Maria Tanase - Maria of The Songs - Best Romanian Folk Music Series

Accompanied by the Popular Orchestras of Victor Predescu and Nicusor Predescu.


This is the second volume of three, and again a fine collection of this distinguished Romanian folk singer's work. Maria has been called' Maria Cantelocor' (Maria of the songs) and referred to as 'the Edith Piaf of Romanian folk music', descriptions that goes some way in describing the the greatness of this singer.

Volumes 1 and 3 in this series are also available.

'Maria Tanase was born on September 25, 1913 in Bucharest. She passed away on June 22, 1963 carried off by an unforgiving illness, lung cancer.
Irresistibly drawn towards art, Maria proved to be a versatile talent. She distinguished herself as a theater and film actress, as an operetta singer, a music hall star but mainly as an interpreter of folk songs.

On June 2, 1937, she made her debut in Constantin Tanase’s Carabus Company. She shone in the shows of the music hall theatres, Alhambra and Gioconda. After the war she performed in the Review Ensemble and the Satirical and Musical Theatre Constantin Tanase. She had a part in the plays The Living Dead by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoi in 1945 and Horia by Mihai Davidoglu in 1956. She sang in Edmond Audran’s operetta Mascota (The Mascot) in 1944, and she held the main part in the musical comedy The Hollywood Sphinx, by Ralph Benatzky in 1946. She sang in the movies Romania, 1947, Clulinii Baraganulul (The thistles of the Baragan) in 1958 and in the short-reel film Amintiri din Bucuresti (Memories from Bucharest) in 1958.

In most music hall shows as well as in the movies, Maria interpreted folk songs or songs in this style. So did she in the many tours she had across the country — over forty tours in the last fifteen years of her life — but also in the many tours she made abroad: in New York — at the International Exhibition in 1937 where she sang with Grigoras Dinicus Orchestra; in Istanbul in the spring of 1941 along the chorus line directed by Nicolae Kiritescu and Aurel Maican, In the about 60 shows presented there, she interpreted with great success pieces of the Romanian folk music as well as Turkish folk songs which she learnt on the spot from a strolling player who was also offered the chance to accompany her in the luxurious hall of Taxim.

She interpreted folk songs and the so-called Romanian songs, composed by popular music composers in the spirit of folk music, in many of the Bucharest restaurants, Neptun, Wilson, Parcul Aro, Luxandra, Luther, Continental, etc. especially in the period between the two world wars. She made her radio debut in February 20, 1937 singing folk songs having recorded her first album a year before at the Columbia Recording Studios. She continued her cooperation with the same studios and then went on working with the Electrecord Recording Studios. Many of her songs were recorded on tape in the studios of the Romanian Radio and Television Society.

A comparison of the songs recorded during the period between the two world wars with the ones she interpreted in the years of artistic maturity would reveal the development that took place in her interpretative concept.

In 1952, Maria was offered a post at the Music School No. 1 in Bucharest, in the newly created folk song department; 1962 found Maria guiding Taraful Gorjului (The Gorj Folk
Music Band) in Targu Jiu and the artists there, at her own request. On May 1,1963, after a concert in Hunedoara, she had to leave the long tour of the famous folk ensemble, because of the illness.

Her creative artistry in Romanian folk song was honored with the medals Ordinul Muncii (The Order for Activity), Premiul de Stat (The State Award) and the title Artista Emerita (Honoured Artist of the Republic) in 1957.'

Tiberiu Aiexandru

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