Anton Pann
Encyclopedia
Anton Pann was an Ottoman
-born Wallachia
n composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language
poet, also noted for his activities as a printer, translator, and schoolteacher. Pann was an influential folklorist
and collector of proverb
s, as well as a lexicographer and textbook author.
, Rumelia
(in today's Bulgaria
). According to some accounts, his mother, Tomaida, was an ethnic Greek
, while his father, Pantoleon Petrov, was bulgarian; it is known that he worked as a coppersmith bucket-maker, which makes it likely that he was a Romani of the Kalderash
caste. In Romania
, the latter view is notably supported by Romani community activists, who cite Pann among the most prominent Romani artists. This view is also accepted by some Romanian authors. Various other interpretations state that Pantoleon Petrov, who died during Anton Pann's childhood, was Bulgarian
, Aromanian
, or Romanian
. The writer, who was the youngest of Petrov and Tomaida's three sons, eventually adopted the family name Pann, as a colloquial contraction of his father's given name.
After he began primary education at the communal school in Sliven, the Petrovs fled the region during the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812
and settled in Chişinău
, Bessarabia
, where Anton was first employed by a Russian Orthodox
choir. His two brothers were killed in the skirmishes around Brăila
, as volunteers on the Imperial Russian
side. Moving with his mother to Bucharest
in 1810-1812, Pann would spend most of his life in the city.
Anton Pann carried on with his choral activities in Wallachia, was employed as a sexton
by the Romanian Orthodox
Olari and Sfinţilor Churches, before being tutored by Dionisie Fotino and allowed to attend the religious music school founded by Petru Efesiul (1816). Perfecting his craft, he came to the attention of Metropolitan Dionisie Lupu, who appointed him on a commission charged with translating liturgical works from Slavonic to Romanian. The memoirist Ion Ghica
later recounted that Pann attended the Saint Sava College
, but this remains disputed. In 1820, he first got married to a woman named Zamfira Azgurean, in what was to be the first of his unhappy romantic liaisons.
's rebellious forces
occupied the city, Pann fled to the Transylvania
n city of Kronstadt
(part of the Austrian Empire
), and was employed as a cantor
by the Saint Nicolas Church in the ethnic Romanian neighborhood of Şchei. This temporary refuge over the Southern Carpathians
mirrored that of other cultural and religious figures of the day, his fellow musician Macarie Ieromonahul among them.
He also spent time in Râmnicu Vâlcea
(1827), where he was a teacher at the Orthodox seminary
and, in parallel, lectured on religious music to the nuns of the Dintr-un Lemn Monastery. A scandal erupted after Pann used his position at the latter institution to seduce Anica, the mother superior's 16-year-old niece. Unsuccessfully offering her legal guardians to marry Anica in church, he eloped with her back to Şchei. While there, he became friends with the writer Ion Barac, whom he had probably met earlier, and who, according to Pann's own testimony, gave him lessons in meter
. According to some sources, he also took a trip to Buda
. The literary critic Tudor Vianu
attributes to Barac and Vasile Aaron, whose work constituted an adaption of various chanson de geste
themes, the merit of having inspired Pann to pursue a literary career.
Returning to Râmnicu Vâlcea
in 1828, he was officially expelled from his teaching position, and, in 1828, he returned to work as a cantor for the Bucharest school on Podul Mogoşoaiei
. Over the following decade, Pann authored a large panel of musical and literary works, including Noul Doxastar, which, adapted and partly recreated from Dionisie Fotino's version, assembled all officially-endorsed pieces of Christian music
, and which he prefaced. According to his own testimony, this had required a major financial effort, one which almost caused his bankruptcy.
In 1837, he separated from Anica, with whom he had fathered a son (Gheorghiţă) and a daughter (Tinca). Anton Pann married a third and final time in 1840, to Catinca (the more common name of Ecaterina). All three of his wives survived his death; his son by Zamfira, Lazăr, was to become an Orthodox priest.
From 1842 to 1851, with support gained from Metropolitan Neofit, Pann was employed as a music teacher by the main seminary in Bucharest (in parallel, he continued to sing at the Albă Church). During those years, he began associating with famous lăutari
of his day, and regularly attended the lively social gatherings held in the gardens and orchards of Mitropoliei Hill. A passionate collector of classical-Ottoman
and Romani music, which formed the staple of the lăutari repertory ever since the Phanariote period
, Pann later printed some of the earliest manele
tablature
s. This was matched by his interest in other musical traditions: in his churchly practice, he endorsed the tradition of Byzantine hymns
and removed modulations
of Levantine
inspiration, while he was among the first of his generation to use modern notation
and Italian
markings for tempo
.
