Doina

The doina () is a Romanian musical tune style, possibly with Middle Eastern roots, customary in Romanian peasant music, as well as in lăutărească music. It was also adopted into klezmer music.The Jews of North America
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Similar tunes are found throughout Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In some parts of the Balkans this kind of music is referred to as or .

Origins and characteristics

Béla Bartók discovered the ''doina'' in Northern Transylvania in 1912 and he believed it to be uniquely Romanian. After he found similar genres in Ukraine, Albania, Algeria, Middle East and Northern India, he came to the belief that these are part of a family of related genres of Arabo-Persian origin.Béla Bartók Essays
/ref> He particularly linked the Romanian doina to the Turkish/Arabic ''Makam'' system. Bartók's conclusions were rejected by some Romanian ethnomusicologists, who accused Bartók of anti-Romanian bias. Nevertheless, the similarities between the Romanian ''doina'' and various musical forms from the Middle East have been subsequently documented by both non-RomanianThe Romanian Doina
/ref> and Romanian
/ref>World Library Of Folk And Primitive Music Vol 17: Romania - Linear Notes by Speranța Rădulescu scholars. Until the first half of the 20th century, both lăutari and klezmer musiciansStacy Phillips - ''Klezmer collection for C instruments'' were recorded using a '' taksim'' as an introduction to a tune. The ''taksim'' would be later replaced by the ''doina'', which has been described as being similar, though not totally identical to the ''taksim''. Romanian ethnomusicologist and musician Grigore Leşe, after performing with a group of Iranian musicians, noticed that the ''doinas'' of Maramureş have "great affinities" with the Arabo-Persian music.Interview with Grigore Leşe
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The ''doina'' is a free-rhythm, highly ornamented (usually melismatic), improvisational tune. Peter van der Merwe - ''Origins of the Popular Style'' The improvisation is done on a more or less fixed pattern (usually a descending one), by stretching the notes in a rubato-like manner, according to the performer's mood and imagination. Usually the prolonged notes are the fourth or fifth above the floor note.

The peasant ''doinas'' are mostly vocal and monophonic and are sung with some vocal peculiarities that vary from place to place: interjections (''măi'', ''hei'', ''dui-dui'', ''iuhu''), glottal clucking sounds, choked sobbing effects, etc. Instrumental ''doinas'' are played on simple instruments, usually various types of flutes, or even on rudimentary ones, such as a leaf. The peasant ''doina'' is a non-ceremonial type of song and is generally sung in solitude, having an important psychological action: to "ease one's soul" (''de stâmpărare'' in Romanian). Grigore Leşe believes that, while scholars describe in great detail the technical aspects of the ''doina'', they fail to understand its psychological aspects. ''Doinas'' are lyrical in aspect and their common themes are melancholy, longing (''dor''), erotic feelings, love for nature, complaints about the bitterness of life or invocations to God to help ease pain, etc.

Unlike peasant ''doinas'', lăutar and klezmer ''doinas'' are usually accompanied and played on more complex instruments (violin, pan-pipe, cymbalom, accordion, clarinet, tarogato, etc.). Also, unlike peasant ''doinas'', lăutar and klezmer ''doinas'' are mostly played as an introduction to another tune, usually a dance.

In the regions of Southern Romania, Romani lăutari developed a type of doina called ''cântec de ascultare'' (meaning "song for listening", sometimes shortened to ''de ascultare'' or simply ''ascultare''). The ''cântec de ascultare'' spread to other regions of Romania, with local particularities.

Klezmer Doinas are influenced by Hassidic niguns.

Types of doina

* Hora lungă - Maramureş.
* Ca pe luncă - found along the Danube.
* Oltului - found along the Olt River.
* De codru - ''codru'' means "forest".
*Haiduceşti (cântece haiduceşti, Cântece de haiducie) - "haiduc's songs" ''haiduc'' means "outlaw" or "brigand".
* Ca din tulnic - unique type in which the melody imitates a type of Alpenhorn called the tulnic.
* Ciobanului - shepherd's doina.
* De dragoste - popular form, usually about love; ''dragoste'' means "love".
* De jale - mellow, mournful doina; ''jale'' means "grief".
* De leagăn - a lullaby; ''leagăn'' means "cradle".
* De pahar - drinking song; ''pahar'' means "drinking glass".
* Foaie verde - classical form; literally "green leaf".
*Klezmer - played by Jewish musicians from Bessarabia and Moldavia.

Current status

While at the beginning of the 20th century, the ''doina'' was the most common type of peasant song (in some areas the only type), today it has almost completely disappeared from peasant life, as most peasant music has. This process has been accentuated during the communist era, with the rise of the new, so-called "popular music", bringing a new style of performance that diluted the peasant styles.

The ''doina'' is still, however, common in the repertoire of the lăutari from Ardeal and Banat regions.

In 1976 the BBC religious television programme ''The Light of Experience'' took Gheorge Zamfir’s recording of "Doina De Jale" as its theme tune. Epic Records released the song as a single and made it to number four in the UK charts.

In 2009 the ''doina'' has been included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

References

{{UNESCO Oral and Intangible music

Music of Romania
Music of Moldova
Klezmer
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
Lăutari and lăutărească music