Waltz Vortex – Dalia Shams

In my spare time, I decided to listen to waltz music and specifically delve into the world of the Moldovan composer Eugene Duga, who wrote two waltzes in the 1970s that are listed among the two hundred best classical works in the world, entitled “Gramophone” and “Sweet and sweet monster.” (My sweet and gentle beast). I imagined myself spinning in circles, male and female dancers hugging each other to the music, and I saw the whole world spinning with me, as if it was approaching me, bending down and saying: Will you allow me to dance this dance? I put on my evening dress and prepared to escape from the devastating reality. I took a deep breath, gathered my courage, and moved forward among the many bodies, singing continuously, swaying from side to side, like a whirlpool formed when the tides meet. We turned and turned, and then we turned and turned, just as life turned us around.
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Eugene Duga, son of the village of Mokra, in the Transnistria region of eastern Moldova, makes music that evokes the natural beauty of his country and its tranquil lakes, which is reflected in the performance of the octogenarian composer, Hasa Pasha, who plays the piano in the orchestra, with his white hair slightly receding. He is always thankful that he was born on the first day of March, under a brilliant sun. Despite his simple upbringing, he is full of contentment and gratitude. He likes his name “Doga”, which in Latin means a type of oak tree, and the forest that surrounds his village. As a child during World War II, he used to pick sorrel leaves and mushrooms there to cook for his mother. He remembers two bands coming to his town, one a pop band and the other a symphony, and he stood there with some friends, amazed at the skills of the players led by “a mysterious man who threatened them with a stick”. He approached the violins and touched them as if they were from another world, and he knew then that this world was one he very much wanted to visit, and that is what he did when at the age of thirteen he went barefoot to a music school in the capital, Chisinau. He studied there between 1951 and 1955, under the tutelage of the Italian cellist Giovanni Pablo Pasini, who opened the doors of heaven for him. He then joined the Conservatory until 1960, where he learned the basics of music composition and orchestral conducting.
He would rise at 5:30 every morning at the latest, sit down at the piano and start working, even on holidays and public holidays, just as his favorite teacher Pasini had done before. This strict system resulted in a rich artistic output, including symphonies, string quartets, waltzes, film scores and romantic songs. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, he held several positions and immersed himself in the political sphere, becoming a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet Committee, and his star continued to shine. After the independence of the Republic of Moldova, he was elected as a people’s deputy to the country’s first parliament.
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I tried to stay away from politics, but now it is like a waltz-like vortex, filling my head with music. I run, you chase me, especially when I noticed that Eugene Doga belongs to the narrow strip of land between the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border, which is ruled by a group of military personnel loyal to Russia and asked to join. As the war in Ukraine escalates, there are legitimate questions about the possibility of expanding the scope of the conflict to include Moldova, one of Russia’s “backyard” countries.
The relations between states and citizens in the region are extremely complex due to historical and geographical factors – factors that we have come to despise in our beloved country – without which we cannot understand the nature of divisions and differences, nor their causes. Half of the population of Moldova speaks Russian, and the other half speaks Romanian, and cannot even understand the choice of Eugene Duga and the relationship between intellectuals and authority.
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The waltz circle takes me back to the atmosphere of war, this rhythmic template, after experiencing great success in the 19th century and spreading throughout Europe, gradually receded with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the outbreak of World War I. Its dance music no longer fits the atrocities and brutality experienced by people, and the artists and writers of the time also felt the decline of civilization, the degree of cruelty and barbarism like we do now, so they moved away from this genre. Songs during war. When the Frenchman Maurice Ravel wanted to create the work “Waltz”, he could not complete it during the war, and he used it as a symbol to express the rise and fall of Western civilization, the entire life cycle of being destroyed. While we are sleeping in a hazy dream, the waltz escalates to a terrifying boiling point and becomes a nightmare, as if the ballroom is on fire.
But when we return to Eugene Doga’s work, we are dealing with music that requires visual and dramatic beauty and agility, which is sometimes necessary in film. For example, the piece “Sweet and Sweet Monster” appeared in the specific context of the film “Hunting Incident” directed by Emil Lutino, which is based on Anton Chekhov’s story “The Shooting Party” and exposes Russian society through murders in a small village. Step by step, the heroes quickly revolve around themselves, and I gasp and spin with them, trapped in an endless spiral, with the same scene repeated before my eyes.