In 1843, Pann established a printing press
inside the Olteni Church, which published works by several authors of his day, as well as a long series of almanac
s. He later confessed that this enterprise had drained his economies, and that he had relied on support from various benefactors. Upon Neofit's request, he also began the translation of various religious texts. Pann's comprehensive and innovative textbook for music, Bazul teoretic şi practic al muzicii bisericeşti ("The Theoretical and Practical Basis of Church music or the Melodic Grammar"), was officially endorsed by the Metropolitan and taught at the seminary after 1845 and became a template for similar works; in addition, his printing shop sold cheap copies of popular novels, such as the Alexander Romance
, the Book of 1001 Nights
, the Book of Til Owl-Mirror
, and the Story of Genevieve of Brabant
. In March 1847, Anton Pann authored an account of the major fire in the capital (see History of Bucharest
). During the latter disaster, his printing shop was heavily damaged, and he was only able to salvage the presses. He resumed his activities only in 1849, when he moved the business to a house owned by Catinca Pann on Taurului Street.
In 1848, he published a lexicon
of words and expressions in Romanian, Russian
and Ottoman Turkish
. Later in the same year, Pann sided with the liberal
revolutionaries in their action against Prince Gheorghe Bibescu
, was a supporter of the new Wallachian Provisional Government, participating in popular rallies in Craiova
and Râmnicu Vâlcea
(see 1848 Wallachian revolution). The following year, after falling severely ill, he wrote down the first version of his testament in verse (Adiata), in which he asked to be buried in Viforâta Monastery (where he hoped that his wife Catinca would become a nun). After a series of other satirical works, Pann produced a collection of writings centered on the figure of Nastratin Hogea
and owing inspiration to Balkan
folklore at large (first published in 1853).
In autumn 1854, Pann fell ill with typhus
and the common cold
during a visit to Râmnicu Vâlcea, dying soon after at his Bucharest residence; he was buried in the Lucaci Church of Bucharest, although, in his second will of August, he had asked for his final resting place to be the hermitage of Rozioara (this failure to comply was attributed to the difficulties in transportation). Catinca Pann remarried soon after this. During the early 1900s, Lucaci Church became home to a monument in Pann's honor, donated by the General Association of Church Singers — an institution presided over by Ion Popescu-Pasărea.
, which he claimed to have codified, thus drawing comparisons to his predecessors Rabelais, Giovanni Boccaccio
, and Miguel de Cervantes
. The Romanian literary critic George Călinescu
drew a direct comparison between Pann and his contemporary, the Wallachian Jewish
peddler Cilibi Moise
, who, without producing any written works, was made famous by a series of bitter puns in which he referred to himself in the third person (such as "For a few years now, Cilibi Moise has been begging Poverty to leave his house, at the very least for as long as it takes him to get dressed").
Together with Ion Creangă
and Petre Ispirescu
, Pann was among the first major interpreters of Romanian folklore in 19th century literature. Appealing primarily to a semi-educated audience, his creations have been celebrated for their familiar tone and use of plain Romanian
, during a period when literary language was beginning to rely on formalism
and a large number of neologisms. The writer himself made frequent excuses to the more educated of his readers for any flaws they were to find in his texts, specifying that he lacked in formal training. In the final decades of his life, several of his printed works, especially Memorialul focului mare and the manele
lyrics collection Spitalul amorului, came to be appreciated by a younger generation of boyar
s. The Moldavia
n poet Vasile Alecsandri
noted, in an 1872 letter quoted by Garabet Ibrăileanu
: "Anton Pann has not yet been appreciated to his full value, and moreover, in Wallachia his merits are even being held in contempt by most modern men of letters".
Pann's poetic language often relies on elaborate successions of images, metaphors, or maxims. According to Călinescu, "the fundamental method" used by Pann is "the almost monstrous accumulation of aphorism, around an initial idea and through a very wide [process of] association", amounting to "a burlesque effect". He illustrated this view with a sample of proverb-lyrics:
Almost all of Pann's work drew on recent or ancient sources, which he reinterpreted to suit the tastes of his public. In the 1880s, the scholar Moses Gaster
revealed that one of Pann's major works, Înţeleptul Archir şi nepotul său Anadam ("The Wise Archir and His Nephew Anadam"), made ingenious use of an old and much-circulated biography of Aesop
. In researching various fable
s which Pann had used to expand on his proverbs, Gaster noted that they echoed obscure medieval material (including the Gesta Romanorum
, Giulio Cesare Croce
's Le sottilissime astutie di Bertoldo, and even Siberia
n Turkic
folklore). One of his main pieces, the fable of the mouse who pictures himself king of all animals, originated with the Panchatantra
. Tudor Vianu
indicated that, in writing his book on morals (Hristoitia), Pann integrated text from Desiderius Erasmus
' Adagia
.
As an original element, Anton Pann used the diverse sources of his work to compliment his own view of the world; according to Vianu, the latter's main traits were Pann's religious tolerance and fervor, as well as his Levant
ine outlook on social matters. Călinescu defined Povestea vorbei as "a false collection of folklore, given that Pann does not abide by peasant authenticity, but embellishes popular language with the cultured one, often obtaining an amazing chromatic effect". While commenting on Pann's focus on social developments of his time as "the completely mechanical ease with which current issues are put into verse", Călinescu noted that Hristoitia contained "advices which presume a state of supreme animality". In drawing the latter conclusion, he cited a stanza
in which Pann asked people not to touch their genitalia in public.
