Constantin Brăiloiu (13 August 1893 – 20 December 1958) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and internationally known

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

. He was born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, the scion of an old

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. C ...

family from

Oltenia Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...

. His father, Nicolae Brăiloiu, and his grandfather,

Constantin N. Brăiloiu Constantin N. Brăiloiu (October 3, 1809 or 1810–June 19, 1889) was a Wallachian and Romanian politician. Born in Craiova, he was the oldest child of Nicolae Brăiloiu and his wife, Zoe or Zinca (''née'' Vlădăianu or Vlădoianu). He had t ...

, were both lawyers and politicians. Constantin Brăiloiu studied in Bucharest (1901–1907),

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(1907–1909),

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and

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(1909–1912), as well as

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(1912–1914). In 1920, he founded the ''Societatea Compozitorilor Români'' (SCR, Society of Romanian Composers) along with other composers, and he served as general secretary of the organization between 1926 and 1943. In 1928, he initiated the composer's collective ''Arhiva de folklore'' (folklore archive), which soon became one of the largest folk music archives of its time. From 1928 he and sociology professor

Dimitrie Gusti Dimitrie Gusti (; 13 February 1880 – 30 October 1955) was a Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and voluntarist philosopher; a professor at the University of Iași and the University of Bucharest, he served as Romania's Minister ...

visited the various regions of Romania in order to make sound recordings. In 1931, he published the article "Schița unei metode de folclor muzical" (Sketch of a method for music folklore), which became one of the foundational texts for ethnomusicology. In 1943, he became cultural consultant for the Romanian embassy in

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. Due to the political incidents in his homeland he stayed from then on in

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. In 1944, he organized another archive in

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, ''Les Archives internationales de musique populaire (AIMP)'', that was part of the

Musée d'ethnographie de Genève The ' ("Geneva Ethnography Museum") is one of the most important ethnographic museums in Switzerland. History The MEG, or Geneva Museum of Ethnography, was founded on 25 September 1901, on the initiative of Professor Eugène Pittard (1867-1962), ...

(Geneva Museum of Ethnography). He served as director for the AIMP from 1944 until his death in 1958, and collected musical recordings from all over the world. In particular, between 1951 and 1958 he released 40 volumes in the series ''Collection universelle de musique populaire enregistrée'' (Universal collection of recorded popular music) on

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. In 1948, he became assistant professor (''maître de conférence'') at the

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in Paris.

Brăiloiu was a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy from 1946.Membrii Academiei Române din 1866 până în prezent
at the Romanian Academy site He died in Geneva of a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

, at age 65. The Ethnography and Folklore Institute of the Romanian Academy now bears his name.

Writings

* ''Schița unei metode de folclor muzical'' ("Esquisse d'une méthode de folklore musical"). In: Boabe de Grâu, Jg. 2, Nr. 4, 1931. * ''Sur une ballade roumaine : (la Mioritza)''. Kundig, Geneva 1946. * ''A propos du Jodel''. In: ''Kongressbericht der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft, 4. Kongress, Basel 1949''. Bärenreiter Verlag, Basel 1951, S. 69–71. * ''Le rythme aksak''. Abbeville 1952. * ''Sur une mélodie russe''. In: Pierre Souvtchinsky,

Vladimir Fédorov Vladimir Fédorov (5 August 1901, Chernihiv – 9 April 1979, Paris) was a French musicologist, librarian, and composer of Russian birth. He studied with André Pirro at the Schola Cantorum de Paris and studied composition privately with Paul Vid ...

, Gisèle Brelet (Hrsg.): ''Musique russe''.

Presses Universitaires de France Presses universitaires de France (PUF; ), founded in 1921 by Paul Angoulvent (1899–1976), is a French publishing house. Recent company history The financial and legal structure of the Presses Universitaires de France was completely restruc ...

, Paris 1953. * ''Le vers populaire roumain chanté''. Ed. de l'Institut universitaire roumain Charles I, Paris 1956. * ''La rythmique enfantine : notions liminaires''.

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

, Paris/Brussels 1956. * ''Folklore musical''. Encyclopédie de la musique; Fasquelle, Paris 1959. * ''Réflexions sur la création musicale collective''. In: ''Diogène''. (Paris) Nr. 25, 1959, S. 83–93. * ''Vie musicale d'un village: recherches sur le répertoire de Dragus (Roumanie) 1929-1932''. Institut universitaire roumain Charles Ier, Paris 1960. * ''Problèmes d'ethnomusicologie''. Minkoff Reprint, Geneva 1973. (Collected works edited by

Gilbert Rouget Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South A ...

) * ''Problems of ethnomusicology''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, Cambridge 1984. (English translation by A.L. Lloyd of the collected works), digitally printed (Cambridge 2009) (hbk.), (pbk.) * ''Opere 1-5''. Ed. Muzicală a Uniunii compozitorilor din Republica Socialistă România, Bucharest, vol. 1: 1967, vol. 2: 1969, vol. 3: 1974, vol. 4: 1979, vol. 5: 1981. (Collected works, translated and edited by ) * ''Opere 6. Prima Parte''. Editura Muzicală, Bucharest 1998. (with Emilia Comișel)

References

External links

Biography on the website of ''Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève''
(French)
Online data bank of the Brailoiu collection of recordings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brailoiu, Constantin 1893 births 1958 deaths Musicians from Bucharest Lausanne Conservatory alumni 20th-century Romanian composers 20th-century Romanian musicologists Romanian ethnomusicologists Corresponding members of the Romanian Academy Romanian expatriates in Switzerland Romanian defectors Neurological disease deaths in Switzerland