Interview with SPERANŢA RĂDULESCU of Ethophonie, Romania

There can be few people better qualified to talk about Romanian folk music than Speranţa Rădulescu. She is a Doctor of Musicology, manages the Ethnophonie music label, and is currently Head Researcher in the Ethnomusicology department of the Romanian Peasant's Museum, Bucharest.

Since the 1960s she has studied music, particularly the true ethnic folk music of her native Romania. Her research work in Ethnomusicology has included such topics as dance music, the lyrical song, general peasant music typology, the lautari folk musicians and their status in the rural community, and Gypsy music. Over the years she has been involved in many folk music studies and activities; these include research, recording, production, music concerts, publishing and seminars both abroad and in Romania.

July 2002

Ian Morrison (IM) How and when did Ethnophonie start?

Speranţa Rădulescu (SR) It started exactly 11 years ago. At that time, I was preparing for a concert with the musicians who later became famous as 'Haidouk ensemble'. The concert was a huge success. My late director – a great painter and a refined connoisseur in Romanian traditional music, Horia Bernea – asked me to put their music on a cassette. In turn, I asked him for money. He didn’t have any, all he could offer was 100 blank cassettes and some paper. Helped by some friends and young colleagues, I produced a digital master of the Haidouks music and made manual copies of it. The cassettes were accompanied by a presentation paper, copied on an old xerox machine and cut manually. I sold them in the Peasant Museum’s library, I took the money received for them and I made some 200 more cassettes, with other music and musicians. I chose the name 'Ethnophonie' for the series of records, even if I wasn’t sure I would be able to produce the second, the third, the fourth record.

It wasn’t easy. Fortunately I had some experience in recordings, earned in Romania (producing the 'Document' series of recordings, 1982-1984) and abroad (Switzerland, France). Meanwhile, I produced a dozen CDs in France, USA, and Germany and I organized concert tours with lots of Romanian peasant musicians, in France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Holland. But the Ethnophonie series could hardly be kept running. In 1997, I gave up with it: I couldn’t carry on anymore without any material help. However in 1999 I  took a Euroart grant, I selected a small and very serious team (three persons) and I started afresh. Now, we are a well- known label in Romania. A small one, but a good one.


(2) Etnophonie crew - Costin and Steliana

IM What are the objectives of the label?

SR What are our objectives? To promote the genuine traditional music which still exist in Romania.

As with every country under communist rule, Romania encouraged, during 50 years, the folklore – i.e. a music founded on the tradition, but 'arranged' (i.e. debased) in order to satisfy the political and esthetical requirements of the unique party, to present the Romanian (to themselves and to foreigners) into a false, optimistic light.

Nowadays, I know (as do my permanent and devoted collaborators, Costin Moisil and Steliana Mocanu) that nobody in Romania intends to produce a single record containing genuine traditional music. We feel that it is our duty. We know also that the general public in Romania is accustomed to folkloric music and, for the moment, does not appreciate very much the traditional one. But we are determined to keep producing it, because it is necessary as a cultural testimony for the future; it is also necessary to push/determine the Romanians to confront themselves with their true image, not a false one.

We decided to record peasant, urban and religious traditional music from all over the country and release them on cassettes and CDs. Romanian music, but also the music of other ethnic groups, such as Hungarians, Jews, Ukrainians, and Gypsies. We are looking for very good music, which is not very easy to find. As a matter of fact, the Ethnophonie series is a sonorous anthology of the traditional music in modern Romania. We are not interested in very new, mixed up music, even if it is widespread in the country. This music is promoted by all record companies and the media, they do not need our 'help'. On the contrary, there is no media interested in the peasant music – this is dying and really needs help.

IM How do you decide on who and where to record?

SR We prefer:

-       very good music;

-       highly improvised music;

-      played and/or sung by individuals and small groups of musicians (traditional bands, i.e. taraf), if possible in the regular context of their production (at countryside, at wedding parties, at the cradle, during the religious service etc.)

-      different kinds of music (ritual or non-ritual, belonging to different genres, from different regions of the country and different ethnic groups);

-       music on the verge of extinction.

We avoid:

-       the official stars of the Romania media;

-       the huge folklore ensembles ;

-       the fine-art musicians casually playing folklore

-       the studio recordings.

IM Can you elaborate on what is termed the 'archaic' and 'rural' layers in Romanian folk music? In particular perhaps where improvisation comes into folk music?

SR It is difficult – if not impossible – to separate 'archaic' and 'new/modern' layers in music, because both  strata coexist in music, either in the concrete modern musical pieces, or in the manner of playing/changing/improvising music. Nevertheless, we have criteria helping us to establish if the 'archaic' or 'modern' style is predominant in one case or in another.

Yes, we clearly prefer the predominantly 'archaic' pieces: because we want to preserve their dying traces; and also because usually they are fresher, beautiful, spontaneous, sincere, more expressive and better balanced in every respect.

(3) September 2001, during a concert in the the yard of Ioan Pop from Hoteni. From left to right: Ioan Covaci (Ionu' lu' Grigore i.e. John son of Gregory) - fiddle; Ioan Pop - viola; Nicolae Pitis - flute

IM The recordings of Emil Mihaiu and his band are somewhat unique as they give two musical points of view, can you explain this? Do they bridge a gap between Hungarians and Romanians?