O şezătoare la ţară, believed to be one of Pann's most accomplished works, is written as an epic
frame story
in verse, and constitutes a satire of life in mid-19th century Wallachia. Reflecting the perspective of simple folk, the poem is marked by sarcastic remarks on social contrasts, Westernization
, superstition
, as well as tensions between estate lessors
and workers (with the former stereotypically depicted as Greeks). Its final part, a denouement, went unpublished. O şezătoare la ţară was also noted for the lengthy and meticulously detailed conclusions to each story, which evidenced a style borrowed from traditional storytelling. Vianu argued that the poem stands as a Romanian equivalent to The Decameron
, Till Eulenspiegel
, or Simplicius Simplicissimus. The text itself later became a source for aphorisms: the colloquial expression ba e tunsă, ba e rasă ("it is either trimmed or razed"), which Pann originally made in reference to an irrelevant debate over the state of an orchard, has survived as a tongue-in-cheek view of arbitrary conclusions.
Pann's influential taste for manele and their sentimental lyrics, as exemplified in his Spitalul amorului and other printed brochures, has been the target of criticism ever since the early 20th century. Tudor Vianu stressed that these works showed the influence of "the trivial popular music of his day", while Călinescu dismissed them as "lamented vulgarity and eroticism".
Pann is generally believed to have authored the music to Deşteaptă-te, române!
, Romania
's national anthem
. His associate Gheorghe Ucenescu is known to have arranged the melody to the lyrics of Andrei Mureşanu
, but Pann's direct implication in the creative process was allegedly not confirmed by sources. According to one account, Ucenescu had used a romanza
composed by Pann in 1839, in turn complimenting the lyrics of Grigore Alexandrescu
. It has also been argued that the music was that of a popular lied
, and first published in one of Pann's manele collections. The ethnographic research carried out by Dimitrie Gusti
confirmed that the same melody was being sung as a folk song by Southern Dobruja
n ethnic Turks
in the 1930s.
Mihai Eminescu
, one of Romania's most influential poets, made a reference to Pann in his poem Epigonii (1870), which, in its opening verses, traces the development of early literature and the impact of Romanticism
. Cited alongside Dimitrie Cantemir
, Dimitrie Ţichindeal, Vasile Cârlova
, Ienăchiţă Văcărescu
, Alexandru Sihleanu, Ion Heliade Rădulescu
, Cezar Bolliac
and others, Pann is referred to as the son of Pepelea, the witty hero of folk literature, and complimented with the words "as clever as a proverb". During the interwar period
, the works of Anton Pann were reflected and complimented in the modernist
poetic art of Ion Barbu
. Barbu's Nastratin Hogea la Isarlâk uses Pann's main character to tragic effect, depicting, in willing contrast to the proverbial setting, Nastratin's violent self-sacrifice. George Călinescu
noted that Pann's "mix of buffoonery and seriousness" present in the works of poet Tudor Arghezi
, came "in the line of Anton Pann".
In 1945, Lucian Blaga
authored a three-act play named Anton Pann, centered on the poet's Şchei period. A museum of the life and activity of Anton Pann exist in Râmnicu Vâlcea
, and, since 1990, a public theater in the same city bears his name.
by Sorin-Aurel Sandu, illustrated by Eugen Raportoru, UNICEF
Romania, 2005
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
-born Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
n composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
poet, also noted for his activities as a printer, translator, and schoolteacher. Pann was an influential folklorist
Folkloristics
Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...
and collector of proverb
Proverb
A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...
s, as well as a lexicographer and textbook author.
Early years
Pann was born sometime between 1794 and 1798, in SlivenSliven
Sliven is the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality. It is a relatively large town with 89,848 inhabitants, as of February 2011....
, Rumelia
Rumelia
Rumelia was an historical region comprising the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe...
(in today's Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
). According to some accounts, his mother, Tomaida, was an ethnic Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, while his father, Pantoleon Petrov, was bulgarian; it is known that he worked as a coppersmith bucket-maker, which makes it likely that he was a Romani of the Kalderash
Kalderash
The Kalderash are a subgroup of the Romani people, from the Roma meta-group. They were traditionally smiths and metal workers and speak a number of Romani dialects grouped together under the term Kalderash Romani, a sub-group of Vlax Romani.-Etymology:The name Kalderash The Kalderash (also spelled...
caste. In Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, the latter view is notably supported by Romani community activists, who cite Pann among the most prominent Romani artists. This view is also accepted by some Romanian authors. Various other interpretations state that Pantoleon Petrov, who died during Anton Pann's childhood, was Bulgarian
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
, Aromanian
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
, or Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
. The writer, who was the youngest of Petrov and Tomaida's three sons, eventually adopted the family name Pann, as a colloquial contraction of his father's given name.
