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Spiritual Ecologies and Meta-Byzantine: Music During Nicolae Ceauṣescu’s Regime

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Art, Religion and Resistance in (Post-)Communist Romania

Part of the book series: Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe ((MOMEIDSEE))

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Abstract

This chapter zooms in on the bond between nature and art of religious inspiration focusing on the musical production of Octavian Nemescu. He created a Meta-Byzantine style, regarded by various categories of critics either as an inconvenient deviation from historical Byzantine musical canons (the Byzantine purists’ critique) or as a digression from national communism’s cultural policy. This case study illustrates that the return to humans’ spiritual bond with nature can be understood as a form of “prophetic activism” (Block) and spiritual awakening, whereby the Meta-Byzantine style has been deployed as a discursive strategy. These musical creations do not only epitomize the synthesis of two musical cultures (Eastern and Western) or of two religious styles—traditional Romanian, local oriented and ecumenical Meta-Byzantine—but also politically re-evaluate the sacred.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    André Grabar, The Art of the Byzantine Empire (New York: Graystone Press, 1967): 28 (Grabar 1967).

  2. 2.

    Ibid., 78.

  3. 3.

    Gloria Calhoun, Saints into Soviets: Russian Orthodox Symbolism and Soviet Political Posters. Master of Arts Thesis (College of Arts and Sciences: Georgia State University, 2014): 41. www.scholarworks.gsu.edu. Available at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1089&context=history_theses. (07 February 2020) (Calhoun 2014).

  4. 4.

    Dimitri E. Conomos, A Brief Survey of the History of Byzantine and Neo-Byzantine Chant https://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/. Available at: https://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/music/History.htm. (20 February 2019) (Conomos).

  5. 5.

    Emily Lalitos, “Becoming Byzantine: Modernization and Tradition in the Liturgical Music of the Greek Orthodox Church, Relics”, Remnants, and Religion: An Undergraduate Journal in Religious Studies 3(1) (2018): 1–36 (Lalitos 2018).

  6. 6.

    Conomos, “A Brief Survey”.

  7. 7.

    For more on this approach see Byzantium/Modernism: The Byzantine as a Method in Modernity, eds. Roland Betancourt and Maria Taroutina (Leiden: Brill, 2015) (Betancourt and Taroutina 2015).

  8. 8.

    Betancourt and Taroutina, Byzantium/Modernism, XI.

  9. 9.

    Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Available at: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100228165 (12 February 2020).

  10. 10.

    The concept of orthopraxy refers to the way of conduct (practice) of a religious behavior.

  11. 11.

    Emily Lalitos unpacks this argument by providing evidence of how the modernization of traditional Byzantine liturgical music in the United States Orthodox Churches actually preserved the past. For more supporting evidence, see Emily Lalitos, “Becoming Byzantine”, 3.

  12. 12.

    For an all encompassing exploration of the link between religion and national identity formation in Romania, see Gavril Flora, Georgina Szilagyi and Victor Roudometof, “Religion and National Identity in Post-Communist Romania,” Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 7(1) (2005): 35–55 (Flora et al. 2005).

  13. 13.

    Conomos, “A Brief Survey”.

  14. 14.

    Mădălina Dana Rucsanda and Maria Cristina Bostan, The Sacred Music from the Byzantine Tradition and the Romanian Folklore (n.a), http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2011/Brasov2/MCBANTA/MCBANTA-38.pdf (Rucsanda and Bostanna) (12 February 2020).

  15. 15.

    Ibidem.

  16. 16.

    Will Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music (Massachusetts: The Belknap of Harvard University Press, 1969), 743 (Apel 1969).

  17. 17.

    Anamaria Mădălina Hotoran, “The Psaltic Byzantine Chant in Paul Constantinescu’s Creation and its Relevance for the Romanian Composers of the twentieth Century,” in The Psaltic Art as an Autonomous Science (Proceedings of the 1st International Interdisciplinary Musicological Conference 29 June‑3 July 2014, Volos, Greece), eds. Konstantinos Charil. Karagounis and Georgios Kouroupetroglou (Department of Psaltic Art and Musicology: Academy for Theological Studies of Volos, 2015), 239. www.researchgate.net. Available at: http://speech.di.uoa.gr/IMC2014/pdffull/241-251.pdf. (07 February 2020) (Hotoran 2015).

  18. 18.

    Bianca Țiplea Temeş, “The Annunciation in Paul Constantinescu’s Christmas Oratorio: Musical and Iconographic Decoding”, Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai, Musica 55(1) (2010): 166. (Temeş 2010)

  19. 19.

