The most widespread form of Romanian folk music is the doina. Doina is poetic and often melancholic, sometimes compared to the blues for that reason. In the Romanian folkloric tradition, doina was played mainly orally or accompanied by a single instrument, being the song of elegy, played for self comforting and not intended for festive events because of its sober nature. The Romanian verb "a doini" denotes a particular way of singing, using long, slow-paced, polyphonic arrangements which can be done with voice modulation or with a musical instrument, often woodwind instruments.
The doina is played with a slow, free rhythm melody against a fast accompaniment pattern in fixed tempo, giving an overall feeling of rhythmic tension. Melodies are sometimes repeated in differing songs, and typically follow a descending pattern. Most doinas are about the feeling of "dor" - a Romanian word for "intensely missing" (similar to German Sehnsucht and Portuguese Saudade).
Here are some instrumental doinas, played at trumpet, taragot, pan-pipe, cimbalom:
Hatikvah (The Hope) is the national anthem of Israel. The text of Hatikvah was written by the Galician Jewish poet Naphtali Herz Imber in 1878 as a nine-stanza poem named Tikvateynu (Our Hope). The melody is a traditional folk song from Transylvania, Cucuruz cu frunza-n sus (Maize with standing leaf), arranged by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldova.
I wrote this post following the suggestion of Mrs. Octavia Sălcudean, made as a comment to one of my previous posts.
Alexandru Ţitruş (March 3, 1922 - May 5, 1989), was a famous Romanian folklore performer, a violin virtuoso.
He was born in Unirea, Ocna-Mureş, Alba County, in a modest family with nine children. He began playing at 6 years old in the instrumental group composed of his father and brothers. Because Alexandru was the youngest, his father decided that he had to play at dulcimer, the violin being entrusted to Nicolae, the elder brother. In this formula, the Ţitruş family sang at weddings and various parties. But Alexandru loved the violin, and at 8 years old he stole the instrument of his brother and practiced hidden in the cemetery old songs heard from the elders.
At fourteen, he decided to go to Bucharest, where, by happy chance, manages to realize his first audio recording at Radio Bucharest. Then he returned in Ocna-Mureş and continued to sing with his father and brothers. Alexandru married at the age of eighteen.
For a while he sang with "Doina" Ensemble of the Army of Bucharest, led by general Dinu Stelian, then in 1963 he established in Cluj, where he was employed for a period in the Popular Music Orchestra of the State Philharmonic "Transylvania".
Being endowed with an amazing talent, Alexander Ţitruş had collaborations with famous conductors including Radu Simion, Toni Iordache, and with renowned orchestras, with which recorded remarkable achievements in all concerts at home and abroad. He recorded four LP and a MC at Electrecord.
Due to his unique style of interpretation, Alexandru Ţitruş was considered the greatest violin player of the folklore of Mureş area and Transylvania. He died prematurely, at only 67 years.
Sârba (meaning Serbian [dance] in Romanian) is a lively Romanian folk dance. Musically the term Sârba is usually applied to a lively 2/3 or 2/4 melody with triplet grouping, giving a 6/8 feel. It can be danced in a circle, line, or couple formations and was historically popular not only among Romanians, but also Ukrainians, Hungarians, East European Jews, and the Poles of the Tatra Mountains, or in dances such as the Serbian Čačak and the Bulgarian fast Pravo Horo. It is fast-paced and triplets are usually emphasized in the melody. The Sârba is still popular in Romanian traditional music and in Klezmer music.
In dance, the Sârba mostly refers to a lively 3-measure structured social dance, this is generally referred to as 'common Sârba'. The similar slower Brâul bătrân with Sârba belongs to a very ancient and widespread dance form throughout the Balkans.
Sârba is found in the same areas as Hora with the highest variety of variants being found along the sub-Carpathians. Unlike Hora, an open circle formation is the norm, apart from south Oltenia where it is generally danced in a closed circle.
The common Sârba alternates between traveling or resting phrases and phrases for improvisation or more complex steps. The dancers at each end are the leaders, with other dancers joining into the middle of line during the dance. In some areas there are Sârbe with a number of figures where the change of figure is indicated by commands from the leader. The other main type of Sârbe have a fixed choreography and are possibly newer. Ciuleandra is a specific type of Sârba from north Oltenia and Muntenia. It is danced in small circles, which change places with other small circles in the dance area.
Fixed form dances to Sârba music are also generally known as Sârba.
Dances with commands (the leader uses commands to determine the sequence) to Sârba type music, often with a 3-measure motif, have many names other than Sârba but are classified as Sârbe.
