ROMANIA: Romanian children sing old communist Pioneer songs as country marks 20th anniversary of revolution

Record ID: 815638

  • Title: ROMANIA: Romanian children sing old communist Pioneer songs as country marks 20th anniversary of revolution
  • Date: 22nd December 2009
  • Summary: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA (RECENT - DECEMBER 18, 2009) (REUTERS) 'CHILDREN'S RADIO CHOIR' REHEARSING FOR 'CHEERFUL PIONEER CHEERIO' CONCERT CHOIR SINGING AT THE REHEARSAL, WITH LYRICS SAYING: "Thanks with all our hearts to the party"
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Romania
  • Country: Romania
  • Topics: History,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4LBCF3NMDW79QD1ZI7A9TEPPZ
  • Story Text: Children sing songs from Romania's communist past as part of a "Cheerful Pioneer Cheerio" project, 20 years after the Romanian Revolution.
    Romania's premier children's choir is marking the 20th anniversary of the country's revolution by singing the songs their parents would have learned to sing as Young Pioneers.
    During communist times children joined the "Motherland Falcons" during their kindergarten years, moving on to the Pioneers and then becoming part of the Union of Communist Youth (UTC) at high school age. They were then old enough to become fully fledged members of the Communist Party.
    The director of the renowned Radio Children's Choir from Bucharest, Voicu Popescu, organised the performance as a way of helping Romania reconcile with its past.
    As children prepare for the concert, they belt out Pioneer songs with lyrics like "Thanks with all our hearts to the Party" and "The school I'm loving it, I'm a Pioneer. The love for it makes me work, I'm a Pioneer."
    The music of the Pioneer songs was created by some of the best composers of the time, producing sophisticated patriotic choral music, something which appeared to be appreciated by the members of today's choir.
    "It is very well composed music with solid orchestration and the lyrics have a motivation. It is a pleasure to re-listen and sing this music again after so many years," said Petruta, a choir member who was five years old during Romania's bloody 1989 revolution which ousted communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
    Petruta is one of the young adults Popescu enlisted to sing with the choir for this project, so that songs sung by older children at the time could be included in the repertoire.
    He admits that at first, the songs were a little perplexing for some of the choir members.
    "But after we read the first music phrases I saw smiles blossoming on their faces because they recognised the huge distance between the musical beauty and the stupidity of the lyrics," he said.
    Popescu concentrated on songs from throughout the Stalin and Ceausescu periods that inspired patriotic feelings for work and school, rather than the songs dedicated to Ceausescu himself.
    But for some members of the choir, the songs were enough to incite images of darker times.
    "What's the sense of the lyrics of these songs for me? Things that happened some time ago that we don't want to go through again," said one, who was born in 1989.
    Nine-year old Mihai appeared to enjoy wearing the Pioneer uniform.
    "Wearing these clothes makes me think of my parents because I see them in old pictures dressed like this all the time. So I don't recognize myself when I'm looking in the mirror," he said.
    Another choir member said that she has been on several trips abroad with the choir, and foreigners are not sure of what they think of Romania.
    "People from outside view Romanians with suspicion to begin with. I have been to many places abroad and I've noticed that they know about us almost only because of Ceausescu," she said.
    The choir's performance included some typical pioneer ceremonies, like the "Beginning of activity" report and "Pioneer tie presentation"
    Popescu says that Romania's youth has a strong interest in preserving the country's past, and this is reflected on various internet sites. He says the concert is a way of serving that interest.
    "It's obvious that while we want to forget the past, the youngsters want to know about it. And because of that I felt engaged, having the opportunity to use this choir ensemble, to offer to the public from Bucharest this repertoire. To offer this sound 20 years after the Revolution," he said.
    To return to modern times, the concert ended with a Christmas carol that had been banned during the country's communist period. The site of a group of children singing "Santa Claus with White Hair" and wearing Pioneer uniforms, was not something that would have ever been possible during the regime.
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