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“P T P”:
L B Q R
___________________________
Roderick Charles Lawford1
Cardi University, United Kingdom
„ “:
L
__________________________
,
Received: 1 September 2020
Accepted: 9 November 2020
Original scientic article.
A
“’Perverting the Taste of the People’: Lutari and the Balkan Question in Ro-
mania” considers the term “Balkan” in the context of Romanian Romani mu-
sic-making. e expression can be used pejoratively to describe something “bar-
baric” or fractured. In the “world music” era, “gypsy-inspired” music from the
Balkans has become highly regarded. From this perspective “Balkan” is seen as
something desirable. e article uses the case of the Romanian “gypsy” band
Taraf de Haïdouks in illustration. Romania’s cultural and physical position with-
in Europe can be dicult to locate, a discourse reected in Romanian society
itself, where many reject the description of Romania as a “Balkan” country. is
conict has been contested through manele, a Romanian popular musical genre.
In contrast, manele is seen by its detractors as too “eastern” in character, an unwel-
come reminder of earlier Balkan and Ooman inuences on Romanian culture.
K: Balkan(s), Romania, alterity, exotic, oriental, Ooman, manele, lutari,
“gypsy”, Turkish, Roma, Romani, “world music”, subaltern.
1 rod.lawford@btinternet.com
DOI https://doi.org/10.2298/MUZ2029 085L
UDC 784.4(=214.58)(498)
86
МУЗИКОЛОГИЈА / MUSICOLOGY 29-2020
„’ ’: Lutari “
„“
.
„“ . „ “ („world mu-
sic“), „ “ . ,
„“ .
„“ Taraf de Haïdouks.
;
,
„“ .
manele, . , manele
„“ ,
.
: , , , , , , man-
ele, lutari, „“, , , , „ “, .
I
e Romanian “gypsy”2 band Taraf de Haïdouks are undoubtedly one of the most
celebrated acts to have appeared on the “world music” stage. ey epitomise the
“gypsy”, or “gypsy-inspired” musical subgenre associated with the Balkans that has
become highly valuable in the “world music” era. I estimate that my rst encounter
with them occurred in 2002 when I heard them play a short set during a drive-time
programme on BBC Radio 3, around the time when they won the Europe and Mid-
dle East category of the World Music Awards. Laerly, they became a focus for my
research, which centres on the Romani musicians (known as lutari [sg. lutar] in
the Romanian language) of southern Romania. In common with the other traditional
trades practised by the Roma in Romania such as that of blacksmith, the profession
of lutar is a hereditary one, and an occupation almost exclusively reserved for males.
e word lutar is derived from lut, the Romanian word for lute, and originally
referred to one who played that particular instrument or the cobza (small lute). e
2 Some of the terms I use are prone to cause confusion, and can also be problematic. I have taken
the interpretation of the denitions given by Carol Silverman (2012: 295n1) as my model. Roma is the
plural of Rom, which is preferred nowadays to the more popular “gypsy”, a term generally considered to
be pejorative. e corresponding adjective is Romani. I have found that Romani, Roma and “gypsy” can
be used interchangeably in literature on the subject, depending on the source and when it was wrien.
Where possible, I have tried to use Roma (Rom) and Romani. Because “gypsy” is a contentious term,
I use lower case and enclose it in inverted commas, whether or not its use is authentic in the context in
which I am using it. I adopt the same convention for other expressions that are hard to dene. e most
commonly encountered of these are “orient” and the aempted categorisation of culture by means of
points of the compass, such as “the east”.
87
RODERICK CHARLES LAWFORD
“PERVERTING THE TASTE OF THE PEOPLE”
meaning of lutar then evolved to describe the ddlers who came to dominate the
traditional Romani taraf [band /pl. tarafuri/] and developed further to describe Ro-
manian “gypsy” musicians in general.3 My enquiries stem from this question: Why
is “gypsy music” highly revered, whilst the group of people who the musicians are
considered to represent are consistently a target for popular xenophobia and racism?
is apparent dichotomy had been comprehensively addressed by Carol Silverman
in her denitive book, Romani Routes: Cultural Politics and Balkan Music in Diaspora
(2012). Silverman considers alterity in the context of “g ypsy” music and is concerned
with the participation and reception of the Roma as a subaltern group involved in the
transmission of music both at the local and global level. Her argument is constructed
with reference to the “world music” market’s taste for “gypsy music”. She discusses
how globalisation, identity and representation relate to this overarching topic, set
against a backdrop of cultural appropriation and prejudice.
e lutari are acknowledged as conservators of a musical tradition that may
have died out without their patronage (Bercovici 1983, cited in Crowe 2007: 129;
Kertész-Wilkinson 2001). Taraf de Haïdouks’ origins are rmly rooted in the lutari
tradition. Over time, roughly since the 1989 revolution in Romania, the demand for
the services of the lutari playing traditional music at life cycle events diminished,
and many musicians turned to the song and dance genre known as manele as a more
lucrative source of income. Modern manele (sg. manea4) can be broadly classied as a
Romanian popular-music style that combines local, Turkish, other Balkan and west-
ern musical elements. It is performed (in general) by male Romani musicians using
electronic or amplied acoustic instruments. However, the meaning of the term man-
ele has evolved from a narrow denition into one that covers many styles of Romanian
popular music. Manele is generally regarded with disdain by a section of Romanian
society delineated as “establishment” or “elite”. As well as being considered vulgar in
all senses of the word, the genre is seen by them to maintain an “eastern” register in a
Romania that seeks to be “western” and Romani musicians perpetuate a Balkan and
Ooman alterity in the Romanian state. e exponents of manele are charged with
“perverting the taste of the people”.5 Here is another paradox: For connoisseurs of
3 By the laer part of the nineteenth century, lutari were more likely to be from the Romani
community. During the period of the enslavement of Roma in the Romanian principalities, the
musicians and the music they performed were associated with the Phanariot courts, boyars’ estates
or monasteries. Following the abolition of slavery, these musicians were now free to practise as self-
employed artists. ose who migrated into urban centres became associated with muzic lutreasc,
a style that combines Romanian musical tradition and western diatonic harmony with some Ooman
Turkish avour (Samson 2013: 174).
4 A Romanian lexicographical resource explains that manea is “a love song of eastern origin, with a
tender and drawn out melody”, and the entr y conrms the Turkish etymolog y of manea. is denition
corresponds closely to the description of a manea provided by the language specialist Beissinger (2007:
101). She denes a manea as “[...] a non-metrical, partly improvised Ooman Turkish art song [...]”
that has become popularised by lutari. e lexicon does not acknowledge colloquial usage of the word
“manea” as a broader term that covers Romanian popular music in general.