After he began primary education at the communal school in Sliven, the Petrovs fled the region during the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812
Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812
The Russo-Turkish War was one of many wars fought between Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire.- Background :The war broke out in 1805–1806 against the background of the Napoleonic Wars...
and settled in Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
, Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, where Anton was first employed by a Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
choir. His two brothers were killed in the skirmishes around Brăila
Braila
Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...
, as volunteers on the Imperial Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
side. Moving with his mother to Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
in 1810-1812, Pann would spend most of his life in the city.
Anton Pann carried on with his choral activities in Wallachia, was employed as a sexton
Sexton (office)
A sexton is a church, congregation or synagogue officer charged with the maintenance of its buildings and/or the surrounding graveyard. In smaller places of worship, this office is often combined with that of verger...
by the Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
Olari and Sfinţilor Churches, before being tutored by Dionisie Fotino and allowed to attend the religious music school founded by Petru Efesiul (1816). Perfecting his craft, he came to the attention of Metropolitan Dionisie Lupu, who appointed him on a commission charged with translating liturgical works from Slavonic to Romanian. The memoirist Ion Ghica
Ion Ghica
Ion Ghica was a Romanian revolutionary, mathematician, diplomat and twice Prime Minister of Romania . He was a full member of the Romanian Academy and its president for four times...
later recounted that Pann attended the Saint Sava College
Saint Sava College
Saint Sava College was one of the earliest academic institutions in Wallachia, Romania. It was the predecessor to both Saint Sava National College and the University of Bucharest.-History:...
, but this remains disputed. In 1820, he first got married to a woman named Zamfira Azgurean, in what was to be the first of his unhappy romantic liaisons.
Midlife
In 1821, when Tudor VladimirescuTudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu was a Wallachian Romanian revolutionary hero, the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and of the Pandur militia. He is also known as Tudor din Vladimiri or — occasionally — as Domnul Tudor .-Background:Tudor was born in Vladimiri, Gorj County in a family of landed peasants...
's rebellious forces
Wallachian uprising of 1821
The Wallachian uprising of 1821 was an uprising in Wallachia against Ottoman rule which took place during 1821.-Background:...
occupied the city, Pann fled to the Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n city of Kronstadt
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
(part of the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
), and was employed as a cantor
Cantor (church)
A cantor is the chief singer employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor....
by the Saint Nicolas Church in the ethnic Romanian neighborhood of Şchei. This temporary refuge over the Southern Carpathians
Southern Carpathians
The Southern Carpathians or the Transylvanian Alps are a group of mountain ranges which divide central and southern Romania, on one side, and Serbia, on the other side. They cover part of the Carpathian Mountains that is located between the Prahova River in the east and the Timiș and Cerna Rivers...
mirrored that of other cultural and religious figures of the day, his fellow musician Macarie Ieromonahul among them.
He also spent time in Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea is the capital city of Vâlcea County, Romania .-Geography and climate:Râmnicu Vâlcea is situated in the central-south area of Romania...
(1827), where he was a teacher at the Orthodox seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
and, in parallel, lectured on religious music to the nuns of the Dintr-un Lemn Monastery. A scandal erupted after Pann used his position at the latter institution to seduce Anica, the mother superior's 16-year-old niece. Unsuccessfully offering her legal guardians to marry Anica in church, he eloped with her back to Şchei. While there, he became friends with the writer Ion Barac, whom he had probably met earlier, and who, according to Pann's own testimony, gave him lessons in meter
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
. According to some sources, he also took a trip to Buda
Buda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...
. The literary critic Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
attributes to Barac and Vasile Aaron, whose work constituted an adaption of various chanson de geste
Chanson de geste
The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds", are the epic poems that appear at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known examples date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, nearly a hundred years before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the trouvères and...
themes, the merit of having inspired Pann to pursue a literary career.
Returning to Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea is the capital city of Vâlcea County, Romania .-Geography and climate:Râmnicu Vâlcea is situated in the central-south area of Romania...
in 1828, he was officially expelled from his teaching position, and, in 1828, he returned to work as a cantor for the Bucharest school on Podul Mogoşoaiei
Calea Victoriei
Calea Victoriei is a major avenue in central Bucharest. It leads from Splaiul Independenţei to the north and then northwest up to Piaţa Victoriei, where Şoseaua Kiseleff continues north....
. Over the following decade, Pann authored a large panel of musical and literary works, including Noul Doxastar, which, adapted and partly recreated from Dionisie Fotino's version, assembled all officially-endorsed pieces of Christian music
Christian music
Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely across the world....
, and which he prefaced. According to his own testimony, this had required a major financial effort, one which almost caused his bankruptcy.
In 1837, he separated from Anica, with whom he had fathered a son (Gheorghiţă) and a daughter (Tinca). Anton Pann married a third and final time in 1840, to Catinca (the more common name of Ecaterina). All three of his wives survived his death; his son by Zamfira, Lazăr, was to become an Orthodox priest.
