A British Journalist on Modern Romanian Music
A British Journalist on Modern Romanian Music

Summary/Abstract: This paper will discuss the image of Romanian music as presented by William Beatty-Kingston, a British author who served for many years as a correspondent for The Daily Telegraph in Central and Eastern Europe in the second half of the 19th century. Beatty-Kingston visited Romania on several occasions in the 1860s-1880s and witnessed its profound transformation in terms of infrastructure or politics. But he was equally fascinated with Romanian arts and detailed in his volumes his encounters with local music. Beatty-Kingston left us with valuable information about Romanian music, with references to types of melodic airs, their historical roots, instruments used, famous minstrels of the time or the social importance of this profession. This paper will analyse Beatty-Kingston's accounts and place his musical interest in a larger context related to the artistic heritage of peripheral nations.

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