplist. Work was completed in 2012 at the instrument was re-installed in its original location, on its own rather substantial platform. The article tells us there are a scant 12 registers, making it s fairly small instrument. The postmark and cover seem to simply commemorate the 275th anniversary of the organ 1726 apparently being the year it was installed in this particular setting, on its dedicated gallery near the chancel arch. Who knows if this recognition might have goaded certain powers to undertake the restoration work begun in 2005.

The stamp on this cover shows the first electric tram in Romania, dating from 1896. The original stamp was issued with a denomination of 1615 lei in 1995 (Scott 4060). However this stamp has been surcharged to 2500 lei. The surcharged stamp (Scott 4477) was issued in 2001, in an era of hyper-inflaation. 

Romania: Fall Music Festival

This cover shows a fairly common, regular issue stamp from Romania. However, the postmark is remarkable. Cluj-Napoca is apparently a fairly important city in the Transylvania part of Romania. They had in 1996 a fall music festival, which is the point of reference for the postmark. The festival began in 1965. It is known for the shear number of music events, and the span of musical eras represented, from early music to contemporary. Apparently, at least in 1996, Bach and the pipe organ featured to some degree. The 2017 edition of the festival was the 51st, and it now ranks as the largest such event in Romania. I have not been able to find mention of a specific organ used for festival concerts, so I cannot determine if the pipes shown in the postmark are from a specific instrument, or are rather an artistic representation. My cover was a gift from Mark Jameson. The stamp on the cover is a very common specimen from the large "hotels, lodges, and resorts" set begun in 1991. The present, violet-colored stamp (Scott 3667) shows the Lebada Hotel in Crisan, a town known for its tourism.

Romania: Madrigal Choral Ensemble

This cover is distinguished by the presence of an organ in the cachet/illustration, and in the postmark. The cover seems to have been produced by the Music-Lovers Study Circle of the Bucharest Philatelic Association. The postmark includes the dates 1965 and 1 October 1990. I am supposing that the cover was issued on the latter date. The cover celebrates the national choir of Romania, the National Chamber Choir. The ensemble was established in 1965 (or rather 1963 according to their website. The founding conductor was Constantine Marin. The cover marks the 25th anniversary of the choir.

The stamp on the cover is Romania Scott 3619, issued September 8, 1990, marking the Romanian-Chinese Philatelic Exhibition in Bucharest. No connection to the musical aspects of the cover other than the proximate dates of production/issue. The cover illustration shows a somewhat dated picture of the choral ensemble (notice the television camera at right) in their primary performance space, the George Enescu Hall in the Bucharest Athenaeum. That hall got commemorated in 2017 with its own mini-sheet of stamps that I have written about here. George Enescu instigated the building of the organ which was completed in 1939. This cover was a gift from Mark Jameson.

Here is the text included on the cover and a rough translation:
asociatia filatelistilor bucuresti
cercul bucur grupa muzica
corul madrigal
dirijor marin constantin
ziua internationala muzicii
25 ani de la debutul international al corului


the philatelist association bucharest
circle enjoy group music
the madrigal choir
conductor marine constantin
the international day of music
25 years since the international debut of the choir

France: Couperin

France issued a semi-postal stamp honoring Francois Couperin in 1968. Couperin le Grand ("the Great") was born and died in Paris, 1668-1733, so the stamp was in honor of his 300th anniversary. Couperin was a composer, organist and harpsichordist. His organ works generally appear collected in a single volume, arranged as two Masses. They are staples for beginning organists, but are satisfying for performers of all types. To compare, there are four volumes of harpsichord music extant.

I have an FDC of the 1968 stamp. Interestingly, the French postal authority usually  provides to impressions of the first-day cancel, one touching the stamp to actually cancel it, and a second placed so one can see it clearly. The stamp, cancel and cachet all feature likenesses of the composer. This stamp was part of a set of four, the others depicting General Louis Desaix de Veygoux; a painting by Saint-Pol-Roux, or Paul-Pierre Roux; and Paul Cloudel, poet and diplomat. All the stamps are denominated 30c + 10c. My catalog does not mention for what the surtax may have been designated. The Couperin stamp, Scott B417, is in purple with a portrait of the composer and a collection of instruments including a harpsichord,a  couple of stringed instruments, and a metronome.

Francoise Couperin was for many years organist at St Gervais in Paris, a position held by both his father, Charles, and his uncle Louis. This in addition to musical duties at court.

 

Facade at St Gervais

Poland: Koszalin Music Festival

Koszalin is a town in central Pomerania. It along with seven other towns hosts an international organ festival each year. Concerts of organ music, various chamber ensembles, and choral music make up the event each summer. The 52nd series was held in 2018. This card was issued to mark the event in 1972. The postcard stamp image shows a sailboat, definitely not organ-related. But the postmark includes a row of organ pipes. The card appears to have been issued in 1971, and cancelled to promote the music festival the following summer. Address details make up the obverse; my copy is in mint condition, so it's blank on the reverse. This was a gift from Mark Jameson.

