Music CD details

Emil Mihaiu, Kálmán Urszui,
and Aladár Pusztai

Romanian and Hungarian Music from Central Transylvania -
Musique roumaine et magyare de Transylvanie centrale

(ETHCD005)

Musicians:
Emil Mihaiu - first violin
Kálmán Urszui - contra viola
Aladár Pusztai - double bass

In three distinct parts the musicians show examples of Transylvanian folk music. First from a Romanian viewpoint, then Hungarian, and then aspects common to both.

28 page booklet in English and French with extensive note on the music and musicians.

Extract:

'The Protagonists on the CD

Emil Mihaiu, the leader of the ensemble, is 44. He began to play the violin when he was four years old. Emil does not come from a family of musicians, as is customary. Because he was near-sighted and ran the risk of going blind, his parents paid his musical tuition. Emil apprenticed for a few years under the Gypsy musicians in the village. His first teacher was a great violin player, but - of course - ignored the names of the musical notes and, obviously, staves. 'When I turned 7 the ceteraşi began taking me with them to weddings and parties, for it was there one learned to play, they said.' Between the ages of 8 and 12, Emil performed with the musicians in the ensemble, on equal terms. He was already capable of learning tunes heard on the radio. At 14 he was in a 'restaurant band' that performed in the town of Gherla, where he later settled. At 15, a 'classical' music teacher taught him musical writing. At 18, Emil had his own ensemble that roamed the Romanian, Hungarian and mixed villages in the region.

In over three decades of experience, Emil built his reputation of an excellent violin player and trustworthy man with whom deals can be closed, as being serious about business is an important criterion in the evaluation of folk musicians. A few recent laser surgical interventions allow the now mature man to care for himself and enjoy a normal life together with his Hungarian wife and their children.

Like all Transylvanian violin players, Emil grabs the bow way above its lower part, rests his left palm on the ribs of the violin (the articulating frame), and sings almost exclusively in the second position, with a multitude of extensions. He seldom hits strong beats, just enough to accentuate the free rhythmical balance around them. He can perform a huge amount of Romanian, Hungarian and Gypsy songs, and continues to catch any music in circulation. He is also getting accustomed to 'modern' pieces, the outcome of multiple old and new, more or less coagulated crossbreeds: he must do it to gratify the tastes of young people, whatever their nationality. But he prefers the traditional repertoire, especially old songs, which he brings into the present with great satisfaction. Like all ensemble leaders, Emil periodically changes his organ and electronic drummer. This helps him keep pace with the competition, but also allows him to obtain penetrating sonorities with a small-sized ensemble.

Emil almost always plays close to perfection, poker-faced, his body stock-still, his eyes hidden behind the thick lenses of his spectacles. From time to time, at significant moments of the music, he grins.

Kálmán Urszui is a Hungarian-speaking Gypsy, son of a city musician who was considered the best viola player in Transylvania in his lifetime. Kálmán is a viola player in a Romanian folk ensemble in Cluj. In weekends he plays at weddings and parties, in cities and villages on a radius of at least 100 kilometers, for Hungarians, Romanians and Gypsies. Kálmán is a virtuoso of the violin, viola, piano, organ and guitar and can play almost anything: traditional music, mixed pan-Balkan music, café concert, rock, pop. He shifts from one instrument to another and from one style to another with incredible ease. Trying to find a possible hard core of his multi-musicality, I asked him what is the music that he loves most and feels to be 'his kind of music.' Kálmán understood the meaning of my question, hesitated, then answered in a sentence that synthesizes the condition of the professional folk musician everywhere in Transylvania: 'All of them, I like all of them… Sometimes I wonder who I am…' Indeed, an instrument player who plays for Hungarians, Romanians, Gypsies or any other ethnic group is a man with a multiple identity that risks becoming confused.

In the avalanche of musics surrounding him, in the production of which he is implicated, Kálmán, a man with an exceptional native intelligence, has in fact two favorites, at first sight antagonistic: Hungarian traditional music and Romanian traditional music. His taste for these developed over the last years, in a climate of general confusion that seriously jeopardizes any system of values. His conservatism is rational and nurtured by two sources: the conscience of a responsible ceteraş/muzsikás whose duty is to keep up traditions, and his attitude as a refined, demanding musician aspiring to gravitate around quality music.

Aladár Pusztai, a Hungarian-speaking Gypsy, comes from an urban family and plays the cymbalom (dulcimer) in the same Romanian folk ensemble in Cluj. As any good musician, 'Ali,' also dubbed 'Tzambaladár,' can play several instruments: violin, accordion, piano, organ, and double bass. At weddings he is usually hired as 'keyboardist,' i.e. accordionist and organist. In his prime youth he only played pop music wherever and whenever he was called in. In time, he learned peasant music from the ceteraşi /muzsikasök he met at weddings. Ali is younger and less talkative, therefore it is hard to imagine what determines him to follow Emil and Kálmán with their traditionalist line. In my opinion, the respect and friendship between them has played a decisive role.

The instrument players are quite solitary, although they usually perform in different wedding ensembles. They went together on triumphant tours to France, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. In Romania they give few concerts: organizers do not solicit them, because they have grown used to promoting chiefly state ensembles. Nevertheless, they raise audiences to their feet whenever they are the protagonists.

One of the future projects of the musicians is to become related by marrying their sons and daughters among them. They probably won't succeed. What they do succeed in doing together is playing very high-quality music, thanks to their cooperation that should constitute an example to the entire region of Transylvania.'
From CD notes.

GBP 9.97

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Emil Mihaiu, Kálmán Urszui,
and Aladár Pusztai

Romanian and Hungarian Music from Central Transylvania -
Musique roumaine et magyare de Transylvanie centrale

(ETHCD005)

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

I Romanian Music

1. Suite de Danses de Sanmihaiu de Campie - Dance Suite from Sanmihaiu de Campie (10'01")

2. Joc - Song (2'12")

3. Romaneste P-alungu - Dance (2'31")

4. Tamoveana - Dance (1'59")

5. Horea Oilor - Song (2'58")

6. De Inceput, Batuta - Dance Suite (7'02")

7. Batuta In Figuri - Dance (3'17")

II Hungarian Music

8. Verbunk - Draftees Songs (4'56")

9. Csardas (I-III) - Dance Suite (3'53")

10. Friss Csardas - Dance Suite (3'15")

11. Dance Suite from Szik (10'45")

12. Lassu Legenyes - Dance (1'52")

13. Gyors Legenyes - Dance (2'16")

III Double Indentity Music

14. De Ciuit la Gaina - Romanian Wedding Song (1'42")

15. Csardas - Suite of Hungarian Dances (1'48")

16. Pe Doua Laturi - Romanian Dance (1'25")

17. Friss Csardas - Hungarian Dance (1'24")

Duration (63'54")

Our mp3 samples are approximately 30 seconds long and of low(ish) quality for a fast download (file size app 300KB)

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