Romanian traditional music

A bit of historyThe earliest music was played on various pipes with rhythmical accompaniment later added by a cobza.This style can be still found in Moldavian Carpathian regions of Vrancea and Bucovina and with the Hungarian Csango minority.

A bit of historyThe Greek historians have recorded that the Dacians played guitars and priests perform songs with and guitars. The bagpipe was popular from medieval times, as it was in most European countries, but became rare in recent times before a 20th century revival.

A bit of historySince its introduction the violin has influenced the music in all regions by becoming the principal melody instrument. Each region has its own combination of instruments, old and new, and its own unique sound. This continues to develop to the present day with the most recent additions being electric keyboards and drum sets.

Pipes Fluier - long or short 6 hole pipe Caval - long pipe with 5 finger holes

Tilinca - open pipe with no finger holes Nai - the Romanian panpipe other pipes - Bucium (Alphorn), Ocarina, Flaute, Fifa

Pipes These are the most widespread instruments in Romania with seventeen different types. Many of these designs of pipe are common throughout the Balkans Instruments are made by the players and by peasant makers, on the days that working in the fields is not possible. The wandering "Vlach" shepherds are known to have sold pipes across Hungary. The pipes can be sub-divided to some extent by their design. The tube can be either closed or open at the lower end, producing different ranges of notes.

Fluier the Romanian 6 hole pipe The common fluier is the equivalent to our tin whistle, but made out of wood with the lower aperture of reduced diameter. These are found all over the Balkans. In Transylvania it is known as trisca. The larger version is known as the fluieroi. Similar instruments found in surrounding countries are known as; Frula (Serbia), Duduk (Bulgaria), Dentsvika (Ukraine), Dudka (Ukraine), Duduk (Serbian Vlach), Floghera (Greece), Fluier (Romania), Furulya (Hungary), Fujarka (Poland), Jedinca (Croatia), Ovcharska svirka (Turkey).

ReedsA primitive wind instrument made of a hollow reed stalk Cimpoi - the Romanian bagpipe Clarinet - developed in the 1700's Saxophone - invented around 1840 by Adolphe Sax Taragot - invented by J Schunda, 1865

Cimpoi The Romanian instrument has a single reed and straight bore chanter and is less stringent than its Balkan relatives. the bag, generally of goat skin is called the burduf, and often covered by embroidered cloth. the drone pipe, made of reed or elder, is called bzoi the chanter pipe, made of reed or elder, is called carab. The chanter can be be cylindrical or conical, single or double, straight or curved, from 5 to8 finger holes the reeds are single, rectangular tongue, cut from the common reed using a knot in the reed to stop the pipe

Taragot The taragot was invented by the instrument maker J. Schunda, working in Budapest, with advice from the Hungarian composer Gyula Kaldy, and was used in the premier of Wagner's "Trestan and Isolde" in 1865. Much like the earlier Saxophone, the Taragot has a conical tube similar to the oboe, and the single reed mouthpiece of the clarinet. The taragot should not be confused with the older Hungarian "taragoto" which is a double reed shawm similar to the folk shawm found throughout Europe and the Middle East. There is no doubt that the desire to reconstruct this famous Hungarian instrument inspired the naming and invention of the modern "taragot". The taragot was used in the Royal Hungarian Army, but is rarely found in Hungary now. A Banat musician, Lua Iovi, who had played it in the army during World War I, returned to Banat (Romania) and introduced it there in the 1920s for dance music. This created a sensation, and eventually gave rise to a specific regional style. Dumitru Farca, native to Maramure, has made the taragot popular throughout Transylvania, and is probably the best known taragot player.

Other reed instruments Solz de pete (fish scale) A carp fish scale is rounded and kept in a glass of cold water until played. The musician holds it in his mouth between the lower teeth and lower lip. Recordings on Electrecord are by Ion Lceanu. Bzoi A small reed pipe with six finger holes. The name is the same as the buzzing drone pipe of a bagpipe. For recordings: Nicolae Plea ST-EPE 02542. Dou paie (two straws) For recordings: Nicolae Plea ST-EPE 02542. Pai Oat straw with a six finger holes and a reed like that of a bagpipe cut into the wall of the straw just under a knot. For recodings: Ion Lceanu STMEPE 01210. Tlvul A bottle gourd is used as the sound resonator attached to reed pipe.

Violins The earlier forerunners of the violin such as the rebec, Slavic gusle or eastern kemene are found in all Romania's Balkan neighbours, but not in the existing folk music of Romania. It is probably that early violins were used in the courts and during the 15th to 16th centuries Serbian musicians were playing the Slavic guzla at Romanian courts. The first documentation of the violin in Romania is from the 17th century by an Italian monk regarding the violini music of Moldavia. This is unlikely to be the modern violin which developed less than a century early in western Europe. A later 17th century painting by Graz Codex shows a fiddler playing a rectangular bodied four string instrument. The modern violin arrived in Romania in the 18th century and is know by a variety of names; cetera - Transylvania, scripcar - Moldavia, luta - Banat & Hunedoara. In Oltenia and Muntenia many different tuning systems were originally used for certain dance tunes, but these have mostly now been abandoned. Adaptations to the standard violin can be found in several areas: In Oas the bridge is moved up to the fingerboard to give a shrill penetrating sound. In Vrancea resonance strings are strung under the main strings. This adaptation is possibly based on the Viola d'amore or Kerman which was played in the courts during Ottoman rule. The Csango of Gyimes insert a single "echo" string into their violins.

