Romanian folk violin

The earliest known mention of bowed-string playing in Wallachia and Moldavia appears in the chronicle of the Polish historian Maciej Stryjkowski (1582): "Of this, the Vlachs and Moldavians sing continually at every feast, playing on Serbian fiddles and chanting in their own tongue: 'Stephen, Stephen, voivode! ...He beat the Turks...'" (Polish: O tym Woloszy i Multani piewaj ustawicznie w każdej biesiedzie na serbskich skrzypicach przygrawając swoim językiem: „Stephan, Stephan, wojewoda! Stephan, Stephan, wojewoda! bijał Turków!…").^[1][2] The Italian monk Niccolò Barsi, who visited the Principality of Moldavia, noted in 1640 that dances used violins, bagpipes, pipes, drums, and three-string lutes (Italian: violini, sordelline, piffari, tamburi, collascioni con tre corde). The word vioară appears in a Romanian translation of Învățăturile lui Neagoe Basarab către fiul său Teodosie made around 1650. The same period includes the first mentions of specific performers: a 1675 document refers to "Ivan the violinist from Tătărani" (Romanian: Ivan viorarul ot Tătărani). The sources preserve no information about the construction of the instruments called viori in the 17th century.^[3]

From the 18th century onward, sources become more numerous and detailed. The French historian Jean‑Louis Carra, who visited Iași in 1775, described Romani musicians playing the violin, the cobza, and a pipe with eight holes (French: Le violon, la guittare allemande, & un sifflet à huit embouchures...).^[ii][4] The Austrian historian Franz Josef Sulzer [de; ro], in his History of Transalpine Dacia (1781), noted that lăutari usually played one or two violins, sometimes accompanied by the nai or the cobza. In the illustrated manuscript of the Romanian translation of Erotokritos (1787), the violin is mentioned; in the same manuscript the artist depicts it as a standard violin with a bow shaped like an arch, and the violinist is the only musician dressed in European clothing. In 1820 the British consul in Moldavia and Wallachia, William Wilkinson, noted "the instruments mostly used are the common violin, the Pan-pipe, and a kind of guitar or lute peculiar to the country".^[5] One of the earliest depictions of the violin is a church fresco from 1784 in Lunca Asău (Bacău County, Moldavia), where the painter placed a violinist into a "Last Judgment" scene. In this period the clergy often viewed the violin as a reprehensible instrument associated with secular amusements; for that reason, in religious painting violinists were often shown in infernal scenes as companions of sinners.^[6]

The violin gradually displaced earlier bowed instruments. Sulzer mentions die Kiemany – an instrument with a convex back like a mandolin, played with a bow while held on the knee. Researchers connect it with Turkish: kemençe rumi (Byzantine lyra).^[iii] The Romanian folklorist Teodor T. Burada also mentions another "keman" with six or seven main strings and the same number of sympathetic strings. By description it resembles the "chest keman" (Turkish: sînekemani), a borrowed variant of the European viole d'amour, held against the chest while playing. Even at the beginning of the 19th century, the keman enjoyed high status among the upper strata in Moldavia and Wallachia, and boyars took lessons from well-known musicians of the time. Another instrument displaced by the violin in the 18th–19th centuries was the hurdy-gurdy (known as Romanian: liră, lăută or organ), in which sound is produced by a wooden wheel rubbing the strings; by the mid‑19th century it survived mainly among itinerant blind musicians in northern Moldavia and Transylvania.^[8][9]

By the early 19th century, the violin had definitively established itself throughout the Romanian lands. It spread widely due to its technical possibilities: it could convey the intricate ornamentation of fast dances and extended improvisations in doinas while imitating the human voice. During the 19th century, a virtuoso performance style developed within lăutari culture, with the violin occupying the leading role.^[10]

Quick facts

Field recordings

Muntenia

Oltenia

Moldavia and Bukovina

Maramureș

Transylvania

Oaș

Bihor/Crișana

Close

The main and generally accepted name of the instrument in both folk and scholarly usage is vioară, more rarely violină. In the Romanian translation of Erotokritos (1787) a diminutive form, violiță, is used. According to Burada, the term vioară originally referred to the viola, so a diminutive was later applied to the smaller instrument – the violin.^[11]

