Ion Petre Stoican (b. 1930,

Oltenița Oltenița () is a city in Călărași County, Muntenia, Romania, on the left bank of the river Argeș, where its waters flow into the Danube. Geography The city is located in the southwestern part of the county; it stands across the Danube fro ...

– d. 1994, Constanța) was a Romani-

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist, a '' lăutar'' (performer of traditional music, especially for weddings).Sole

Life

He was born in

Călărași County Călărași () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Muntenia, with the county seat at Călărași. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 285,050 and a population density of 56.02/km2. * Romanians – 95% ...

, and was related to celebrated violinist Ion Nomol.Friedrich Sometime before 1965, during the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian communist politician and electrician. He was the first Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ...

, after observing strange behavior by a man in an audience for whom he was performing somewhere on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

coast, Stoican helped in arresting an American spy. He was offered a reward of a car or a house, but requested that his reward be to make a record. The result was a 4-song EP on

Electrecord Electrecord is a Romanian record label which was founded in 1932. It was subsequently transformed into the national recording company following the socialist doctrine of centralization and was the only record label in Communist Romania. History ...

, backed by a band put together by the record label for the purpose. However, the record was not a commercial success. After a brief attempt at being a ''lăutar'' in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

(where he lacked family connections), he retreated to Constanța, where he was more successful. In the mid-1970s, Stoican decided to try Bucharest again. In 1977, he managed to make another record on Electrecord, this time an LP with a band of his own choosing. Stoican and

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

er Costel Vasilescu, taking full advantage of Stoican's prestige as a spy-catcher, if not as a violinist, pulled together an all-star band drawn from the Bucharest music scene of the time. Among others, the album features

cimbalom The cimbalom (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in ...

player Toni Iordache, who was responsible for many of the arrangements, and accordionist Ionica Minune. Other than Stoican and Iordache, the 14-piece band were credited only as a "People's Orchestra" rather than by name on the original Electrecord release, but a band photo on the album has allowed the line-up to be definitively identified. Deanne Sole describes it as "the kind of music he would have used to impress people who might hire him for their festivities", featuring '' hora'' dances and other music typical for wedding receptions, more restrained than "the Romani who were recorded more recently, in the post- Ceaușescu era", "indoor" music, "country dances urbanised by streets and walls," but still with "the taut, sweet quality that makes Romanian folk violinists so compelling." Besides ''horas'', the album includes '' briu'', '' sîrba'', and '' geamparale'' dance numbers. The album, recorded when Stoican was already in his late forties, proved to be his belated ticket to prominence among Bucharest ''lăutari''. German record producer Henry Ernst of Asphalt Tango Records, who first heard Stoican's 1977 LP in 1986 in a small-town record store in

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

, began negotiations with Electrecord in 2002 to re-release it. The tapes proved difficult to find, but the album was finally released in 2005 as a CD entitled ''Ion Petre Stoican: Sounds from a bygone age, Volume. 1.''Barrington, Sole

Discography

* 4 track EP, originally released on Electrecord, c. 1966, name unknown * album, originally released as an LP on Electrecord, c. 1977, ST-EPE 02166 'Ion Petre Stoican muzică lăutărească', re-released 2005 as a CD on Asphalt Tango Records, as ''Ion Petre Stoican: Sounds from a bygone age, Volume. 1.''

Credits for ''Ion Petre Stoican: Sounds from a bygone age, Volume. 1''

;Musicians :Ion Petre Stoican - violin :Nicu Sapteluni - violin :Marian Grigore - violin :Matei Niculescu - violin :Mihai "Rita" Gheorghe - double bass :Fane Negrila - doublebass :Ionica Minune - accordion :Viorel Fundament - accordion :Guta "Toi" Vasile - violin :Toni Iordache - cymbalom :Mieluta Bibescu - clarinet :Grigore Vasile - clarinet :Costel Vasilescu - trumpet :Nicu Manole - violin ;Tracks #Hora lui Sile 03:33 #Hora de la Constanţa 02:39 #Moşule, te-aş întreba 04:36 #Hora de la Olteniţa 02:37 #Ia-ia-ţi mireasă, ziua buna 08:33 #Hora lui Mihalea 02:32 #Chiar dacă dau de necaz 02:45 #Melodia lui Sile 02:15 #Hora lăutareasca 03:11 #Briu din Olteniţa 01:45 #Hora de joc de la Olteniţa 01:39 #Hora 02:40 #Sîrba de joc din Constanţa 02:35 #Hora de la Luceni 01:29 #Sîrba 02:08

Notes

References

* Helen Barringto
Review of Ion Petre Stoican: Sounds from a bygone age, Volume. 1
23 January 2006, on the site of ''

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'', a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

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