The Dancing Hat

Hats have power.  Hats can change you into something else. 

Catherynne M. Valente

Today's post is about an ethno-pop dance band from Romania. The name of the group: Ro-mania. The song is about a magic hat (beret) that has a mind of its own. It belongs to the violinist, who takes it off when he plays the violin. The hat makes its way through town and lands on the ground.

 A curious young woman picks it up and puts it on her head; she can't stop dancing until she takes it off. The hat finds its way to a street artist (it lands on his head) and he dances as well. After he takes it off, the hat makes its way to a street sweeper, who also can't stop dancing until she tosses the hat. The hat ends up back where it started, and the music stops.

The video is fun to watch.  While the hat makes its journey the guys go crazy singing and tapping on the table. Make sure to watch it all.  It's 3 1/2 minutes of fun.

The rhythm of this song is geampara (apple-apple-pineapple). It is similar to Bulgarian rachenitsa. Geampara is a dance native to the Romanian folklore region of Dobrogea.

   Video #2 is a geampara  performed by a group from Taiwan. The instructor does a great job (he can really shake that body as well!) Unfortunately, I have not seen any groups in North America or Europe do this dance.  I wonder if the hat is in there somewhere....

We are going to let 2020 go out with a bang and hope 2021 won't be a repeat of 2020. Regulars have probably seen this before: Dunavsko Horo with a war movie as a soundtrack. It's time to kill 2020! 

Notice that the explosions are in time with the music. Hopefully by the end of 2021 things will get back to normal and people will be dancing together again.

If you enjoyed this you may also like: The Best of the Alien Diaries 2010-2015.  

 
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Quirky, Odd and Unusual Folklore Videos From the Universe of YouTube

Could you, would you,
with a goat?
I would not,
could not.
with a goat!
Dr. Seuss, from Green Eggs and Ham

You could, if the bagpipe is made from an entire goat, including the head.  Read on, you'll find this week's post very entertaining.

I'm not a fan of Sports Illustrated, especially the Swimsuit Edition. The magazine version comes out every February, mainly because people are bored of winter and dream of escaping to tropical beaches where beautiful women abound.  Real women don't look anything like the ones in Sports Illustrated, that's for sure.

Here is something much more fun to watch: the Accent Swimsuit Video. It features the ladies from the Bulgarian folk dance club Accent on vacation in Lake Orhid, Macedonia. You can find their website here (in Bulgarian). Here they ham it up for the camera with Opas, sans elaborate embroidered costumes.

As soon as I saw this video, I thought of a Facebook friend  who regularly reads my blog.  He likes the belly dancers and the sexy female folk singers.  Will, this one's for you :)



A group from China dances Geampara, a dance from Romania. It's amazing how Balkan folk music has traveled around the world. This particular group focuses on Balkan and Israeli dance and they have many videos on YouTube. They have been featured on this blog numerous times and describe themselves as a "bonding folk dance class." The teacher reminds me of a drill instructor; according to the notes on the video, he is a guest teacher from Taiwan. His choice of music suits his personality; it is a very macho piece.

The rhythm for geampara is the same as Bulgarian rachenitsa: apple-apple-pineapple. Just don't call it that in Romania.



Video #3 features a group of Roma musicians, also known by the politically incorrect term Gypsies.

Unfortunately I've read too many disparaging comments on YouTube about the Roma. They have been targets of discrimination for centuries.

Their ancestors originally came from India and migrated west into Europe. Some of the best artists in the world of Balkan music are Roma; famous examples include the singer Esma from the Republic of Macedonia, and the accordionist Boris Karlov from Bulgaria.

These guys are fun to watch, although I think they had a little too much whiskey at the Christmas party :) What is really odd is that there's no audience here, nor are there people dancing.  The rhythm for this piece is a čoček, a dance popularized by Roma people in the Balkans.



Finally here's one of the most unusual videos I've ever seen.  Risto Todoroski, a Macedonian living in Sydney, Australia, makes, sells and plays bagpipes made from an entire goat, including the head.  If you're looking for a one-of-a-kind gift for your favorite musician, you can contact him via e-mail at sirulsko@gmail.com.



If you enjoyed this you may also like

A Romani Potpourri One and Two

Two Variations on the Bulgarian Folk Dance Opas

The Bagpipe in Macedonian Folk Music


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

More Songs From the Romanian Folklore Region of Dobrogea

This week's post will feature some lively songs from the folklore region of Dobrogea.  I am not very familiar with the performers (except for Aneta Stan); nor the songs.  Although they may be popular in Romania, they are not so well-known outside the country.  The songs caught my attention, which is why they ended up on this blog.