Alongside the standard name, numerous regional folk terms remain in use. In Moldavia the instrument is also called scripca, whereas in Transylvania, as well as in Maramureș and Țara Oașului, the archaic name ceteră (also citeră, tieceră) is common, deriving from Latin: cithara. In Bihor the name higheghe (higheză), borrowed from Hungarian, is used, while in western Oltenia and southern Transylvania diblă (also diplă) occurs. In some villages of Dobruja the Bulgarian-derived name țibulca is found. A separate term is lăută (also laută). Historically it referred to a type of lute or cobza, but over time it also came to denote the violin. In that meaning it is used in southern Transylvania and southern Moldavia (lăută), and in the Banat, Hunedoara, and parts of Muntenia (laută).^[11][12][13]

Names for performers are normally derived from local instrument terms: ceteraș; scripcar or scripcaș; diblaș; higheduș or highediș; and the most common lăutar or lăutaș. In the past, zicălaș (from Romanian: zicală, "dance tune") and Slavonic-derived igreț (player) were also used.^[11]

Traditional names for violin parts also vary regionally. The bow is called arcuș, more rarely arc or harc. In the 20th century in Muntenia older string names still survived: the lowest (G) was sârmă ("wire"), the second (D) burdui, burdoi or rag (cf. bourdon, an older term for a drone), the third (A) mijloc ("middle"), and the highest (E) subțire ("thin"). In modern practice, folk musicians more often use German-derived letter names: ghe, de, a and e.^[11]

In lăutărească music, the violin occupies a central place. Unlike indigenous instruments such as the fluier or cimpoi, which were made by rural communities from locally available materials for communal and personal use, the violin was a purchased and relatively expensive instrument. For this reason, it did not become widespread in everyday rural life and instead became primarily an instrument of professional musicians – lăutari – among whom a significant proportion were Romani. For them, playing at celebrations and rituals was a profession, and musical skills and repertoire were usually transmitted within the family. Lăutari adapted the borrowed instrument to local aesthetics, imitating vocal intonations and the sound of older wind instruments. As a result, a distinct performance style developed: folk violinists use characteristic bowings, elaborate melismatic ornamentation, and various scordaturas, producing a recognizably "folk" sound. Despite its foreign origin, the violin was fully assimilated into the folk environment. Romanian ethnomusicologist Tiberiu Alexandru [ro; ru] argues that this borrowing enriched folk expression without displacing its originality.^[14]

In construction, the Romanian folk violin generally corresponds to the standard violin, but performance practice led to a number of modifications. Lăutari usually play factory-made instruments, though local violin makers remain active in many regions as well. After acquiring an instrument, musicians often modify it themselves in order to adapt it to local performance requirements. For example, Constantin Brăiloiu observed in 1938 that a lăutar from Vrancea had scraped away some wood from the top plate in an attempt to make the sound less "wooden".^[15]

In some regions the standard four-string violin was sometimes supplemented with a fifth sympathetic string. This was a thin metal string placed between the G and D strings. Two tuning variants are attested: in Târgoviște it was often tuned to g¹ to strengthen resonance of the open bass string, while in parts of Târgoviște and in the Făgăraș region it was tuned to C. An extra peg was installed for fastening. The fifth string was purely sympathetic: the performer never touched it with either the bow or the fingers of the left hand. It vibrated solely through resonance, enriching the instrument's timbre and reinforcing related overtones.^[16]

In Vrancea an even more complex modification occurs, with five, six, or seven sympathetic strings called teluri by local lăutari.^[iv] As resonators, ordinary E strings are used, fixed under the main strings in a special scheme so as not to interfere with bowing.^[v] Their tuning varies with performer preference and experience. Musicians describe the effect in their own terms as making the instrument to "respond to the voice" and giving it a "sweeter" timbre. The construction ultimately derives from the Eastern keman (Turkish: sînekemani), which possessed between four to seven sympathetic strings of the same type. Sources also indicate that violins equipped with sympathetic strings formerly existed in Oltenia.^[18]