Pluched strings Cobza - short necked lute of Moldavia and Wallachia Zongora - adapted guitar in Maramures In Oltenia the cobza has been replaced by an adapted guitar which has fewer strings and is tuned similar to the cobza The instrument is often held vertically when played. The string layout is compressed to the central inch of the fingerboard to allow rapid rhythmical strumming. Originally only a few chord changes were used, but nowadays more interesting chord structures are used by younger musicians. Zongora is also the name for the "piano" in Hungary. The origin of the name zongora would be interesting to know. itera - European zither The European zither is a rectangular box with a number of melody strings and several drone strings alongside. These are strummed together and the melody is played on a fret board with a small stick. This is probably a development of the Middle Eastern qanun that reached Europe in the 11th century. This was only an amateur instrument, not used by the lutari, and is rarely seen in Romania today, but can still be found in Hungary.

Tambal This is a development of the Persian santur that came to many European countries in the 11th century, becoming popular from the 17th to 19th centuries. It is a trapeze shaped soundboard with 20 to 35 courses of strings, which are struck with two wooden hammers. In English-speaking countries it is known as the dulcimer from dulce melos, Greek for sweet sound and in Germanic areas, it is called Hackbrett meaning chopping board or chopping block. In Romania it is know as ambal, similar to the Hungarian cymbalom and Ukrainian tsymbaly Records show the existence of the ambal in 16th century in Romania, but it did not become popular until much later when it was taken up by the lutari (gypsy musicians). During the late 19th century it was observed in several areas of Muntenia and by the end of the century was quite widespread, taking over from the cobza. The gypsy instrument, which can be played hung from the shoulders by straps, spread into the villages by the 20th century. The accompaniment formulae are relatively few and are generally rhythmical in Wallachia and Muntenia, and harmonic (arpeggios etc.) in Transylvania and Banat. The tsambaly was probably introduced into the Ukraine by wandering Gypsy and Jewish musicians. The earliest mention of the Ukrainian tsymbaly dates back to the 17th century. The Romanian Gypsies introduced the instrument into Greece in the 20th century where it is known as the Santouri. In Hungary, only a few peasant musicians were still playing the small cimbalom by the 20th century, although gypsy orchestras used the large concert cimbalom. This "Hungarian" concert cymbalom, was developed by Schunda in the 1870s. It stands on four legs and has many more strings providing an extra octave of range and a damping pedal like a piano. This has become essential in the Romanian town lutari orchestras and is know as the ambal mare with the older version now known as the ambal mic.

Brass and "fanfare"

The history of the Romanian brass band probably has its beginning during the times of the Hapsburg empire and associated annexations to the empire during the 17th to 19th centuries. These Hapsburg influences are now seen in the distribution of brass bands in the areas of Banat, Transylvania and Moldavia, but not southern Romania. Entertainment brass bands were popular during the 19th century prominently in the Saxon areas. These played on Sundays and in bandstands, as was common throughout Europe (Nick even used to play in one in England). Many villagers encountered brass bands during Hapsburg military service, and after the fall of the Hapsburg empire in 1918 the brass bands continued as part of the Romanian military. During the communist period many Romanian wind instrumentalists and gypsy lutari were employed in the army as musicians which has resulted in a large fund of brass musicians in many rural villages today. In the regions of Banat, Transylvania and Moldavia some of the taraf and village music groups have converted their repertoire of local music to brass group arrangements consisting of melody lead on clarinet, trumpet and bugles, accompanied by tubas, trombone and big drum. In Moldavia these dominated the village music from around the 1930s. The repertoire includes many dances together with the wedding ritual tunes, songs, marches, and popular modern ballroom dances. Generally the musicians in northern Moldavia are predominantly Romanian, whereas those in the centre and south of Moldavia are gypsies. The further progression of the changing instrumentation is continuing with the adoption of taragot, accordion and electronic keyboard during the 1980s. Some of the 'traditional' village brass bands have continued without modernisation, these being found mainly in central and north Moldavia. The best know is from Zece Prjini (near to Roman in central Moldavia). We encountered musicians from this village playing at firework display in Bucureti some years ago, other musicians from this village are better known in west Europe marketed as "fanfare Ciocrlia" (Ciocrlia means sky lark and is the title of a melody that every Romanian instrumentalist will perform, but misspelt with in place of ). The trumpet is also included in the town folk ensembles of Moldavia, together with the usual selection of village and taraf instruments. However, the most notable Romanian music folk trumpet player recorded by Electrecord is Constantine Gherghina who is not from Moldavia, but from Mehedini and plays melodies from Oltenia and Banat.

Acordeon - accordion The accordion came into existence in the early 19th century in western Europe via a number of progressions from the first bellowed free reed instruments. According to Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu early forms were in 20 rural localities in Romania in 1884-1885 under the names of "armonica", "armonic", "armoniu". In the early 20th century there are a number of recordings of songs and dances by musicians with names such as David Harmonistu, Lupu Harmonistru, Aristide, etc. The majority of melody playing use of the accordion for dance music is in Muntenia. The best known accordionists recorded by Electrecord such as Frmia Lambru, Marcel Budal, and Ilie Udil have a very smooth, but crisp style. The expectation for accordionists now appears to do more with speed and number of notes fitted in each measure. In the other regions there are accordionists playing melodies, but this is rather rare with the preference still with violin, clarinet, sax and taragot. However the accordion is dominating as the harmony accompaniment in most regions' village music, replacing the the cobza, cimbalom and contra, being preferred due to its strong sound.

References Alexandru, T (1980), Romanian folk music, Musical publishing house, Bucharest