Murky Times and Ideologised Music in the Romania of 1938-1944
Murky Times and Ideologised Music in the Romania of 1938-1944

Summary/Abstract: An abundance of books and studies have been written about twentieth-century Romanian music, focusing on aspects of style, aesthetics and analytics, and on the histories of concert, operatic and educational institutions. The so volatile connexion between ideology and music has hitherto been dealt with only fleetingly, however. More often than not it has been deliberately avoided. In the period when music criticism and musicology had to find ways of getting past the censorship of one or another totalitarian regime (throughout the second half of the last century), those who wrote about music were wont to seek euphemisms and to avoid danger. In any event, the transition period between inter-war modernity and post-war socialist realism, the years leading up to the Second World War, have been little researched. We know what major musical works appeared in this period, but researchers have yet to turn the spotlight on the context in which these works were composed, on the political passions and opportunism reflected in musical scores placed in the service of totalitarian regimes that were very different and sometimes very similar: the regimes of King Carol II, the Iron Guard, Marshal Antonescu, and finally the communists. I therefore here propose brief overview that will serve as an invitation for more detailed research: a selection of information from the history of the Society of Romanian Composers, the press of the times (Universul literar and Cuvântul), and the works of Nello Manzatti (Ion Mânzatu).

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