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Author: Bartok, Bela Location: UMCP Performing Arts Library
Article Title: Introduction
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RUMANIAN
FOLK MUSIC
by BELA BARTOK
Volume One
Instrumental Melodies
Edited by
BENJAMIN SUCHOFF
with a Foreword by
VICTOR BATOR
THE HAGUE
MARTIN US NIJ HOFF
1 967
Copyright 1967 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
1 Published as Melodien der rumdnischcn Colinde, Universal Edition, Vienna, 1935. (484
Melodies). [Vol. IV of the present publication.]
2 Published separately as Die Volksmusik der Rumdnen von Maramures, Drei Maskenverlag,
Munich, 1923. (365 melodies). [Vol. V of the present publication].
3 In some of the villages of the county of Mure$, it was Mrs. Martha Ziegler who collected
according to my instructions (fifty-three melodies in the villages Bala, Moi$a, Nasna, Poarta,
Ungheni); the records, however, have been transcribed by myself. The instrumental pieces
of the records made in Budapest in March 1914 by order and with the recording machine of
the Department of Anthropology of the Hungarian National Museum —marked N. Gr.—have
been transcribed by Mr. Jen6 Deutsch.
[ i ]
Preface
same time parallel to each other. I had an excellent assistant in the
making of the clean copies of the material, namely, Mr. Jeno Deutsch,
a former pupil of mine, who completed the main part of this task
working for years with unselfish devotion and exactitude.
Because of doing the three types of work at the same time, both the
outer form of the musical part and the grouping of the material have
suffered from inconsistency.
Two-thirds of the musical part was completed by the end of March,
1940 and brought to the United States during my first wartime visit
to America. I had it printed immediately in New York to secure at least
this part of the material should something happen to that unique copy.
The remaining one-third was completed by October, 1940 in Budapest
and brought by me to the United States then. This part, however, could
not be immediately printed for various reasons—a circumstance which
made it possible for me to peruse it several times in order to discover
and correct mistakes and faults. Therefore, Vol. II from p. 305 on is,
on the whole, exempt from annoying misprints. The reader should see the
respective lists of errata in both volumes [Vol. I: pp. 66-67] and introduce
the corrections into the musical part before even starting study of the
book. This is of great importance, since many of the errors may lead
to disturbing confusion.
My intention was to place this material before the public as carefully
prepared and in as perfect a form as is called for by its unparalleled
value. The deplorable circumstances of the last six or seven years,
however, prevented the fulfillment of this plan by producing tensions
over tensions which caused the work to be accomplished, at least
partially, in an unfavorable haste and anxiety. . .
***
[ 3 ]
Preface
In spite of its incompleteness and deficiencies, this is np till now the
richest printed collection of Rumanian melodies and their data. As far
as I know, Vol. 1 is the first instrumental melody collection in which
the grouping of numerous instrumental melodies takes place on the basis
of musical structure; the first which includes instrumental music with
“motif-structure” (that is, of non-definite form) of larger number and
grouped according to a selected system (see Vol. I, Appendix I); the
first to contain a large number of Alphorn melodies and over a hundred
bagpipe pieces; the first to present "dance-words” (see p. 53) simul
taneously with dance melodies, just as they appear in dance festivals.
And last but not least, this is the first folk music collection on a large
scale, almost each piece of which has been transcribed from records with
the greatest humanly-attainable precision, approaching in this regard
the features and qualities of a so-called "Urtext” edition.5
[ 4 ]
Preface
though the autochthonous melodies were preserved. Fortunately, at the
time of the collection whole areas were still almost completely illiterate
in Bihor, Hunedoara, and Maramure^.6 There was no need of selection
at all. Moreover, with some care and circumspection it was also com
paratively easy to find “unspoiled” singers elsewhere who, although
having gone through school, were not affected by the destructive urban
influence. It happened but rarely that because of some reason or another
one of the peasants used by me proved to be spoiled. In each such
case this fact is mentioned in the Notes to the Melodies of Vol. II.
As might be expected, women were much more reliable in main
taining the rural style of performance. Men were more subject to
wandering; also, compulsory military service tore them away from
their homes. This explains the often roisterous and ostentatious manner
in the performance of such lads (this is the same with Hungarians and
Slovaks as well).
