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A Preliminary Investigation of Music, Socialist Realism, and the Romanian Experience, 1948–1959: (Re)reading, (Re)listening, and (Re)writing Music History for a Different Audience

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 26; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Romeno

10.1080/01411890701354446

1547-7304

Joel Crotty,

Eastern European Communism and Reforms

Abstract Once the communists gained control of Romania in early 1948, they quickly set about implementing the Stalinist agenda of a centrally planned, state-owned economy and the complete reordering of intellectual and artistic life. The new Romanian political elite adopted without question the Soviet ideal of socialist realism as the way to bring artists into line with political ideology. But as Geoffrey Hosking suggests, "The official [Soviet Socialist Realist] doctrine was essentially non-committal, a more or less empty shell whose content was to be provided by the writers themselves. Socialist Realism may have been imposed by politicians, but it was created by writers …." What did composers create in the early days of the Romanian People's Republic? How do we view such material today, in a world no longer divided along communist and non-communist lines? If history is the "texted" past, then in what ways can we (re)text Romania's music-communist past? Acknowledgments I would like to thank Dr. Kay Dreyfus and the appointed referees for this paper for their advice. Notes 2E. M. Simmonds-Duke, "Was the Peasant Uprising a Revolution? The Meanings of a Struggle Over the Past," Eastern European Politics and Societies 1/2 (1987), 187. 3Romanians have also dubbed the 1950s as the "obsessive years," which reflects the fearful period as the communists consolidated their grasp on power. See Ioan Aurel Pop, Romanians and Romania: A Brief History (Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1999), 141. 4For a relatively uncritical account of the abdication from the monarchy's point of view, see Ivor Porter, Michael of Romania: The King and the Country (Phoenix Mill, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2005). 5Simmonds-Duke, 200. 6Tom Gallagher, Theft of a Nation: Romania Since Communism (London: Hurst, & Company, 2005), 47–8. 7Kenneth Jowitt, Revolutionary Breakthroughs and National Development: The Case of Romania 1944–1965 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), 7. 8Dennis Deletant, Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948–1965 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), 87–8. 9Duncan Light, Ion Nicolae, and Suditu Bogdan, "Toponymy and the Communist City: Street Names in Bucharest, 1948–1965," GeoJournal 56 (2002), 135–44. 10Anon, "Rumanian People Mourn the Great Leader," British-Rumanian Bulletin 46 (April, 1953), 4–6. 11Katherine Verdery, The Political Lives of Dead Bodies (New York: Columbia Press, 1999), 6. 12Vaclav Kopecky, "Against Cosmopolitanism for Socialist Patriotism," For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy, April 4, 1952, 3. 13Ferenc Fehér, Agnes Ferenc, and György Márkus, Dictatorship Over Needs: An Analysis of Soviet Societies (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983), 201. 14The only substantial published study of Socor's music is Grigore Constantinescu, Matei Socor (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1983). While it is a good resource for his music, the sociopolitical context is not strong, as it was published during the darkest days of the Ceauşescu regime and was encouraged by Socor's wife. Interview with Grigore Constantinescu, Bucharest, May 26, 2005. 15See Robert Levy, Ana Pauker: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Communist (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). 16Interview with Viorel Cosma, Bucharest, October 29, 2004. 17Anon., Musica Sovietica: Documentar privitor la Rezoluţia Comitetului Central al Partidului Comunist (bolşevic) din Februarie 1948 [Soviet Music: Document referring to the resolutions for the Central Committee of the Communist Party in February 1948] (Bucharest: A. R. L. U. S. Centrul de Documentare, 1948). 18Quoted in Aristide Burillianu, "Cultural life," in Captive Romania: A Decade of Soviet Rule, ed. Alexandru Cretzianu (New York: Praeger, 1956), 155; see also Valentina Sandu-Dediu, Muzica românească între 1944–2000 [Romanian Music Between 1944–2000] (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 2002), 13–25. 19Geoffrey Hosking, Beyond Socialist Realism: Soviet Fiction Since Ivan Denisovitch (London: Granada Publishing, 1980), 6. 20Anon, "Songs of Peace and happiness," For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy, September 14, 1951, 4. 21Quoted in Anon, "Music for the masses," News from Behind the Iron Curtain 2/1 (1953), 47. 22For all the space that Muzica devoted to ideological matters, the Communist Party mouthpiece Contemporanul in 1952 still found room to take issue with the music journal's lack of content for "… combating the influences of bourgeois ideology … ." Quoted in Burillianu, 155. 