5 I have paraphrased this expression from Manele and the Hegemony of “Good Taste” (Ilioaia, 2014).
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МУЗИКОЛОГИЈА / MUSICOLOGY 29-2020
“world music” the word “Balkan” when it is connected to “music” seems to connote
something positive and desirably exotic in the “western” imagination. In contrast, de-
scribing Romania as Balkan at all appears to be problematic for many Romanians.
e term “Balkan” has been invoked metaphorically to insinuate cultural or political
backwardness. An example of such a British colonial aitude can be found in the work
of an explorer, Harry de Windt (de Windt, 1907:15), who described the “near east”
(i.e. e Balkans) as “savage” Europe because “the term accurately describes the wild
and lawless countries between the Adriatic and the Black Sea”.
De Windt includes what was then Romania (i.e. the relatively recently united
principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia) in his itinerary, but he might not have done,
because Romania’s status as “Balkan” is not always clear cut. Bounded by the Black
Sea and Aegean to the east, the Adriatic and Ionian to the west and the Mediterranean
to the south, geographically, the Balkans describes the peninsula that lies to the south
of the River Danube. erefore, strictly speaking, only the Dobrogea region lies with-
in this area as it is dissected from Wallachia and the rest of Romania by the Danube,
which rises north towards the delta region at Romania’s frontier with Ukraine. Nev-
ertheless, as so much of its destiny has been inextricably linked with its Balkan neigh-
bours, Romania is invariably included along with them in a “Greater Balkan” context,
not least because of the long shared period under Ooman suzerainty and inuence.
De Windt, in a further display of Edwardian colonialism, notes that the “Balkan”
soubriquet is not always a popular one amongst Romanians themselves. He states
that “Rumanians (sic) resent the inclusion of their country with the so-called ‘Bal-
kan States,’ to which they consider themselves, and not without reason, somewhat
superior” (Ibid.: 250). Maria Todorova recalls the words of John Reed, an American
journalist based in Bucharest during the First World War, who writes “If you want to
infuriate a Romanian, you need only to speak of his country as a Balkan state. ‘Bal-
kan!’ he cries. ‘Balkan! Romania is not a Balkan state. How dare you confuse us with
half-savage Greeks or Slavs! We are Latins.’” Romanian is, of course, fundamentally
a Romance language and this provides for many sucient evidence of a Romanian
identity that is markedly “western” in character, seing it apart from its “Balkan” or,
even, “oriental” neighbours.
In more recent times, Romania’s cultural and physical location still presents
somewhat of a conundrum. Katherine Verdery, writing about notions of identity and
politics during the Ceauescu6 era, states that: “Dierent political options had been
intertwined for over three centuries with alternative denitions or representations of
Romanian identity (European, Eastern, something dierent from both); [...]” (1991:
3). Boia (2001: 12) describes Romania as being at once “[...] Balkan, Eastern Europe-
an and Central European, without belonging wholly to any of these divisions – [...]”.
Furthermore, Todorova (1997: 49) cites two commentators who describe Romania
as the “[...] transition between Occident and the great Asian Orient, [...]” and as “[...]
some kind of no-man’s land, not European at all, but not Asiatic at all”. However, for
many on the outside looking in at Romania from political and cultural perspectives,
6 Nicolae Ceauescu (1918–1989), Romanian leader 1965–1989.
89
the country is categorised as “Balkan”.7 For many western Europeans, Romania rep-
resents a rst level of alterity. By aaching the “Balkan” label to Romania, the “oth-
erness” is reinforced by a further remove; a place where a “dierent” Europe can be
found, and western Europeans can locate their own Balkan European “others”.8
T H
Taraf de Haïdouks originate from the commune of Clejani in Giurgiu County in
the historical province of Muntenia, about forty kilometres south-west of the Roma-
nian capital, Bucharest. At the core of Taraf de Haïdouks are a group of musicians who
appeared as “Les Lutari de Clejani” on a landmark ethnomusicological recording on
the OCO (Oce de Coopération Radiophonique) label9 entitled Roumanie: Mu-
sique des Tsiganes de Valachie (1988). is album was compiled under the direction
of the Swiss ethnomusicologist, Laurent Aubert.10 is is a comprehensive collection
of examples of the important vocal and instrumental forms that are to be found in
the southern Romanian provinces of Muntenia and Oltenia. It contains three types
of song: doin – a free form lyric song; cântec de dragoste – love song; and cântec btrâ-
nesc11 or balad – “old person’s song” or epic song. e common instrumental dances
in duple time are all included: joc – dance; hor – circle dance; sârb – line dance; and
brâul – belt dance. A combination of dances may be played as a suite. is is called a
rând de hore in the Romanian language, and an example of this is included on Rouma-
nie: Musique des Tsiganes de Valachie. In 1991 further recordings were made at the Peas-
ant Museum, Bucharest. Some of these were issued on cassee in 1992. Two compact
discs, Outlaws of Yore / Les “Haïdouks” d’Autrefois (I) and (II) were compiled from this
material and are available on the Ethnophonie label.12
7 Also, for example, the eminent historian Barbara Jelavich (1923–1995) has no qualms about
including Romania in her two-volume History of the Balkans (1983).
8 “Nesting orientalisms” is a concept developed by Baki-Hayden in an article wrien for the Slavic
Review (1995). In the context of the former Yugoslavia and with reference to Ooman inuence in the
region, Baki-Hayden illustrates how a hierarchy of “others” and “orients” is constructed in the Balkans.
us, even within a relatively small physical area, one constituent might regard the “other” as more
“oriental” from a cultural point of view, regardless of their veriable longitudinal position. e Balkan
case demonstrates a micro-example of nesting orientalisms, and the model can be extended Europe-
wide. Working from the micro to the macro, the Balkans defer to the rest of eastern Europe, which in
turn must yield to western-central Europe. Beyond Europe, a greater orient is imagined, its starting
point and location ill-dened. Given their status as internal “oriental aliens” in the Balkans and eastern-
central Europe, it is clear that the Roma occupy the very boom of the chain of “nesting orientalisms”.
9 OCO was established in 1957 for the purpose of making ethnomusicological recordings. It
comes under the governance of Radio France.
10 Laurent Aubert had himself been introduced to the lutari of Clejani by the Romanian
musicologist Sperana Rdulescu in 1986.
11 Btrânesc is derived from btrân, meaning “old man”, hence, cântec btrânesc – “old person’s song”.
Btrân has the Latin root, veteranus [veteran].
12 Ethnophonie 003 and CD 004. e appreciation and knowledge of muzic lutreasc has been
RODERICK CHARLES LAWFORD
“PERVERTING THE TASTE OF THE PEOPLE”
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МУЗИКОЛОГИЈА / MUSICOLOGY 29-2020
e Taraf de Haïdouks concept was the brainchild of Stéphane Karo and Michel
Winter, two Belgians with ambitions to become impresarios. Musique des Tziganes13 de
Roumanie, dating from 1991, was the rst album to be produced by Karo and Winter
under the name Taraf de Haïdouks, and in many ways it is essentially a commercial ver-
sion of the ethnomusicological recordings as it contains many of the song and dance
forms and styles familiar from those collections. Hence, prior to their global exposure
as Taraf de Haïdouks, the musicians performed a characteristically southern-Roma-
nian repertoire. ere was nothing manifestly “Balkan” about it. is opinion is con-
rmed by Carol Silverman (2012: 273), who notes that “[…] before the 1980s Taraf’s
music had lile in common with Turkish music and the Romani musics of Bulgaria,
Turkey and Macedonia. […] before 1989 Taraf played mostly regional Romanian mu-
sic and some Romani songs”.
