History of Romanian Music

The age-old artistic tradition of the Romanian musical culture has its roots and specific features in the great European Latin culture of Daco-Thracian essence. Two essential sources are the basis of the native music of the Daco-Roman ancestors and the Christian religious creations of Byzantine origin. Unlike the neighbouring peoples (Bulgarians, Serbians, Hungarians, Russians, Ukrainians), who were christianized together, the Romanians, at the end of the ethnogenetic process, having been formed in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. on the territory of Dacia, had adopted Christianity from the local natives. Although isolated in the south-eastern part of the European continent, as a far-off island from the shores of the Latin world, the Romanian people has nevertheless preserved the "Seal of Rome"(Nicolae Iorga), both in vocabulary and especially in the sound of the language. For over two thousand years, archaeological sources attest the ancientness and originality of the Romanian musical culture.

If, since the period of the late Neolithic (2800-1900 BC) the potters of Cucuteni have represented the folk dance as a vessel in the form of a hora (round dance); if, from the Pontic cities on the shore of the Black Sea (Histria, Callatis, Tomis) precise archaeological evidence was preserved (inscriptions, stones, vessels, musical instruments, actor and musician figurines, coins, frescos, low relieves, rushlights, etc.) pointing out a flourishing artistic movement between the seventh century BC and the fourth century AD, in exchange - after Dacia was conquered by the Romans (106 AD)- the rituals and cults accompanied by music grow in frequency and are related to the origin of the Romanian folklore (Christmas carols, the daybreak song, the Calusari dance, the fir tree song). At the end of the ethnogenesis process of the Romanian people, there occurred a beneficial interference between the folk and the psaltic chant, both homophonic. Greek, considered the sacred language of the Byzantine chant, has penetrated since the Middle Ages the Romania church.

The Slavonic languages make its appearances only in the Renaissance period. The lectern chant is made in Greek and Slavonic alternatively for over a century. At the end of the sixteenth century, the Romanian church begins its struggle for imposing the national language, a process which will be materialized in the eighteen century by Filothei sin Agai Jipei's work of "Romaniazing" the church hymnsin Wallachia. In this context of religious independence appeared in the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries the Orthodox schools at the Neamt, Bistrita, Putna, and Scheii Brasovului monasteries. The written musical documents attest the first names of Romanian principalities (Filothei Cozianul, Evstatie Protopsaltul, Dometian Vlahul, Teodosie Zotica). On the model of the Latin Scholae of Western Europe, in the Romanian principalities (Tarile Romane) appeared the Schola Bistricensis (at Bistrita), the Schola Latina (at Cotnari)Schola Cornensis (at Brasov), the Collegium Bethlenianum (at Alba Iulia), where music was taught as part of the Septem artes liberales (the seven liberal arts). Humanists with an artistic musical calling such as Nicolaus Olahus, deacon Coresi, Johannes Caioni Vallahus, Johannes Kelpius Transylvanus, Johannes Honterus, Valentinus Greffius Coronensis (alias Bakfark), asserted themselves within the framework of these schools. Some natives musicians secured positions at the princely courts of France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Poland, while others crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. The Baroque period asserted at European level the personality of Dimitrie Cantemir, considered as "father to Turkish classical music", by inventing the first musical notation system, with Arab letters, of the Oriental creation.

The Independence War of 1877-1878 removed any foreign domination upon Romania. The country became a kingdom in 1881, and Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen became a king. After the Romanian Opera House came into beeing in 1877, after choir ensembles were introduced in the town churches, after all military regiments were endowed with brass bands conducted by native or foreign masters, after the first original vaudevilles and operettas were performed in Romanian on the stages of the National Theatres of Iasi, Bucharest, and Craiova, artistic life in Romania acquired a European lustre. The visits, concerts, and performances of great virtuosi, among whom mention should be made of Franz Liszt, Johann Strauss, Sigismund Thalberg, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Joachim, Pablo de Saraste, Henryk Wieniavski, lent to the musical movement a truly modern impetus. Adelina Patti's 1885-1886 performances in Bucharest were a triumph for the protagonist, but also a remarkable success of the singers of the Romanian Opera conducted by George Stefanescu.

