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Lautari
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The Romanian word Lautar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, Lautari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians (Gypsies), also called Tigani lautari. The term is derived from Lauta the name of a string instrument. Lautari usually perform in bands, called taraf.
Terminology
Lautar, according to the DEx ("Dictionarul Explicativ al limbii romane" - "The Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language"), is formed from lauta (meaning "lute") and the suffix -ar, very common in forming occupational names.
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Encyclopedia
The Romanian word Lautar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, Lautari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians (Gypsies), also called Tigani lautari. The term is derived from Lauta the name of a string instrument. Lautari usually perform in bands, called taraf.
Terminology
Lautar, according to the DEx ("Dictionarul Explicativ al limbii romane" - "The Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language"), is formed from lauta (meaning "lute") and the suffix -ar, very common in forming occupational names. A distinction should be made between the generic Romanian-language word lautar and the Romani clan. Originally, the word was used only from those that played the lauta. The other were named from their instruments, too, such as: scripcar (scripca player), cobzar (cobza player), naigiu (nai/panflute player), viorari (violin player). From the XVII century, the word lautar was used regardless of the instrument that was played.
Another distinction should be made between the lautareasca music played by lautari and the Romanian peasant music. A more proper name for someone who plays peasant music is that of rapsod.
History
The Lautari clan probably stems from other historical Romani clans present in Romania, such as the ursari, lovari and kalderash. Names of Romani clans in Romania are usually Romanian occupational names: Caldarar (bucket-maker, caldare=bucket; -as replaces -ar regionally), Lingurar (spoon-makers, lingura=spoon), Florar (flower sellers, floare=flower) etc.
The first mention of lautari is from 1558 when Mircea Ciobanul, the Voivode of Wallachia, gives Ruste lautarul (Ruste the lautar) as a gift to the Vornic Dinga from Moldavia. In 1775 the first lautareasca guild (breasla), was established in Wallachia.
The lautari were both slave Roma and free Romanians, but the Roma were the most. They were preferred because they were considered to have better musical abilities. Through time there have also been Jewish and Turkish lautari.
Before the nineteenth century, Romani musicians were often employed to provide entertainment in the courts of the Princes and Boyars. In the nineteenth century, most of these musicians settled in the rural areas where they sought new employment at weddings, funerals, and other traditional Romanian celebrations. They were called tigani vatrasi and have the Romanian language as their mother language, or sometimes the Hungarian language. Only a few of them, with ancestors from the kalderash or from the ursari groups, still spoke the Romani language.
The lautari existed mainly in the Moldavia, Muntenia, Oltenia and Dobruja regions of present day Romania. In Transylvania, traditional professional musicians didn't exist until the 19 century. For this reason the peasant music of Transylvania remained more "pure". A similar situation was in Banat. Today the Romani lautari are also predominant in Transylvania.
As performers, lautari are usually loosely organized into a group known as a taraf, which often consists largely of the males of an extended family. (There are female lautari, mostly vocalists, but they are far outnumbered by the men.) Each taraf is led by a primas, a primary soloist.
Traditionaly, the lautari played by ear, but today more and more lautari have musical studies and can read notes.
The lautari consider themselves to be the elite of the Roma. For this reason the lautari want their children to marry only other lautari.
Lautareasca music
The music of the lautari is called lautareasca music. There isn't a single music of the lautari, the music varies from region to region, the best known being that from southern Romania. The lautareasca music is complex and elaborated, with dense harmonies and refined ornamentations, and its execution requires a good technique The lautareasca music should not be confounded with the Romanian peasant music.
The lautari drew inspiration from all the musics they had contact with: the pastoral music of Romania, the Byzantine music played in the church, as well as foreign music, most notably Turkish, but also Russian and Western European. While the lautari drew inspiration from the local music, they also influenced the Romanian peasant music.
Improvisation is an important part of the lautareasca music. Each time a lautar plays a melody he re-interprets it. For this reason the lautareasca music has been compared to Jazz music. A lautar from the Damian Draghici band, who also played Jazz, said that the lautareasca music is a kind of Jazz.
Because of its characteristic of improvising on a certain basic framework the lautareasca music has been compared with other Desi musics such as the Rag. Yehudi Menuhin considered the music of the lautari as a necessary step towards India.
The music of the lautari establishes the structure of the elaborate Romanian peasant weddings, as well as providing entertainment (not only music, but magic tricks, stories, bear training, etc.) during the less eventful parts of the ritual. The lautari also function as guides through the wedding rituals and moderate any conflicts that may arise during what can be a long, alcohol-fuelled party. Over a period of nearly 48 hours, this can be very physically strenuous.
The repertoire of the lautari include hora, brāul (a high tempo hora), geamparaua, breaza (a high tempo geampara), sārba, maneaua lautareasca, doina, cāntecul batranesc. Other dances include rustemul, calusul, ardeleana, cadanesca.
In southern Romania, the lautareasca music has a rural stratum and an urban one. The urban lautareasca muscic is known as Urban folklore or Mahala music.
Following custom almost certainly dating back at least to the Middle Ages, most lautari rapidly spend the fees from these wedding ceremonies on extended banquets for their friends and families over the days immediately following the wedding.
Instruments often played by lautari
and a little later in history,
They also use other traditional Romanian instruments and pseudo-instruments. Some examples of pseudo-instruments used in Romania are leaves from pear or other kind of trees, birch bark and fish scales. Ion Laceanu can be heard playing a scale of a carp on Marcel Cellier's Les Flūtes Roumaines
List of well known Musicians/Bands that play lautari music
Bands
Musicians
Miscellaneous
- There is a full-feature movie called "Lautari" (1972, Moldova-film) by a well-known Moldavian Soviet director Emil Loteanu. The movie features the leader of the Moldovan State taraf "Flueras" Sergiu Lunchevici (Sergei Lunkevich).
See also
External links
- of The Alan Lomax Collection; World Library of Folk and Primitive Music. Vol XVII, dedicated to Romanian Romani music
- Alexandra Diaconu, ("Searching for the lautari: Ethnomusicologist Speranta Radulescu, a seeker of tarafs") in Evenimentul Zilei 3 July 2005, a Romanian-language article about Speranta Radulescu
- - music of Lautari (on commercial site Lost Trails)
- - old and new lautari, with videos, lyrics and audio recordings.
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