Nevertheless, the earlier Turkish inuence on Romanian music via its Ooman-oc-
cupied Balkan neighbours and the vassal status of the principalities of Wallachia and
Moldavia cannot be discounted. According to Robert Garas (1981:98), lutari were
working in the courts of Romanian nobles acting in proxy for their Ooman overlords
as early as the sixteenth century. Hence, present-day lutari can claim to be descendants
of court musicians with direct experience of Ooman Turkish musical aspects. Turk ish
musical inuence can be traced to many of the components of muzic lutreasc. Al-
though they do not always necessarily refer to an exact equivalent, the names of certain
traditional instruments played by lutari, such as the cobza, caval (shepherd’s pipe) and
nai (panpipes), are related etymologically to comparable Turkish instruments.14 Some
features relating to the ensemble and form also have Turkish derivations (with Arabic
origins). Before a group of lutari came to be known as a taraf, the word tacîm was used
to describe a Romani band. Both taraf and tacîm are Turkish (takım) in origin, as is
the term taxîm (taksim), which describes an instrumental improvisation that precedes
certain types of accompanied song, such as the cântec btrânesc. Moreover, some dance
types characterised by aksak15 rhythms are corruptions of the original Turkish – the
seven-beat geampara being an example.16 Such dance styles are particularly apparent in
greatly enhanced by the work of the eminent Romanian ethnomusicologist Sperana Rdulescu
(1949–), for those in Romania and beyond. She has been responsible for many eld recordings of
Romanian folk music and is a driving force behind the Ethnophonie collection of CDs.
13 Tsigan e and tzigane are both accepted spellings of a French word meaning “gypsy” according
to Larousse Encyclopedia online hp://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/ [Accessed 27 January 2020].
14 e close Turkish equivalents of these instruments are the kopuz (Picken 1975: 268), kaval and
ney.
15 In his essay “Aksak rhythm”, Briloiu (1984) criticises the popular use of “Bulgarian” rhythm
as a general term for aksak, largely due to the use of such a label by Bartók in several of his works.
Aksak (translating as “limping” from Turkish) are irregular rhythms resulting from the combination
and alternation of duple and triple rhythmic cells that generally add up to an odd number of units – e.g.
2+2+3=7.
16 Investigations reveal that the geampara wedding dance appears to be derived from the name of
an idiophone called a çalpare in Turkish. It is a castanet historically played by boy dancers (tr. köçek)
(personal communication with Professor John Morgan O’Connell, 5 November 2015). e etymology
91
the southernmost parts of Romania, where Turkish inuence would have been at its
strongest of course.
e instrumental conguration of Taraf de Haïdouks is typical of what is now a
fairly standard taraf for the region. Along with the ubiquitous and dominant ddle
sound, the core ensemble also includes ambale [cimbaloms /sg. ambal17/] and dou-
ble-bass. e accordion has also become a xture and many of Taraf’s performances
feature the uier (peasant ute); it is rare for a pipe of any sort to feature in a typical
Wallachian taraf.18 e tacîm had originally comprised vioar [violin], cobza and nai.
At some stage (no one seems to be quite sure when) the double-bass had replaced the
cobza and the nai appears to have fallen out of use in this context; the accordion and
ambal were additions (Garas 1981: 101).
A more obviously “Balkan” register in the music of Taraf de Haïdouks started to
appear through the inuence of the ddle-player “Caliu” (Gheorghe “Caliu” Anghel
[1958/9 (?)–]). Caliu was one of the younger members of the band at the time they
were emerging from rural obscurity and the darkness of communist rule towards glob-
al recognition. He was instrumental in introducing some new repertoire and a style
which is more associated with an urban environment. Known as muzica mahalageasca
[“slum” music], this music had a more “eastern” avour and featured music with more
Bulgarian, Serbian or Turkish aksak rhythms. e “Balkan” connection was further
developed through collaborations with Romani musicians from other Balkan coun-
tries, in particular the Bulgarian clarineist Filip Simeonov and Taraf de Haïdouks’
production and recording stablemates the Macedonian Romani brass band Koani
Orkestar. ese musicians rst feature together on Taraf de Haïdouks’ 2001 album,
Band of Gypsies.
Whether or not the shi towards a more “Balkan” aesthetic was contrived, the Bal-
kan aspect in the work of Taraf de Haïdouks has been enhanced to appeal to “western”
enthusiasts of “world music”. e wildness of the Balkan “near east” invoked by de
Windt before long translates as “oriental” and ultimately to “gypsy” and “Turk”. e
is conrmed by an entry in dexonline, an online lexicographical resource for the Romanian language,
which states that, apart from being a Romanian dance, the word also refers to a type of castanet (“patru
bucele de lemn cu care pcnesc dansatoarele” [“four pieces of wood which the dancers rale”]).
e Turkish equivalent, çalpara, in turn, comes from the Persian arpare (four piece). See Dicionarul
explicativ al limbii române at www.dexonline.ro [Accessed 31 January 2020].
17 e ambal has Turkish links through its relationship to the santûr, a dulcimer of Middle Eastern
origin that Feldman (1996: 160) notes was in use at the seventeenth century Ooman court. Feldman
goes on to describe how the leading santûr virtuoso at court of his time, Hilmi Bey (1820?–1895),
swapped his santûr for the Romanian ambal mic (small cimbalom), a portable instrument that is
supported by means of a strap suspended from the player’s neck. is is the instrument that features
prominently in the muzic lutreasc of the southern and eastern Romanian provinces of Oltenia,
Muntenia and Moldavia. Although the ṭambal does feature as an occasional solo instrument in muzic
lutreasc, it plays an important role providing rhythmic impetus to the music in the absence of
percussion, which is mostly the case (Rice, et al., 1998–2002: 908).
18 Gheorghe “Fluierici” Flcaru (1954-2016) was the virtuoso pipe player with Taraf de Haïdouks.
It is said that he was the son of a Moldavian ursar (bear handler), and was adopted by the village of
Clejani as a small child.
RODERICK CHARLES LAWFORD
“PERVERTING THE TASTE OF THE PEOPLE”
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МУЗИКОЛОГИЈА / MUSICOLOGY 29-2020
marketing of Taraf de Haïdouks consciously emphasises these stereotypical features
in order to increase the appeal to western audiences and record buyers. is is most
evident in the notes and imagery included in the accompanying CD liner material. e
name Taraf de Haïdouks is calculated to invoke the romantic idea of the free-spirited
“gypsy” living a life of adventure just on the wrong side of the law. “Taraf de Haïdouks”
is a French translation of the Romanian “Taraful Haiducilor” that loosely compares to
“Band of Outlaws” in English. is is clearly a reference to the idea of the “gypsy” as an
itinerant brigand, who survives on cunning and thievery. e haiduc legend is popular
with the lutari and is frequently a subject for their ballads. Haiducs were Robin Hood-
type characters who stood up for justice for the ordinary people at the expense of the
powerful, who they took great pleasure in outwiing. e word haiduk was also used
to describe Bulgarians and Serbs who fought against the Turks during the Ooman
era (Rice 1994: 225). eir second commercially released album called Honourable
Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye (1994) in particular adds to this association. While
maintaining the theme of “gypsies” as thieves, it also references a romantic association
to magic and sorcery.