From 1842 to 1851, with support gained from Metropolitan Neofit, Pann was employed as a music teacher by the main seminary in Bucharest (in parallel, he continued to sing at the Albă Church). During those years, he began associating with famous lăutari
Lautari
The Romanian word Lăutar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, Lăutari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians , also called Ţigani lăutari. The term is derived from Lăută the name of a string instrument...
of his day, and regularly attended the lively social gatherings held in the gardens and orchards of Mitropoliei Hill. A passionate collector of classical-Ottoman
Ottoman classical music
Ottoman classical music developed in Istanbul and major Ottoman towns from Skopje to Cairo, from Tabriz to Morocco through the palace, mosques, and sufi lodges of the Ottoman Empire. Above all a vocal music, Ottoman music traditionally accompanies a solo singer with a small instrumental ensemble...
and Romani music, which formed the staple of the lăutari repertory ever since the Phanariote period
Phanariotes
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...
, Pann later printed some of the earliest manele
Manele
Manele is a music style from Romania, generally associated with the Romani minority, though not exclusively....
tablature
Tablature
Tablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches....
s. This was matched by his interest in other musical traditions: in his churchly practice, he endorsed the tradition of Byzantine hymns
Byzantine music
Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient Greek system...
and removed modulations
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
of Levantine
Middle Eastern music
The music of Western Asia and North Africa spans across a vast region, from Morocco to Afghanistan, and its influences can be felt even further afield. Middle Eastern music influenced the music of India, as well as Central Asia, Spain, Southern Italy, the Caucasus and the Balkans, as in chalga...
inspiration, while he was among the first of his generation to use modern notation
Modern musical symbols
Modern musical symbols are the marks and symbols that are widely used in musical scores of all styles and instruments today. This is intended to be a comprehensive guide to the various symbols encountered in modern musical notation.- Lines :- Clefs :...
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
markings for tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
.
In 1843, Pann established a printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
inside the Olteni Church, which published works by several authors of his day, as well as a long series of almanac
Almanac
An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...
s. He later confessed that this enterprise had drained his economies, and that he had relied on support from various benefactors. Upon Neofit's request, he also began the translation of various religious texts. Pann's comprehensive and innovative textbook for music, Bazul teoretic şi practic al muzicii bisericeşti ("The Theoretical and Practical Basis of Church music or the Melodic Grammar"), was officially endorsed by the Metropolitan and taught at the seminary after 1845 and became a template for similar works; in addition, his printing shop sold cheap copies of popular novels, such as the Alexander Romance
Alexander Romance
Alexander romance is any of several collections of legends concerning the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great. The earliest version is in Greek, dating to the 3rd century. Several late manuscripts attribute the work to Alexander's court historian Callisthenes, but the historical figure died...
, the Book of 1001 Nights
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age...
, the Book of Til Owl-Mirror
Till Eulenspiegel
Till Eulenspiegel was an impudent trickster figure originating in Middle Low German folklore. His tales were disseminated in popular printed editions narrating a string of lightly connected episodes that outlined his picaresque career, primarily in Germany, the Low Countries and France...
, and the Story of Genevieve of Brabant
Genevieve of Brabant
Genevieve of Brabant is a heroine of medieval legend.-Legend:Her story is a typical example of the widespread tale of the chaste wife falsely accused and repudiated, generally on the word of a rejected suitor. Genovefa of Brabant was said to be the wife of the palatine Siegfried of Treves, and was...
. In March 1847, Anton Pann authored an account of the major fire in the capital (see History of Bucharest
History of Bucharest
The history of Bucharest covers the time from the early settlements on the locality's territory until its modern existence as a city, capital of Wallachia, and present-day capital of Romania.-Ancient times:...
). During the latter disaster, his printing shop was heavily damaged, and he was only able to salvage the presses. He resumed his activities only in 1849, when he moved the business to a house owned by Catinca Pann on Taurului Street.
Later years
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
of words and expressions in Romanian, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish language
The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
. Later in the same year, Pann sided with the liberal
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
revolutionaries in their action against Prince Gheorghe Bibescu
Gheorghe Bibescu
Gheorghe Bibescu was a hospodar of Wallachia between 1843 and 1848. His rule coincided with the revolutionary tide that culminated in the 1848 Wallachian revolution.-Early political career:...
, was a supporter of the new Wallachian Provisional Government, participating in popular rallies in Craiova
Craiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
and Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea is the capital city of Vâlcea County, Romania .-Geography and climate:Râmnicu Vâlcea is situated in the central-south area of Romania...
(see 1848 Wallachian revolution). The following year, after falling severely ill, he wrote down the first version of his testament in verse (Adiata), in which he asked to be buried in Viforâta Monastery (where he hoped that his wife Catinca would become a nun). After a series of other satirical works, Pann produced a collection of writings centered on the figure of Nastratin Hogea
Nasreddin
Nasreddin was a Seljuq satirical Sufi figure, sometimes believed to have lived during the Middle Ages and considered a populist philosopher and wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes. He appears in thousands of stories, sometimes witty, sometimes wise, but often, too, a fool or...
and owing inspiration to Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
folklore at large (first published in 1853).
