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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2017
The abandonment in the early nineteenth century of the Ottoman military bands (mehterhâne and tabl-khāne) that had provided ceremonial music for the Romanian princes, and the establishment of Western-style military bands in the newly formed army, brought about a radical shift in the cultural paradigm that was to have an effect upon the entire spectrum of musical life in the capitals of the Romanian provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. This change occurred at two levels: on the one hand, musicians and the repertory current in noble salons were imported from the West, and, on the other, a native ethnic element was activated in a series of works and orchestrations based on folk themes. The present study examines the emergence, development and organization of the modern military bands in the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in the context of native musical practices and the transition of Romanian society from an oriental mentality to an outlook and behaviour specific to Western Europe, in the period from the nineteenth century to the War of Independence (1877).
1 Cosma, Octavian Lazăr, Hronicul muzicii româneşti, vol. 2 (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1974): 101 Google Scholar. For details of the acoustic mélange in the Romanian Principalities, see Gheorghiță, Nicolae, ‘Secular Music at the Romanian Princely Courts during the Phanariot Epoch (1711–1821)’, in Byzantine Chant between Constantinople and the Danubian Principalities: Studies in Byzantine Musicology (Bucharest: Editura Σοφία, 2010): 37–82 Google Scholar.
2 The literature in Romanian on this period is extensive. In English, there is a recent study by Constanţa Vintilă-Ghițulescu that investigates the phenomenon of Romanian society’s transition from oriental to Western practices: ‘Constructing a New Identity: Romanian Aristocrats between Oriental Heritage and Western Prestige’, in From Traditional Attire to Modern Dress: Modes of Identification, Modes of Recognitions in the Balkans (16th–19th Centuries), ed. Constanţa Vintilă-Ghițulescu (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2011): 104–28. Also see Vintilă-Ghițulescu, Constanţa, From Ișlic to Top Hat: Fashion and Luxury at the Gates of Orient (Valladolid: Iniciativa Mercurio, 2011)Google Scholar.
3 On musical relations between the Romanian Principalities and Austria, see Haiganuş Preda-Schimek, ‘Musical Ties of the Romanian Principalities with Austria between 1821 and 1859’, in Spaces of Identity: Tradition, Cultural Boundaries and Identity Formation in Central Europe and Beyond. Available online at http://soi.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/soi/article/view/7972 (accessed 17 August 2017).
4 O.L. Cosma, Hronicul muzicii româneşti, vol. 2, 115–17. Haiganuş Preda-Schimek has investigated the peculiarities of musical life in the Romanian salons of the first half of the nineteenth century: ‘Entre Orient et Occident: de l’hétérogénéité de la pratique musicale dans les salons roumains vers 1830’, in Lieux communs de la multiculturalité urbaine en Europe Centrale, ed. Delphine Bechtel and Xavier Galmiche (Paris: Univ. de Paris, Sourbonne, 2009): 29–41. See also Dan Dumitru Iacob, ‘Viaţa muzicală a elitelor din Iaşi şi Bucureşti în prima jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea’, in Historia Urbana/Urban History 20 (2012): 89–135.
5 Received as a gift from the High Porte, together with the insignia of rule, from the seventeenth century onward and perhaps even earlier, the ‘prince’s military music’, as English traveller Thomas Thornton called it, represented not only one of the most important privileges that could be conferred upon the rulers of these lands, but also, in symbolic form, the sovereignty of the Crescent moon in the Romanian space. See The Present State of Turkey; or a Description of the Political, Civil, and Religion Constitution, Government, and Laws, of the Ottoman Empire … Together with Geographical, Political and Civil State of the Principalities of Moldavia and Walachia … (London: Printed for J. Mawman, 1807: 410). For details of the evolution of this ensemble in the Romanian Principalities, see Gheorghiță, ‘Secular Music’, esp. 43–53.
6 Teodor Burada, ‘Cercetări asupra muzicii ostăşeşti la români’, in Opere, vol. 1, part I (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1974): 243, 253. However, it seems that the efforts to alter the structure of court music, to reorganize the mehterhâne, and to introduce European-style bands to military garrisons began in 1823, when Pietro Ferlendis di Padua (1795–1848) received authorization from the princely court of Wallachia. See Cosma, O.L., Hronicul muzicii româneşti, vol. 3 (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1975): 154–155 Google Scholar. But the final decision belonged to Hetman Grigore Alexandru Ghica (the future prince of Moldavia), who in 1838 issued an ukase to replace the mehterhâne with a ‘band of the Ștabul Oștirii and palace orchestra’. See Breazul, George, Pagini din istoria muzicii româneşti , vol. 1 (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1966): 100 Google Scholar.