The performance of "professional” instrumental musicians shows but
rarely some influence coming from other castes. Therefore, no selection
was needed from that point of view. Gypsy instrumentalists sometimes
may give a “gypsy-style” performance which reveals itself in unsystem
atic cutting of values or precipitating of tone groups, but which occurs
rather seldom. I included such performances, these odd “lateral shoots”
are worth study. So much for choice of performers!
As to the material, the guiding principle in general was to include
everything which I had reason to believe was part of the music of the
village community. That is, a specimen brought by an individual from
a distant area and known only by him was left out. However, everything
else, whether rare or well-known, whether of urban or foreign origin,
was included. No one should be surprised, therefore, at finding well-
known, almost hackneyed, or urban, and even foreign melodies in this
publication, since the purpose of it is to give as complete a picture of
the folk music7 of each area as possible.
0 The reader is asked not to take this enunciation as being directed against civilization
As a human being, I understand the importance of and completely agree with the expansion
of schools and other tokens of urban civilization in “backward” villages, even if it may
lead to the entire destruction of folk art. As a folk music student, however,—-quasi extra-
humanly—I can not help having enjoyed perhaps the last possibilities of studying folk
music, at least in some restricted areas as yet entirely unspoilt by the “blessings” of urban
civilization.
7 That is, all music which the village folk spontaneously use as expression of their musical
instinct and feeling.
[ 5 ]
Preface
[ 6 ]
Introduction to Volume One
v.'Z-
[ 9
Introduction to Volume Two
Table 5
Components of Group /I 1 3
The foregoing list shows the correct order of Nos. 53-134. Unfortu
nately, for reasons mentioned in the Preface to Vol. I, this order could
not be achieved in the musical part.
Many of the Subdivisions contain more than one melody, thereby
requiring a further grouping. For this purpose, the following procedure
was devised. The range of each bar was separately determined, and the
six obtained range symbols (now written perpendicularly for technical
reasons; that is, as instead of VII-1) were placed one after the
other, as seen above and to the right of the respective melodies. The
twelve figures of this compound symbol were added (except VII, of
Introduction to Volume Two
Table 6
Symbols Used for Subclass II of Class A, B, and D
27 As a fifth area, mention may be made of Maramure} and Northern Satmar. Here, how
ever, Class 1) and /*’ melodies are predominant instead of Class A. The Maramures material
has been separately published in Bart6k, Volksmusik der Rumdnen von Maramures,
Masken Verlag, Munich, 1923 (365 Melodies). [Vol. V of the present publication.] Prei
[ 12 ]
Introduction to Volume III
conveniently'wem'9I(3 '’y tl“' Academia i,nd
they are expected to be ad 'n'>:rc,ore'
It rmicf k k ^ 1 from a general viewpoint.
changes one i'!' mmt lll‘Lt t*le voweI color may sometimes undergo
^ ^':r< n5'rby...........
mon Thnnab 1 I a‘ ° < oa (or vice versa) are not uncom-
restilt , " t 868 i,rC "> be regarded purely as a physical
kep in trio 8 dW'cW '■henomena. they necessarily are
exa^l „ P,«r Phon°graph records. See a rather baffling
example in No. 1287. second line: jmidt <
[ xlii J
The Grouping of the Material
lullabies seem to be almost non-existent,6 I could not find more than
one Lullaby Song (its text is under No. 1112). Secondly, there are texts
sung in connection with certain circumstances, but other texts have no
specific association. The former constitute various, yet very well-
circumscribed categories, each of which has its specific melodies. As it
seemed to me inappropriate to mix these two different kinds of texts,
the idea of the birth—death concept had to be abandoned.
The final, though only tentative grouping shows the following classes,
subclasses, and groups.