SR The recordings of Emil Mihaiu’s band are really unique. But in the real life of Transylvanian people, it happens quite often that popular musicians play Romanian, Hungarian, Gypsy, sometimes even Jewish and German music, in different circumstances, adopting each time the point of view of their main beneficiary. Perhaps Emil and his band do that better that others, because they are better musicians.

Do they bridge a gap?… Yes, of course. But, once again, they are not the only ones.

On the other hand, don’t overlook the fact that for the first time the music of two antagonistic ethnic groups are put together on the same record. By chance, both – Romanian and Hungarian – are equally beautiful, they are really extraordinary.

IM Is it difficult for the musicians to obtain quality instruments and parts? And if so does this hinder your recordings?

SR Yes. Almost all musicians have such problems. The brass bands musicians are coping with the most difficult situations: the new wind instruments are expensive, some of them quite rare (for instance clarinette in Es or helocon/helicon), the available ones are quite old. That’s why it is sometimes hard to obtain a good tuning of a fanfare. The small tambal (cymbalum) has become a rare instrument, the musicians have to fix it all the time, there are no strings on sale, the musicians have to adapt guitar strings. Recently we produced a very fine cassette: Old songs from Olt Valley. The cymbalum player, a wonderful musician, had an awful antique instrument, almost destroyed, with a harsh and unpleasant sound (see picture 4). We couldn’t help him in any way, so we recorded the music like it was, because it was magnificent.


(4) Misu Langa and Constantin Enache (with 'antique cymbalum')

IM Certain areas in Eastern Europe seem to have an abundance of folk music…what are, in your opinion, the most important areas…villages… personalities…?

SR The answer couldn’t be but ambiguous.

In our time, all traditional music is turning into newer music. But, before becoming new, the old ones are degrading themselves. They are losing parts, they are changing other parts of them. Their transitory general aspect is uneven. For instance, in Wallachia, the old ballads have almost disappeared, but the dance music and 'love songs' (a very interesting musical genre) are still very strong, and able to produce new pieces of a high artistic value. In Maramures county, most of the old Christmas songs (colinde) are 'westernized', regular and unpersonal/uninteresting songs, but the invartita dance melodies are still strong and able to produce very imaginative improvisations. So, I can’t say that a Romanian region preserves the traditional music better that another one; but I can say, for instance, that the eastern part of Wallachia has lost its ballads but preserved the old Christmas songs; western Wallachia has also lost its ballads but preserved 'love songs' (an improvised, very beautiful vocal-instrumental musical genre); Transylvania lost a good part of its lyric, epic and ritual songs but preserved its splendid dance melodies etc. The most interesting villages are, from my point of view, those that I had the chance to discover. In this respect, my opinion is subjective. As any subjective opinion, it could be a false one; nevertheless, take into account that I traveled a lot, all over Romania, and I listened to a lot of excellent music and popular musicians, so I can’t be too wrong.


(5) Group Iza (Ioan Pop & Co.) in a recording session in Ioan Pop's
house. They can be heard on cassette C-017. 

My favourite musicians are those I had the opportunity to work with. Emil Mihaiu from Gherla (central Transylvania), Ioan Pop from Maramures county (northern Transylvania), Misu Langa from Olt region (between Oltenia and Wallachia), Costica Pantiru, brass band leader from central Moldavia, and Costica Lupu from northern Moldavia… and, above all, the old-fashion musicians from Clejani village (central Wallachia), who became famous as the Taraf de Haidouk.

IM Are these traditions real and alive in village life, as opposed to enthusiasts keeping them alive?

SR Yes, they are still alive. Even if the traditional music is strongly challenged by the new, creolised music, coming from all over the world, especially from the Balkan area.

Keeping the traditional music alive? It is a question with many answers, each one depending on the ideological trends.

The official culture still believes that the traditional music must be kept alive in a folkloric form, i.e. 'arranged', domesticated, accompanied by big orchestras, predictable, optimistic, directed by a chief musician and so on. I think it is the wrong, false way to interpret and to use Romanian traditional music. In my opinion, the traditional peasant music should be helped to survive (at least for a while) by appreciating it, by promoting it as it is, in its genuine form.

(6) Romanian Peasant Museum

IM Can you tell us something about the Peasant Museum?

SR Gladly. It is an unconventional Romanian institution, trying to see the traditional culture facts as they are, to understand what they meant, to discover the way of thinking that produced them.

Being conceived by a great artist (the late Horia Bernea), it is mostly an art museum. It does not intend to build a discourse about the traditional culture, but to catch and to illustrate the spirit of it. First of all you must enjoy visiting the museum. The objects in the exhibitions are not accompanied by descriptions, as is usual; nevertheless, interested people can find information about them in special corners, 'cabinet d’etude' , placed around. The museum shows the past, but also the present of the peasant Romanian culture - as 'ugly', uneven and mixed as it is/it became today.

The most important quality of the museum and of the events taking place in it is that they are all very BEAUTIFUL and TRUE.

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