In autumn 1854, Pann fell ill with typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
and the common cold
Common cold
The common cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, caused primarily by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Common symptoms include a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and fever...
during a visit to Râmnicu Vâlcea, dying soon after at his Bucharest residence; he was buried in the Lucaci Church of Bucharest, although, in his second will of August, he had asked for his final resting place to be the hermitage of Rozioara (this failure to comply was attributed to the difficulties in transportation). Catinca Pann remarried soon after this. During the early 1900s, Lucaci Church became home to a monument in Pann's honor, donated by the General Association of Church Singers — an institution presided over by Ion Popescu-Pasărea.
Literature
Pann's literary creation was noted for its reliance on a vast oral traditionOral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
, which he claimed to have codified, thus drawing comparisons to his predecessors Rabelais, Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
, and Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
. The Romanian literary critic George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
drew a direct comparison between Pann and his contemporary, the Wallachian Jewish
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
peddler Cilibi Moise
Cilibi Moise
Cilibi Moise or Cilibi Moisi was a Moldavian-born Wallachian and Romanian peddler, humorist, aphorist, and raconteur. He is best known for the aphorisms and anecdotes attributed to him, which, although recorded in Romanian, represent an important segment of the local secular Jewish culture and...
, who, without producing any written works, was made famous by a series of bitter puns in which he referred to himself in the third person (such as "For a few years now, Cilibi Moise has been begging Poverty to leave his house, at the very least for as long as it takes him to get dressed").
Together with Ion Creangă
Ion Creanga
Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...
and Petre Ispirescu
Petre Ispirescu
Petre Ispirescu was a Romanian printer and publicist.-Biography:Born in Bucharest, his parents wanted him to be a priest and he was entrusted to study with a monk at the Metropolitan Church, after he studied with a priest at the Doamna Bălaşa Church....
, Pann was among the first major interpreters of Romanian folklore in 19th century literature. Appealing primarily to a semi-educated audience, his creations have been celebrated for their familiar tone and use of plain Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, during a period when literary language was beginning to rely on formalism
Formalism (literature)
Formalism is a school of literary criticism and literary theory having mainly to do with structural purposes of a particular text.In literary theory, formalism refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text. These features include not only grammar...
and a large number of neologisms. The writer himself made frequent excuses to the more educated of his readers for any flaws they were to find in his texts, specifying that he lacked in formal training. In the final decades of his life, several of his printed works, especially Memorialul focului mare and the manele
Manele
Manele is a music style from Romania, generally associated with the Romani minority, though not exclusively....
lyrics collection Spitalul amorului, came to be appreciated by a younger generation of boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
s. The Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
n poet Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri was a Romanian poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia....
noted, in an 1872 letter quoted by Garabet Ibrăileanu
Garabet Ibraileanu
Garabet Ibrăileanu was a Romanian-Armenian literary critic and theorist, writer, translator, sociologist, Iaşi University professor , and, together with Paul Bujor and Constantin Stere, for long main editor of the Viaţa Românească literary magazine between 1906 and 1930...
: "Anton Pann has not yet been appreciated to his full value, and moreover, in Wallachia his merits are even being held in contempt by most modern men of letters".
Pann's poetic language often relies on elaborate successions of images, metaphors, or maxims. According to Călinescu, "the fundamental method" used by Pann is "the almost monstrous accumulation of aphorism, around an initial idea and through a very wide [process of] association", amounting to "a burlesque effect". He illustrated this view with a sample of proverb-lyrics:
Aideţi să vorbim de geabă Că tot n-avem nici o treabă, Fiindcă, Gura nu cere chirie, Poate vorbi orice fie. De multe ori însă, Vorba, din vorbă în vorbă Au ajuns şi la cociorbă. Şi atunci vine proverbul: Vorba pe unde a ieşit Mai bine să fi tuşit. |
Let's talk for nothing It's not like we have something else to do, Because The mouth requires no rent It can talk come what may. Many times however, The word, between exchanges, Makes people reach for their stokers. And that is where a proverb fits: Instead of uttering a word It is better to have coughed. |
Almost all of Pann's work drew on recent or ancient sources, which he reinterpreted to suit the tastes of his public. In the 1880s, the scholar Moses Gaster
Moses Gaster
Moses Gaster was a Romanian-born Jewish-British scholar, the Hakham of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation, London, and a Hebrew linguist. He was also the son-in-law of Michael Friedländer, principal of Jews' College. The surname Gaster is taken from Spanish Castro, indicating his Sephardic...
revealed that one of Pann's major works, Înţeleptul Archir şi nepotul său Anadam ("The Wise Archir and His Nephew Anadam"), made ingenious use of an old and much-circulated biography of Aesop
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
. In researching various fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
s which Pann had used to expand on his proverbs, Gaster noted that they echoed obscure medieval material (including the Gesta Romanorum
Gesta Romanorum
Gesta Romanorum, a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales, was probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th...
, Giulio Cesare Croce
Giulio Cesare Croce
Giulio Cesare Croce was an Italian writer, actor/producer of cantastoria and enigma writer....