Plate 1. Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye – liner notes, front and rear
Plate 2. Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye – inside the liner notes
93
For Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye, much eort was put into the
design of the accompanying material with its suggestions of magic, the occult and
the “east”. But other references remind listeners that they are being enticed into a
borderland where empires and cultures have converged: Austria-Hungary and the
Ooman Empire; the “occident” and the “orient”; Orthodox Christianity and Islam.
e liner notes rely on striking colours. On the front, there is a paper-cut gure of an
accordionist, a pair of die and a miniature bible with a prole of Christ engraved on
it. e reverse shows “Boorogu” (Ion “Boorogu” Manole [1920–2002]) in his liv-
ing room with his family. ere is a wall hanging, which depicts an oriental scene of
an “exotic” female dancer, accompanied by female musicians performing for a man
in a turban. A picture of the Madonna and child can also be seen hanging further
up (see Plate 1). Just inside the liner notes, there is a reminder of the eastern origin
and transit through the southern Balkans of the Romani people. e track listing is
printed over a graphic representation of the migratory journeys that the Roma are
imagined to have taken following their departure from the north-west Indian region
of Rajasthan (see Plate 2).19
Musically, Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses and Evil Eye shares many similari-
ties with the earlier Musique des Tziganes de Roumanie. It contains many of the famil-
iar dances, historical epic songs and legends, but it also includes dances from further
aeld. ese are: “Turceasc”, “Geamparale” and “iganeasc”, which are translated
on the album listing as “Dance in a Turkish Style“, “Wedding Dance” and “Gypsy
Dance” respectively.
19 Persian, Armenian, Medieval Greek and basic Slavonic elements in the Romani language testify
to the route that the Roma took on their long, slow, journey to Romania and beyond (Achim 2004: 8).
More recently, genetic research has reinforced the linguistic evidence and furthermore established that
the Roma have had a European, predominantly Balkan, presence for een hundred years (Institut
Biologia Evolutiva, 2012).
Plate 3. l’orient est rouge - front and back of liner notes
RODERICK CHARLES LAWFORD
“PERVERTING THE TASTE OF THE PEOPLE”
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МУЗИКОЛОГИЈА / MUSICOLOGY 29-2020
is Turkish and “eastern” connection is developed further in Band of Gypsies.
is album, dating from 2001, is a mixture of live and studio recordings. Islam-
ic-style motifs decorate the liner notes and the CD itself for Koani Orkestar’s 1998
recording, l’orient est rouge (see Plate 3), and a taste of this visual imagery is carried
over to the Band of Gypsies album (see Plate 4). A Turkish musical connection is
maintained through a reprise of “Turceasc” (now called “A La Turk”) with addition-
al rhythmic brass and a long introductory clarinet melisma. An indication that Taraf
de Haïdouks are moving into new musical territory is the inclusion of a cover of “Oh
Carolina” by the rapper Shaggy, which is given a makeover in geampara rhythm with
muezzin-like vocal melismas at the beginning and towards the end of the piece.
e album Maškarad (2007) combines covers of “classical” and “light-classical”
music from the rst half of the twentieth century with material that is more closely
associated with the core repertoire of Taraf de Haïdouks. A connection to the “ori-
ent” is maintained in the accompanying material, which makes much of the apparent
debt owed to Romani musicians by composers of art music. ey have used this
inspiration “[...] to create their own vision of an exotic and largely imaginary Orient.
[...], [Taraf de Haïdouks] have taken hold of classical pieces and have “re-gypsyed”
them, [...]”.
Maškarad takes its title from the “Waltz from Masquerade” by Aram Khachatu-
rian (1903–1978) which appears as track 4 on the album. Alongside Bartók’s famous
Romanian Dances and the Khachaturian, the disc contains versions of music by Man-
uel de Falla (1876–1946), Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909), and a rendition of the overtly
Plate 4. l’orient est rouge (l) and Band of Gypsies (r) – a comparison of artwork
95
sentimental and orientalist In a Persian Market by Albert Ketèlbey (1875–1959), an
English composer remembered mainly for his light orchestral pieces. e cover and
liner notes make much of the “gypsy” legacy from which Western music has drawn
inspiration, particularly the style hongrois playing style:
[...] it is not easy to decide who is wearing the disguise: is it the rural Gypsy band
playing a Strauss waltz, or the western European orchestra playing in a “Hungarian”
style? It’s a gigantic masquerade [...]. It’s like a carnival feast in the Romanian coun-
tryside, with these strange pagan masks which decorate the album sleeve and set the
mood.
e recovery on Maškarad of traditional Romanian music in arrangements by
Béla Bartók is signicant given the composer’s well-known ambivalence towards
“gypsy” musicians. In language remarkably similar to that used by Johann Gofried
Herder (1744–1803) just over a century earlier,20 Bartók described “gypsies” as an
“immigrant nation” and charged them with “orientalising” peasant music. He was
critical of the characteristic rhapsodic style that they applied – “Turkish” elements
such as elaborate ornamentation, augmented seconds and microtones – all fea-
tures which encouraged Bartók to bemoan the “orientalist fantasy” which he later
saw as contaminating the peasants’ music as the “gypsies” plied their musical trade
amongst their rural patrons (Bartók, 1976 cited in Brown, 2000:123; see also Bell-
man, 1998:83).
Of Lovers, Gamblers and Parachute Skirts (2015) was the last commercial re-
cording to be made to date by Taraf de Haïdouks. Following Maškarad of 2007,
a collaborative album – Band of Gypsies 2 – was produced in 2011 along with
Koani Orkestar. By 2015 many of the core group of musicians connecting Taraf
de Haïdouks to the band’s traditional origins had died; only Fluierici and Caliu re-
mained, with the former dying the following year. But, in keeping with the heredi-
tary nature of the lutar-’s art, the group is augmented by the ospring of both dead
and living musicians. Aer playing on Band of Gypsies, the Bulgarian clarineist, Fil-
ip Simeonov, became a permanent feature thereaer, continuing to bring with him a
more overtly Balkan aspect to Taraf de Haïdouks’ repertoire. Caliu is involved in the
band’s current incarnation as Taraf de Caliu. ey are currently collaborating with a
Romanian electro band, Impex, to create “Taraf de Impex”.21
Silverman (2012: 46) suggests that gypsies are portrayed in “world-music” mar-
keting as Europe’s last examples of a living authenticity that is lost for everybody
else. e accordion player, Ionia, provides the last words on why Taraf de Haïdouks
became so popular, quoted on the sleeve notes of Honourable Brigands, Magic Horses
and Evil Eye: “At last I understand why Taraf de Haïdouks is so successful in the West.