Older lăutari, especially in the Târgoviște area, used a distinctive method of storing rosin (Romani: makló). They melted it and glued it directly onto the instrument, on the back of the neck. This allowed musicians during crowded weddings to apply rosin quickly to the bow (or occasionally to the fingers) during short pauses between dances without searching for it in pockets or instrument cases.^[11]

Accompanying violins

Violins intended for harmonic accompaniment are known in Transylvania (Năsăud, Mureș and Cluj regions) and in northern Banat under the name braci (Romanian: braci; variants: săcundă, coantră, contralaucă). These are modified violins (and occasionally violas) fitted with three strings and a flattened bridge. Their playing technique excludes melody performance. Because of the flat bridge, the bow touches all strings simultaneously, allowing performers to produce full triads with a single bow stroke while forming the required harmonies with the left hand.^[21][22]

The musical language of Romanian lăutari combines Eastern and Western European traditions. According to the American ethnomusicologist Robert Garfias, throughout the 19th–20th centuries lăutari integrated two distinct aesthetic systems: Turkish makam and Western major–minor harmony. Over time they simplified many of the strict rules associated with the makam and largely abandoned its traditional terminology, yet preserved important modal features in performance practice. As a result, lăutari music frequently departs from the norms of Western tonal organization. One of the most widespread modal types in lăutărească music is a Hijaz-type makam, sometimes referred to in Turkish tradition as the Gypsy makam.^[23]

Violin tuning is not tied to an absolute standard pitch (concert pitch); lăutari deliberately vary pitch level according to regional traditions, repertoire, and acoustic conditions. Relative to the standard tuning (G–D¹–A¹–E²), musicians may tune the instrument either a semitone or a whole tone below or above the conventional pitch. Deviations exceeding a whole tone in either direction are rare. Pitch level may also depend on genre: in northern Transylvania, as well as in Oaș and Maramureș, for example, musicians deliberately tune the cetera lower for dances than for songs and doinas.^[31]

Beyond overall pitch adjustments, musicians make extensive use of scordatura – alterations of the intervallic relationships between strings. Scordatura serves several purposes: obtaining distinctive timbral effects (including those resulting from reduced string tension), imitating the sound of other instruments, facilitating the playing of double stops, and enabling performance in particular modal systems. Musicians themselves describe the process as "spoiling the tuning" (Romanian: stricarea drăsurii). Scordatura is most widespread in Oltenia (which accounts for more than half of the documented types) and Muntenia, is also encountered in Transylvania, and is considerably rarer in Moldavia and Bukovina. It is employed mainly by older and more experienced lăutari for the performance of archaic repertoire. Most commonly one or two strings are retuned, less frequently three, although tunings affecting all four strings are also documented.^[32][33] Researchers note that of the twenty-three scordatura types known in classical violin practice, professional lăutari employ eleven while adding twenty-six original variants developed within the lăutari tradition itself.^[34][21]

The first detailed information on Romanian lăutari scordatura dates to the mid‑19th century. The Romanian writer Nicolae Filimon noted in 1864 that for folk songs lăutari lower the E string by a whole tone, and he recorded old string names: rast (G), neva (D), saba (A), and neva again (E). These names derive from Eastern makam terminology, denoting key degrees. Ottoman music entered the professional lăutari milieu during the Phanariote period, when Eastern court culture strongly influenced urban music in the Romanian principalities. The use of the same name for two different strings is generally explained by the scordatura G–D¹–A¹–D², which reproduces the tuning of the Ottoman chest keman (Turkish: sînekemani).^[35][36]

Some characteristic melodic violin retunings include:

• "Straight tuning" (Romanian: dresura dreaptă, also cu subțirea jos or cu subțirea lăsată): the E² string is lowered to D², producing the tuning G–D¹–A¹–D². It was used for a wide variety of dance melodies and was employed permanently by some older masters in the Târgoviște area (sometimes using a long silk thread as the highest string).^[37]

• Bagpipe imitation: the G string is lowered by a fourth to D, allowing the melody to be played primarily on the D¹ string against a continuous drone on the lower string. The resulting tuning is D–D¹–A¹–E².^[38]

