Cultural Intertexts (Dec 2023)
Water Waves, Sound Waves, down the River, up the Staves: Representations of the Danube in Romanian Music
Abstract
The present article is the second part of a study that explores, from a cultural studies perspective, how the Danube has inspired the music of its riparian countries across the ages. The first part, which will appear in another publication, analyses significant works composed in the other nine European countries crossed by the river, while this second part focuses on folklore, urban songs, operetta, and film music composed in Romania – the land of the delta. As chance will have it, the first part will be published later than the second. Starting from the physical and metaphysical kinship between water and sound waves, this article shows how the Danube has constantly loomed large in the musical creation on its Romanian banks, reflecting the way of life of the inhabitants, their customs and traditions, their mentalities and philosophies, also preserving information about long-gone local places and conferring immortality (or at least an afterlife) to ephemeral generations. Stressing the river’s function as border meant both to separate and to unite lands and peoples and to bring into bold relief both their similarities and differences, the study underlines another paradoxical duality of the Danube: its versatility and its individuality. Analysing a selection of folk songs, Ioan Ivanovici’s famous waltz “Danube Waves”, George Grigoriu’s eponymous operetta, and four films from the perspective of their soundtrack, the article concludes that it is opportune to tackle the great shapeshifting river through music – a language that needs no translation and a journey that knows no borders – in order to capture one more facet of its cultural significance.