    Hotoran, “The Psaltic Byzantine Chant in Paul Constantinescu’s Creation,” 239.

  20. 20.

    King Michael was forced to abdicate on 30 December 1947 and the Academy of Religious Music and Dramatic Art was forced to cease functioning in August 1948. The newly instituted communist power aimed at implementing the Stalinist reform in education. Part of this reform—imposed by the decree 173/3—was to purge the religious references from Romanian communist culture and education.

  21. 21.

    For more considerations on this issue see Nicolae Gheorghiţă, “Musicological Research on Byzantine Music during Romanian Totalitarianism,” Revista Muzica (7) (2015b): 55 (Gheorghiţă 2015b).

  22. 22.

    Nicolae Gheorghiţă, “Nationalism through Sacred Chant? Research on Byzantine Musicology in Totalitarian Romania,” Studia Musicologica 56(4) (2015a): 328 (Gheorghiţă 2015a).

  23. 23.

    Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 24 (Stan and Turcescu 2007).

  24. 24.

    Ibidem.

  25. 25.

    Nicolae Gheorghiţă, “Nationalism through Sacred Chant?,” 328.

  26. 26.

    Ibidem.

  27. 27.

    Ibidem.

  28. 28.

    Ibidem.

  29. 29.

    Will Apel claims that “although some Western influence was noticeable in the second half of the eighteenth-century, it was not until de end of Turkish rule (1822) that German and Italian music became influential.” Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music, 744.

  30. 30.

    Mădălina Dana Rucsanda and Maria Cristina Bostan, “The Sacred Music from the Byzantine Tradition”.

  31. 31.

    Bart Plantega, Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling around the World (New York: Routledge, 2004), 120 (Plantega 2004).

  32. 32.

    Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania is a professional association of musicians of Romanian descent. This association was founded in 1920. Its main purpose was to support and popularize Romanian music.

  33. 33.

    Hotoran, “The Psaltic Byzantine Chant in Paul Constantinescu’s Creation,” 240.

  34. 34.

    Octavian Lazar-Cosma quoted in Nicolae Gheorghiţă, “Nationalism through Sacred Chant?,” 329.

  35. 35.

    Octavian Nemescu’s website. Available at: http://www.nemescu.ro/en/biografie.php (13 February 2020).

  36. 36.

    Miron Ghiu, “A Short Journey through Imaginary Music with Octavian Nemescu,” Revista Arta, 30 September 2015. Available at: http://revistaarta.ro/en/column/a-short-journey-through-imaginary-music-with-octavian-nemescu/ (13 February 2020) (Ghiu 2015).

  37. 37.

    Laura Marin’s interview with Octavian Nemescu in the cultural magazine The Attic—“Octavian Nemescu on Romanian Avant-Garde Music,” 22 November 2017. Available at: http://the-attic.net/features/2174/octavian-nemescu-on-romanian-avant_garde-music.html (20 February 2020) (Marin 2017).

  38. 38.

    Plantega, “Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo”, 120.

  39. 39.

    Octavian Nemescu’s website. Available at: http://www.nemescu.ro/en/biografie.php (13 February 2020).

  40. 40.

    Istvan Eröss, “Rediscovering Nature in Eastern European Art”, Internationaler Waldkunstpfad, 2012. Available at: http://2012.waldkunst.com/redner/istvan-eroess (20 February 2020) (Eröss 2012).

  41. 41.

    According to artistic theoretical definitions, an “art installation” is a three-dimensional, mixed-media, site specific construction. Its main purpose is to transform the viewer’s perception of space. It is often designed for interior space. Unlike other typical art installations, Wanda Mihuleac’s ecological installations have usually been displayed in the nature.

  42. 42.

    Miron Ghiu, “A Short Journey through Imaginary Music with Octavian Nemescu”.

  43. 43.

    Laura Marin, “Octavian Nemescu on Romanian Avant-Garde Music.”

  44. 44.

    Octavian Nemescu’s website. Available at: http://www.nemescu.ro/en/biografie.php (20 February 2020).

  45. 45.

    The Living Composers Project: Octavian Nemescu. Available at: http://www.composers21.com/compdocs/nemescuo.htm (27 December 2019).

  46. 46.

    Hotoran, “The Psaltic Byzantine Chant in Paul Constantinescu’s Creation,” 247.

  47. 47.