The rhythms of Romanian Dobrogea have counterparts across the Danube in Bulgarian Dobrudja. Here are two examples:

Geampara - Rachenitsa
Cadaneasca - Daichovo

The Eliznik website goes into more detail about odd rhythms in folk dances from Romania.  Rustemul is also mentioned. I couldn't find any songs with that name, but here's the dance:



Now it's time to enjoy some very danceable songs by several Romanian folk artists. Although there is no dancing in these videos,  you probably will want to sing (and dance) along to them, and there are some very nice photos to go along with them.

The first song, by Natalia Serbanescu, is Mandra Floare de la Mare.I couldn't get a proper translation; Google ended up with  Proud Flower to the Sea. In the video you can see some pictures of the Romanian Black Sea coast. For all I know this is probably an ad for tourism:

The song starts as a cadaneasca, then changes into sirba rhythm. Sirba is another popular Romanian folk dance that was featured on a post about a year ago (see link at the bottom of this page).



The next song is a geampara, (a dance in the rhythm  of 7/16) performed by Ani Orheanu Stanciu: Sunt Fata de la Braila (I am a Girl From Braila). Braila is a port city near the Danube Delta. Some of pictures in this video are scenes from the Delta region. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



Here's another example of geampara rhythm, performed  by Elena Ionescu Cojocaru: Mult ma doare inima (my heart aches...a lot). If  you didn't understand Romanian, you'd never guess this is a tragic love song. Your first impulse would be to dance to it.



Aneta Stan sings Eu Sunt Fata Dobrogeana (I am a Girl from Dobrogea), another example of the cadaneasca. If anyone knows the name of the flower in the picture, please let me know in the "comments section."  Aneta Stan is from the town of Cernavoda; there is a playlist of her songs on the Cernavoda Blog. 



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Romanian Sirba

Crossing the River, Folk Songs from the Romanian Folklore Region of Dobrogea

If you're interested in music from Bulgaria read: Stamping it Out: Dances From the Bulgarian Folklore Region of Dobrudja


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Crossing the River: Folk Music from the Romanian Region of Dobrogea

Today's post features some delightful Romanian folk music and dance from the region of Dobrogea (Dobrudja). It is the land between the Danube and the Black Sea and spans two countries; the northern portion is in Romania and the southern portion in Bulgaria.

Asymmetric rhythms are part of the Romanian musical fabric. This article explains the prevalance of this in Romanian folk dances, which share some characteristics with those of their neighbors across the Danube in Bulgaria.

http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaDance/uneven.htm

A group from Denmark performs a dance that I best describe as "rachenitsa with a Romanian accent." Just don't call it that in Romania; their name for it is Geampara. As for the music, it bears little resemblance to Bulgarian folk music except for the rhythm: apple-apple-pineapple. If you listen closely you can hear the cimbalom and the panpipes.


Ochesica Dobrogeană is a lively lilting song in 7/8 rhythm about a beautiful brown girl from Dobrogea. She probably spends lots of  time in the hot sun, working in the fields. The song conveys a sense of pride about being from Dobrogea.  According to the translation on the YouTube page, this is actually a love song.  To me it looked more like a mother singing about her daughter.  The attractive young woman is beautifully dressed in an embroidered outfit, no way would she actually use it for work :)



The next video is of a dance similar to Bulgarian Daichovo Horo, another dance in an uneaven rhythm (it's in 9: quick-quick-quick-slow). On this side of the river it's Cadâneasca. When things change nationalities, they often change names. The River of Many Names does that too, Bulgarian Dunav becomes Dunărea in Romania.



Joc Batrinesc is a dance that's very popular at our Friday night dances. This one is slow and graceful with beautiful music. Joc Batrinesc translates into "old dance", could it be a dance choreographed specifically for senior citizens?



If you enjoyed this you may also like The Bagpipe in Romanian Folk Music

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/08/another-country-heard-from-bagpipe-in.html

Some folk dances from Bulgarian Dobrudja. A good way to stamp out your frustations.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2012/06/more-stamping-it-out-reka-sborenka-and.html

More interesting and unusual instruments in Balkan folk music (check out the lady playing the panpipes).

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-interesting-and-unusual.html

New! Crossing the River Part 2:  The Stick Dancers:  Căluşari and their Bulgarian counterparts

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2013/01/crossing-river-part-2-stick-dancers.html


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