Table 12
Num Der of
Nu ni Der of
Texts Var- No
Number Sin*jers
iai ts Per
A Love Songs of
sonal
Lines
Ex In Fe Data
cluded cluded male Male
1) Description 308 14 26 21 3 2
2) Longing 401 44 56 44 10 2
3) Grief 93 12 12 12 — —
4) Jealousy 203 12 17 13 3 1
5) Mistrust 91 6 10 8 2 —
\ 6) Peaceful separation 89 10 13 11 2 —
7) Forsaken 248 26 29 24 4 1
Sub- 8) Curses 170 16 17 15 2 —
17) Charms 69 5 7 7 — —
6 The Slovaks and Turks have them, but in the Hungarian material they have already
disappeared (though certain signs indicate that they formerly may have existed).
[ xliii ]
Introduction to Volume 111
Number of
Texts; Var- Number of
No
Number
iants Singers
A Love Songs of Per-
Lines sonal
Lx- In- l'e- Data
eluded eluded M;dc
male
1) Description 183 23 27 19 8
2) Longing 551 67 87 36 41 —
3) Grief 130 14 16 9 7 —
4) Jealousy 34 3 4 2 2
5) Mistrust 26 3 4 2 2 —
6) Peaceful separation 15 3 3 1 1 i
11 7) Forsaken 37 5 6 3 3 —
Sub- 8) Curses 40 6 7 3 4 —
in
1) Idyll 54 5 6 3 2 1
Sub 2) Arguments 99 5 8 7 1 —
ject and 3) Refusing to part 19 2 2 1 1 —
object:
4) No more love 31 4 4 4 —
male 5) Separation
and 6
6) Husband and wife 78 7 7 5 1 1
female 7) Diverse 138 14 16 11 5 —
persons
IV 1) Meditation 1
95 11 20 8 11
Love 2) Adversity in love 183 16 26 17 9
(in gen 3) Diverse 61 7 9 7 2
eral)
[ xliv
The Grouping of the Material
Number of
Number of
Texts; Var No
Nu mbei Singers
iants Per-
li Songs of Sorrow of
sonal
Lines J Male
Ex- In- Fe Data
cludcc cludec male
1) Meditation 33 5 6 4 2 _
2) Too much distress 133 8 18 13 5 —
3) I am a most distressed
being 51 2 8 6 2 —
4) Overcome by distress 15 3 3 3 — —
I 5) Simile 80 14 15 9 5 i
Various 6) Contrast 68 10 13 7 5 i
sub- 7) Recalling the past 34 4 5 4 1 —
jects 8) Reproaches to mother 93 11 14 10 4 —
9) Curses 60 6 8 6 1 i
10) Birds foretold my fate 70 3 6 4 2 —
11) Poverty 37 5 5 3 2 —
[ xlv ]
Introduction to Volume III
Number of
Number of
Texts; Var No
Number Singers
iants Per
of
sonal
Lines
lix- in- Data
Male
eluded eluded male
1
2 | 6
D 1 )eath 54 7 8 —
E Worldly Wisdom 70 13 16
F Nature
1) Birds 115 8 15 12 3
2) Plants 27 4 4 3 1
3) Forests 75 9 12 9 3
4) Stars 4 1 1 1
Total for F 221 22 32 24 8
J eering
1) At girls 347 34 44 28 15
2) At boys 62 5 5 2 3
3) At women 36 5 6 4 1 1
4) At men 56 6 8 3 5
5) At women and men 12 2 3 2 1
6) At gypsies 28 4 4 2 2
Total for G 541 56 70 42 27 1
H Jesting Songs 89 17 8 8 1
17
I Singing 57 n 11 8 3
J Revelry (Drinking Songs) 229 30 39 24 15 1
F At dancing (“Dance-words”)
1) Texts about dances and
dancing 104 20 20 11 5 4
2) Texts connected with
dancing 57 11 12 5 7
Total for K 161 31 32 15 12 4
L Kryptadia
1) Man speaking 40 9 9 4 3 2
2) About men 3 1 1 1 — —
ivyf
3) Man i * <1 a woman
about
1 women 41 6 6 5 1
4) Man to a woman 16 4 5 3 2 —
9) Diverse 26 5 5 3 2 —
[ xlvi ]
The Grouping of the Material
Number of Number of
Texts; Var No
Number Singers
iants Per
of sonal
Lines Fe Data
Ex In
Male
cluded cluded male
Q Jail Songs 66 4 6 5 1 —
R Miscellaneous subjects 643 81 99 68 30 i
S Romany Texts 35 5 5 5 — —
T Epics 2,093 28 53 39 13 i
IV Harvest Songs 90 7 12 12 — —
[ xlvii ]
A Rural Community’s Sentiments and Character
or foreign origin. Nos. 178i. j. are interesting examples for the "Ruman-
ification” of such texts.
