Emigrant composers in the C.N.S.A.S. Archives. Case study: The unknown story of Marius Constant’s official visit to communist Romania

Abstract

The present study is part of a larger research, which focused on Romanian emigrant composers in France and their relationship with their homeland in the second half of the twentieth century, based on documents from the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives. An analysis of the numerous notes and reports of the Securitate documenting composer Marius Constant’s official visit to Romania in 1985 sheds some light on how the authorities in communist Romania dealt with the diaspora, the ideological clichés, and on the high degree of control and manipulation that governed the country’s cultural policy.

Keywords

• romanian diaspora
• censorship
• music and politics
• communist regime
• french-romanian composer
• cultural trauma