The Men Choir From Finteusul Mare

Some time ago, on the occasion of the celebration of 1st of December, I was at a concert with specific music. Among the singers, there was also a choir, to which I first did not pay any attention. The songs were not unheard before yet I was surprised… Never before have I heard that choir, the name said nothing to me. I stood and listened to a song, and the next to follow, and one more, for quite some time. After, when asking who they were, I was answered: The Men Choir from Finteusul Mare.

The place as well ment nothing to me, it was as strange and distant as any town from Greenland, but that day, by a mear coincidence, I started learning its history.

Without posing as an art critic, the impression this Choir left upon me was profound: their voices carry the sorrow, the determination and the faith that led to its creation in the first place. Their voices resound of Unity.

I have searched for more songs interpreted by this Choir, unfortunatelly without much succes. There are some which can be listened on the Internet, but there are either carols or patriotic music. Thus, there are two more common possibilities: either people are searching specific for those songs due to their themes, either they are stambling across but because of the themes do not take a moment to listen to the music.

No matter what situation you would be in, or if you would simply have the curiousity to listen to this choir, when you will do that, close your eyes and open your mind, you might have a surprise.

The Choir’s history :

There are few information available over the internet. When I first heard their music, I thought that those people where from a different century. I wasn’t quite wrong, as the story of the Choir begun the very same year as of the Great Union. In a time when most of the men were sent to the front, the priest Valer Dragos and the teachers Gavril Bogdan and Nistor Dragos got together all the men left and formed a Choir. On 1^st of December, the new born Choir made a trip to Somcuta Mare the residence of the county (nowadays Maramures county)  to find out, alongside thousands of Romanians gathered there, the decision taken by the Great National Assembly from Alba Iulia.

During time, the Choir undergone various changes and harsh historical periods. However, it never ceased its activity, carrying their legacy to the next generations. In time, the Choir participated and won several international competitions from Poland, Italy, Hungary, the Baltic States.

“The Men Choir from Finteusul Mare can be considered a road opener in making known our national songs. The thirst for beauty and faith in their work was their connection between the passion they sang with and the hearts of those that listened to them”.

( http://www.ccimm.ro/events/show_exhibitor.php?ex_id=293&ev_id=70 )

After I have heard several times the songs of this Choir, I can not stop wondering how many groups like this, which keep the traditions alive and let the music speak their story and our history to the world, are yet to be discovered in this country, in places we don’t even know they exist?

„We had a precious and proud land,

We had and will have again…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbqXGoN_TMk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZP6OKGHsqI&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq5M3UoMtXk

http://www.somcutamare.ro/culturaleducativ.html

http://www.graiul.ro/?p=9339