• "Overlaid strings" (Romanian: corzi încălecate): the A¹ string is lowered to E¹ and brought very close to the E² string at the bridge, sometimes sharing the same groove. This enables parallel-octave performance and produces a timbre perceived by musicians as particularly "Eastern".^[39][40]

• Symmetric paired tuning (documented in Moldavia for Turceasca): D¹ raised to G¹, A¹ lowered to D¹, and E² lowered to D², producing octave pairs G–G¹ and D¹–D².^[41]

• "The clock" (Romanian: Ceasul): a scordatura used for clock-ticking imitation via pizzicato; The most common version lowers the E² string to C♯², although more complex variants involving the retuning of three strings are also documented.^[42]

In lăutărească music, the violin is the leading instrument of the taraf.^[vi] In most regions the first violin (Romanian: primaș) serves as both principal performer and artistic leader of the ensemble. The primaș introduces melodies, performs preludes and interludes, improvises upon the basic melodic material, and in vocal genres often doubles or comments upon the singer's line. The remaining musicians – one or more second violins, viola, cobza, cimbalom, double bass, and later the accordion – provide harmonic and rhythmic support while following the musical direction established by the primaș.^[48]

Stable ensemble types developed across Romanian ethnographic regions. In Muntenia and Moldavia, the violin was traditionally accompanied by the cobza. In the mid‑19th century, Franz Liszt, comparing Moldavian and Wallachian practice with Hungarian, noted accompaniment of the violin melody by "…a continuously pedal bass…, invariably limited to the tonic…".^[49][50] From the late 19th century the cobza began to be displaced by the cimbalom; in the 20th century these in turn began to be displaced by the accordion.^[50] In northern Oltenia an accompanying instrument is a three- or four-string folk guitar tuned on the cobza principle (Romanian: chitară cobzită). In Maramureș, the cetera is accompanied by a differently tuned guitar known as the zongora.^[51]

In Transylvania a clear division developed between melodic violins and rhythmic-harmonic ones (braci). The braci does not play the melody but provides chordal support; the primaș freely varies the melody while the accompaniment maintains ostinato formulas and only loosely aligns harmony with the melodic line. Because chord changes are not synchronized and parts may diverge, harsh sonorities arise; György Ligeti considered these "collisions" a natural result of the technique rather than mistakes. This accompaniment system influenced Bartók, who borrowed the principle of independent voice motion and superimposed rhythmic formulas generating dissonances outside classical harmony.^[52][53]

The violin is one of the most versatile instruments in Romanian folklore and is used in nearly all genres – from improvisatory doinas to ritual cycles. In the epic ballad genre (Romanian: baladǎ or cântec bătrânesc), the violinist acts as a musical narrator. Performances typically begin with an improvisatory introduction – taksim (Romanian: taxîm) – that establishes the modal basis and emotional tone; the violin accompanies the voice and plays extended instrumental interludes, alternating recitative with virtuoso passages.^[54][55][56]

In the lyrical doina genre, the violin aims to imitate the human voice, using microchromatic inflections, glissando, and rich melismatic ornamentation. Its technical possibilities allow strong development of the vocal prototype, expanding range, complicating form, and saturating melody with ornaments.^[57][58]

From the mid‑19th century, dance music was performed predominantly by lăutari tarafs, with the violin in the leading role. Dance tunes make up a substantial part of folk violinists' repertoire; fieldwork in Muntenia suggests that a single village repertoire can include up to 50 dances.^[59]

The violin also plays an important role in ritual practice, accompanying many family and calendar rituals. Within the wedding cycle it accompanies the ritual shaving of the groom, the bride's farewell to the parental home, and the honoring of the wedding godparents; during festive gatherings violinists also perform music intended primarily "for listening" (Romanian: de ascultare). The violin provides the principal melodic and rhythmic framework for the male ritual dance căluș. In Muntenia, violinists may perform at funeral ceremonies for unmarried young people.^[60]