20 In his Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit [Ideas on the Philosophy of the History
of Mankind], wrien between 1784 and 1791, he describes “gypsies” as a “zahlreiches, fremdes,
heidnisches, unterirdisches Volk” [“multitudinous, alien, pagan, subterranean people”].
21 See www.songlines.co.uk/explore/features/taraf-de-impex-it-s-exciting-to-be-doing-this-fresh-
a-new-way-for-romanians-to-look-at-making-music [Accessed 5 October 2020].
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e West has lost its own folklore and people are saturated with electronic music,
they want something more natural”.
M
Manele has historical and stylistic connections to similar musical genres that
evolved in several other erstwhile communist Balkan states, namely, chalga in Bul-
garia and turbo-folk in the former Yugoslavia. A distinction can be drawn between
“orientalized” and “occidentalized” manele. e melodic lines of the former demon-
strate a considerable indebtedness to Turkish makam (specically hikaz and nikrîz)
and the music is avoured by elements of Turkish arabesk style (see Stokes 1992).
“Occidentalized” manele owes more to Western European and American popular
music, taking its harmonic character from the tempered diatonic scales of the West.
us, the term has been extended also to cover songs in a wide range of styles, oen
with very lile or no Balkan or “oriental” features.
However, if there is one feature that unites all of these varied styles, it is the ob-
servation that anything captured under the manele umbrella is considered to be in
poor taste or kitsch, and an aront to Romanian culture by large sections of Roma-
nian society. It is seen as celebrating the notion that success is only acquired through
the possession of cash (not always acquired through legitimate means), women and
luxury goods, phenomena that frequently feature in the lyrics of manele and visual
representations. e lyrics, in particular, are the target for especially harsh condem-
nation. ey are oen criticised for being crude and wrien in “bad Romanian” be-
cause of their lack of regard for grammar and the frequent use of slang. But there are
additional dimensions relating to Romania’s past and questions of ethnicity that also
need to be considered when looking at why manele is considered so objectionable
by so many. Ion Dumitrescu writes that “[...] the Orient [… is] a cultural continent
from which Romania will never fully remove itself”.22 Moreover, of course, the fact
that manele is represented as a signal of Romani culture and that the songs are gener-
ally performed by Roma adds to the opprobrium.
One might think that the colonial aitudes expressed by the likes of de Windt
and Reed from just over a century ago might have soened as Romania emerged
from a turbulent twentieth century into a modern European nation as a member of
the European Union. But if the ongoing debate about manele is any measure, issues
in connection with what it means to be Romanian still appear to be up for discus-
sion. Take, for example, extracts from a conversation on reddit.com (an American
social news and entertainment networking website) on the topic “Manele music and
dancers” from 2015. e whole exchange could form the basis of an ethnographic
study in itself. However of particular interest here, are the opinions expressed about
who constitutes the audience for manele and the underlying messages that the genre
puts across.
22 See hp://www.electronicbeats.net/manele-part-one/ [Accessed 25 January 2020].
97
Contributor “magicsebi” (who one can assume to be Romanian, as they post
elsewhere on the site in Romanian) writes (in English): “But anyway, the majority of
people that listen to it are lower class, gypsies, peasants or cocalari – the Romanian
version of chavs. 23 So that’s why you get these strong reactions. Listening to manele
immediately gets you a label from the non-listener – uncultured, gypsy or cocalar.”
Just in case we are under any misapprehensions, “magicsebi” further adds: “Coca-
lari are somewhere between chavs, guidos and those stereotypical Russian tracksuit
thugs. Best to stay away: D (big grin emoji).” Another contributor “alecs_stan” (who
posts in both English and Romanian on Romanian and EU politics) informs us that:
[...] [manele] reveals a facet of Romanian societies that the westernized emergent
middle class of post communist Romania wants to forget or deny. You see, Roma-
nia was under Turkish inuence for hundreds of years and that le deep marks. e
oriental sound of manele, the gypsy singers and the popularity of the genre among
simpletons was/is seen as a step aside the narrative of a future prosperous western
style democracy that Romania projects in the spotlights. Modern Romanians deny
their Balkanism, they want Romania to be more like Germany, Holland, France or
the UK. e Romania in manele songs is closer to Albania, Turkey, Bosnia as [to]
values and views.
Hence, by rejecting any Balkan connection, undesirable links to the “gypsy” with
the “east”, and ultimately the “Turk” can also be avoided. Today, for an inuential
section of Romanian society (broadly speaking, educated and middle class), the
hastening of a modern “western” future remains paramount. Hence, there exists a
desire in some quarters to minimise reference to Romania’s “eastern”, Balkan and
Ooman past. Manele is an easy target because of its apparent musical and cultural
inuences, and its denigrators can rely on a thinly-veiled underlying widespread an-
ti-Romani sentiment, or Antiziganism, to advance their cause. e vox pop examples
given above can only begin to demonstrate the degree to which manele divides pub-
lic opinion and the intensity of discriminatory invective it can generate; the distaste
is such that there have even been institutional calls for it to be banned or, at least,
for restrictions to be placed on the extent to which the genre can be broadcast and
distributed. As recently as 2019 manele continues to be proscribed. e mayor of
Timioara, a city due to become a European Capital of Culture in 2021, has banned
the performance of manele in public.24
Scholars have noted that the manele phenomenon contains strong elements of
carnival and the parodic (Mihilescu, 2016; Stoichia, 2016). e carnivalesque
frequently invokes larger-than-life characters, anachronistic archetypes, and an el-
ement of the unexpected and grotesque. Hence, references to fairy-tale royalty and
nobility, which are a common feature in musical folklore (see Briloiu, 1984: 18) are
23 e pejorative English term “chav” originates from the Romani “chavi”, meaning “child” (Jones
2011: 2).
24 See www.mediafax.ro [Accessed 31 January 2020].
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also frequent in manele. In carnival, rebellion is never very far from the surface and
manele contains subversive components that challenge convention.
An old European topos associates merry-making, violence, and revolution.
Bercé (1976) has shown how the cosmic and climatic cycle was linked to the annual
upheaval of political institutions in early modern France. Peasant feasts (of which
the carnival is emblematic) were only one step apart from peasant revolts until the
French Revolution. is model has inuenced the reception of the revolution itself
by some of its contemporaries, especially in light of the imminent turn of the centu-
ry (Stoichia and Coderch, 1999). Emblematic of the Romanian “post-revolution”
times, manele are reminiscent of this tradition in several ways (Stoichia 2016:180).
e evolution of modern manele has a strong connection with Balkan dissent.
