Mihail Jora’s Ballets
Mihail Jora’s Ballets

Summary/Abstract: This paper brings into discussion one of Mihail Jora’s favorite musical genres: the ballet. Between 1928 and 1966, the Romanian composer wrote six such works: La piaţă (At the Market), Demoazela Măriuţa (Miss Mary), Curtea veche (The Old Court), Când strugurii se coc (When Grapes are Ripe), Întoarcerea din adâncuri (Return from the Deep), Hanul Dulcineea (Dulcineea Inn). From one ballet to the other, one can notice changes in conception, content, aesthetics or even ideology, sometimes outright surprising, that are not disassociated with certain shifts in the composer’s biography, inevitably influenced by the socio-political events that have left a mark on Romania’s history – the two World Wars and the installment of the communist regime. Aspects like creation and biographical interfaces; characters; sonic sources; harmonic conception; rhythm and orchestration offer a perspective on Jora’s ballets.

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