7 Albina românească no. 72 (18 September 1830): 307.
8 The document can be found in the Iaşi, State Archives, Miliția Pămîntească fund no. 15/1830, 1, and states the following: ‘From the money received … for the expenses of training the Guard of Moldavia let Monsieur Ruzhinskiy give twelve thousand one hundred and fifty-one lei, twenty-five parale … which according to the contract shall take into account the bringing of musicians, instruments and scores from abroad’.
9 Cosma, Viorel, Muzicieni din România: Lexicon biobibliografic. Compozitori, muzicologi, folcloriști, bizantinologi, critici muzicali, profesori, editori , vol. 8 (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 2005): 206 Google Scholar. In the documents his name is spelled variously: Rușițca, Rusisco, Rușitschi, Rujitzchi, Ruschinszki, Roushinski etc. See Ciobanu, Gheorghe, Muzica instrumentală, vocală și psaltică în secolele XVI–XIX , vol. 2 (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1978): 47 Google Scholar.
10 Musique orientale. 42 Chansons et danses, Moldaves, Valaques, Grecs et Turcs (Iaşi: Litographie l’Abeille, 1834). The publication is the largest and most important collection of Romanian musical works for piano from the first half of the nineteenth century. It seems that the only two copies that exist today are in the State Archives in St Petersburg (Kisseleff fund) and the George Breazul fund of the library of the Union of Romanian Composers and Musicologists in Bucharest (UCMR). Although the title suggests there are 42 melodies, both the known copies contain only 40 pieces: 33 Moldavian melodies, 3 Wallachian melodies, 2 Turkish melodies, and 2 Greek melodies. See Ciobanu, Muzica instrumentală, 47.
11 See note 8 above.
12 The list of the 22 donors was published in Albina Românească no. 25 (18 September 1830).
13 Speaking of fund-raising in Iaşi, writer Gheorghe Asachi (1788–1869) records the following: ‘imbued with the feeling and awareness of all those who work towards the happiness, enlightenment, cultivation and improvement of the Moldo-Romanian nation, they did not hesitate to greet joyfully the assistance with the expenses demanded, for the training of the band required by the corpus of the infantry’. Albina Românească no. 72 (8 September 1830): 307. See also Curierul românesc (September 1830).
14 Burada calls them nemți (Germans). But I think he is referring to the fact that they spoke German, which would not rule out that the instrumentalists were in fact Austrians. Burada, ‘Cercetări asupra muzicii ostăşeşti’, 245.
15 Iaşi, State Archives, Miliția Pămîntească fund, no. 15/1830, sheets 39–41. See also Burada, ‘Cercetări asupra muzicii ostăşeşti’, 244–5.
16 Burada, ‘Cercetări asupra muzicii ostăşeşti’, 245.
17 For details on the life of this musician, see V. Cosma, Muzicieni din România, vol. 4 (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 2001): 33–4.
18 Iaşi, State Archives, Miliția Pămîntească fund, no. 15/1830 Iaşi, sheet 39.
19 Albina românească no. 30 (27 August 1831): 116.
20 Burada, ‘Cercetări asupra muzicii ostăşeşti’, 253.
21 Poslușnicu, Mihail Grigore, Istoria muzicei la români (Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 1928): 556 Google Scholar.
22 Information supplied to Burada by Lieutenant-Colonel Dimitrie Papazoglu. Burada, ‘Cercetări asupra muzicii ostăşeşti’, 253, n. 2. See also Poslușnicu, Istoria muzicei, 553–6.
23 O.L. Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 3, 167.
24 Haiganuş Preda-Schimek has written a comprehensive study analysing complex trans-European musical relations in the salons of the nineteenth-century Balkans. See Preda-Schimek, , ‘Music in the Salons of Central and South-Eastern Europe: Preliminary Considerations for Cross-regional Research’, in Poetics and Politics of Place in Music, ed. Ruta Stanevičiūte and Lina Navickaitė (Helsinki: Umweb Publications, 2009): 217–229 Google Scholar. Available online at www.kakanien.ac.at/beitr/fallstudie/HPreda-Schimek1, pp. 1–5 (accessed 6 December 2011).
