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On Rhythm in Rumanian Folk Dance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2019

Vera Proca-Ciortea
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Extract

The dance is undoubtedly one of the most powerful and beautiful expressions of the Rumanian people. Its present-day forms are the product of an evolution during which it was subject to diverse influences (both internal and external) and shaped by the spiritual needs of its creators. While part of the whole realm of folk creation, the dance is in itself a most complex phenomenon. Consequently, it has for quite some time been regarded as an independent genre, and little study has been devoted to its relationship with other folkloristic elements.

Type
Research Article
Information
Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council , Volume 1 , 1969 , pp. 176 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 By The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois 

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References

1. Among the most valuable works devoted to the study of the relations between dance and music in Rumanian and Balkan folk dances, we quote the following:Google Scholar

Béla Bartók, Volksmusik der Rumänen von Maramuresch (Munich, 1923), no. 142.Google Scholar

Béla Bartók, Scritti sulla musica popolare, tr. Diego Carpitella (1955), p. 252.Google Scholar

Béla Bartók, Insemnari asupra cîntecului popular (Notes on the Folk Song) (1956), pp. 97–108.Google Scholar

C. Brailoiu, Le rythme aksak (Abbeville, 1951).Google Scholar

E. Gomisel, “Structura melodică a dansurilor populare” (“Melodic Structure of Folk Dances”), Revista de Etnografie si Folclor, X (1965).Google Scholar

G. Ciobanu, “Inrudirea dintre ritmul dansurilor si al colindelor” (“The Kinship between Dance and Carol Rhythms”), ibid., IX, no. 1 (1964).Google Scholar

Richard Wolfram, “Der Volktanz als kulturelle Ausdrucksform der südosteuropäischen Völker,” Südosteuropa Jahrbuch, V (Munich, 1962).Google Scholar

Pascal Bentoiu, “Gîteva consideratiuni asupra ritmului si notatiei melodiilor de joc romanesti” (“Some Considerations on the Rhythm and the Notation in Rumanian Dance Melodies”), Revista de Folclor, I, no. 1–2 (1956).Google Scholar

Gyorgy Martin, “Considérations sur l'analyse des relations entre la dance et la musique des dances populaires,” Studia Musicologica, VII, no. 1–4 (1965).Google Scholar

R. Katzorova, Bulgarian Folk-Dances (Sofia, 1958).Google Scholar

V. Lyubica and Danica Iankovic, Folk-Dances I–VII (Belgrade, 1934, 1951).Google Scholar

A. Bucsan, “Ritmul sincopat în dansul popular românesc” (“Syncopated Rhythm in Rumanian Folk Dance”), Revista de Etnografie si Folclor, X (1965).Google Scholar

Ilarion Cocisiu, “Un strain (anonim) despre muzica româneasca la începutul secolului al XIX-lea” (“A Stranger's Opinion [Anonymous] on Rumanian Music at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century”), Revista de Folclor, I, no. 1–2 (1956).Google Scholar

Vera Proca, “Despre notarea dansului românesc” (“On the Notation of Rumanian Dance”), ibid.Google Scholar

E. Balaci, “Aspecte ale neconcordantei dimensionale în dansul popular românesc” (“Aspects of Durational Nonconcordance in Rumanian Folk Dance”), Revista Etnografie si Folclor, X, no. 3 (1965).Google Scholar

E. Balaci and A. Bucsan, “Folclorul coregrafic din Sibiel” (Choreographic Folklore of Sibiel”), Revista de Folclor, I, no. 1–2 (1956).Google Scholar

A. Bucsan, “Dialecte si aspecte stilistice în coregrafia noastra populara” (“Dialects and Stylistic Aspects in our Folk Choreography”), ibid., VIII, no. 1–2 (1963).Google Scholar

Anca Giurchescu, “Jocurile ciobanesti din Dumbrava” (“Shepherds’ Dances from Dumbrava”), ibid., VIII, no. 3–4 (1963).Google Scholar

Anca Giurchescu and C. Costea, “Haidaul” (“The Haidau Dance”), ibid., VII, no. 1–2 (1962).Google Scholar

A. Vicol, “Contributii la studiul ritmului in cintecele populare din Muscel” (“Contributions to the Study of Rhythm in Rumanian Folk Songs of Muscel”), ibid., III, no. 3 (1958).Google Scholar

2 See the note on early publications immediately following the text.Google Scholar

3 Within the International Folk Music Council, a group of ten specialists from seven countries has been formed to study the complex problems of European folk dance. The members of this group have tackled the following problems: terminology of the component units of the dance, structural analysis of the dance, systems of dance forms, and methods for the classification of folk dances.Google Scholar

4 In Syllabus der Volkstanzanalyse the group gives the following definition for the choreographic motive: “Das Motiv is die kleinste organische Komposition-seinheit des Tanzes, in der Plastik, Rhythmus und Dynamik der kinetischen Elemente in einer bestimmten Form zu einer Einheit zusammengefügt werden und so ein choreographisches Gebilde ergeben.”Google Scholar

5 Martin, G. and Pesovar, E., “Determination of Motive Types in Dance Folklore,” Acta Ethnographica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, XII, no. 3–4. The authors put forward a most interesting opinion according to which the determinant factor in the construction of motives is the successive alternation of the body support (on one foot or on both feet) determined by the plasticity of the movement. The term “support” has been adopted from G. Dienes's work “L'homme en mouvement et le voisinage du corps.”Google Scholar

6 P. Bentoiu, op. cit., p. 38.Google Scholar

7 G. Sachs in his World History of the Dance (New York, 1937), pp. 176–181, defines two accompaniments for the dances of primitive civilizations — independent rhythmic and independent melodic. The first consists of sonorous rhythmic motives whose movement is determined by and adapted to the dance and produced by simple or evolved elements with no melody. In the second, the melody is either sung or played on an instrument with no rhythmic accompaniment.Google Scholar

8 In dances accompanied by a flute, the musician produces a sort of guttural sound which serves as rhythmic accompaniment to support the melody and the dancers’ steps.Google Scholar

9 G. Martin, op. cit., pp. 317–318, defines as “complex accompaniment” the phenomenon in which melodic and rhythmic elements are blended together into an organic whole, and by gradually forsaking their independence, succeed in achieving a more evolved dance accompaniment in comparison with the independent accompaniment.Google Scholar

10 A. Bucsan, op. cit. (See the table on rhythmic categories.)Google Scholar

11 The rhythmic formulae of movement will be given numbers beginning with 1 even if they belong to different groups, in order to establish a total at the end of the investigated material.Google Scholar

12 This kind of relationship between choreographic motives and musical measures is likewise encountered in other Balkan countries, as for instance in HungarianGoogle Scholar

13 P. Bentoiu, op. cit., p. 47.Google Scholar

14 C. Brailoiu, op. cit. The term aksak (Turkish for “lame”), refers to irregular prolongations of basic rhythmic units, often emphasized by vigorous drum beats (the dairea in Dobrudja) and reflected in the vivacity of the dance movements.Google Scholar

15 Pascal Bentoiu, op. cit., p. 65. The term “first tempo” represents a minimum value within a rhythm, which by accumulation yields double, triple, or quadruple values. See T. Reinach, La musique grècque (Paris, 1926); Béla Vavrinecz, “Asymmetric Rhythms,” Kodaly Emlèkkönyv (Budapest, 1953), pp. 567–582.Google Scholar