The Romanian word Lăutar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, lăutari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians (Gypsies), also called țigani lăutari. The term is derived from lăută the name of a string instrument. Lăutari usually perform in bands, called taraf.
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Lăutar, according to the DEx ("Dictionarul Explicativ al limbii romane" — "The Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language"), is formed from lăută (meaning "lute") and the agent suffix -ar, common for occupational names. A distinction should be made between the generic Romanian-language word lăutar and the Romani clan. Originally, the word was used only from those that played the lăută. The other were named from their instruments, too, such as: scripcar (violin player), cobzar (cobza player), and naigiu (nai/panflute player.[1] From the 17th century, the word lăutar was used regardless of the instrument that was played.[2]
Another distinction should be made between the lăutărească music played by lăutari and the Romanian peasant music.[3] A more proper term for someone who plays peasant music, i.e., a folk musician, is rapsod.
The lăutari clan probably stems from other historical Romani clans present in Romania, such as the ursari, lovari and kalderash. Names of Romani clans in Romania are usually Romanian occupational names: Căldărar (bucket-maker, căldare=bucket; -aş replaces -ar regionally), Lingurar (spoon-makers, lingură=spoon), Florar (flower sellers, floare=flower) etc.
The first mention of lăutari is from 1558 when Mircea Ciobanul, the Voivode of Wallachia, gives Ruste lăutarul (Ruste the lăutar) as a gift to the Vornic Dingă from Moldavia.[4] In 1775 the first lăutărească guild (breaslă), was established in Wallachia.
The lăutari were both slave Roma and free Romanians, but the Roma were the majority.[2] They were preferred because they were considered to have better musical abilities.[5] Through time there have also been Jewish and Turkish lăutari.[4]
Before the 19th century, Romani musicians were often employed to provide entertainment in the courts of the Princes and Boyars. In the 19th century, most of these musicians settled in the rural areas where they sought new employment at weddings, funerals, and other traditional Romanian celebrations. They were called ţigani vătraşi and have the Romanian language as their mother language, or sometimes the Hungarian language.[6] Only a few of them, with ancestors from the kalderash or from the ursari groups, still spoke the Romani language.
The lăutari existed mainly in the Moldavia, Muntenia, Oltenia and Dobruja regions of present day Romania.[2] In Transylvania, traditional professional musicians didn't exist until the 19th century.[7] For this reason the peasant music of Transylvania remained more "pure". A similar situation was in Banat. Today the Romani lăutari are also predominant in Transylvania.[8]
As performers, lăutari are usually loosely organized into a group known as a taraf, which often consists largely of the males of an extended family. (There are female lăutari, mostly vocalists, but they are far outnumbered by the men.) Each taraf is led by a primaş, a primary soloist.
Traditionally, the lăutari played by ear, but today more and more lăutari have musical studies and can read notes.[9][10]
The lăutari consider themselves to be the elite of the Roma.[8] For this reason the lăutari want their children to marry only other lăutari.
The music of the lăutari is called lăutărească music. There isn't a single music style of the lăutari, the music style varies from region to region, the best known being that from southern Romania.[8] The lăutărească music is complex and elaborated, with dense harmonies and refined ornamentations, and its execution requires a good technique[11][12] The lăutărească music should not be confounded with the Romanian peasant music.[3]
The lăutari drew inspiration from all the musics they had contact with: the pastoral music of Romania, the Byzantine music played in the church, as well as foreign music, most notably Turkish, but also Russian and Western European.[4][13][14] While the lăutari drew inspiration from the local music, they also influenced the Romanian peasant music.[15]
Improvisation is an important part of the lăutărească music. Each time a lăutar plays a melody he re-interprets it.[16] For this reason the lăutărească music has been compared to Jazz music. A lăutar from the Damian Draghici band, who also played Jazz, said that the lăutărească music is a kind of Jazz.[17]
Because of its characteristic of improvising on a certain basic framework the lăutărească music has been compared with other Desi musics such as the Rāg.[18] Yehudi Menuhin considered the music of the lăutari as a necessary step towards India.[19]
The music of the lăutari establishes the structure of the elaborate Romanian peasant weddings, as well as providing entertainment (not only music, but magic tricks, stories, bear training, etc.) during the less eventful parts of the ritual. The lăutari also function as guides through the wedding rituals and moderate any conflicts that may arise during what can be a long, alcohol-fuelled party. Over a period of nearly 48 hours, this can be very physically strenuous.
The repertoire of the lăutari include hora, sârba, brâul (a high tempo hora), doiul, tunes with Turkish derived rhythms (geamparaua, breaza, rustemul, maneaua lăutărească, cadâneasca), doina, de ascultare (roughly "song for listening", it can be considered a more complex form of doina), cântecul bătranesc, căluşul, ardeleana, corăgheasca, ardeleana, batuta
In southern Romania, the lăutărească music has a rural stratum and an urban one.[8] The urban lăutărească muscic is known as Urban folklore or Mahala music.
Following custom almost certainly dating back at least to the Middle Ages, most lăutari rapidly spend the fees from these wedding ceremonies on extended banquets for their friends and families over the days immediately following the wedding.
The lăutari rarely used the blown instruments used in the peasant music, because of their limited capabilities, but there were some lăutari who used the flute ("fluier") or the bagpipe ("cimpoi")
Today, the lăutari also used a lot of electric, electronic, and electroacoustic instruments: various keyboards (electronic accordions included), electric and electroacoustic guitars and basses, etc.
The lăutari and their music had a great influence on the Romanian composer George Enescu. His love for music started when, as a child, he heard a taraf of lăutari while on a trip to Bălţăteşti with his mother.[20] This has been hard to accept by some Romanian musicologists who tried to induce the idea that it must have been some peasant musicians that Enescu heard on that trip.[21] Enescu received his first musical lessons from a renowned lăutar named Nicolae (Lae) Chioru. Through his life, he befriended many lăutari from whom he learned their music. Unlike Béla Bartók, who avoided the Romani lăutari, searching only the peasant music, Enescu was not interested in this kind of nationalistic authenticity.[20] He got his inspiration from both the peasant and the lăutarească music (both rural and urban). His first and probably most famous compositions, the Poème roumaine and the Romanian Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2, were written by directly citing passages of urban lăutarească music,[22] which also gave them a strong Turkish/Middle Eastern flavor. So pregnant was this aspect in his music that a German critic thought that Enescu was Romani himself upon hearing the Romanian Rhapsody.[20]
Most tarafs do not have a specific name, but are built around a person (the primaş) or a family. Most bands that have a name are commercially created. Some of the most famous are:
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