Music at the Sorbonne while Notre Dame cathedral was built

You will fairly soon be traveling to Paris, where you will undoubtedly revisit Notre Dame.  In order to put you in the mood, you may want to listen to this piece of music which was composed there by Pérotin  almost 1000 years ago. The manuscript on the left is also by him, in contemporary notation.

Pérotin was a French composer,  who was active in the 2nd half of the 12th century, just after Notre Dame cathedral started to be built. Presumably teaching at the Sorbonne, he composed the very earliest polyphonic music; the selection which you can play by clicking ► below, constitutes the earliest 4-part harmony ever composed in the world!

And, if you want to hum along, here is a modern transcription:

Old Bucharest - MAPS

This chapter provides some historical maps of Bucharest. Click on each to enlarge. Unfortunately this blog does not allow full resolution (1939 map and cadastral maps) so in those cases a download site is provided.

In chronological order:

1717 - Bucharest at beginning of 18th c, woodcut 6,5x12,5cm published at Leipzig in 1717 (full download here)

1854 - Bucharest center bird's eye map. 1,276px × 931px. From a contemporary poster 100 x 70 cm

1871 Bucharest, by Army Major Dimitrie Papazoglu. 7,040 × 4,843 pixels

1897. Scale 1:40 000, 1610 x 1200 pixels

1911. A cadastral series of 4 sheets covering entire Bucharest. Each quadrant approx 5,000 x 4,250 pixels. At this site can also find an interactive version of this map.

1926. Spanish-language, 1800 x 1313 pixels

1927. Bucharest aerial photo: town center. 1,882 x 1,329 pixels

1939. Bucharest - very detailed map. 9,828 x 7,846 pixels. This full resolution can be downloaded here.

1970. Bucharest - SW of center. More of a tourist map. 1,600 x 1,054 pixels

1984. Cadastral map (every building shown) of the Piata Unirii and Vacaresti - Dudesti neighborhoods. Surely the last cadastral map before the major demolition. At this site can also find an interactive version of this map.

Old Bucharest

Between my birth and the day we left Romania in 1960, I lived on Calea Vacaresti near the corner of Bvd. Marasesti. In 1977, Bucharest suffered widespread damage from a major earthquake, but that was nothing compared to the systematic demolition orchestrated by Ceausescu 2 years later. According to historian Iosa, the bulldozed area, approximately five kilometres long by one kilometre wide, was one of the largest peacetime urban destructions at the hands of humans in recorded history.


One can debate whether Baron Haussman's razing of old Paris in the 19th century was larger, but certainly the results in the 2 cases were not the same: Bucharest was disfigured.




In 1978, I took a month-long trip to Romania as a single American young man. It was still a time with not very many tourists, and one evening I was sitting alone in a restaurant when two ladies sitting at a nearby table asked if I wanted to join them. It turned out that they were mother and daughter and lived in this corner house, in the second-floor apartment with balcony right above the entrance.

After dinner, I was invited to have a drink at their apartment, and from this window was able to see, unexpectedly, the house where I had lived my entire life in Bucharest, just across the intersection!!

I took this picture of my house the next day; the fresh earthquake damage can be plainly seen. There were barricades which probably condemned the building but they were ignored. Little did I know then that one year later this house as well as the entire neighborhood would be razed, so that most of historic Calea Văcăreşti would no longer exist. In place of my house, the street and much more, there has been a lunar landscape for decades, here's a current satellite image from Google maps.


This blog aims to document some of the architecture of the old Văcăreşti area, mostly with photos already available elsewhere on the web; I thank the providers in advance.

The neighborhood

 Calea Văcăreşti runs northward from the River Dimbovita (Splaiul), with Tramway line 1 all along, towards the historic center. My house was just North of the intersection with Marasesti and Str. Olteni. Above, detail from 1939 map; below, map from 1970.

Some notable architecture, going from North to South:

1. Str. Haiducul Bujor can be seen (esp. on 1970 map) spanning between Str. Olteni and Calea Văcăreşti, 3 blocks above Str. Bradului. A 1959 photo shows a child who would have had about my age, on this street. Automobile traffic was not an issue.

2. Just above Str. Bradului, at the tramway station Cauzasi - a little "factory" where I was sent almost daily to fill up a couple of seltzer bottles! The tall building was the bookstore Anton Pann; towards the left are the first houses on str. Legislatorului.

3. Calea Văcăreşti, after the intersection with Str. Bradului (visible on the left) -Dan Vartanian, 1978.


4.Walking down Văcăreşti, we then we reached the intersection with Str. Cantemir, which came from Calea Dudeşti (photo 1976).

5. Str. Cantemir is at bottom right of picture above; if the observer would turn around, on same sidewalk would be my house.

6. Continuing down Calea Văcăreşti (see tramway tracks), we reach the intersection with Bd. Mărăşeşti (right) and strada Florilor (left). This place was known as Piaţa Mărăşeşti. The building at the corner behind the Dacia was discussed previously - a little further down is the barber who cut my hair. Further down on the left can be seen the bell tower of the church in Photo 10 below.

7. Turning around to see in the reverse direction, here Blvd. Mărăşeşti appears on the left (again, the corner building with the balcony from previous photo). The building on the right was right across the street from my house.

8. South of Piaţa Mărăşeşti was the intersection with str. Hameiului (one-way), and a little further starts another street called Răscrucii. Between the two little streets was a great building, neo-Romanesque style, with a very pointed tower.

9. Adjacent to previous photo, towards the Splai, there is an enlarged portion of Calea Văcăreşti which included a square with vegetation. Neighborhood children gathered to play football in this segment, between Str. Florilor and Dr. Anghel, where rarely a car passed.

10. On the opposite side of Calea Văcăreşti right about facing the streets mentioned in previous 2 pictures, are Dobroteasa church, built in 1884, in the Byzantine style, with a height of 28 meters. Between 1983-1989 it was closed for demolition, but luckily it escaped.

And here it is, in 2018, with a few more cars.

11. A couple of other pictures taken in the summer of 1978 in the neighborhood; unfortunately I can't place them geographically.

Moveable music all around the house

iTunes on your computer AND on your stereo system - no problem: all you have to do is add an Airport Express near your stereo, connect the 2 together with a phono cable, and stream music to your stereo.

Airport Express in center (with green light) and phono cable (pardon my dust)



But what happens if you want to move your music around the house and garden? There are any number of wifi contraptions you can buy; but here's something elegant that sounds surprisingly good.

The WIHIFI

The ingredients:

• Hatten table from IKEA. This translucent little table has a removable tray which exposes a small storage compartment. $20. August 2014 oops: IKEA US no longer carries this, still available elsewhere.

• JBL "Spot" speakers with a subwoofer and 2 side speakers. These small speakers, now discontinued, have a superb sound. I bought mine from eBay for $60.

• Airport Express from Apple (see 1st picture above). This device is a router or wireless bridge, etc. - here used as a wifi receiver which provides audio to the powered speakers. $99 new, always available used around $50 from eBay.
• Power cord

So what does it look like? I painted the Hatten table white halfway up the inside, placed the Airport Express inside, and covered with a white lid.

The WIHIFI

WIHIFI: Top view

WIHIFI: side view showing subwoofer under table, satellites on side of table, all attached with industrial-strength Velcro.

WIHIFI: painted white on the inside of the table, halfway up, with a (hardly visible) scalloped painted tray covering the guts.

So: take it anywhere, plug it into an outlet, and stream iTunes to it. To select the music, it's really easy with Remote app on the iPhone.

The Remote app on the iPhone allows you to visualize what's playing and to control the WIHIFI.