Talk:Bucium, Alba
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Geographic issue regarding the town called 'Bucium' (or 'Bucsony' on old Hungarian maps)
[edit]Regarding the fourth of Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances, which is called 'Buciumeana', we see words to this effect: "The fourth dance is named for Butschum, the district of Torda-Aranyos in Transylvania." Now that region overlaps heavily with Alba county in today's Romania, and inside Alba county there happens to be a town called Bucium. (Bucium lies roughly 100km SW of Turda, which was the capitol of Torda-Aranyos but which is now just a city in Cluj county.) Can we assume then that Bartok was referencing not only Torda-Aranyos county in general but this town called Bucium, specifically? That may seem an innocent train of thought. And it was my own train of thought, when I edited this wiki recently, adding a reference to Cooper p. 138 where we find "a 'Dance from Bucium/Bucsum' or a horn dance." But Bucium's old Hungarian name was Bucsony, and it turns out that Bucsony was located in the extreme NW corner of different county, called Also-Feher, which is to say it was not QUITE inside the borders of Torda-Aranyos county "where we wish it was," but just a tad to the south. If one forms a rough mental correspondence of old Torda-Aranyos county to current Alba county, that is probably not 'dangerous' since the two regions overlap substantially. But from there, if one jumps to the conclusion that Bucium in Alba county today must have been part of Torda-Aranyos county back then, then the assumption is simply false. But given the nearness of Bucium (Bucsony) to the Torda-Aranyos border, isn't it still reasonable to assume that Bartok's title 'Buciumeana' MIGHT very well refer to that town? Yes, that would be reasonable "in conversation" let's say, but in a scholarly context? On the one hand, for 99% of users of Wikipedia, this level of detail doesn't matter. But every now and then someone trying to do research could be blind-sided if these geographic nuances lie buried out of sight (or severely frustrated if forced to 'reinvent the wheel' that I've drawn above). Any thoughts on how this should be handled in the wiki itself? [User:JiaBokang|JiaBokang]] (talk) 22:30, 21 August 2017 (UTC)
ADDENDUM, next day: In the wiki for 'Romanian Folk Dances', it says this (possibly improved from what I've seen there previously?): "The fourth dance came from Bucsony, Alsó-Fehér County (today Bucium, Alba county in Romania)." That addresses most of my issues above succinctly. (Note however that pointing to Bucsony specifically instead of Alsó-Fehér County generally might just be the writer's assumption, a kind of sleight-of-hand.)JiaBokang (talk) 19:05, 22 August 2017 (UTC)