    Octavian Nemescu’s website. Available at: http://www.nemescu.ro/en/biografie.php (13 February 2020).

  48. 48.

    All the scores for Metabizantinirikon can be consulted on the composers’ personal website at: http://www.nemescu.ro/en/partituri.php (13 February 2020).

  49. 49.

    Irinel Anghel, quoted in Hotoran, “The Psaltic Byzantine Chant in Paul Constantinescu’s Creation,” 248.

  50. 50.

    Octavian Nemescu, “Metabizaninirikon (1984): Practicing Music at Transcultural Altitude,” Revista Muzica8 (2017): 32.

  51. 51.

    Amy Kind and Peter Kung, Knowledge through Imagination (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) (Kind and Kung 2016).

  52. 52.

    Miron Ghiu, “A Short Journey through Imaginary Music with Octavian Nemescu”.

  53. 53.

    Octavian Nemescu, “Metabizaninirikon (1984)”, 32.

  54. 54.

    Miron Ghiu, “A Short Journey through Imaginary Music with Octavian Nemescu”.

  55. 55.

    Mircea Eliade, “Chapter 3. The Sacredness of Nature and Cosmic Religion”, in Mircea Eliade, “The Sacred and the Profane.” Available at: https://www.hermetik-international.com/en/media-library/rosicrucianism/mircaeda-eliade-sacred-profane/03-chapter-3-sacredness-nature-cosmic-religion/ (13 February 2020) (Eliade).

  56. 56.

    Mircea Eliade developed his theory about what he calls “cosmic Christianity” in Aspects du Mythe [The Aspects of Myth] (Paris: Gallimard, 1963) (Eliade 1963).

  57. 57.

    Ion Cordoneanu, “Cosmic Christianity in Mircea Eliade’s Hermeneutics of Mioriţa: The Possibility of a Cognitive Perspective on the Sacred in Traditional Romanian Culture,” Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 63 (2012): 129 (Cordoneanu 2012).

  58. 58.

    Joseph G. Muthuraj, “The Significance of Mircea Eliade for Christian Theology,” in The International Eliade, ed. Brian S. Rennie (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 76 (Muthuraj 2007).

  59. 59.

    Istvan Eröss, “Rediscovering Nature in Eastern European Art”.

  60. 60.

    Andra Frăţilă, “Interview with Octavian Nemescu.” RevistaMuzica 1/2016: 3–21. http://www.ucmr.org.ro/. Available at: http://www.ucmr.org.ro/Texte/RV-1-2016-1-Interviuri-AFratila.pdf (08 February 2020) (Frăţilă 2016).

  61. 61.

    Miron Ghiu, “A Short Journey through Imaginary Music with Octavian Nemescu.”

  62. 62.

    Tom Block, “Prophetic Activist Art: Activism beyond Oppositionality,” The International Journal of the Arts in Society 3(2) (2008): 19–25.

  63. 63.

    Ibidem.

  64. 64.

    Ibidem.

  65. 65.

    To substantiate my claim that Octavian Nemescu’s spiritual music created during Ceauşescu’s regime was directed toward a universal functional beauty—understood in the light of the new paradigm of socially engaged prophetic activism—I draw on the Kantian philosophical distinction between free beauty (pulchritude vaga) and dependent beauty (pulchritude adhaerens). In his third Critique—The Critique of Judgment, trans. Werner S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987)—Immanuel Kant argues that dependent beauty (beauty of art) is beauty with a certain function. Unlike the formalist theories of art—which misinterpret Kant’s aesthetic theory for philosophically grounding the idea that art (and beauty) has to be appreciated for its own sake—Kant does not see beauty and function in art as mutually exclusive. I have developed at large this argument in Maria-Alina Asavei, “Beauty and Critical Art: Is Beauty at Odds with Critical-Political Engagement?,” Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, 7(1) (2015), https://doi.org/10.3402/jac.v7.27720.

  66. 66.

    According to Environmental Humanities, ecologies of affect—including nostalgia, memory, hope, and desire—have a vital role in forming the identity of places (especially imaginary and ideal places). For more on ecologies of affect see Tonya K. Davidson, Ondine Park, and Rob Shields, Ecologies of Affect: Placing Nostalgia, Desire and Hope (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011).

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  1. Department of Russian and East European Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Maria Alina Asavei

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Asavei, M.A. (2020). Spiritual Ecologies and Meta-Byzantine: Music During Nicolae Ceauṣescu’s Regime. In: Art, Religion and Resistance in (Post-)Communist Romania. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56255-7_5

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