23Nicolae Balcescu (1819–52) was a prominent activist for the abolition of serfdom and was a member of the short-lived provisional government that was installed after the 1848 revolution in Wallachia. Tudor Vladimirescu (c.1770–1821) was a political leader who led a successful revolt against the Ottoman empire in 1821. During his brief reign, he set about establishing agrarian reform. It was this aspect that led the communists to bring him into their pantheon of heroes. 24Klepper (b.1929) might have been committed to the communist cause, though possibly in name only, for when the opportunity arose to flee to the West in 1984, he migrated to West Germany. 25S. Georgescu, "Works by young Rumanian composers performed for the first time," Rumania Today 8 (1960), 40. 26Interview with Dumitriu Capoianu, Bucharest, October 24, 2004; and Vasile Timiş, Bucharest, October 25, 2004. 27According to Vladimir Tismaneanu, Leonte Răutu (1910–93) was "… the dictator of Romanian culture until Gheorghiu-Dej's demise. After 1956, Răutu had practically no superior except for Dej, who was little interested in the intrigues of cultural life." See Vladimir Tismaneanu, Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 268. 28Leonte Răutu, "Development of Literature in Rumanian People's Republic," For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy, February 19, 1954, 3. 29English translations of Romanian song lyrics are by Carol Kalauz and the author. The original Romanian texts may be found in Appendix 1. 30 Utecist = Member of the Romanian Union of Communist Youth. 31 Utemist = Member of the Romanian Union of Working Youth. 32Jiří Fukač, "Socialist Realism in Music: An Artificial System of Ideological and Aesthetic Norms," in Socialist Realism and Music, ed. Mikuláš Bek, Geoffrey Chew, and Petr Macek (Prague: KLP, 2004), 20. 33Quoted in Constantin Iordachi and Balazs Trencsenyi, "In Search of a Useable Past: The Question of National Identity in Romanian Studies, 1990–2000," East European Politics and Societies 17/3 (2003), 449. 34Fukač, 20. 35Miklós Haraszti, The Velvet Prison: Artists Under State Socialism (New York: Basic Books, 1987), 122. 36"În tot cuprinsul condicii de procese verbale ale Comisiei de Îndrumare pentru Muzica Simfonică şi de Cameră de la Uniunea Compozitorilor, nu se află măcar o singură dată pomenit cuvântul realism sau cel de realism socialist. Aproape 180 de pagini de condică reprezentând numai ultimii 2 ani de activitate a acestei comisii sunt pline de aprecieri ce aparţin ideologiei idealist burgheze şi decadente în artă, menite să orienteze pe compozitori atât pe cei mai în vârstă, cât mai ales pe cei mai tineri, către o muzică formalistă, antirealistă, cosmopolită, decadentă, anitdemocratică şi prin aceasta antipopulară, cultivând şi făcând apologia unei muzici disonante, cacofonice, atonale, dodecafonice, seriale etc., repudiată după cum se ştie, de către publicul iubitor de muzică, ca şi de către muzicienii cinstiţi din ţara noastră. Dacă pentru Comisia aceastra de Îndrumare termenul de realism nu are nici o în schimb o serie de alţi termeni ca "avansat", "contemporan", "evoluat", "îndrăznet", "actual", "interesant", etc. apar în condica respectivă la fiecare pas, lăsând astfel să se creadă că prin aceştia caracterul progresist al muzicii este avut în vedere. O confruntare cu realitatea însă, o analiză mai serioasă şi mai amănunţită, făcută asupra compoziţiunilor atât de elogios apreciate ne lămureşte pe dată că de fapt în mod concret nu este vorba nicidecum despre o muzică progresistă şi realistă, ci de cu totul altceva." Quoted in Beatrice Lupu, "Uniunea compozitorilor în arhivele securităţii (I)" [The Composers' Union in the Securitate archives (I)], Muzica 15/3 (2004), 76–7. See also the continuation of her exploration of the Union of Composers and the Securitate archives throughout Muzica in 2005 and some of 2006 (these were not sighted by the author). Translations from Romanian into English are by Carol Kalauz and the author. 37Interview with Ilinca Dumitrescu, Bucharest, May 24, 2005. 38Ghita Ionescu, Communism in Rumania 1944–1962 (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), 176; and Tismaneanu, 268. 39 See Jeffrey Brooks, Thank You, Comrade Stalin (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000), 123. 40Interview with Octavian Lazăr Cosma, Bucharest, October 26, 2004. 41See Sandu-Dediu, 13–4; and Nicolae Moldovan, Dimitrie Cuclin: omul, gânditorul şi compozitorul [Dimitrie Cuclin: man, thinker and composer], (Galaţi: Editura Alma Galaţi, 2001), 48–9. For a positive spin on the Danube-Black Sea, project see Cicerone Teodorescu, "Life on the Danube-Black Sea Canal," British-Rumanian Bulletin 44 (1952), 17, and 46 (1953), 3. 42"Era perioada când suspiciunile, denunţurile se ţineau lanţ." Octavian Lazăr Cosma Universul muzicii româneşti: Uniunea compozitorilor şi muzicologilor din România (1920–1995) [The Universals of Romanian music: the Union of Composers and Musicologists in Romania (1920–1995)], (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1995), 205. 