Doina

Not to be confused with Daina.

For other uses, see Doina (disambiguation).

The Doina (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈdojna]) is a Romanian musical tune style, with Middle Eastern roots, that can be found in Romanian peasant music, as well as in Lăutărească and Klezmer music.

Origins and characteristics

Béla Bartók first discovered the doina in Northern Transylvania in 1912 and he believed to be uniquely Romanian. After he found similar genres in Ukraine, Albania, Algeria, Middle East and Northern India, he came to the conclusion that these are part of a family of related genres of Arabo-Persian origin. He particularly linked the Romanian doina to the Turkish/Arabic Makam system. Bartók conclusions were rejected by some Romanian ethnomusicologists, who accused Bartók of anti-Romanian bias. Since then, however, the similarities between the Romanian doina and various musical forms from the Middle East has been documented by both non-Romanian, as well as Romanian scholars. Until the first half of the 20th century, both lăutari , as well as klezmer musicians were recorded to use a taksim as an introduction to a tune. The taksim would be later replaced by the doina, which has been described as been very similar, though not totally identical with the taksim.

Doina is a free-rhythm, highly ornamented (usually melismatic), improvisational tune. The improvisation is done on a more or less fix pattern (usually a descending one), by "stretching" the notes in a rubato manner, according to the performer's mood and imagination. Usually the prolonged notes are the fourth or fifth above the floor note.

The peasant doinas are mostly vocal and monophonic and are sung with some vocal peculiarities that vary from place to place: interjections (măi, hei, dui-dui, iuhu), as well as glottal clucking sounds, choked sobbing effects, etc. Instrumental doinas are played on simple instruments, usually various types of flutes, or even on rudimentary ones, such as a leaf. The peasant doina is a non-ceremonial type of song and is generally sung in solitude having an important psychological action, to "ease ones soul". Ethnomusicologist and doina performer Grigore Leşe believes that, while scholars describe to great detail the technical aspects of the doina, failed to understand its psychological aspects. Doinas are lyrical in aspect and its common themes are melancholy, longing (dor), erotic feelings, love for nature, complain about the bitterness of life or invocations to God to help ease the pain, etc.

Unlike peasant doinas, lăutar and klezmer doinas are usually accompanied and played on instruments with more possibilities (violin, pan-pipe, cymbalom, accordion, clarinet, tarogato, etc). Also, unlike peasant doinas, lăutar and klezmer doinas are mostly played as an introduction to another tune, usually a dance.

In the regions of Southern Romania, Romani lăutari developed a more complex type of doina called "cântec de ascultare" (meaning "song for listening", sometimes shortened "de ascultare" or simply "ascultare"). The "cântec de ascultare" spread to other regions of Romania, with local particularities.

Etymology

Before being studied by ethnomusicologists, doina type of song were known by many names varying from region to region, "doina" being one of them. It was Constantin Brăiloiu, director of the National Archive of Folk Music, who proposed that the word "doina" be used to described all these songs.

The very origin of the word "doina" is unknown and it is spread throughout Romania and Moldova.
Although there is no universally accepted origin, the word could be of Indo-European origin, since a similar form (daina) can be found in Latvia and Lithuania meaning "folk song".

Another unrelated possible resemblance is made with the Serbian word "daljina" meaning "furthering", because most doinas are about the feeling of "dor" - a Romanian word for "intensely missing" (similar to German Sehnsucht and Portuguese Saudade). "Daljina" is supposed to have become "doina" in a similar way in which the word "haljina" ("clothing") became "haina" in Romanian.

Dimitrie Cantemir mentions "Doina" in his "Descriptio Moldaviae" among a series of old pre-Christian (Dacian) deities, persistent in popular oral tradition, noticing that "Doina, Doina" is a starting phrase incantation in many folk songs.

In the region of Maramureş the word "horă/hore" it is still the most commonly used. The Maramureş "horă/hore" is not related with the word "horă" found in southern and eastern Romania, which comes from the Greek "choros", meaning "(circle) dance", but it is derived from the Latin "oro/orare", meaning "to say/saying".

Styles of doina

• Ca pe luncă - found along the southern Danube
• De codru - codru means "forest"
• Hora lungă - Maramureş
• Klezmer - played by Jewish musicians from Bessarabia and Moldavia
• Oltului - found along the Olt River
• Ca din tulnic - unique type in which the melody imitates a type of Alpenhorn called the tulnic
• Ciobanul - shepherd's doina
  • De dragoste - popular form, usually about love; dragoste means "love".
• De jale - mellow, mournful doina; jale means "grief".
• De leagăn - a lullaby; leagăn means "cradle".
• De pahar - drinking song; pahar means "drinking glass".
• Foaie verde - classical form; literally "green leaf".

Current status

While at the beginning of the 20th century, the doina was the most common type of peasant song (in some areas the only type), today it has almost completely disappeared from the peasant life, as most peasant music did. This process has been accentuated during the communist era, with the rise of the new "popular music", bringing a new style of performance that degenerated the peasant styles.

The doina it is still, however, common in the repertoire of the lăutari from Ardeal and Banat regions.

In 2009 the doina has been included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.