's Le sottilissime astutie di Bertoldo, and even Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
folklore). One of his main pieces, the fable of the mouse who pictures himself king of all animals, originated with the Panchatantra
Panchatantra
The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. The original Sanskrit work, which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma...
. Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
indicated that, in writing his book on morals (Hristoitia), Pann integrated text from Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus , known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and a theologian....
' Adagia
Adagia
Adagia is an annotated collection of Greek and Latin proverbs, compiled during the Renaissance by Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. Erasmus' collection of proverbs is "one of the most monumental ... ever assembled" Adagia (adagium is the singular form and adagia is the plural) is an...
.
As an original element, Anton Pann used the diverse sources of his work to compliment his own view of the world; according to Vianu, the latter's main traits were Pann's religious tolerance and fervor, as well as his Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
ine outlook on social matters. Călinescu defined Povestea vorbei as "a false collection of folklore, given that Pann does not abide by peasant authenticity, but embellishes popular language with the cultured one, often obtaining an amazing chromatic effect". While commenting on Pann's focus on social developments of his time as "the completely mechanical ease with which current issues are put into verse", Călinescu noted that Hristoitia contained "advices which presume a state of supreme animality". In drawing the latter conclusion, he cited a stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
in which Pann asked people not to touch their genitalia in public.
O şezătoare la ţară, believed to be one of Pann's most accomplished works, is written as an epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
in verse, and constitutes a satire of life in mid-19th century Wallachia. Reflecting the perspective of simple folk, the poem is marked by sarcastic remarks on social contrasts, Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
, superstition
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....
, as well as tensions between estate lessors
Leasehold estate
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
and workers (with the former stereotypically depicted as Greeks). Its final part, a denouement, went unpublished. O şezătoare la ţară was also noted for the lengthy and meticulously detailed conclusions to each story, which evidenced a style borrowed from traditional storytelling. Vianu argued that the poem stands as a Romanian equivalent to The Decameron
The Decameron
The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....
, Till Eulenspiegel
Till Eulenspiegel
Till Eulenspiegel was an impudent trickster figure originating in Middle Low German folklore. His tales were disseminated in popular printed editions narrating a string of lightly connected episodes that outlined his picaresque career, primarily in Germany, the Low Countries and France...
, or Simplicius Simplicissimus. The text itself later became a source for aphorisms: the colloquial expression ba e tunsă, ba e rasă ("it is either trimmed or razed"), which Pann originally made in reference to an irrelevant debate over the state of an orchard, has survived as a tongue-in-cheek view of arbitrary conclusions.
Pann's influential taste for manele and their sentimental lyrics, as exemplified in his Spitalul amorului and other printed brochures, has been the target of criticism ever since the early 20th century. Tudor Vianu stressed that these works showed the influence of "the trivial popular music of his day", while Călinescu dismissed them as "lamented vulgarity and eroticism".
Legacy
Desteapta-te, române!
"Deșteaptă-te, române" is Romania's national anthem....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
's national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
. His associate Gheorghe Ucenescu is known to have arranged the melody to the lyrics of Andrei Mureşanu
Andrei Muresanu
Andrei Mureșianu was a Romanian poet and revolutionary of Transylvania .Born to a family of peasants, he studied philosophy and theology in Blaj. Starting in 1838, Mureșianu was a professor at Brașov...
, but Pann's direct implication in the creative process was allegedly not confirmed by sources. According to one account, Ucenescu had used a romanza
Romanza
-Commercial performance:First in Europe, then charts around the world, the album amassed a multitude of platinum and multi-platinum awards, outselling even Bocelli's 1995 album, Bocelli, with worldwide sales in excess of 20 million copies to date....
composed by Pann in 1839, in turn complimenting the lyrics of Grigore Alexandrescu
Grigore Alexandrescu
Grigore Alexandrescu in Bucharest was a nineteenth century Romanian poet and translator noted for his fables with political undertones.Of a noble family, he participated in secret revolutionary societies...
. It has also been argued that the music was that of a popular lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
, and first published in one of Pann's manele collections. The ethnographic research carried out by Dimitrie Gusti
Dimitrie Gusti
Dimitrie Gusti was a Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and voluntarist philosopher; a professor at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, he served as Romania's Minister of Education in 1932-1933...
confirmed that the same melody was being sung as a folk song by Southern Dobruja
Southern Dobruja
Southern Dobruja is an area of north-eastern Bulgaria comprising the administrative districts named for its two principal cities of Dobrich and Silistra...
n ethnic Turks
Turks in Bulgaria
The Turks in Bulgaria number 588,318 people and constitute 8.8% of those who declared their ethnic group and 8.0% of the total population according to the 2011 Bulgarian census. 605,802 persons or 9.1% of the population pointed Turkish language as their mother tongue. They are also the largest...
in the 1930s.
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
, one of Romania's most influential poets, made a reference to Pann in his poem Epigonii (1870), which, in its opening verses, traces the development of early literature and the impact of Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
. Cited alongside Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie Cantemir was twice Prince of Moldavia . He was also a prolific man of letters – philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer....
