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Music Cassette details
Grupul IZA
Romanian, Ukrainian, and Jewish Music from Maramuresh -
Muzică românească, ucraineană si evreiască din Maramures
(Cassette C-017)
Musicians:
Ioan Pop - guitar, voice, contra viola
Nicolae Pitis - voice, fluier
Dumitru Hirb - vioara
Ion Paul - vioara, voice, guitar
Ioan Covaci - vioara, voice
Ioan Petreus - doba, voice
Ioan Pop, nicknamed Popicu by his wife and
close relatives and friends, was born to a family of peasants in the
Maramures village of Poienile Izei, where Bela Bartok himself stopped once
for his ethnomusicological research (1913). As a child Popicu learned to
play the instruments in fashion then: tilinca (shepherd's pipe), cetera
(fiddle), bracia
(prepared alto), zongora (guitar) and doba (drum). He began to play as a
zongoras at parties and village Sunday dances, for his own pleasure but
also to save money to finish high school. Later he was hired as an
instrument player with the folk ensemble in Baia Mare, while continuing to
sing and play on Sundays at village dances (hori), weddings and other
parties in the village and region.
The folk ensemble in Baia Mare Ioan Pop worked with in the last years of
communism did not bring him any satisfaction. The music which he was
forced to produce together with others - corrected, orchestrated,
predictable and performed under the command of a conductor - seemed to him
unnatural, different from the one he heard in Maramures and played on
weekends, but he had not the authority to contest it. In 1988, while on a
tour in the West, Popicu found out with relief and surprise that village
music is not inferior, artistically speaking, to the official folk music,
as he had been driven to believe - quite on the contrary.
Therefore, the December 1989 events found him prepared for a change he
deemed necessary. He quit the folk ensemble and took a job at a cultural
centre in Baia Mare, hoping to organize there artistic events and enable
his fellow natives to sing and play like they did at home, not on city
stages. He soon learned he had to fight against a host of culture
apparatchiks determined to defend communist folk music to the bitter end.
Meanwhile, a new enemy emerged: world music - an incongruent music, coming
from everywhere and nowhere, with violent, unfamiliar electric timbres
which rural youngsters seemed to embrace enthusiastically.
Popicu decided to face up to both competitors. He set up a traditional
music group, Iza, with the best fiddlers and dancers, peasants and
shepherds from Maramures. The group is meant to persuade the Maramures
people that their music and dances are worth preserving and that they can
go on stage without always changing into triumphalist operettas. On the
other hand, Popicu and his wife are trying by all available means to
convince the people around them to keep their beliefs, customs and rituals
of their traditional life. Both are involved in all the holy days in
Hoteni; and on Sunday mornings they receive children in the kiosk in their
garden and teach them how to properly sing, dance and shout witty couplets
during dances. The two Pops' efforts to make their lives, home and deeds
exemplary are not only in keeping with the right course of tradition, but
also an embodiment of their economic and social achievements. However,
before building a reputation in his country, Popicu had to be successful
in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Switzerland and Germany,
where he performed on stage and made records.
The categories of Maramures party music are few, but each of them is rich
in distinct songs. The hori are occasional, widely accessible lyrical
songs sung individually or in groups, with or without instrument
accompaniment, at almost any age and on any occasion. The zicali
(instrumental pieces) are performed by ceterasi on fiddles, guitars and
drums.
Each peasant house accommodates at least one of these instruments, ever
since ancient simple and twin pipes have been given up except by a few
solitary shepherds. The zicali de baut (for drinking) are instrumental
pieces during which people scan out loud lyrics
appropriate to their age and gender. The scanned lyrics are ironical,
funny, very dynamic. They are usually in the form of a dialogue between
the girls who confront the boys, or the women in friendly contest with the
men. The most common zicali de jucat (for dancing) are Barbatescul
(for men) and De invartit (for swirling). Barbatescul is a men's dance in
a circle, with a syncopated rhythm, during which the dancers shout dance
commands or humorous lyrics.
De invartit is a mixed, couple dance; it is very quick, and its tunes are
frequently improvised by ceterasi starting from preexistent
melodic-rhythmic formulae. The hollers of the men (women are never allowed
to holler during the dance) roll freely, apparently without any connection
to the percussive, rhythmic beat of the tunes. However, apart from
Romanians, Maramures is inhabited by Ukrainians, grouped in a few villages
in the north of the region. Their party music is not too different, yet
distinct from the Romanians'. The ceterasi know this music; it is only
natural, as they are often hired for their weddings, at which they perform
hori and invartite.
A few decades ago, before Popicu was born, there were also many Jews in
Maramures - innkeepers, publicans and cattle traders scattered around the
villages or living in the town of Sighet. Most Jews were deported at
beginning of the 1940s and disappeared from the region. Those who survived
left the country after World War II, leaving behind their graveyards. A
curious nature, Popicu studied their music, with help from older ceterasi
who made efforts to remember it as they used to perform it at weddings.
(One of them is Ionu' lu' Grigore, one of Popicu's frequent
collaborators.) Thus, little by little, Popicu's shows have come to
incorporate the music of "others." '
Courtesy of Costin Moilsil - Ethnophonie
GBP 5.99
Out of
stock
Grupul IZA
Romanian, Ukrainian, and Jewish Music from Maramuresh -
Muzică românească, ucraineană si evreiască din Maramures
(Cassette C-017)
This symbol 
indicates an mp3 sound clip for that track.Click on the symbol and wait for the clip to start. For more information click here. Tracks |
Side A |
| 1. Hore: Ce te legeni bradule (3'15") |
| 2. Hore: Pana codru' frunza-o tine (1'03") |
| 3. Hore: Nu da Doamne nimarui (2'30") |
| 4. Melodie de joc: Invartita de la Suciu (2'57") |
| 5. Suita de jocuri: P-a lungu' si invartita (2'23") |
| 6. Hore: Dupa pui de lapusan (4'14") |
| 7. Jocu-n sus (1'24") |
| 8. Melodie de joc: De invartit (4'56") |
| 9. Hore: "de ficiori" (3'53") |
| 10. Ritual de nunta: Horea miresei si joc: Barbatescul (4'36") |
Side B |
| 1. Suita de jocuri: De invartit ca sub podul besericii (8'40") |
| 2. Ritual de nunta: Jocul miresi pe bani (4'26") |
| 3. Muzica ucraineana de nunta (5'55") |
| 4. Melodie de joc: invartita ucraineana (1'23") |
| 5. Muzsica evreiasca de nunta (8'51") |
Approx Duration (70'00") |