43 Anon, "Compozitorii luptă pace" [Composers fight for peace], Muzica 1 (1950), 20. 44Interview with Dumitru Capoianu, Bucharest. 45For an excellent introduction to Andricu's music, see Ruxandra Arzoiu, Mihail Andricu: Schiţă monografică [Mihail Andricu: sketch monograph] (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1999). 46Interview with Theodor Grigoriu, Bucharest, October 26, 2004. 47Doru Popovici, Muzica româneascâ în "Obsedantul deceniu" [Romanian music in the "Obsessive decade"] (Bucharest: Editura "Amurg sentimental," 2005), 17. 48Interview with Theodor Grigoriu, Bucharest. 49Totalitarian language style, with its reliance on clichés, is well represented here. For a good introduction to totalitarian language and music, see Monika Kroupová, "Totalitarian language and its Role in Czech Musical Journals in the Late 1940s and Early 1950s," in Bek, Chew, and Macek, 256–61. 50"Mihail Andricu aruncă o umbră neagră pe unde trece, jigneşte pămintul pe care calcă. La Academie şi la Uniune el constituie o ruşine, pătează cinstea intelectualităţii ţarii noastre, a imensei majorităti a intelelectualităţii devotate poporului nostru şi partidului nostru. Această pată trebuie indepărtată. Ea trebuie să dispară. Lumea l-a crezut maestru al muzicii, dar el s-a dovedit maestru al calomniei şi al minciunii. Este oare in această ţară un om care să-l poată ierta? Răspunsul nostru este: NU! Au mai luat civîntul şi alţi participanţi la adunare, muncitori, muzicieni, sciitori, care au condamnat înstrăinarea lui Mihail Andricu de năzuinţele poporului, activitatea lui antipatriotică şi duşmănoasă de defăimare a ţării noastre şi a poporului muncitor. In tot cursul dezbaterilor participanţii au manifestat hotărirea fermă a muncitorimii şi intelectualităţii de a nu-şi cruţa vigilenţa şi de a smulge masca oricui dintre eceia care, puţini la număr, ar incerca să reediteze fapte murdare ca ale lui Andricu denigrind ţara şi calomniind poporul nostru munca lui paşnică şi avintată pentru făurirea unui viitor fericit. Ca o adevărată manifestare de înaltăprincipialitate de poternică combativitate şi de neiertătoare exigenţă morală, adunarea a afirmat relaţiile de frăţească indestructibilă colaborare între muncitori şi intelectuali, ataşamentul de neclintit al intelectualităţrii noastre devotamentul ei neprecupeţit pentru cauza măreaţă a întregului popor muncitor, care, sub conducerea înţeleaptă a gloriosului nostru partid, construieşte cu mintea şi braţele lui Romînia socialistă." Anon., "A deplorable wreck of the past, judged by the public opinion," Contemporanul, May 1, 1959, 5. 51Lupu, 84. 52Interview with Theodor Grigoriu. 53Lupu, 84. 54Arzoiu, 36 55Popovici, 140. 56Leonard Cassini, Music in Rumania (London: Fore Publications, 1954), 21. 57Cassini, 23. 58One of these Union-sponsored holidays was captured in Rumania Today, in which photographs, taken by composer Paul Constantinescu, show Ion Dumitrescu, Mihail Jora, Alfred Mendelsohn, Ion Vasilescu, and Sabin Drăgoi enjoying a cruise on the Danube. Anon., "Musicians at Cazane," Rumania Today 10 (1957), 30–1. 59Gheorghe Boldur-Lătescu, The Communist Genocide in Romania, trans. Daniel Teodorescu (New York, Nova Science Publishers, 2005), [18]. 60Dennis Deletant, "The Securitate Legacy in Romania," in Security Intelligence Services in New Democracies: The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, eds. Kieran Williams and Dennis Deletant (Houndsmills, UK: Palgrave, 2001), 160. 61For further prison and labor camp statistics see Deletant, "The Securitate Legacy," 167 and 169–70. 62Academic Claudia Postelnicescu suggests that contemporary political parties in Romania prefer not to hold to any ideological positions, but rather engage in sweeping pragmatism. Claudia Poselnicescu, "Beyond left and right: how can Romanian political parties reconnect with voters?" Vivid 84 (December, 2006), 14–5. 63Susanne Marten-Finnis, "Collective memory and national identities: German and Polish memory cultures, the forms of collective memory," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 28/2 (1995), 255. 64Sandu-Dediu, Muzica românească; Popovici, Muzica româneascâ; Cosma, Universul muzicii româneşti; Speranţa Rădulescu, Peisaje muzicale in Romania secolului XX (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 2002); Anca Guirchescu, "The National Festival 'Song to Romania': Manipulation of Symbols in the Political Discourse," in Symbols of Power: The Esthetics of Political Legitimisation in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, ed. Claes Arvidsson and Lars Erik Blomquist (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell International, 1987). 65Fukač, 17. 66Chew and Bek, 10; and see Boldur-Lătescu, 45–6. 67Quoted in Jean-Jacques Nattiez, "Can One Speak of Narrativity in Music," Journal of the Royal Musical Association 14 (1989), 244. 68Haraszti, 121. 69Chew and Bek, 10. 70Nicholas Timiras, "Communist literature in Romania," Journal of Central European Affairs 14/4 (1955), 377–80.