In lăutari communities, musical skills are transmitted orally, most often from father to son or from older to younger relatives. The age at which training begins is not strictly regulated: interest may appear at ages five to seven, while systematic instruction more commonly starts between ten and twelve years of age, and sometimes as late as fifteen to eighteen. Despite such comparatively late beginnings, students often attain a high technical level within only a few years. Instruction takes place without notation or theoretical manuals and is based primarily on direct imitation of the teacher.^[61]

Training unfolds in several stages. Initially, the child participates as a listener at rehearsals, family events, and feasts, gradually absorbing repertoire, rhythm, and performance conventions through observation of older musicians. After obtaining an instrument, the student begins reproducing simple melodies under supervision, focusing on the accurate imitation of intonation and ornamentation rather than on abstract technical exercises. An important stage is participation in a taraf during actual performances. At first, the teacher entrusts the student with relatively simple accompanying parts, fostering rhythmic discipline and ensemble coordination. Professional formation is considered complete when the musician acquires the ability to improvise and masters a substantial repertoire of dance, vocal, and ritual melodies. Evaluation of mastery depends not only on technical proficiency but also on the performer's ability to adapt music to the audience, occasion, and social setting.^[62]

Historical surveys, memoirs, and nineteenth-century publications preserve the names of a number of violinists through whom lăutari repertoire became known beyond local communities. For example, Nicolae Picu (1789–1864) is mentioned in an illustrated encyclopedia The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Word and Picture (1899) as the best lăutar of Bukovina; through him Romanian folk melodies became known to composers and musicians such as Franz Liszt and Karol Mikuli.^[63][64][65]

Teodor Burada retells a story published in the magazine La Vie Parisienne about a meeting in Iași between Franz Liszt and the head of the lăutari, Barbu Lăutaru. In January 1847, during a tour through Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, Liszt was invited, in Iași, to the home of a local boyar, where Barbu Lăutaru's taraf — consisting of violin, nai, and cobza — played for the guests. According to the account, Liszt was delighted by Barbu Lăutaru's playing, as well as by his ability to reproduce by ear, with precision, a piano piece that Liszt had just performed for him. Liszt himself mentions meetings with several lăutar tarafs in Bucharest and Iași, without naming them: "We found in them a fine vein of the great musical heritage" (French: ...nous avons retrouvé chez eux un beau filon de la grande veine musicale).^[66][67][49]

In Bessarabia – Chișinău and county centers – sources also mention virtuoso violinists: Iancu Perja (Chișinău), Lemiș (Bălți), Costache Parno (Bălți), and Gheorghe Murga, who led a large taraf in Dubăsari.^[68]

In the 20th century traditional violin performance increasingly entered the sphere of scholarly documentation through field expeditions, archives, and sound recordings. In 1928, Constantin Brăiloiu recorded performances by the Bukovinian violinist and taraf leader Sidor (Isidor) Andronicescu (1892–1981), preserving examples of regional repertoire and performance practice for later research.^[69] In the 1950s other performers also worked with the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore [ro]: Alexandru Cercel [ro] (1883–1970) recorded about 150 melodies in 1957, and Lache Găzaru [ru] (1912–1970) recorded more than 180 melodies, mainly old ballads.^[70][71]

From the second half of the 20th century, some lăutari violinists became better known through staged performances and record releases, often in collaboration with folklorists. Nicolae Neacșu (1924–2002) from Muntenia came to wider attention through the work of Speranța Rădulescu; he played with Taraful din Clejani and later Taraf de Haïdouks, and took part in projects with Yehudi Menuhin.^[72] The Romanian state label Electrecord issued recordings of Aurel Gore (1930–1989).^[73] Constantin Lupu (1951–2013), a violinist and folklorist from Botoșani (Moldavia), released an album on Ethnophonie, a label created by Speranța Rădulescu.^[74]