25 Iaşi, State Archives, Miliția Pămîntească fund, no. 15/1830, sheets 40, 41.
26 O.L. Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 3, 235.
27 A forerunner of the ’48 generation, Gheorghe Asachi was a Romanian poet, prose writer and playwright, the editor of numerous literary magazines, a cultural guide in various fields, and one of the founders of the Mihăileană Academy in Iaşi. It was also Asachi who organized the first theatrical performances in Romanian (1816) and laid the foundations of the Philharmonic and Dramatic Conservatory (1836) in the same city.
28 Iaşi, State Archives, Miliția Pămînteasc fund, no. 410/1835, leaf 3.
29 Gazeta de Moldova no. 58 (1850).
30 Burada, ‘Cercetări asupra muzicii ostăşeşti’, 248.
31 Preda-Schimek, ‘Musical Ties of the Romanian Principalities’, 108.
32 ‘Către Oștirea românească’, Buletin. Gazeta administrativă (Bucharest) 19 (1850): 149, 302. The practice was quite common at the time, being recorded as early as 1845, when Prince Gheorghe Bibescu (1804–1873) rewarded ‘under-officer musician’ Ioniță Țonea with a rise in wages for ‘his long 15-year service’ in the army. ‘Către Oștire’, Buletin. Gazeta administrativă (Bucharest) 14 (1845): 260.
33 Demidov, Anatole, Voyage dans la Russie Méridionale et la Crimée par la Hongrie, la Valachie et la Moldavie exécuté en 1837 (Paris: Bourdin, 1837)Google Scholar: plate 18.
34 As a piano teacher in private houses in Iaşi, Herfner assembled a collection of Romanian folk songs in 1839 (see Burada, ‘Studiu asupra muzicii românești’, in Opere, vol. 1: 310). This is probably the same as the collection known under the title Anonymus Moldavus (MS 629, UCMR, George Breazul fund). O.L. Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 3, 84. The whole collection has been published by Ciobanu, Gheorghe, Culegeri de folclor și cântece de lume (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1976): 185–212 Google Scholar.
35 Albina românească no. 88 (8 November 1845): 351–2.
36 See the letter by Florian, Aron (Bucharest, 12th June 1848), in George Bariț și contemporanii săi, ed. Ștefan Pascu, Ioan Chindriș and Titus Moraru, vol. I (Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1973): 68 Google Scholar.
37 For the history and circulation of this anthem outside the borders of the Principalities, see Viorel Cosma, ‘De la Hora Unirii la Hora Griviței. Contribuții inedite asupra cântecului patriotic’, in Exegeze muzicologice (Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, 1984): 163–5.
38 Initially, this road was named Podul Mogoșoaiei (Mogoșoaia Bridge), as it was paved with wooden trunks. The road was renamed Calea Victoriei (Victory Avenue) on 12 October 1878, following the Romanian victory in the Independence War of 1877–1878.
39 Bucharest, State Archives, Comisia alcătuită pentru cercetarea celor amestecați în fapte revoluționare fund, dossier 47/1849, leaf 1r–v (The Interrogation of Costache Halepliu).
40 Bucharest, State Archives, Comisia alcătuită pentru cercetarea celor amestecați în fapte revoluționare fund, dossier 12/1489, leaf 3 (The Interrogation of Costache Steriadi).
41 Bucharest, State Archives, Departamentul ostășesc fund, dossier no. 130/1848, leaf 26; dossier no. 106/1848, leaf 43v.
42 A composer, Kapellmeister, concert violinist and pedagogue, Ludwig Anton Wiest (1819–1889) was born in Vienna and settled in Bucharest in 1839, where he later became conductor of the National Theatre Orchestra, the Princely Court Opera and the Italian Opera. See Poslușnicu, Istoria musicei, 280–82.
43 ‘Poruncă. Către Oștirea Românească’, Buletin Oficial al prințipatului Țării Românești (Bucharest) no. 51 (3 July 1850): 201.
44 Besides the works mentioned, by 1848 Pascu Purcărea had composed other marches that were already part of the repertoire of the bands of regiments 1 and 3. Bucharest, State Archives, Departamentul ostășesc fund, dossier 96/1848, leaf 177.
