Sabin Dragoi's Music in the Romanian Propaganda Film „Mitrea Cocor”

Abstract

This study examines the film „Mitrea Cocor” as a representative product of the cultural propaganda in Romania at the beginning of the socialist era, analysing the ways in which literature, cinema, and music were ideologically instrumentalized. At the centre of this research stands the contribution of composer Sabin Drăgoi, one of the pioneers of Romanian film music, whose score combines folkloric language, miniature technique, and the descriptive function specific to the period. The analysis of the manuscript and of the relationship between image and sound reveals the use of music as a narrative, symbolic, and propagandistic vehicle, marked by the predominance of illustrative moments and fragmentary thematic structures. The study also highlights the tension between Drăgoi’s compositional rigor and the ideological constraints of the early 1950s, offering insight into the early development of Romanian film music and the ways in which art was shaped by the political context of the time.