Quick facts

Professional recordings

Muntenia

Oltenia

Moldavia and Bukovina

Maramureș

Oaș

Banat

Bihor/Crișana

Dobruja

Bessarabia

Close

In the 20th century one of the key figures in Romanian violin music was Grigoraș Dinicu (1889–1949), who combined folk and academic music traditions. A graduate of the Bucharest Conservatory, he maintained ties with lăutari circles while performing as a classical concert musician. Dinicu became known as the composer and performer of virtuosic pieces in folk style; his Hora staccato entered the international violin repertoire. Dinicu's influence is also noted in art-music composers and performers, including George Enescu, in whose works (for example, the Romanian Rhapsodies) intonational and rhythmic features of folk violin music are evident. Dinicu also produced a violin version of the tune Ciocârlia, whose authorship is attributed to his grandfather Angheluș Dinicu [ro].^[57]

The first attempt to study the Romanian folk violin was Teodor Burada's Originea violinei și perfecționarea ei ("The origin of the violin and its perfection", 1876).^[75] In the first half of the 20th century, violin music of Romanian lăutari was recorded and studied by Béla Bartók and Constantin Brăiloiu. Their collections are partly available online through ethnographic museums in Budapest and Geneva.^[76][77]

Tiberiu Alexandru wrote several major syntheses on the subject: the book Instrumentele muzicale ale poporului romîn ("Musical instruments of the Romanian people", 1956; section "Violin and viola"), the article Vioara ca instrument muzical popular ("The violin as a folk musical instrument", 1957), and an expanded republication in 1978. The book also contains transcriptions of violin pieces, and the 1978 article includes a list of solo recordings by violinists issued by Electrecord.^[79][80][81]

Speranța Rădulescu conducted field research documenting traditional musicians from different Romanian regions, supporting the preservation of disappearing styles and repertoires; many recordings were released on Electrecord, Smithsonian Folkways, and Ethnophonie.^[82][83][84]

In the postwar period in the Moldavian SSR, "concert tarafs" began to form for stage performance, in contrast to traditional lăutari tarafs tied to customs and rites. Such ensembles were often attached to state concert institutions; sizes ranged from 4–5 musicians to 7–10, with a leader typically playing violin or accordion. By the 1970s, concert taraf style became more eclectic and less connected with traditional lăutărească music; use of notation and arrangements limited improvisation. Their repertoire included arranged versions of instrumental and dance music, as well as folk songs.^[85]

Another form was the folk-music orchestra created in the 1960s–1970s within state concert institutions. Ensembles expanded to 15–25 musicians, a conductor role was fixed, and most performers had academic training; folklore was performed in arranged and stylized form, with rhythmic and structural features simplified and made more rigid.^[85]

In the same period, Romania also created large orchestras (up to 100 lăutari) on the Soviet model, including the Orchestra "Barbu Lăutaru" [ro] of the George Enescu State Philharmonic (founded 1949), featuring violinists such as Victor Predescu [ro], Nicu Stănescu [ro], and Ionel Budișteanu. These orchestras helped preserve some traditional instruments; at the same time, officially promoted music had reduced improvisational character, and regional distinctions were less prominent.^[86][87]

Alongside concert and orchestral forms, traditional lăutari tarafs also survived, with the violin retaining the leading function. In 2020 Romania nominated this ensemble tradition for inscription on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.^[88]

The influence of Romanian lăutari violin tradition on 20th‑century classical music is traced, for example, in the work of George Enescu. It manifested less in direct borrowing of folk themes than as transfer of characteristic violin techniques and sound production into an academic context. A key example is his Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 25 (dans le caractère populaire roumain).^[vii] Enescu's pupil Yehudi Menuhin called this work "the greatest achievement of musical notation" he had encountered, emphasizing the difficulty of fixing in notation violin techniques and intonational nuances rooted in oral tradition. Analyses of archival recordings of Enescu himself show that the folk violin influence appears especially in glissando and portamento, flexible intonation, free rhythmic treatment, and attempts to go beyond notational constraints while preserving the sonata-cycle structure.^[89]

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, elements of lăutari violin practice became a subject of scholarly and pedagogical literature. Several monographs and instructional manuals analyze lăutari technique – bowings, ornamentation, modal-intonational systems, and improvisation. These works address ethnomusicologists and musicians who use folk techniques in academic or cross-genre contexts and help transmit elements of oral tradition outside its natural context.^[90][91][92]

• Romanian traditional music