Până când nu te iubeam (Dorule, dorule) is the name of a Romanian song and dance, published in 1852 by Anton Pann. Somehow it has acquired the alternate name of Hora Veche (translates as ‘old dance’) – no relation to the 2nd Generation dance using Romanian material Hora Veche, assembled by Cristian Florescu & Sonia Dion.
Over the past few hundred years, Muntenia had struggled to free itself from Ottoman rule, and by 1850, though technically still under the Ottomans, Austro-Hungarian and Russian troops had occupied it frequently. Western notions were circulating on how to run a country, its economy, even what constituted art and music. In 1856 the Ottoman provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia elected the same leader, thus uniting two previously separate Romanian-speaking peoples.
Bucharest, in Wallachia, (now Muntenia) became the capital.
A written description of this dance can be found here: I have not checked it against the YouTube for accuracy.
A text accompanying the above YouTube can be found at this site: http://www.folkdance.com/video/hora-anton-pann/ “Beautiful Rumanian circle dance, transcribed by Anton Pann in the 19th century, reconstructed by Theodor Vasilescu. The music and choreography were discovered in an 1852 collection entitled “Hospital of Love” written by ethnographer Anton Pann. Anton Pann was a Romanian folklore collector in the 19th century who wrote down songs and described dances of his time; using his description of a hora dance from Muntenia; song recorded by the famous singer Maria Tanase.”
My research on Anton Pann seems to indicate the term “Ethnographer” should be taken lightly, as such a discipline did not yet exist. “Folklore collector” is closer to the mark, though I believe Pann was more a poet, who created and expanded a folk style, than a faithful recorder of folk material – a Romanian Bob Dylan.
The Hospital of Love or the Singer of Longing (Spitalul amorului sau Cântătorul dorului) seems a strange title for a book of lyric poetry, but the author Anton Penn makes its meaning clear in his introduction: “Dear Sirs, I consider that it was not without courtesy (politeness) when I titled this edition The Hospital of Love for going through its contents you will notice nothing but wailing (sorrow) of wounded hearts, sighs of pierced with pain chest, cries (sobbing) of terrible pains, sighs, and all kind of mourning (pain, grief, sorrow, ache, hurt) because of love: just as in a hospital where there are many soldiers beaten and wounded by all kinds of weapons, that show their wounds and tell their pains, asking for help from the doctors”.
It sounds ‘oriental’ (not Romanian in the folk sense – they’re still under the Ottomans), but in a style that Western-influenced composers would write of the ‘orient’ – like a Hollywood soundtrack. It also sounds like Sevdah, the urban music of Islamic Bosnia, which emerged about the same time.
Likewise the dance shown above seems more like something created by a court-based intellectual than Romanian peasants.
Whatever its origins, Până când nu te iubeam (Dorule, dorule), was and is a Romanian classic, at least among the urban concert-and-theatre-going crowd. Below it is sung by ‘Romania’s Piaf’, Maria Tanase.
"Before I fell in love with you, my love, my love,
I used to sleep like a baby, my love, my love.
Since I fell in love with you, my love, my love,
I’ve been restless, my love, my love.
I go out of the house, my love, my love,
I don't know where to go, my love, my love,
My poor heart, my love, my love,
It can belong only to you, my love, my love…."
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/pana-cand-nu-te-iubeam-i-fell-love-you.html
Până când nu te iubeam
Până când nu te iubeam Dorule, dorule,
Unde mă culcam dormeam. Dorule, dorule.
Acum de când te iubesc. Dorule, dorule,
Nu poci să mă odihnesc. Dorule, dorule.
Răpui, mă sfârșesc de dor, Dorule, dorule,
Fără nici un ajutor Dorule, dorule.
Arz, mă frig în mare foc, Dorule, dorule,
N'am astâmpăr la un loc, Dorule, dorule.
Ah, dar nu te'mpotrivi! Dorule, dorule,
Rog a te milostivi. Dorule, dorule.
Before I Fell in Love with You
Before I fell in love with you, My love, my love,
I used to sleep like a baby, My love, my love.
Since I fell in love with you, My love, my love,
I’ve been restless, My love, my love.
I’m dying, this longing is tearing me apart, My love, my love,
I’m helpless, My love, my love.
I’m burning, I’m on fire, My love, my love,
I can’t find some peace of mind, My love, my love.
Oh, but don’t fight it! My love, my love,
Please have mercy, My love, my love.
Oh, but don’t fight it! My love, my love,
Please have mercy, My love, my love.
Current popularity due to Pink Martini
Wikipedia says “Pink Martini is a musical group that was formed in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale in Portland, Oregon. Members of the band call it a little orchestra that crosses the genres of classical music, classic pop, Latin music, and jazz.[2] The co-lead vocalists for Pink Martini are China Forbes[3] and Storm Large.
Thomas Lauderdale worked in politics in 1994 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. He considered the music at most fundraisers loud and boring. He founded Pink Martini as a remedy, crossing the genres of jazz, classical music, and traditional pop to appeal to a broad audience. During the following year, he called China Forbes, a classmate from Harvard, and invited her to join the band. Their first single, “Sympathique”, was nominated for Song of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Awards in France.
Forbes is monolingual but sings in 15 languages. “All of us in Pink Martini have studied different languages as well as different styles of music from different parts of the world,” says Lauderdale. “So inevitably, our repertoire is wildly diverse. At one moment, you feel like you’re in the middle of a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro, and in the next moment, you’re in a French music hall of the 1930s or a palazzo in Napoli. It’s a bit like an urban musical travelogue. We’re very much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America… the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world… composed of people of every country, every language, every religion.”[4] Featuring 10–12 musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout the world.
Sheet music can be found here: http://www.folkloretanznoten.de/HoraVeche.pdf
Folkdance Footnotes 