“Doina” is a melancholy Romanian folk song that is not
organically connected with any given custom, rite or ceremonial. The ancient
“doina” is particularly worthy of mention and is performed whenever the
mood of the folk singer or instrumentalist urges him to express his thoughts
and feelings through its voice.
Originally, it seems, the word "doina" was a technical
term applied by the folk to a particular kind of song. Unlike the vocal
doinas, the instrumental ones are more richly ornamented according to the
increased possibilities of the respective instruments.
We owe to Bela Bartok the first definition (1923) of the
elements comprising the “doina” proper, known to the folk under various
names such as "long" or "prolonged" song "of the slopes", "of the forest",
"of departure", etc.
The literary themes of the doinas are particularly rich.
Their specific melody has carried poems of grief, of sorrow, of trouble,
and of estrangement, sprung up from the former hard life of the working
people, darkened by torment and burdened with all kinds of deprivation.
The essence of such songs is not their "pessimism" as bourgeois writers
have sought to maintain. To the folk song creator, the social injustice
was obvious. Hence the accents of revolt and sometimes of blind fury that
have penetrated into the verses of the doinas. |