Poland: Kamien Pomorski Music Festival

This postcard shows the Pomeranian Dukes Castle in Szczecin, Poland. Below is some of the text on the card the a translation.

ochrona zabytkow
baszta siedmiu peaszczy XIII w.
zamek ksiazat pomorskich

protection of monuments
Szczecin: bastion of seven coats 13th cent.
Pomeranian Dukes' Castle

The castle dates from the 13th century.

What makes the card interesting to me is the commemorative postmark, celebrating the beginning of the International Organ and Chamber Music Festival in Kamien Pomorski. The medallion in the center of the postmark shows organ pipes in the UR corner. The postmark is dated 17 June 1977. So the card was issued (as part of a series highlighting the need to protect national monuments) to mark the Duke's Castle in Szczecin, and the music festival in nearby Kamien added a fancy postmark to celebrate the music festival in 1977. Text running in the middle of the card would indicate the card was issued by Polish Post that same year, 1977 (a print run of one-million copies, perhaps?). The reverse of this card has a couple of pencil markings made by the dealer selling it, but otherwise the card is blank. It was a gift from Mark Jameson.

 Cathedral organ, Kamien Pomorski

Poland: Organ Chamber Music Festival

This card was issued to mark the Miedzynarodowy Festiwal Muzyki Organowej Kameralnej w Kamieniu Pomorskim (International Organ and Chamber Music Festival in Kamień Pomorskie) in Poland. The only date I can find on the card is 2005, so I am guessing that it was issued that year. Kamien Pomoski is in the northwest region of Poland on the Baltic Coast. A Roman Catholic co-cathedral serves the region. The St John the Baptist Cathedral serves as the locale for the music festival.

This site provides some information about the music festival and give a bit of information about the organ in the cathedral.

In the years 1669-1672, the monumental organs were built in the Kamienna shrine from the foundation of Pomeranian prince Ernest Bogusław Croy. They belong to the most famous in Poland. The wonderful sound of this extraordinary instrument (47 voices and 3300 pipes) can be heard during the annual International Festival of Organ and Chamber Music, organized throughout the summer. The concerts start at 19.00 always on Fridays, starting from the last Friday of June to the first Friday of September.

The cathedrals website gives just a bit more information about the organ.


1669-1672 Construction of present organs according to Breyer's instructions from Stargard, then built by M. Berigel, repaired in the early 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. A new instrument built in 1888 by B. Gruneberg from Szczecin, keeping the baroque prospectus.

I have not been able to to find a stoplist anywhere yet. The card shows hands playing an instrument with more than one keyboard, representing an organ. There are no pipes nor any other content on the card. The reverse in black, presumably for the card-writer's message. This card was a gift from my friend in Great Britain, Mark Jameson.



 

Slovakia: Reformation 500th, Kezmarok Wooden Church organ

The year 2017 elicited a number of stamps from various postal authorities markings the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, generally pinpointed to 1517 with Martin Luther's tacking the 95-Theses document to the Wittenburg church door. Slovakia was one of those nations marking the occasion with a  stamp, in this case a single-stamp mini-sheet. The only content is the facade of the organ, that in the Kezmarok Wooden Church. An information card was included in my FDC that gives the builder Vavrinec Cajovsky from Levoca, and the year of completion as 1720. The Church of the Holy Trinity is built entirely of wood, and according to one site the organ likewise uses only wooden pipes. I have not yet found a specification of the instrument. The selvage of the sheet includes more detail of the balcony railing in the church and an enigmatic mountain and river scene. The stamp gives no indication of the location of the organ itself.

Poland: Historica organs, Pelplin

In 2017 Poland issued a second mini-sheet in its "historic organs" series, this time celebrating the instrument at the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in Pelplin. This instrument was complete in the late 1600's; the case and some of the facade pipes are from that instrument. The instrument was rebuilt in 2003 by the Mollin firm in Odry (SSW of Gdansk). The artwork for the mini-sheet is interesting: the selvage is the walls of the cathedral and part of the ceiling, as though looking up from the floor. The stamp takes the place of the central portion of the ceiling. A nice "substitution" effect.

Poland: Historic organs of Poland, Jedrzedow

In 2015 Poland began a series of stamps featuring historic organs. The first is the instrument in the Cistercian Abbey in Jedrzedow. I have not been able to find much detail on the "why" of the stamp issue. One suspects it has to do with renovations completed on the instrument perhaps, or an anniversary related to its construction. The instrument was build in the mid-1700's by Józefa Sitarskiego. The mini-sheet has two differently-denominated stamps. I have both the color version of the mini-sheet, and the black/white version, as well as a first-day cover. Sometimes FDCs issued by postal authorities will included information about the issue on the back or within, but that is not the case here. This site gives a good summary of the instrument. This site gives nice images of the stamps. The Polish philatelic shop has details on securing copies of the stamps.

This site deals with a recording of the organ, but also includes a nice image of the console. The stopknobs are compelling because they seem to be metal, as opposed to the more common wood. The site also dates the instrument originally from 1633, with a rebuild by Sitarski (Sitarskiego) "a hundred years later."