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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2017
Romanian composition in the nineteenth century went through rapid changes, moving from a Greek-oriental sound world to a Western European one. It is interesting to examine, in this context, the musicians’ quest for a ‘national’ sound and identity. Analysis of piano miniatures or vaudeville, the favourite genre of the Romanian audience in the first half of the century, shows eclectic combinations of urban folk music with sources of inspiration borrowed from popular foreign melodies. The second half of the century seems to be marked in modern scholarship by premieres: some composers are included in Romanian history just for the merit of writing the first Romanian symphony, the first string quartet, the first opera, and so forth. Their work led towards the constitution of a ‘national language’ adapted to genres borrowed from contemporary Western European music.
In addition to demonstrating these ideas in the work of a number of Romanian composers (Josef Herfner, Ioan Andrei Wachmann, Anton Pann, Alexandru Flechtenmacher, Ludwig Anton Wiest, Carol Miculi, George Stephănescu, Constantin Dimitrescu, Gavriil Musicescu, Eduard Caudella, George Dima, Ciprian Porumbescu, Iacob Mureşianu, Dumitru Georgescu Kiriac, Alfonso Castaldi, Eduard Wachmann), the present article also encompasses two case studies. The first is Franz Liszt’s tour through the Romanian Countries, which offers a clearer image of the popular ideas circulating within the musical scene of the time. Liszt’s initiative to emphasize the national spirit through folk quotations reworked in rhapsodies should have inspired Romanian musicians; we will see whether this actually happened. The second case study concerns the musical life of Bucharest around 1900, when the directions of Romanian modern music were being traced, and cautious and selective steps were made toward harmonizing with Europe began.
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9 Such shows were associated with certain religious celebrations (‘irozii’) or agrarian rituals (‘drăgaica’), or contained dances characteristic of a specific region (‘călușarii’).
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11 In his operetta Steaua nordului (North Star), Wachmann lifts ‘entire pages from the opera of the same title by Meyerbeer’, according to Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 3, 307.
12 Michael the Brave (1558–1601) was the first Romanian ruler to succeed, for a short time in 1600, in uniting the three medieval Romanian countries. Master Builder Manole was a legendary character, the architect of the Curtea de Argeş Monastery, around 1500. The popular ballad of Master Builder Manole recounts how he walled up his wife (Ana) as a sacrificial victim, because everything he built during the day had been falling down during the night.
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14 The ring dance or horă is a Romanian folk dance, danced in a circle, characteristic of the Balkans.
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17 Among the composers born before 1900 who studied at the Schola Cantorum are Dumitru Georgescu Kiriac, Gheorghe Cucu, Alfred Alessandrescu, Mihail Andricu, Dimitrie Cuclin and Stan Golestan.
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19 Gavriil Musicescu was the father of the famous piano professor Florica Musicescu who would later teach Dinu Lipatti.
20 Dima studied in Vienna, Graz and Leipzig, and Romanian historiography cites a review by Hans von Bülow noting the German influence in his lieder collection.
21 This nationalist interest in composers from areas under foreign rule before 1918 comes as no surprise. What is significant is the fact that both musicians composed a popular song that was later turned into a national anthem: with a modified text, Porumbescu’s Trei culori cunosc pe lume (Three Colours) became the anthem of the Socialist Republic of Romania during the Ceauşescu era (1965–1989), and Mureşianu’s Deşteaptă-te, române (Romanians Awake), inspired by a song by Anton Pann, is the current anthem of Romania (since 1990). What is more, Porumbescu’s chorus Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire (Unification is Written on Our Flag) became, after 1965, the anthem of the Front for Democracy and Socialist Unity, an organization for ‘all Romanian people’, which also accepted members from outside the Romanian Communist Party.
22 Cosma quotes the question of a historian: ‘who will become the Glinka of the Romanians and when?’. See Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 4, Romantismul, 1859–1898 (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1976): 501.
23 Caudella was of an Austrian family established in Bukovina. As a music teacher, he advised Enescu’s father to send the young George to study in Vienna.
24 Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 4, 534.
25 It is actually Rhapsody no. 20, S 242, published posthumously, under the title of Rhapsodie roumaine (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1936).
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27 An 1874 article from the French illustrated magazine La vie parisienne recounts (sources unknown) that in 1847, during his stay in Iaşi, Liszt was fascinated with the virtuosity of Barbu Lăutaru, who supposedly improvised on themes presented by a guest. The quotations from the French feuilleton are truly delicious; they are reproduced by Viorel Cosma in Lăutarii de ieri şi de azi (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1960): 36–40. No evidence supports this romantic anecdote, but it continues to be perpetuated with certainty and authentic admiration for the way Liszt paid homage to the Romanian fiddler.
28 Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 4, 41, quotes writer George Barițiu, opposed to the ‘scepticism of some scholars who believed Romanian songs cannot be set to music’.
29 See Jim Samson, ‘Nations and nationalism’, 568–600.
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36 Pârvulescu, În intimitatea secolului 19, 15.
37 The fundraising for the project gave rise to a famous saying of the period: ‘lend a leu to the Ateneu’.
38 The literary pseudonym of Elisabeth (1843–1916), Queen consort of Carol I.
39 Romanian folk songs, usually sung at Christmas, when people go carolling.
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42 Kiriac initiated and supported the publication of the Romanian folk melodies collected by Belá Bartók (in 1913) under the aegis of the Romanian Academy.
