Roma as Alien Music and Identity of the Roma in Romania A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Roderick Charles Lawford DECLARATION This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed ………………………………………… Date ………………………… STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed ………………………………………… Date ………………………… STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated, and the thesis has not been edited by a third party beyond what is permitted by Cardiff University’s Policy on the Use of Third Party Editors by Research Degree Students. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed ………………………………………… Date ………………………… STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ………………………………………… Date ………………………… ii To Sue Lawford and In Memory of Marion Ethel Lawford (1924-1977) and Charles Alfred Lawford (1925-2010) iii Table of Contents List of Figures vi List of Plates vii List of Tables ix Conventions x Acknowledgements xii Abstract xiii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 - Theory and Method 7 Borderlands and Frontiers 10 Identity, Alterity and Difference 14 Theory in Practice 21 Chapter 2 – The Roma of Romania 30 Romania: Geography 31 Romania: History 37 Roma in Romania 42 Romani Music in Romania 60 Chapter 3 – Taraf de Haïdouks: Tradition 72 Taraf de Haïdouks: A Personal View 73 Taraf de Haïdouks and the Lăutar Tradition 75 Hopa, Tropa, Europa 84 Outlaws of Yore 93 Chapter 4 - Taraf de Haïdouks: Modernity 103 A Journey to Clejani 103 Taraf de Haïdouks and ‘World Music’ 113 ‘Orientalist Fantasy’: Bartók and ‘Gypsy’ Music 133 Chapter 5 – Manele: At Home 137 iv A Diversion to Ferentari 140 Manele 149 Manele on the Internet 151 Manele: A Contested Genre 166 Chapter 6 – Manele: Abroad 179 Manele and Non-European Popular Music 179 ‘Saint Tropez’ 195 ‘Saint Tropez’ – Visual, Textual and Musical Contexts 199 Commodification 212 Conclusion 219 Appendix 1 224 Bibliography 233 v List of Figures Figure 0.1 – Map of Romania showing Brașov (starred) 4 Figure 1.1 – Map showing the Hungarian population in Romania 11 Figure 1.2 – Map showing the relative distribution of Roma in Romania 12 Figure 2.1 – Map outlining the ‘Greater’ Balkan area 31 Figure 2.2 – Map of modern Romania 32 Figure 2.3 – Physical Map of Romania 33 Figure 2.4 – Map showing Romania and its neighbours 34 Figure 2.5 - Location of Transnistria 56 Figure 4.1 – Bucharest 103 Figure 5.1 – Bucharest metro map 141 Figure 5.2 – Bucharest Surface Public Transport Map 142 vi List of Plates Plate 0.1 - Piaṭa Sfatului, Brașov 5 Plate 2.1 – General Ion Antonescu (1882-1946) 40 Plate 2.2 – Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu as they appeared after their arrest and on trial 41 Plate 2.3 – 1852 poster advertising ‘gypsy’ slaves for sale 50 Plate 3.1 – Cover of liner notes accompanying Roumanie: Musique des Tsiganes de Valachie 77 Plate 3.2 – Roumanie: Musique des Tsiganes de Valachie, rear of liner notes 77 Plate 3.3 - Nicolae ‘Culai’ Neacșu 88 Plate 3.4 - Gheorghe ‘Fluierici’ Fălcaru 89 Plate 3.5 - Outlaws of Yore / Les 'Haïdouks' d'Autrefois (I) and (II) – Covers of the liner notes 96 Plate 4.1 – En route to Clejani – Roderick Lawford 105 Plate 4.2 – ‘Strada Lăutarilor’ – Roderick Lawford 106 Plate 4.3 – Caliu’s kitchen – Roderick Lawford 107 Plate 4.4 – Gheorghe ‘Caliu’ Anghel (l) and Marin ‘Marius’ Manole (r) – Roderick Lawford 109 Plate 4.5 - Musique des Tziganes de Roumanie – Cover of the liner notes 114 Plate 4.6 - Musique des Tziganes de Roumanie – inside liner notes 115 Plate 4.7 – Photograph from the liner notes of Musique des Tziganes de Roumanie 116 Plate 4.8 – Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye - liner notes, front and rear 121 Plate 4.9 – Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye - inside the liner notes 121 Plate 4.10 – l’orient est rouge - front and back of liner notes 126 Plate 4.11 – l’orient est rouge (l) and Band of Gypsies (r) - a comparison of artwork 126 Plate 4.12 – Band of Gypsies –illustration inside the liner notes 127 Plate 4.13 – Artwork on cover of Maškaradă album 129 Plate 5.1 – Facebook publicity poster for Sistem ca pe Ferentari 140 Plate 5.2 - A Wedding in Apărătorii Patriei – Roderick Lawford 143 Plate 5.3 - Mitzu din Sălaj performing at Sistem ca pe Ferentari – Roderick Lawford 145 Plate 5.4 - Stall in the Piața de Flori (en. Flower Market), Calea Rahovei, Bucharest 148 Plate 5.5 – Still from ‘Îți mănânc buzele’ 153 Plate 5.6 – Mr Juve - ‘Mișcă, mișcă din buric!’ 