The period between the national Independence War and the First World War (1914-1918), was dominated by artistic personalities of international fame, chief among them being George Enescu (1881-1955).

Composer, violinist, conductor, pianist and pedagogue, George Enescu assembled about him all forces capable of inspiring the native musical life with an air of modernity. From composers such as Eduard Caudella, George Stefanescu, Ciprian Porumbescu, Gheorghe Dima, Gavriil Musicescu, Iosif Ivanovici, Ion Vidu, Iacob Muresianu, to higly professional interpreters such as Elena Teodorini, Hariclea Darclee, Dimitrie Popovici-Bayreuth, Giovanni Dimitrescu, Alma Gluck, Nuovina who performed on the stages of the famous lyrical theatres La Scala, Covent Garden, Liveu, Colon and Metropolitan, a new generation of musicians consolidated the prestige of the national musical school. The Enescian creative model - his Symphonies, Romanian Rhapsodies, Orchestral Suites, Instrumental Sonatas and opera Oedipus - changed the conception of most composers who gained insight in the possibility of processing folklore themes into all universal classical forms and genres.

Following upon the achievement of the unitary national State in 1918, the decisive step was made in the interwar period (1920-1945) by a number of creators grouped in the Society of Romanian Composers founded in 1920. Wide-scope scores such as the operas Oedip by George Enescu, Napasta (The Plague) by Sabin Dragoi, Capra cu trei iezi (The Goat with Three Kids) by Alexandru Zirra, the ballet La Piata(At The Market) by Mihail Jora, but especially the symphonic and concert works signed by Mihail Jora, Mihail Andricu, Martian Negrea, Filip Lazar, Paul Constantinescu, Teodor Rogalski and others have enabled the self-assertion of interpreters of international fame such as George Georgescu, Ionel Perlea, Dinu Lipatti, George Boskoff, Clara Haskil, Maria Cebotari, Viorica Ursuleac. Musicology, musical criticism, folklorism, musical aestethics, and Byzantinism surged to the level of universal science owing to personalities such as George Breazul, Constantin Brailoiu, Dimitrie Cuclin, Ioan D. Petrescu, Mihail Jora, Emanoil Ciomac. It is not by chance that musicians such as Bela Bartok, Igor Strawinski, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel envisage Romania and come to stop at Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara. The first night performance of Enescu's lyrical tragedy Oedipus in Paris confirms the artistic ripening process of the native creation. The Carmen choir conducted by D. G. Kiriac and Ioan D. Chirescu, the Cantarea Romaniei choir (Romania's Praise) conducted by Marcel Botez, the Bucharest Philharmonic under George Georgescu's baton successfully play in concerts on various European artistic meridians.

The second half of the twentieth century marks perhaps one of the dramatic development stages of the Romania musical life. Indeed, paradoxically enough, in spite of major administrative achievements, the setting up of a dictatorial regime has slowed down the freedom of creation of a great generation of composers and the international circulation of genuine Romanian values. Among the achievements of the period, mention should be made, however, of the foundation of about twenty philharmonic and symphonic state orchestras, of over forty professional song and dance ensembles, of tense state lyrical theatres of dozens of elementary, secondary, an higher musical schools, of the setting up of the first record houses, musical publishing houses, museums and memorial houses and others. Nevertheless, an impressive number of musicians went to leave abroad in exile, leading a solitary isolated struggle for the prestige of Romanian art. They include George Enescu, Sergiu Celibidache, Constantin Brailoiu, Clara Haskil, Constantin Silvestri, Radu Aldulescu, Vladimir Orlov, Ileana Cotrubas, Viorica Cortez, Radu Lupu, Sergiu Comissiona, Lola Bobescu, Dinu Lipatti, Virginia Zeani and others.

