The Cimbalom/Tambal in Romanian Folk Music

Today's featured instrument  is the cimbalom, which is the Hungarian name for the instrument known as the hammered dulcimer (in English) or tambal (in Romanian). It is a distinctive element of Romanian folk music, especially in taraf bands. I will use the words cimbalom and tambal interchangeably.

My daughter definitely thought the cimbalom was an instrument from Hell when I played the fourth video in this post. There are some people out there who absolutely despise tambal and in cases like that it can be useful as an instrument of torture.  Percussion instruments tend to have that effect on susceptible individuals. Keep that in mind when your neighbors have noisy late night parties this summer and don't invite you.

Here is a folk dance from Romania familiar to many: Hora de Mina. The bagpipe and the panpipes play the melody, and the tambal is the rhythm section.



The next video is of Toni Iordarce.  He was known in Romania as the "Paganini of the Cimbalom."  Unfortunately, he died at a young age (45) from diabetic complications. During the later years of Ceaușescu's brutal regime (he was executed on Christmas Day, 1989) there was rationing of food, fuel, and medicine.  The majority of Romanian citizens (except for Party functionaries) often went hungry, had no heat in their apartments during long, cold winters, and died from diseases easily treated or controlled in the West.  This was probably the case with Iordarce.

It is a pleasure to watch him play.



This is a folk tune made famous in an arrangement for violin by Grigoraş Ionică Dinicu, Ciocarlia, played on the cimbalom and accompanied by orchestra.

The musician is Victor Copacinschi and the video is from 1976. The video is in black and white.  Color TV broadcasts did not exist in Romania until 1983.



This is a sirba, a popular Romanian folk dance, played on tambal and accordion, from the region of Dobrogea (south-east Romania).



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

The "Flavors" of Romanian Sirba

Variations on a Romanian Folk Dance: Hora de Mina

Another Country Heard From: The Bagpipe in Romanian Folk Music

Crossing the River, Music From the Romanian Folklore Region of Dobrogea

The Alien Diaries will be taking a short break.  The next post will be on or about March 1st. There are over 200 posts written over the course of nearly four years....you will be sure to find something that you like.  Thanks for reading!


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

Two Variations on a Romanian Folk Dance: Hora de Mina

Today's post is about one of my favorite Romanian folk dances, Hora de Mina.  It translates to dance with hands.

The word mână means "hand" in Romania, my guess is that the correct spelling for this dance is Hora de Mână and that diacritical mark on the first "a" makes it sound like an "i". Spelling "mână"  with an "i" simplifies things for those who are unfamiliar with Romanian diacritical marks.  People who grew up with Spanish (like I did) will recognize the similarity of the word to the Spanish "mano."

Romanian and Spanish are both derived from Latin, however the languages are not very similar...their relationship is more like distant cousins.

This version is the one used by most folk dance groups. As dances go, Hora de Mina is fairly easy; and it's also quite short.  Notice the hand movements that go with the music, and yes, what you hear are bagpipes, they are popular in Romania, too!



The next version of Hora de Mina is somewhat different, and a bit higher on the difficulty scale than the previous one. The backwards step is similar, hand movements are more pronounced, and the hands are held high in one of the figures. There's "ethnic symmetry" in this dance, too, what you do to the right you must also do to the left.  There is also a name for those shouts that you hear, they are a common feature of Romanian folk dances, and they are called strigături.

http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaMusic/strigaturi.htm



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

Another Country Heard From: The Bagpipe in Romanian Folk Music

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

If you like dances with stamping, this post is for you.  Stamping is not limited to Romanian folk dances, you will see some here from Bulgaria and Serbia as well.

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-stamp-out-your-frustrations-and.html

More variations on a theme:  Dances with a "family resemblance."

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/03/family-resemblance-theme-and-variations.html


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

Another Country Heard From: The Bagpipe in Romanian Folk Music

Bagpipes are the missing link between music and noise. E. K. Kruger

The Eastern European gaida, or bagpipe, is an instrument that gets around the Balkans. It's extremely popular in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Greece. Believe it or not, the Romanians like it too.

Romanian music is usually associated with panpipes (also called panflutes), and with another unusual folk instrument, the cimbalom. A cimbalom is also known as a hammered dulcimer, and belongs to the percussion family of instruments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimbalom

You can read about the panpipes and Romanian folk music here.

http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaMusic/nai.htm

In this video is some traditional Romanian music played by a bunch of Dutch guys in Amsterdam on clarinet, accordion, violin, cimbalom and panpipes, and they are pretty damned good. This instrumentation is typical for folk ensembles in Romania.



I don't know if the Romanians got their liking for the bagpipe from their Bulgarian neighbors across the River of Many Names, but you'll find that the music of southern Romania is very big on the cimpoi (Romanian for bagpipe). Don't confuse it with the cimbalom, the cimpoi is a totally different animal. (Just so you know, the cimpoi is made from either goat or sheep hide). Both panpipes and bagpipes have been used as instruments of torture on susceptible people (but not on Bulgarians). I'm sure that the Bulgarians are flattered that their friends across the Danube have taken up the gaida.

Last year, I wrote about the bagpipe in Bulgarian folk music, you can read the post here:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2010/06/bagpipe-and-bulgarian-folk-music.html

Now it's time to hear those bagpipes in action, along with cimbalom and panpipes, the "unholy trinity" of instruments of torture :) This dance is Hora de Mina. Hora means "dance" in Romanian, and can be easily confused with horo, the Bulgarian name for the same thing.



Sârba pe Loc, a dance from the region of Muntenia in southern Romania, is another example of the gaida (oops, cimpoi) in action. Sârba is a generic name for energetic dances from Muntenia and Oltenia (another province in southern Romania) with lots of stamping. This dance is extremely popular among folk dance groups, probably because it's a socially acceptable way to get your frustrations out.



This hora from the Oltenia region of Romania is titled simply Cimpoi. You'll understand why when you hear it.



The dance notes for Cimpoi can be found here:

http://www.phantomranch.net/folkdanc/dances/cimpoi.htm

If you're interested in more interesting and unusual Eastern European folk instruments, including the kaval, the gadulka, and the panpipes you may enjoy this post:

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

If you've had a bad week, here are some socially acceptable ways to relieve stress:

http://katleyplanetbg.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-stamp-out-your-frustrations-and.html


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