Gypsy music

According to Speranta Radulescu, director of musicology at the Peasant Museum in Bucharest, Gypsy music is a broad category that spreads across borders and time.  “There is no single gypsy music, Gypsy music in Romania is not the same in Spain or France.  The truth about Gypsy music is it is local and circumstantial. It is truly valuable here and now. And another time is not the same.”

Gypsy music varies from place to place due to the influences of the majority population. This is even the case in little Romania where one finds the marching band-style known as Fanfare in Moldova – the orchestral styles of Transylvania – in Oltenia (Southern Romania) comes to Taraful (Gypsy band) – and finally Muslim-Turkish influences of Dobruja (Black Sea coast).

So many different styles – nevertheless – how they relate is Gypsy musicians are musically illiterate; they cannot read nor write a single note –  but boy, can they play.  The music is improvised – always improvised. They listen to the sounds and then perform in the Gypsy style…

“You don’t learn this job, you steal it,” said the great Gypsy musician Neculae Neacsu from
Bucharest in an interview before his death.  “A true Lautari is one who, when he hears a tune,
goes straight home and replays it from memory. The one who plays it certainly won’t teach you.”     

While the Gypsy musicians regularly perform outside the community; in the theater, festival, weddings, or other celebratory events – we at Tzigania have reversed the status-quo by bringing people INSIDE the Gypsy community to experience the music AND the culture that created this wonderful sound