Siebenburgen(7 Cities, The Land of The Seven Burgs, Septem Castra) is the German name for Transylvania or Ardeal. The first Saxon settlers (Germans from Saxonia) arrived in Transylvania between 1141-1161. Although the colonists came mostly from the western Holy Roman Empire and generally spoke Franconian dialects, they were collectively known as Saxons
Theoretically, in Romania there are 12 groups of German settlers: Transylvanian Saxons (saş), colonized between 1141-1161 Banat Swabians (şvabi), colonized in Banat region (SW) after 1700 Satu Mare Swabians, colonized after 1700 in NW Transylvania Germans from Bessarabia and Bukovina (NE) colonized during both belonged to the Austrian Empire (18th century) Germans in Dobruja (moved here by the communist regime in the '50) (SE) Landlers from Austria, colonized between 1734-1777 in Sibiu (center) Germans from Durlach (now part of the city of Karlsruhe, Germany) Germans from Bohemia (colonized in the South Banat) Germans from Styria (Austria), colonized in the Trascăului Mountains (or the Torockó) today Magyarized Germans in Timişoara (Banat, SW) Swabians (ţipţări), in Banat (SW)
Here are some folk costumes of Germans from Transylvania and Banat:
Cultural heritage is not limited to material manifestations, such as monuments and objects that have been preserved over time. This notion also encompasses living expressions and the traditions that countless groups and communities worldwide have inherited from their ancestors and transmit to their descendants, in most cases orally.
A Romanian folkloric dance included in UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage is Căluşarii. The căluşari (Romanian pronunciation: [kəluˈʃarʲ]) is the Romanian word for participants in a traditional folk dance, the căluş, nowadays mainly found in Southern Romania. The word may also be found spelt as căluşarii (Romanian for "the căluşari"), căluşeri, căluş, căluşel, and also (due to the lack of diacritics in the English alphabet) calusari, calushari, caluseri, calusheri, etc. The tradition is also played by the Vlachs (Romanians) of Serbia and Bulgaria, and hence was introduced into the folklore of Bulgaria under the same name, spelled Kalushar/Kalushari.
The dance is thought to be derived from a pre-Christian fertility ritual and spring rite, and is said to bring luck, health and happiness to the villages in which it is danced. Others maintain that it is rooted in the ancient Indo-European worship of horse. It is quite possible that various traditions became mixed in the course of history. For example, căluşari are also supposed to have healing powers.
The oldest records are the musical notations of Ioan Căianu (17th century), and its mentioning in Dimitrie Cantemir`s Descriptio Moldaviae (1714). A Căluşari group is active for only a ritually defined period of time during the spring, and begins with a ceremony called "raising the flag", which is performed secretly and includes the members swearing oaths to the group and its leader. During the period of Căluş, the members are bound by a taboo against any sexual contact with women, and married members must live apart from their wives. There is always an odd number of men in a group. In addition to the dancing, the group also does skits very much like the folk theater.
The most important part, of what they do is the ritual curing of delirium or paralysis caused by possession by wood or water nymphs, or fairies. Before performing this ritual, one of the members draws a magic circle around the group with his sword. The space inside is considered sacred space, and no one else is permitted to enter except the person being cured. The leader would divine the specific taboo that had been violated by the victim, and pick the dance appropriate to it. After the dance, the cure culminated in the breaking of an earthenware jar next to the sick person, destroying the evil spirits. Sometimes one of the Căluşari would then become possessed as the victim recovers. He would then be revived by one of the many types of death and resurrection skits that are a large part of the folk theater. Again, many of these have humorous and bawdy aspects. The leader of the group is the one responsible for choosing and training any new members, and is also the keeper of the mysteries, passing the secrets orally to his successor. One retired leader would not reveal any of the secrets even though there was no longer a group in his village, but indicated that he still had to pass on the knowledge.
Căluşarii
Now days, the Căluşari, often accompanied by a masked personage (the mute or the fool) carry clubs and are performing dances of great virtuosity. The unexpected developments of the dance are accompanied by "strigături" (humorous or satirical verse chanted during the dance) and the tunes sung by the groups of interpreters. Dancers wear white trousers and white tunics, with brightly coloured ribbons streaming from their hats. Bells are attached to their ankles, and dances include the use of sticks held upright whilst dancing, or pointing at the ground as a prop. The dance includes the following elements: - The starting figure of walking (plimbări), or a basic step, in a circle moving counter clockwise. - More complex figures (mişcare) performed in place between walking steps. - Figures are formed from combinations of elements, often have a beginning-middle-end structure.
In Slatina (a town in Southern Romania), every year opens the Festival of Căluşari, presenting the distinct style of each separate team of dancers. Thrilling competitions of virtuosity are interrupted by solo dancers, some of whom are very old men, and even children who have inherited their parent's talent.
Ciocâlia (The Skylark) is an unique folkloric song from Southern Romania, that can be played only by a virtuoso of pan pipe, flute, reed, violin or pipe. Here are some performances of this song:
This blog represents the work of a team of students and teachers from Secondary School no. 1 Luduş, Romania. Join us to an imaginary trip through people, facts, and places from Romania...
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