, Dimitrie Ţichindeal, Vasile Cârlova
Vasile Cârlova
Vasile Cârlova was a Wallachian officer and early Romantic poet.-Biography:Born into a low-ranking Romanian boyar family in Buzău, Cârlova remained an orphan in 1816, and, after being adopted by an aunt, moved to Craiova...
, Ienăchiţă Văcărescu
Ienachita Vacarescu
Ienăchiţă Văcărescu was a Wallachian Romanian poet, historian, philologist, and boyar belonging to the Văcărescu family...
, Alexandru Sihleanu, Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Ion Heliade Radulescu
Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade was a Wallachian-born Romanian academic, Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writer, newspaper editor and politician...
, Cezar Bolliac
Cezar Bolliac
Cezar Bolliac or Boliac, Boliak was a Wallachian and Romanian radical political figure, amateur archaeologist, journalist and Romantic poet.-Early life:...
and others, Pann is referred to as the son of Pepelea, the witty hero of folk literature, and complimented with the words "as clever as a proverb". During the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, the works of Anton Pann were reflected and complimented in the modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
poetic art of Ion Barbu
Ion Barbu
Ion Barbu was a distinguished Romanian mathematician and poet.He was born in Câmpulung-Muscel, Argeş County, the son of Constantin Barbilian and Smaranda, born Şoiculescu. He attended Ion Brătianu High School in Piteşti and Gheorghe Lazăr High School in Bucharest...
. Barbu's Nastratin Hogea la Isarlâk uses Pann's main character to tragic effect, depicting, in willing contrast to the proverbial setting, Nastratin's violent self-sacrifice. George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
noted that Pann's "mix of buffoonery and seriousness" present in the works of poet Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
, came "in the line of Anton Pann".
In 1945, Lucian Blaga
Lucian Blaga
-Biography:Lucian Blaga was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the interbellum period. He was a philosopher and writer higly acclaimed for his originality, a university professor and a diplomat. He was born on May 9, 1895 in Lancrăm, near Alba Iulia, Romania, his father being an...
authored a three-act play named Anton Pann, centered on the poet's Şchei period. A museum of the life and activity of Anton Pann exist in Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea
Râmnicu Vâlcea is the capital city of Vâlcea County, Romania .-Geography and climate:Râmnicu Vâlcea is situated in the central-south area of Romania...
, and, since 1990, a public theater in the same city bears his name.
Literary works
- Versuri musiceşti ("Musical Lyrics")
- Poezii deosebite sau cântece de lume ("Various Poems or Worldly Chants")
- Îndreptătorul beţivilor ("The Correction Instrument for Drunks")
- Hristoitia sau Şcoala moralului ("Hristoitia or the School of Morals")
- Noul erotocrit ("The New Erotokritus")
- Marş de primăvară ("March of the Spring")
- Memorialul focului mare ("A Memoir of the Great Fire")
- Culegere de proverburi sau Povestea vorbei ("Collection of Proverbs or the Story of the Word")
- Adiata ("Testament")
- Înţeleptul Archir şi nepotul său Anadam ("Archir the Wise and His Nephew Anadam")
- Spitalul amorului sau Cântecul dorului ("The Hospital of Love or the Song of Lust")
- O şezătoare la ţară sau Călătoria lui Moş Albu ("A Countryside Gathering or Father Albu's Trip")
- Versuri sau Cântece de stea ("Lyrics or Songs to the Stars")
- Cântătorul beţiei. Care cuprinde numele beţivilor şi toate faptele care decurg din beţie ("The Poet of Drunkenness. Comprising the Names of Drunks and All Deeds Caused by Drunkenness")
- Triumful beţiei sau Diata ce o lasă un beţiv pocăit fiului său ("The Triumph of Drunkenness or the Testament Left by a Penitent Drunk to His Son")
- Năzdrăvăniile lui Nastratin Hogea ("The Mischiefs of Nastratin Hogea")
- Poveşti şi angdote versificate ("Versified Stories and Anecdotes")
- De la lume adunate şi iarăşi la lume date ("[Sayings] Gathered from Folk and Returned to Folk")
Textbooks
- Bazul teoretic şi practic al muzicii bisericeşti sau Gramatica melodică ("The Theoretical and Practical Basis of Church music or the Melodic Grammar")
- Dialog în trei limbi, ruseşte, româneşte şi turceşte ("Dialog in Three Languages: Russian, Romanian and Turkish")
- Mică gramatică muzicală teoretică şi practică ("Concise Musical Grammar, Theoretical and Practical")
External links
Anton Pann, Despre învăţătură / Anda' o siklipe, translated into RomaniRomani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
by Sorin-Aurel Sandu, illustrated by Eugen Raportoru, UNICEF
United Nations Children's Fund
United Nations Children's Fund was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II...
Romania, 2005
- The Anton Pann Memorial House, at Cimec.ro
- The Anton Pann Theater in Râmnicu Vâlcea Anton Pann, Bazul Teoretic, PDF scan of a print from Bucharest, 1847