During the 1970s, musical genres that had become popular in two of Romania’s
Balkan neighbours also aracted a considerable following across the border in Ro-
mania. Novokomponovana narodna muzika [newly-composed folk music], known
as NKNM (from which the genre known as turbo-folk developed later) for short,
originated in Serbia (then part of Yugoslavia) to the south-west of Romania. e
other, svatbarska muzika [wedding music] is a Bulgarian musical style. Svatbarska
muzika, in particular, had a close association with dissent (see Rice 1994; Silverman
2012). e Bulgarian communist authorities sought to restrict the performance of
svatbarska muzika because of its strong connection with Romani culture, a tradition
regarded as both inherently foreign and closely associated with Bulgaria’s erstwhile
Ooman masters. us we nd again the fear of “gypsycation” conated with dread
of the resurgence of “turkication”.
Towards the end of the 1970s, the svatbarska muzika phenomenon travelled
north across the Danube into southern Romania, where it became popular with the
population there who were perhaps motivated by its subversive connection. Ear-
lier, at the beginning of the decade, NKNM had also made its way into the Banat
in the south-west of Romania. ese two forms were instrumental in the develop-
ment of a similar musical movement in Romania, which in its earliest manifestation
was known as muzic sârbeasc [Serbian music]. As with svatbarska muzika, it was
Romani musicians who mediated in the performance and dissemination of muzic
sârbeasc. e Romanian communist government’s aitude to muzic sârbeasc was
similar to what the response to svatbarska muzika had been in Bulgaria (Beissinger
2007: 106–107). In their view, it introduced unwelcome foreign Balkan elements
that could undermine the project to establish a homogenous and unique Romanian
socialist identity, and should therefore be suppressed. During the communist era,
folk music became a state-manufactured product that synthesised existing folk tunes
with new words that accorded with communist ideology. It was promoted to the
populace as being the property of the rural peasantry with the implication that the
state was acting as its guardian (Rice, et al., 1998–2002).
Because the purveyors of muzic sârbeasc were mostly from the Romani com-
munity, this presented an additional dilemma for the authorities. Although social
homogeneity was an evident government objective during the communist era, at-
tempts to ameliorate the situation for Roma in Romania came too late for them to
have any meaningful eect. Consequently, Romanian Roma remained on the bot-
99
tom rung of society and such as there were any policies in place to improve their
condition, these measures seemed to have caused a worsening of the situation rath-
er than any improvement; Romanian Roma continued to be viewed by everybody
else as aliens within. is perceived “foreignness” of the Roma, coupled with mu-
sic deemed to be non-Romanian were a toxic mix in the regime’s view and it took
measures to prohibit the performance of muzic sârbeasc. is was a dicult policy
to implement. Beissinger (2007: 107) notes that performances of muzic sârbeasc
continued, especially at Romani weddings, as did svatbarska muzika in Bulgaria.
As the genre developed, the language used to describe it also metamorphosed.
e changes in terminology emphasised the apparent subversive “oriental” other-
ness of the music. From the early 1990s, the style was referred to as muzic turceasc
[Turkish music] or muzic igneasc [gypsy music]. At the end of the decade, muz-
ic turceasc and muzic igneasc synthesised into the all-encompassing muzic ori-
ental, a term encapsulating the “eastern” sense of its constituent elements – Serbian,
Turkish and “gypsy”.25 At about the same time, manea entered the vernacular, a label
that would eventually supersede muzic oriental (Beissinger 2007: 108–109). is
change of label did not indicate a move to detach the phenomenon from its eastern,
Turkish heritage. Rather, it reinforced the idea that popular music forms were rmly
indebted to centuries of Ooman authority over Romanian lands - in name, if not
entirely in style.
Although Manele also has a signicant existence in live performance at clubs and
private parties, in common with much of modern-day popular music, many fans of
manele access songs through YouTube videos posted on the internet. is is the me-
dium through which I rst encountered examples of the genre. Consequently my
examples draw on recordings of manele that originate from this resource.
25 Serbia is clearly geographically to the west of Romania, but cultural frontiers are not easily
dened. “Eastern” here connotes “oriental”, but also refers to something “alien” or “other”. In relation to
Turkey, O’Connell (2013: xv) considers the east-west continuum in connection to Turkish music and
raises a rhetorical question that queries where the border between “west” and “east” might be, should
such a frontier exist at all. Returning to the idea of “nested orientalism”, what is “west” to one, is “east”
to another.
Table 1. Best of Manele Top Hits Vol. 1.
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I selected for investigation the video compilation entitled “Best of Manele Top
Hits Vol. 1” (see Table 1), which dates from March 2014. I chose this particular
example because it provides a good illustration of how the expression, manele, has
come to be used in a wider context.26 is thirty-nine minute sequence of ten man-
ele in various styles begins with “Saint Tropez” by Florin Salam (probably the most
popular present-day manea), which largely conforms to a conventional description
or “orientalised” manele in terms of instrumentation, vocal/instrumental style and
gesture.27 I consider “Saint Tropez” in greater detail later. is song is followed by a
sequence of numbers, ranging from those that could be described as “Europop”, with
very few “manele-like” features, through sentimental ballads to others that are akin
to hip-hop. A certain amount of self-parody and self-exoticisation is evident in some
of the videos and many of them employ highly-sexualised objectication of women
in their imagery.
“Saint Tropez” is followed in the video by a song called “Zalele” featuring Clau-
dia, Asu (male) and Ticy (male) and another song entitled “Îi mnânc buzele” [“I’ll
eat your lips”] sung by Florin Salam, Asu and Claudia.28 “Zalele” is set at a pool party
and is in classic “Europop” style: a regular beat in common time with four-bar phras-
ing. It is thoroughly diatonic. It would be a challenge for any listener to identify any
feature that could be construed in this number as being “oriental”. e number “îi
mnânc buzele” again owes more to “western Europop”, although the singing style of
Florin Salam and the presence of electric violin sound and bongos in imitation of the
darbuka hint of Balkan and Turkish inuence, with Asu acting as a kind of vocal me-
diator between Claudia’s “western-style” delivery and the melismas of Florin Salam.
26 “Best of Manele Top Hits Vol. 1” can be found at hps://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=xhYEwqm7Hq0 [Accessed 29 January 2020].
27 e individual YouTube video (see hps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXO2QtjixaM
[Accessed 29 January 2020]) of “Saint Tropez” by Florin Salam has had over 79 million views since it
was published on 1 February 2013.
28 Female manele singers do perform solo, but, more oen than not, they sing alongside their male
colleagues.
Plate 5 – Mr Juve - „Mișcă, mișcă din buric!“
101
My initial brief description of “Saint Tropez”, and my remarks about “Zalele” and
“Îi mnânc buzele” set out to demonstrate the wide range of styles that are encom-
passed by the term manele. “Mic, mic din buric!” [“Move from the belly but-
ton!”] by Mr. Juve, and “Danseaz, Danseaz!” [“Dance, Dance!”] by Mr. Juve and
Bodo, combine, in a highly exaggerated and grotesque manner, the hyper-sexualisa-
tion of women and self-parody. Mr. Juve (see Plate 5) also brings “gypsy hip-hop”29
into the broader manele arena.
e clips produced to accompany “Mic, mic din buric” and “Danseaz, Dan-
seaz!” draw on numerous clichés, which together combine to create a pantomimic
juxtaposition of incongruities. ese clichés are drawn not just from the more obvi-
ous local sphere of inuence such as the lutar tradition , they are also derived from
further aeld; there are clear references to “western” hip-hop and rock.
