Romanian hymns and hymnody

As inhabitants of the territory north of the Lower Danube, Romanians participated in Byzantine culture, in common with most Christian peoples in the region. The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were established in the 14th century and organized into two metropolitan churches dependent on Constantinople. This was followed by the spreading of Slavonic hymns and, secondarily, of Greek hymns, in forms almost identical to those of the Romanians’ southern neighbours. Hymn books spread from Wallachia and Moldavia to Transylvania, Banat and other territories dependent on the Kingdom of Hungary, most of the Romanians there being under the spiritual authority of the Wallachian metropolitan...