154 Plate 5.7 – Still from ‘Mișcă, mișcă din buric’ 158 Plate 5.8 - Leo de Vis - Sisemul Seicilor on Wowbiz 166 Plate 5.9 - Anca de la Strehaia 167 Plate 5.10 - Still of ‘Sistemul Seicilor’ 171 Plate 5.11 - Arguing For and Against Manele 175 Plate 6.1 - Vasil Troyanov Boyanov – ‘Azis’ 196 Plate 6.2 – Still from ‘Saint Tropez’ 199 Plate 6.3 – Still from ‘Saint Tropez’ 199 Plate 6.4 – ‘Femeie regină’ 208 vii Plate 6.5 - Livia Pop – ‘Omule hai si petrece’ (en. ‘Man, let’s celebrate’) 215 Plate 6.6 – Diapason Records homepage 217 viii List of Tables Table 3.1 – Taraf de Haïdouks discography 74 Table 3.2 – List of songs and dances on Musique des Tsiganes de Valachie 78 Table 3.3 – List of tracks on Outlaws of Yore / Les 'Haïdouks' d'Autrefois (I) 97 Table 3.4 - List of tracks on Outlaws of Yore / Les 'Haïdouks' d'Autrefois (II) 99 Table 4.1 – Music played for me by Caliu and Marius 108 Table 4.2 – List of tracks on Musique des Tziganes de Roumanie 114 Table 4.3 – List of tracks on Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye 123 Table 4.4 - List of tracks on Dumbala, Dumba 124 Table 4.5 - List of tracks on Band of Gypsies 128 Table 4.6 - List of tracks on Maškaradă 130 Table 4.7 - List of tracks on Of Lovers, Gamblers and Parachute Skirts 132 Table 5.1 – Sistem ca pe Ferentari line up 144 Table 5.2 - Best of Manele Top Hits Vol. 1 151 Table 6.1 – Versions of ‘Saint Tropez’ in chronological order of publication 196 Table 6.2 – The text of ‘Sen Trope’ by Azis 201 Table 6.3 – The text of ‘Saint Tropez’ by Florin Salam 203 Table 6.4 – Turkish text of ‘Alayına Zam’ by Enka Mutfağı 205 Table 6.5 – Summary of the structure of ‘Saint Tropez’ 207 ix Conventions This thesis concerns Romanian musicians who are Roma, and Romanian music. Some of the terms used here are prone to cause confusion, and can also be problematic. I have taken the interpretation of the definitions given by Carol Silverman (2012:295n1) as my model. Roma is the plural of Rom, which is preferred nowadays to the more popular ‘gypsy’, a term generally considered to be pejorative. The corresponding adjective is ‘Romani’. I have found that ‘Romani, ‘Roma’ and ‘gypsy’ can be used interchangeably in literature on the subject, depending on the source and when it was written. Where possible, I have tried to use ‘Roma’ (‘Rom’) and Romani. However, where I make frequent references to a writer who tends to use ‘gypsy’ or a derivative or cognate of this term, I defer to that author’s usage. For example, where I reference Béla Bartók, ‘gypsy’ may appear more frequently, because this is the expression that he uses. Because ‘gypsy’ is a contentious term, I tend to enclose it in inverted commas, whether or not its use is authentic in the context in which I am using it. I adopt the same convention for other expressions that are hard to define. The most commonly encountered of these are ‘world music’ and the categorisation of culture by means of points of the compass, such as ‘the east’. The first language of most Romanian Roma is Romanian. Consequently, in the text there are numerous references and quotes in this language. Other languages also appear. Most of these are written in a version of the Latin alphabet. The languages together with their abbreviations are as follows: English (en.); French (fr.); German (gr.); Hungarian (hg.); Romanian (ro.) and Turkish (tr.). Where the language is written in a script that does not use the Latin alphabet, I provide a transliteration. These languages are as follows: Arabic (ar.); Bulgarian (bg.); Greek (gk.); Hebrew (hb.) and Russian (rs.). If the transliteration is that x employed by other authors, I use their transliteration. See, for example, my representation of Hebrew following Horowitz (2010). I employ some other abbreviations. To represent singular and plural respectively, I adopt the abbreviations ‘sg.’ and ‘pl.’. Upon the first reference to an individual, I give the dates of that person’s lifespan, where available. If they were still alive at time of writing, I precede their year of birth with the abbreviation ‘b.’; for example, Laurent Aubert (b. 1949). In the case of politicians and royalty, I provide the relevant dates that concern service (‘s’) and reign (‘r.’) respectively. Where I refer to musical pitch in the text (as in Chapter 6), I adopt the nomenclature devised by Helmholz.