Hai, fratele meu!
Nu e tiganie nici lautarie nici cum ar trebuii sa e
Asta e directologie
Cum va place voua si cum imi place mie
Hai pe nebuneala.
[En.] Come on my brother
is isn’t gypsy or ddler, that’s not how it should be
is is “directologie”
How you like it and how I like it
Come to the madness.
e above words, spoken over the introduction to “Mic, mic din buric”, ap-
pear to be an aempt to detach manele (or, at least, Mr. Juve’s version of it) from its
Romani and lutari musical legacy. It is not easy to dene what is meant by “direc-
tologie”, but Paul Breazu suggests that it refers to the concept of the barosan (pl.
barosani) ; the “mecher (pl. mecheri) way of being a boss”, as he put it.30 e author
and journalist Adrian Schiop explains that manele is his “[...] favourite musical genre,
[...]” whilst acknowledging that the form has links to the “[...] kingpins of Romania’s
29 Although I have not found specic reference to “gypsy hip hop” in a Romanian context, the term
“Romany hip-hop” is in use in other parts of Eastern Europe. My use of “gypsy hip-hop” refers to how
Mr Juve and his musicians are dressed, the gestures they employ and the method of delivery.
30 Personal communication with Paul Breazu, 22 March 2017. Barosan is a slang word meaning
“boss”, a concept frequently met in manele. It is derived from the Romani language and is a conation
of “baro” meaning “big” and “san” meaning “you are”. mecher in connection with manele is variously
translated as “wise guy” or “trickster”. According to Dicionarul explicativ al limbii române, it originates
from the German, schmecker (perhaps ironically) meaning “one with rened tastes” (Stoichia,
2016:183n6,7). is etymology is somewhat dubious, as a search in www.duden.de [Accessed 30
January 2020] does not verify this denition. However, schmecker can be found to mean “a drug addict”
in the United States from the Yiddish schmeck, “a sni” (see www.en.oxforddictionaries.com [Accessed
30 January 2020]).
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twilight economy [...]” (Schiop, 2016:185).31 Schiop also notes that the Romanian
Maa are indebted to the Italian archetype in terms of hierarchy and terminology.
e compliment extends to the clothes that gang members choose to wear, the boss
opting for tailored suitsblack being de rigueurwhilst his “lieutenants” sport
dark glasses, leather bomber jackets and designer trainers, mimicking Italian work-
ing class aire (ibid.: 200).
Despite Mr. Juve’s protestations at the beginning of “Mic, mic din buric” that
this song is dierent and has nothing to do with “gypsies” or ddlers, the viewer
is confronted by an immediate paradox. One of the musicians is shown playing a
cimbalom (ro. ambal) player; the only other instrument on view is an electronic
keyboard (see Plate 6). e irony arises because the cimbalom is an instrument that
is heavily associated with muzic lutreasc and the Romani tarafuri (sg. taraf).
Somewhat inexplicably, to the cr y of “arpele! arpele” [“e snake, the snake!”],
Mr. Juve fumbles a rubber snake, which he throws at the cimbalist, who feigns fear
and aacks the toy with his hammers. is is followed by a contradiction that con-
cerns the declaration “no gypsy or lutar”. An accordion can be heard being played
in lutar style along with a caption on the screen which states: “Ne pare rau... acord-
eonist nu avem!!! L-a mucat arpele in timpul lmarilor: (((”. [“We are sorry... we
do not have an accordionist!!! e snake bit him during the lm: (((”]. e “snake”
appears again towards the end of the song, emerging from the boom of Mr. Juve’s
trousers. e manele world, as portrayed by Mr Juve, invites aention to its carniva-
lesque, grotesque and parodic features.
31 Such connections were also highlighted in the documentary e New Gypsy Kings, directed by
Liviu Tipuria. e documentary aired on BBC Television in June 2016.
Plate 6. Still from „Mișcă, mișcă din buric“
103
I noted above that “Saint Tropez” by Florin Salam has become one of the most
popular examples of the manele genre.32is version is not in fact the original one.
at was “Sen Trope” performed by Azis, a Bulgarian chalga star of Turkish and Ro-
mani descent.33 However, the “Saint Tropez” phenomenon has achieved a life of its
own as a transnational number that has become a paradigm for Balkan popular mu-
sic. I discovered a Facebook page entitled “Copyright Balkan Songs” that also led me
to some other examples (see Table 2).34 Alongside the two already mentioned, there
are Albanian, Greek, Romani, Serbian and Turkish versions. Although they are all
musically similar, they vary textually.35
32 All of these songs can be found at www.youtube.com [Accessed 24 October 2017].
33 Born Vasil Troyanov Boyanov (1978–).
34 “Copyright Balkan Songs” can be found at hps://www.facebook.com/CopyrightBalkanSongs/
[Accessed 30 January 2020].
35 e Turkish version is highly political, criticising corruption and the politics of Erdoan.
Table 2. Versions of „Saint Tropez“ in chronological order of publication32
Plate 7. Still from „Saint Tropez“
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Florin Salam’s “Saint Tropez” takes place in a lavish party seing. e opening
sequence of the video is presented in monochrome (see Plate 7). It is a champagne
reception in the foyer of a villa or, perhaps, a hotel. Centre, there are two large palm
trees and the decor suggests a Middle Eastern context to emphasise an “oriental”
ambience. e text encourages an extravagant mode of living, exhorting “you rich
people” to “have a good time” and “spend money” (see Table 3). As I noted above,
the encouragement to live a life of excess is one of the criticisms levelled at manele
by its detractors.
e manea “Saint Tropez” is in common time and constructed using ve basic
musical ideas (A to E). ese are organised in the form ABCDBCDAED (see Ap-
pendix 1 for a full transcription, and Table 4 above for a summary), following an
opening two-bar descending gure on clarinet that serves as a short taxim (from tr.
taksim), which does not reappear (although it does bear comparison with passages
in A and E). Subsequently, all of the musical material is presented in four-bar units
Table 3- The text of „Saint Tropez“ by Florin Salam
Table 4. Summary of the structure of „Saint Tropez“
105
or multiples thereof, when it is either repeated or modied slightly. A regular percus-
sive rhythm runs in the background throughout, only occasionally coming to a very
brief halt at the end of phrases. When rst introducing “Saint Tropez” previously,
I suggested that the song is representative of the “orientalised” form of manele and
certainly, in terms of the seing and some musical elements (such as vocal style), it
conforms to such a denition. But metrical features, particularly the regular four-
bar phrasing, demonstrate indebtedness to the “western” and global popular music
industry.
e melodic material of “Saint Tropez” takes note [A] as its tonal centre and is
based around what approximates to a Turkish makam founded on a combination of
bûselik and kürdî tetrachords. In “western” terms this would be described as the Aeo-
lian mode erefore, apart from the second bar, where there is a hint of a departure
from the tempered scale, tonally and harmonically the piece has more in common
with that of the “occident” than the “orient”.
emes C and D (bars 11–26) represent the musical material for the stanza and
refrain respectively. Both ideas consist of a four-bar phrase, which are then repeated
in a slightly varied form, such that verse and chorus are eight bars in length each.
e second half of the chorus is accompanied by a motif, which is a variant of the
rst four bars of the introductory passage A (bars 3–6). Following the rendition of
the rst verse and chorus, the instrumental passage B returns (initially, bars 7–10
and then 27–34), but this time repeated to give an eight-bar interlude leading into
the second verse and chorus. ese progress in similar fashion to the way they did
the rst time around; that is, they both consist of a four-bar phrase and a somewhat
modied variant of equal length. A reprise of theme A (bars 51–54) provides a link
to the aforementioned instrumental episode E (bars 55–66).
