The identity of the inhabitants from Oaş is being defined in Romania in first place on musical criteria, and this identity is generally apprehended as a deviation from normality.
"If you go there, you will be marveled: when the people from Oaş start singing, “you have the filling you are in an other country…” I have herd numerous Romanians telling this. BR>I unquote
The book belonging to the authors Jacques Bouët, Bernard Lortat-Jacob and Speranţa Rădulescu, were edited by the Romanian Ministry of Culture with support from the French External Affairs Ministry and the French Embassy, the volume was initially published in French under the name "A tut tete. Chant et violon au Pays de L'Oach, Roumanie"
The book is the result of the sustained work laid-down by the authors, its destination being to understand and immortalize the Oaş through its musical dimension. The authors have chosen a new method of presenting the material making the lecture accessible for those initiated in the musical theory and also, at a more accessible level, for those who want to know more about Oaş and its music. In this idea there is an overlapping of the presentation, the facts as they where felled by the authors in the documentation on site, and the theoretically conclusions that the authors make on what they have seen.
The subject of the book is about the dance, in the 240 pages the authors try to catch and define this phenomenon “the dance”, from all the social events that has a symbiotic relation with it: the wedding, dancing folk, girls meeting, field work. “The dance” is a complex phenomenon, volatile, the authors try to catch it from its physical composition point of view, but they encounter difficulties because the Oaş music was not born and does not follow well defined canons and musical theory, it is odd, loud, very adaptive, the instrumentalists nuance every dance, adapt, moulds on the state of spirit and on the shout (ţâpuritul) of the singer, and still the Oaş music has changed very little in the last century.
The book offers the reader inroads in the daily life of the people of Oaş and also the presentation of some special events (wedding, dancing folk, funeral), the presentations are accompanied by relevant images, by shouted lines, and for the knowing, reproduced scores and valuable musical analyses.
Beyond the value of the work, which I appreciate and which I consider a reference from now on, there are a few aspects where personally I can say that I do not share the same shades in the perceptions of the authors. For example as we go through the chapter about the presentation of the wedding from Oaş, I noticed an attitude of misunderstanding, if I can say this, beside the numerous guests…500-800, we have to understand the fact that these very big weddings had an important contribution during the years as an binder in the Oaş communities. We admire the rural community while most do not appreciate the individualism and the isolation from those in town, but then we have to understand and to appreciate the causes, and these events that gather people and create connections and give opportunities to communicate and had an important role in the consolidation of the community. Besides the wedding, the field work in large groups, reuniting the members of more families, group work for building houses, are also opportunities that the people from Oaş have to consolidate their intra-community relations. Together with these social events, reducing in frequency and proportions, also the community will decline.
Another observation that I have is the recurrence with which the authors illustrate the influence of the Palinca (as far as I know this is the term used for plum brandy in Oaş, and not “horinca”) upon the interlocutor. Even though in Oaş you could think that the “Palinca” is more than water, many people from Oaş know their measure, the one and only explanation they have for those that are “happy” is the materialization of a risk which the authors have to apprehend, after a glass people talk more, eager to expose their histories for a noble purpose such as the immortalization in a book. There is another aspect, to shout is not easy, it is all or nothing in Oaş “a hori” means to shout or “a striga”, so its about total giving act, with a measure expose, as it is easier to escape from inhibitions with one or two glasses, so that the voice sound better.
The book ends with the presentation of two letters, one that Speranţa Rădulescu writes for her French friends, a nostalgic letter with powerlessness to do more to keep the tradition from Oaş. The second letter with a more optimistic note, sent by the authors as a response to Speranţa Rădulescu, presents us their incursion in the Oaş communities from Paris, the optimism is highlighted by the fact that the two Frenchmen observe that the people form Oaş have taken with them abroad at least a part of the spirit from Oaş.
Personally, I thank the authors for their presenting and the dowry that they have given to Oaş through this book. P>