lifestyle THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2014 Features An Iranian couple walks past a 1964 American Chevrolet Impala SS. An Iranian girl walks past a 1955 American Chevrolet “Bel Air”. Iranian men look at an early 70s model of an Italian An Iranian woman takes pictures next to a 1978 American An Iranian woman looks at a German 1961 convertible Maserati Merak S5. Chevrolet Camaro LT. Mercedes Benz 300 SE. Cruising down memory lane An Iranian man cleans his 1978 American Pontiac Trans AM. Iranian Ali Jafari Moghaddam closes the door of his classic French 1974 Citroen DS during a classic cars show at Saadabad palace in Tehran on August 5, 2014. About 70 classic cars belonging to indi- viduals and private collectors are displayed. — AFP photos An Iranian woman takes pictures next to a 1969 American An Iranian family takes pictures with a German 1961 con- An Iranian woman walks past an early 70s model of an Chevrolet Camaro RS. vertible Mercedes Benz 300 SE. Italian Maserati Merak S5. Saving Romania’s cobza from playing its last notes t his home in central Romania with hens and sing, and they usually had a violin, a flute and a cobza. turkeys wandering in the courtyard, Vasile Nica An endangered treasure Awelcomes visitors who have come to hear him Talented troubadours As a first step to save the instrument, Speranta play a unique stringed instrument that is facing obliv- Many “lautari” were Roma enslaved in rich urban Radulescu and Florin Iordan have crisscrossed ion. Under the shade of an apple tree with coffee, families. When they were freed, some settled in the Romania to record the last cobza players still alive. house wine and cakes laid out on the table, Nica starts countryside playing their music in the villages. The tal- Thanks to them, Constantin Negel, who died five years to pluck his 80-year-old wooden cobza with a goose ent of Romanian lautari has been much admired by ago, played in front of hundreds of people at the Cite quill. At 73, he is one of the last traditional players of expert foreign visitors, including noted US ethnomusi- de la Musique in Paris in 2003. Young Romanians have the “Romanian oud”. It is a long journey over potholed cologist Robert Garfias.And in 1847 Hungarian pianist also rediscovered the beauty of this unique instru- roads through the hilly countryside to find the musi- and composer Franz Liszt was stunned to see Barbu ment. Iordan and his wife Beatrice, both cobza players cian in his native village of Barboi. Lautarul, a Romanian lautar, perfectly reproduce with in their 30s, founded a band of ancient music, “Trei “When I have the cobza in my arms, I feel happy, I his cobza one of his improvisations. Lautari learn to Parale”, with three other friends. They play across feel like my soul is expanding. I don’t need food, I don’t play the cobza from older masters. Europe. “Today music has become something com- need anything anymore,” says Nica in his dark suit and Nica, a true “lautar”, learned from an old Roma, Nea mercial but the cobza represents to me the sincerity of spotless white shirt, eyes sparkling with delight. With Costica, who lived in his village. He paid for the lessons the past, when people in the countryside used to sing violinist Marian Ilie, they sing about love, the forests of with a sheep. He then started to live like a professional and play music just for the pleasure of it,” Beatrice says. their homeland, or they improvise songs inspired by musician, travelling across the country to play the “This instrument that is now neglected has an their guests.But the cobza is in danger of playing its cobza at weddings, celebrations and even funerals. incredible musical heritage,” Florin adds. Bogdan last notes as few masters of the instrument remain, But the cobza has being going out of fashion. Simion, a literature student at the University of and Romanian music lovers are working to save this “It was gradually replaced by other instruments Bucharest, also believes in the renaissance of the integral part of the country’s cultural heritage. seen as more modern, such as the dulcimer (tambal), cobza. He has collected about 40 of them and learned A Romanian cousin of the oud and the lute, the the accordion and the electronic organ,” Speranta to play from older masters. This year, he organized cobza consists of a half-pear shaped resonance box Radulescu, a well-known ethnomusicologists in concerts in one of the most famous clubs in the with pegs placed on a neck bent back at an angle. It Europe, tells AFP. “When I started my career, I met Romanian capital, Control. Dozens of young people can be found painted on the walls of the 16th-century cobza players that were still living from their music but clapped and danced to the sound of the cobza. UNESCO-listed monasteries in the Bucovina region as most of them died and no one took over,” she adds. “Young people need a past to build a present and a well as in frescoes at the National Museum of Arts in The cobza may soon be found only in museums. “None future,” Radulescu believes. “The cobza will bring them Bucharest.”In the 19th century, it was unthinkable in of my children or grandchildren have learnt to play,” back to the world of their grandparents, a world full of certain parts of Romania to have a wedding, a chris- laments Nica. But Ilie, his accompanying violinist, treasures.” — AFP tening or a party without a cobza,” Florin Iordan, a whose family has been playing music for generations, Romanian ethnomusicologist at the National Peasant is convinced that the cobza and its music are not fad- Museum, tells AFP. Small bands of “lautari”-profession- ing away. “This music has such a beauty and authen- Vasile Nica plays a cobza at his place in Barboi village, 260 kilometers west al musicians or troubadours-would come to play and ticity that it cannot die,” he says. from Bucharest. — AFP .