Although section E functions primarily as an instrumental interlude, Florin
Salam vocalises the syllables “la” and “le” in unison with the clarinet for the rst
four bars and the third and fourth of the next four. is is the only point in “Saint
Tropez” where vocalist and instrumentalist follow a melodic line together. e nal
third of this twelve-bar interlude is given to solo clarinet. e range of pitches from
which the musical material for E is derived is very narrow – the notes [a] to [e’] –
and draws aention to the fact that most of the melody in the manea falls within the
same interval. (eme A drops to note [e], but this material is not really melodic,
but rather a rhythmic device.) e only occasions where the music strays above note
[e’] occur in the vocal line at the beginning (the anacrusis and rst crotchet of the
next bar) of each of the four-bar phrases of the stanzas. For both verses, it extends to
note [g’] stepwise from note [e’] the rst time, and the second, to note [a’]. Indeed,
it is true that the melodic lines mostly move in conjunct motion, with an occasional
major or minor third. A perfect h appears once in every refrain, and with a lile
more frequency in E.
Harmonically, “Saint Tropez” never shis from the note [A] as its tonal centre,
there being a sense of A minor (or Aeolian mode) throughout. A repetitive two-bar
ground bass (minim [F], minim [G], semibreve [A]) can be heard very faintly un-
derpinning sections B to E (bars 7-66) implying the harmonic sequence; F major
7th, E minor (1st inversion), A minor. A drone on the note [a] accompanies the open-
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ing and the material of A.
By focussing on “Saint Tropez”, I have demonstrated that this song as it is per-
formed by Florin Salam provides a very useful example of the manele genre as a
whole. It incorporates many of the characteristics that are associated with it: the
celebration of wealth and indulgence, and the connections that manele has with the
criminal underworld. I suggest that the musical aspects of manele have more in com-
mon with western popular music than with the lutari tradition, or indeed those oth-
er musics from which it may have appropriated so-called “oriental” characteristics.
C
It is signicant that the descriptors Balkan, “oriental” and “exotic” are not always
used in a negative fashion. For Taraf de Haïdouks, the words have positive conno-
tations whereas for manele artists they are used as terms of derision. e dierence
is one of context. For consumers of “world music”, “gypsy” music represents a life
of freedom that has become lost to “western” consumers. In order to perpetuate an
element of inscrutability, some distance is kept by the media between the music and
the musicians, the musicians and their patrons. In this way, the principal paradox is
maintained: Romani music is aorded great value but Romani musicians are not.
For critics of manele, the adjectives “oriental” and “exotic” are deployed to represent
undesirable qualities of Balkan and Turkish provenance. Manele is a sonic reminder
of a discredited Ooman past. Accordingly, Romani musicians who perform manele
are marked by association. at is, Romani music maintains an “eastern” register in a
Romania that seeks to be “western” and Romani musicians perpetuate a Balkan-Ot-
toman alterity in the Romanian state, conating Romani music with Turkish music
and equating the Roma with the Turk.
But I would argue that in the cases of both Taraf de Haïdouks and manele, the
application of the descriptor “Balkan” is illusory. e use of such a label in con-
nection with Taraf de Haïdouks is another evocative word among the armoury of
others designed to appeal to western consumers’ predilection for the “exotic” and
the “oriental”. Notwithstanding the phenomenal skill of the musicians and their en-
tertainment value, both live and in recording, nevertheless Taraf de Haïdouks are a
commercial construct of the “world music” industry, a global entertainment, whose
primarily western audience valorises predominantly non-western traditional music.
Although their earlier recordings from the rst half of the 1990s drew from the tra-
ditional repertoire of southern Romania, Taraf de Haïdouks absorbed wider musical
inuences and evolved into a fusion concept. Yes, they originate from an area of Ro-
mania that was subject to greater Ooman inuence, and therefore possibly more
“Balkan” by extension, but the traditional music of this area is peculiar to it. And this
is what they mainly played prior to the 1989 Romanian revolution, as was observed
by Carol Silverman. e musical fusion aspect of Taraf de Haïdouks was developed
by Maškarad, an aempt to reclaim “gypsy” musical style from “classical” appro-
priation. Indeed, the inclusion of an interpretation of Bartók’s Romanian Dances
107
on Maškarad is a means of recovering cultural agency on the part of the lutari.
Furthermore, these Romanian Dances remove Taraf de Haïdouks’ musical centre of
gravity away from the Balkans and challenge the relevance of the adjective “Balkan”
with regard to their music, as they are based on melodies from Romanian villages in
Transylvania, a region geographically further (and politically removed during the
time Bartók collected them) from the southern Romanian province of Muntenia.
Certainly, some manele, when performed by particular artists, display aributes
originating from beyond the “western” tradition, aributes which maybe imbue the
music with a soupçon of “eastern” taste. “Oriental” inuence can be detected most
notably in the vocal delivery of individual performers. It can also be sensed in some
of the underlying repetitive rhythmic motifs along with the percussion instruments
used to deliver them. Considering these aributes, some singers (Florin Salam is a
prime example) have a naturally quasi-melismatic style. In addition, many manele
utilise çietelli as rhythmic accompaniment (Giurchescu and Rdulescu 2016: 9).
Bongos and the higher-pitched standard drum-kit tom-toms are oen favoured over
a full western drum kit in rough emulation of the Turkish darbuka drum. Melodi-
cally and harmonically, many supposedly “orientalised” manele are based on west-
ern modal scales that approximate to Turkish makams. However, there is lile scope
for a departure from western tuning, because the electric keyboards ubiquitously
present in the performance of manele are based on equal temperament.36 While the
features described may endow some manele with qualities related to Turkish arabesk,
they are merely representative components of a stylised version of the “orient” and
not manifestations of an “oriental” style itself.
36 Regev (1996: 278) and Stokes (2000: 218) note that Arab-scale or “oriental” synthesizers are
used in arabesk and musiḳah mizraḥit respectively, although modern keyboards are equipped with a
function that allows the player to bend the pitch.
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