Two generations of composers have nevertheless for half a century given brilliance to a vast spectrum of new musical forms and genres, of sound languages and styles linked to the latest universal artistic achievements. It is true that the post-Enescian generation adhered to the folk tradition, chief representatives of which were Paul Constantinescu, Mihail Jora, Paul Andricu, Ion Dumitrescu, Sigismund Toduta, Gheorghe Dumitrescu and Sabin Dragoi. But the vanguard generation discovered new solutions for the development of archetypal sound fund of the folk creation, creating pieces of doubtless originality. From the late Mihail Moldovan and Liviu Glodeanu (who died before reaching the age of fifty) to Tiberiu Olah, Pascal Bentoiu, Anatol Vieru, Aurel Stroe, Theodor Grigoriu, Stefani Niculescu, Cornel Taranu, Wilhelm Berger, Doru Popovici, Dumitru Capoianu, Myriam Marbe and others, Romanian creation reached the highest artistic pinnacle in its whole modern history. Even though the Romanian diaspora of the second half of the twentieth century has tried through Marcel Mihailovici, Violeta Dinescu, Sabin Pautza, Corneliu Dan Georgescu, Edgar and Vladimir Cosma, Adriana Holsky, to represent the composition school they originated from, nevertheless the essential place in the universal musical landscape is held today by the creators who have stoically faced the encroachments of the totalitarian communist regime.

A better fate in this period was that of the interpretative art, which, owing to a less restrictive international circulation, confirmed the values of the Romania vocal and instrumental school. Nicolae Herlea, David Ohanesian, Zenaida Pally, Elena Cernei, Ludovic Speiss, Eugenia Moldoveanu, Valentin Gheorghi, Ion Voicu, Stefan Ruha, Dan Iordachescu, Octav Enginarescu, together with conductors Mircea Basarab, Ion Baciu, Mihai Brediceanu, Iosif Conta, Cristian Mandeal, Horia Andreescu, Marin Constantin have kept awake world's attention on the Romanian talents. Likewise, the native ,musicology and byzantism have emerged from internal anonimity through the volumes and studies - some of them published abroad - by Zeno Vancea, Gheorghe Ciobanu, Romeo Chircoiasiu, Vasile Tomescu, Tiberiu Alexandru, Viorel Cosma, Titus Moisescu, Octavian Lazar Cosma, Emilia Comisel and others.

After the 1989 Revolution, a process took place of intersection and unification of common aspiration at all artistic levels, as musicians from inside and outside the country ceased to be separated by restrictive boundaries in the expression of the same aestethic ideal. Hundreds of interpreters from the diaspora permanent collaborators of the philarmoni orchestras and lyrical theatres from the homeland. Some of them have organized mastership and improvement courses for the young talents, and some provided improvement scholashipd abroad. Composers "went out" into the world. Romanian presence at international festivals gained a new dimension but not only by stability, but also by the massive participation of the young musicians. A new generation of opera singers, including Angela Burlacu, Ruxandra Donose, Leontina Vaduva, Simina Ivan, Felicia Filip, Iulia Isaev, Adina Nitescu, took over the relay of the Romanian vocal music school, asserting itself on the great stages of the world. The George Enescu, Dinu Lipatti, Cerbul de Aur (Golden Stag) International Festivals, and the "Jeunesse Musicale" Festival, have started with international collaborations. The Romanian creation began to be printed on compact discs, enjoying a popularization unknown in the past. In this connection, mention should be made of the Opera Omnia series devoted to George Enescu, in two exceptional interpretative visions signed by Cristian Mandeal and Horia Andreescu, as well as new recording of George Enescu's lyrical tragedy Oedipus, unedr the baton of Lawrens Foster.

There is no doubt that the end of the millenium foreshadows for the Romanian musical school the maximum turning to account of a latent artistic potential, which, once set free, will place in the context of the universal spiritual movement an original force already pointed out by the exegetists of world culture more than a quarter of century ago.