Culture
in Romania is still trying to recover from the oppression of Communism.
However, the country had a thriving cultural life in the interwar period, when
foreign architects were responsible for a plethora of beautiful buildings and middle-class
urbanites debated French literature. Some of this spirit lives on today,
holding its own against the huge enthusiasm for American and Western offerings.
Arts
and crafts
While the country has a few world-renowned artists,
particularly Constantin Brâncuși,
one of the spearheads of modern sculpture, the essence of Romanian life is
summed up best by its arts and crafts, which are still going strong in some of
the remoter, rural areas. Pottery and ceramics are mostly made using
traditional kickwheels, and finished off with simple tools. Designs vary by the
area in which they are produced, but often include floral patterns and simple
human and animal figures. Apart from the ubiquitos presence of iconography, the
tradition of painted eggs (hallowed out, rather than the hard-boiled variety
eaten by families at Easter) underlines teh strong influence religion has on
the country’s art and culture. Again, the intricate patterns
have regional variations.
Woodwork, the main origins of which are the
timber-rich northern region of Maramureș, is used not only in a purely decorative capacity, but is integrated into
the household, in kitchen utensils and furniture. The showpiece item was
historically the gate, the level of its elaborateness conveying the family’s
status in the community. The symbols used in items of woodcrafts encapsulate
yhe country’s respect for superstition: moons, wolf’s teeth, flowers and stars
were among the motifs used for luck or to ward off evil. Masks, usually hewn
from animal hide, play a similar symbolic role in festivals, particularly in
Maramureș and Moldavia.
Theatre
Despite its late
advent, Romanian theatre developed quickly. The first proper performances came
in the 1810s. The encouraging cultural climate of the time saw the emergence of
top plawrights and actors and frequent visits from foreign troupes. Under the
Communism, many of the big names in drama left the country. Eugen Ionescu, one
of the foremost writers in the Theatre of the Absurd, was one of the exilesm
dividing his time between Romania and France, where he ‘francofied’
his name to Eugène Ionesco. There are now said to be around 60 theatres
throughout the country, including some spearheaded by ethnic minorities. A few
foreign-language productions are also staged.
Cinema
Local films have made a big splash internationally
in recent years. Cristian Mungiu’s 4
luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2007, following on form
the success of Moartea domnului Lăzărescu
(The Death of Mr Lăzărescu) at the same festival two years before.
Architecture
The mishmash of
etnic influneces Romania has undergone has left its mark on the buildings, from
teh Saxon houses of Transylvania to the Byzantine touches in the south, and
from the shiny tin roofs of Roma homes to the foreign-inspired Art Deco
buildings of Bucharest. But what makes the greatest visual impact are the
legions of demoralisingly monotonous grey Communists of course did not live in
such dreary places. The elite were housed in superior blocks, some of which
make up the Communist cemtre of Bucharest, a Ceaușescu vanity project that had
the main boulevard deliberately built a metre wider than Champs-Élysées. At the
end of it stand the People’s Palace, called by one guidebook
‘the world’s bigger eyesore’. Wandering around this area gives a revealing
insight into the psyche of the former regime. The disparity is also clear in
Romania’s architecture, which runs the gamut from hovels, with no running water
or electricity, to gaudy mansions for the nouveau riche.
Literature
Modern Romanian literature, which began when Latin replaced
Cyrillic as the official Romanian alphabet in 1860, was initially influenced
both by peasant traditions and French writing.
The two main luminaries were 19th-century
writers Mihai Eminescu and Ion Luca Caragiale, both of whom have a surfeit of
streets named after them. Eminescu was a Late Romantic poet, whose themes were
nature, love, history, social commentary and nostalgia. Caragiale, who wrote
plays and short stories, was ironic and provocative. His output displeased the
establishment and he eventually left Romania for Berlin. Much of modern
Romanian literature is concerned with
the effects of Communism, with the German Romanian author Herta Müller, whose
work addresses this theme from a minority standpoint, winning the Nobel Prize
in Literature in 2009.
Music
Early folk music featured different pipes, with
rhythmical accompaniment from a lute. Flutes and especially violins are now the
most common folk instruments. Traditional music varies significantly from
region to region.
Themes include love and drinking. Simple, communal dances
are often performed, which may involve participants forming circle or line,
arms draped around each other’s shoulders. It is not easy to came across a live
performance, unless you are invited to a traditional Romanian wedding, but
24-hour cable channel Etno TV, accessible in many hotels and homes, will give
you a glimpse.
Classical music also has a strong tradition, not
least because of the links between Transylvania and Austria and Germany, with
Sibiu in particular a centre and shop-off point for top composers and
musicians. Among local-born practitioners, composer, violinist, pianist and
conductor George Enescu is widely considered one of the greatest performers of
his time.
Inspired by local folk music, he studied in Paris,
composing highly esteemed rhapsodies and an opera among his canon. Enescu is
celebrated once every two years in an eponymous classical music festival.
Modern music is heavily influenced by Western
sounds. After years of censorship, rock and hip-hop galvanised the frustrated
youth and both foreign bands and local version had huge and enthusiastic
followings. Most urban radio stations play predominantly English-language pop
and occasional derivative Romanian versions, although rural stations play more
local music, The other strain of contemporary music is more Eastern in flavor, manele, primarily a Roma genre, is
descended from Turkish and Arab love songs. Themes are usually limited to
desirable women (the singers are mostly male) and self-aggrandisement. Manele’s misogyny, kitsch style and bad grammar infuriate many
intellectuals, but the genre remains hugely popular among the Roma and
lower-class Romanians. For that reason, it has been compared with rock-and-roll
and particularly rap.
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