45 For details, see V. Cosma, ‘Un marș revoluționar inedit de la 1848’, in Exegeze muzicologice, 103–16. See also Mari Dogaru and Viorel Cosma, ‘Marșul revoluționar În numele guvernului’, in Cosma, Marte și Euterpe: Muzică și Armată. Eseuri, studii, cronici muzicale (1946–1996) (Bucharest, Editura Universalia, 1996): 32–43.
46 Monitorul Oastei no. 28, vol. 2 (1860).
47 Composers Alexandru Flechtenmacher, Dimitrie G. Florescu, Ludwig Anton Wiest, Alexandru Berdescu, Ioan Andrei Wachmann, Grigore Bengescu (Director of Theatres) and Colonel Manu.
48 Imnul oficial al Principatelor Unite, in Monitorul Oastei, 22 January 1862, 108–9.
49 See, for example, the presence of military bands at the ceremonies for Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza in Bucharest: ‘On Sunday, the eighth of the month, Prince Alexandru Ioan I made his entry into the country’s capital … From the pavilion as far as almost the end of the chaussée to Băneasa the troops were lined up. The gendarmes, police, cavalry, artillery, surgical school, General Staff band, and infantry all presented arms to receive his highness’. See Dîmbovița no. 35 (11 February 1859).
50 Resboiul no. 36 (27 August 1877): 2.
51 It seems that more than 200 such works were printed during the war and in the years that immediately followed. See Elena Zottoviceanu, ‘Războiul de Independență și creația muzicală vocală și instrumentală a secolului al XIX-lea’, in Popasuri în trecutul muzicii românești. Studii (Bucharest, Editura Muzicală, 2006): 205.
52 Town near the Danube, in the north of present-day Bulgaria.
53 Vulpian, Dimitrie, Horele noastre, vol. II, series B (Leipzig: Oskar Brandstetter, 1908)Google Scholar.
54 Bucharest, National Archives of Romania, Departamentul ostășesc fund, dossier 110/1836, leaf 142.
55 O.L. Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 3, 151.
56 O.L. Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 3, 170.
57 S. Sava, ‘Corul cîntăreților Ștabului Oștirii’, in Studii de muzicologie 1 (1956): 11. See also O.L. Cosma, Hronicul muzicii românești, vol. 3, 151.
58 Iaşi, State Archives, Miliția Pămîntească fund, no. 512/1849, tr. 1710, opis 1842.
59 Burada, ‘Corurile bisericești de muzică vocală armonică în Moldova’, in Idem, Opere I, 289.
60 Alexandru Marinescu, Din alte vremuri. Scrisoarea unui veteran de la 1877, in Cuvîntul grăniceresc 20 April 1938, 4. Cited in V. Cosma, ‘De la Hora Unirii la Hora Griviței. Contribuții inedite asupra cântecului patriotic (1859–1877)’, in Idem, Exegeze muzicologice, 168.
61 V. Cosma, ‘De la Hora Unirii la Hora Griviței’, 168.
62 V. Cosma, ‘De la Hora Unirii la Hora Griviței’, 171. Liviu Leonte, among others, disagrees with Cosma‘s attribution to Rossini. See Liviu Leonte, preface to Costache Negruzzi, Opere (Bucharest: Minerva,1974).
63 High Decree no. 738 (11 May 1867).
64 Étude sur l’organisation définitive des musiques militaires dans les états militaires d’Europe. A copy survives in the Library of the Military Music Service in Bucharest.
65 Monitorul Oastei 20 July 1879, 283.
66 Monitorul Oastei 22 July 1879, 223.
67 Monitorul Oastei 30 September 1880, 2.
68 Ministerial Decision no. 54 (18 May 1898).
69 Italian in origin, but born in Alexandria (Egypt), into a family of musicians, Massini had an extensive conducting career before settling permanently in Bucharest in 1914. In 1932 he was appointed head of the General Inspectorate of Military Bands, carrying out numerous beneficial reforms to the system. Among other things, his name is also connected to the founding and organization of the Army Symphonic Orchestra (25 August 1939) and the establishment of the Review of Army Bands (15 February 1939). For details, see Cosma, Viorel, Dirijorul Egizio Massini (Bucharest: Editura Geneze, 1998)Google Scholar.