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Romanian Folk Music

Folk music is an oral collective creation and art by excellence. According to the performing manner it can be divided into three categories: vocal, instrumental and vocal-instrumental. They can be interpreted by individuals or by groups. The music folklore knows three genres: lyrical, epic and dramatic. The lyrical genre includes doina, lament, lullabies, burial songs, disenchantment, wedding songs. The dramatic genre: the puppeteers, the evening sittings of the village women, the rainmakers.

The folklore of the winter season, occasioned by Christmas and the New Year, is represented by carols, wish making and mask games. The carol is one of the ancestral musical genres, partly practiced by the church, with a rich profane content. Through the carol, wishes of thriving and happiness are addressed especially by groups of children or young people sometimes accompanied by instruments.

The mask games hold a strong magic substratum, lost in the long run, preserved only as a musical ritual. Călușarii is a dance with magic load. It is performed by young men and its related to fecundity and to the initiation in the ancient cult of the Sun.

The folklore genres related to no special occasion are the ballad and the doina. The ballad also called the old-age song is sung on the occasion of gatherings, before an audience. It has a wide theme range and over 300 themes are known. The masterpiece of the genre is the pastoral ballad "Miorița" (Little Ewe Lamb).  Doina is so widely spread that it is often mistaken for the folk song proper. Doina features a musical style of a lyrical nature, which conveys feelings of sadness, longing, and nostalgia.

Alina Micu-Mihai