MARTOR no. 29 / year 2024
Villages in Vrancea Region and Their Pastoral Songs.
Past and Present
DOI: www.doi.org/10.57225/martor.2024.29.03
AUTHOR:
Mariana Hurjui-Său
National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Romania
PAGES: 33-45
KEYWORDS: Ethnomusicology; pastoral music, shepherding music; social change; Vrancea; Romania.
ABSTRACT:
The study focuses on the pastoral songs from Vrancea region1 in relation to the social changes that occurred in the last century. The local pastoral culture, sustained for centuries by devălmășie, an archaic form of community organization, started to decline after the rise of aggressive forest exploitations that began towards the end of the 19th century. From this moment on, the old musical practices and their ancient shepherding origin were partly abandoned or integrated into new contexts and situations. For example, during the communist regime that was established in the second part of the 20th century, shepherd songs were adapted and displayed on a national stage under the pressure and careful involvement of cultural authorities. Such authorities established large instrumental groups of 40-50 pipe players with the aim to represent their cultural regions in grandiose folklore events supported by the state apparatus. Individual singing, whether for oneself or for the community, declined as folklorized music, promoted by mass media, became increasingly popular. Currently, the songs of shepherding origin seem to be frozen in time and in the memory of the elders who remained connected to the musical past of the region. At sheepfolds, the whistles, the instruments specific to the place, are no longer heard. Shepherds live in a very different environment, where they have a variety of musical options, including radio and smartphone. During field research, I often felt that I was witnessing the effective disappearance of an exhausted universe that no longer has the will and strength to compete with other musical genres in today’s sound landscape. The tradition of the shepherding songs, relics of a once-prosperous archaic society, seems to be nearing its final days.
HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE:
Hurjui-Său, Mariana. 2024. “Villages in Vrancea Region and Their Pastoral Songs. Past and Present.” Martor 29, 33-45. [DOI: 10.57225/martor.2024.29.03]
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