From Moldavia to Istanbul: The Musical World of Dimitrie Cantemir

Published: June 11, 2009, 5:23 p.m.

Travel to the Ottoman Empire through the music of composer, scholar, and diplomat Dimitrie Cantemir (16731723), a flamboyant and brilliant figure who served four Ottoman sultans and Russia’s Tsar Peter the Great. Cantemir’s treatise on Turkish classical music included more than three hundred fifty original compositions. After he led an ill-fated rebellion against the Ottomans ...