Traditonal Dance Music of Romanians in Vojvodina

Nice Fracile

doi:10.5937/newso2565089F

Nice Fracile University of Novi Sad, Academy of Arts

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5937/newso2565089F

Keywords: Traditional dance tunes, aksak rhythm, phonographic recordings, wedding dances, melodic-rhythmic motifs, virtuoso dance tunes

Abstract

Thus far, the traditional dance music of Romanians living in Vojvodina, in the Republic of Serbia, have not been the subject of any major ethnomusicological research. Hence the twofold purpose of this paper: a classification and morphological peculiarities of the known dance tunes is presented on the basis of the available ethnomusicological, ethnochoreological and ethnological literature, data obtained from informants, published notational records and personal field research. Special attention is devoted in this respect to the diachronic and synchronic processes, starting with the phonographic recordings and notational documents made by Béla Bartók in this region in 1912, via diverse musical instruments from the folkloric practices of Romanians from Vojvodina to the latest trends present/registered in the domain of tunes for traditional dances. Moreover, the paper addresses the factors which have contributed to the preservation of music intended for dancing and of the dances themselves, the melodic and rhythmic patterns, as well as those factors which have had an impact on the evolution of these dances, the means of expression in their interpretation (ornaments, dynamic, articulation), metro-rhythmic patterns, tempo and agogics, plus the contexts in which traditional Romanian dances are performed today. Dance music is considered in the light of cross-influences taking place in Vojvodina in the relationship to other cultures, its contacts with art music, and its practice on industrially-manufactured instruments such as the taragot, accordion, clarinet and saxophone, since these have become part of the musical accompaniment to the dance performances of Romanians from Vojvodina. The paper responds to a focus on – “the interplay between the creators of music and dance and its impact on the ways in which values are shaped in this context”.

Author Biography

Nice Fracile, University of Novi Sad, Academy of Arts

ethnomusicologist (Kuštilj, 1952), is a full professor in retirement at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad. He graduated from the “Ciprian Porumbescu” Conservatory of Music in Bucharest in 1976, and received his doctorate in musicology from the “Gheorghe Dima” Conservatory of Music in Cluj-Napoca in 1984. After finishing his studies (1976), he took a position at TV Novi Sad as a music illustrator and later as an editor. From 1986 to 1996, he was the editor of the Folk Music Program of Radio Novi Sad (Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian and Ruthenian music). He was employed at the Academy of Arts of the University of Novi Sad as an assistant professor (1996), then as an associate professor (2001) and full professor (2006), where he was also the head of the Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology (1998–2015). In his personal Folklore Archive there are more than 4,000 traditional songs and instrumental melodies of Serbians, Romanians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Ruthenians, Ukrainians, Bunjevci, Montenegrins and Roma, songs of Wallachians/Romanians from the territory of Eastern Serbia, Serbian ritual songs from Kosovo and Metohija and German traditional songs from Transylvania, Romania. The focus of his academic work is comparative/multicultural ethnomusicological research. He is the author of more than 200 ethnomusicological studies and academic publications (in Serbian, English, Romanian, German, Slovak, Macedonian and Hungarian), music criticism and reviews published in various magazines and publications in the field of ethnomusicology and musicology in the country and abroad. During the last two decades, he has expanded his research towards the study of the musicalfolkloric heritage of the Balkan countries, i.e. the study of the asymmetric rhythm of the aksak – a fundamental common morphological element in the musical culture of the people of the Balkans, as well as the comparative study, definition and systematization of ancient metric feet, which reflect the roots of traditional music of Southeast Europe. He has received several awards, plaques and diplomas, including the Vuk Stefanović Karadžić Award, for outstanding results achieved in the work of creation and propagation of culture, education and science in the Republic of Serbia and in the all-Serbian cultural space (2014).