Ciocârlia (meaning the skylark) is a well-known Romanian lăutaresc tune, composed by the Romani-Romanian naist (pan flute player) Angheluş Dinicu[1][2] in the virtuosic style of the urban lăutaresacă music from late 19th century.
Angheluş Dinicu first presented the tune in 1889 at the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower where it met with great success. However, the most famous version would become that of his grandson Grigoraş Dinicu, that adapted the tune for violin. George Enescu, the Romanian violinist/composer, also quoted Ciocârlia in his popular composition, the Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 for orchestra.
Ciocârlia has been covered numerous times and is probably the best known Romanian tune, but because it is a piece of lăutarească music and not a piece of Romanian peasant music it cannot be considered representative for the Romanian peasant spirit.[3]
In the case of the Ciocârlia, like with other famous tunes of lăutarească music, there were attempts to hide the name of the author in order to make it seem anonymous/traditional.[4]
It has also become highly popular in the Jewish Klezmer repertoire.[5]