Culture, Folk Art - Romania

Romania has its unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Romanians are the sole Christian Orthodox among the Latin peoples and the sole Latin people in the Eastern Orthodox area. The Romanians sense of identity has always been deeply related to their Roman roots, in conjunction with their Orthodoxy. A sense of their ethnic insularity in the area has kept Romanians available for a fruitful communication with other peoples and cultures. From the first mediaeval forms of state organisation, in the 14th century, down to the 18th century, Romanian culture and civilisation showed two major trends: one towards Central and Western Europe and the other oriented towards the Eastern Orthodox world. Whether one or the other prevailed at various times in history depended on the region and the field. Architecture developed both trends for centuries and gave interesting forms of synthesis; painting, linked to religious canons, was closer to the great Byzantine tradition.

Another feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romanian communities resulted in an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Folk creations (the best known is the ballad Miorita -The Ewe Lamb ) were the main literary genre until the 18th century. They were both a source of inspiration for cultivated creators and a structural model. Second, for a long time learned culture was governed by official and social commands and developed around courts of princes and boyars, as well as in monasteries. The first printed book, a prayer book in Slavonic, was produced in Wallachia in 1508 and the first book in Romanian, a catechism, was printed in Transylvania, in 1544. Until the 18th century written culture mainly consisted of historical, moral, religious and legal writings. An outstanding personality of that time was prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), for a short while ruler of Moldavia, prominent in various areas of humanist culture: history, philosophy, music, literature. He was known in the learned Europe as a remarkable scholar, author of writings in Latin: Descriptio Moldaviae (commissioned by the Academy of Berlin, the member of which he became in 1714) and Incrementa atque decrementa aulae othomanicae , which was printed in English in 1734-1735 (second edition in 1756), in French (1743) and German (1745); the latter was a major reference work in European science and culture until the 19th century.

The period of radical changes and modernisation of Romanian culture coincided with the creation of the national state, by the union of Moldavia and Wallachia, in 1859. The national identity was thus defined in relation to the European model. Later on, the decades of peace during the interwar period, after the completion of all the Romanians union into one state in 1918, were devoted to the synchronisation with European culture. In both processes modernisation of culture and its synchronisation with European world not devoid of polemics, of confrontations between conservatives and the advocates of progress, the assimilation of Western culture and capitalization on local tradition proved highly beneficial. The outcome was the emergence of the triad of great classics in the Romanian literature in the latter half of the 19th century: Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889), Romanian national poet par excellence , Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), the great Romanian playwright, and Ion Creanga (1837-1889), a great storyteller.

Romanian popular music is, like elsewhere, the oldest form of musical creation, characterised by great vitality up to this day. Its exceptional qualities and ancientness made it an admirable resource for the cultured musical creation, both religious and lay. The fact that popular music is still very much alive and appreciated is also due to great performers, such as Gheorghe Zamfir, famous throughout the world today, as a panpipe player. Since the beginning of the 20th century, with Constantin Brailoiu (1893-1958) and his school of ethnomusicology, folk music has become an object of systematic research.