Epics, or certain longer pieces, frequently derive from foreign and,
in the long run, from urban sources (see below, pp. xciv-xcv); yet, the
transformation generally gives them a very distinct rural character.
(Exceptions are the aforementioned Nos. 1191-1193 and also Nos. 1188-
1190.) The origin of certain texts can be traced as far back as the Old
Testament: No. 244 cCanticle of Canticles, Chapter 4 (Serbo-Croatian
variants: KuhaC63 No. 179, 462).
The origination of shorter lyric texts and "Dance words’’64 is rather
difficult to unveil. Because of their directness, conciseness and suitability
for the occasion, and sometimes of their improvisatory character,
probably no essential "polishing” work took place or was needed in
order to give them a thoroughly rural character. But in any case, they
keep an essential feature of rural art: a perpetual changeability, even
if restricted to imponderabilia.
Texts suspected to be of urban origin have a note referring to this
circumstance in the Notes to the Texts (pp. 641-645).
Most probably no such stratifications, as described on p. Ixxxiv existed
in a given people’s arts in olden times: leaders and commons were
united—if not in wealth and power—then at least in their art.
As I believe, a far greater part than commonly presumed of texts—
and of melodies as well—derive in the long run from urban sources.
[ Ixxxvii ]
Introduction to Volume III
international in its subjects, though the narrative style may vary
according to the people by which and the language in which it is
produced. Lyrics, on the other hand, show a much more pronounced
differentiation in tluur means of expression, and even in the proffered
sentiments, according to the people from whom they originate. Of
course, only pieces which are rural in the fullest sense of the word
should be considered in this respect.
First of all, a positive and a negative feature must be taken into
account: the presence or the absence of certain expressed sentiments.
The absence may be interpreted in two ways, either as indicating a
lack of such sentiments in the community, or as a sign of a certain
reluctance to express them openly. To facilitate a decision, sometimes
extra-textual aspects may enter and help us.
After these introductory remarks we may proceed to the examination
of some statistical data.65
Table 22
A I 8S 12 76 24 Especially suited to
female singers
A II 62 38 47 53 especially suited to
male singers
fi III go. 2 9-8 So 20 Bride's complaints
C 57 43 275* 72-5t Soldiers’ songs
j Ixxxviii ]
A Rural Community’s Sentiments and Cl
.Hrlinusness” that resulted
(see Vol. I, p. 5), female to male singers: a fas cent male And
m 70 per cent of the singers being female am j < the soldier
in Class C we may distinguish ‘‘active ive” songs-girls
himself is complaining about military hte < sweethearts,
complaining about the drafting, and so forth’ were revised
After due consideration of all correctives, the pe ‘b
as they appear in the fourth and (dlh cohmms ^j^^i^ed trend
We learn from the tabulation that.^C wh0se sentiments can
among peasant singers toward a choice ot te -
be applied to themselves individually, buch a '‘’"JJ^^gers and in
vergence of the percentage concerning the sc ^ ascribed to
accordance with the kind of the chosen tex s ded to other
pure hazard at all. Similar investigations could e to
(sub)classes or (sub)groups too. For instance, 11 wolj ‘ 01d Age) were
know whether the majority of the pieces mo I • _
sung by older people or not. However, the number o lest 1
nine- is too small to yield reliable results. Nonethe ess, the mg
in the above-mentioned four large and important (sub)classes s
prove that rural folk texts can be regarded as the spontaneous and
faithful expression of some—if not all—sentiments am < mo
community. , ,__Kxr
On the other hand, we see that quite a number of tex s c us
the singers do not fit into their individual sitnatwn. owe'i . ^
circumstance does not invalidate the aforementiom r s a emen
phenomenon is easy to explain. Any peasant with a oui imm C
store up a great number of all kinds of texts in his min . -
"unwritten” laws exist to ridicule the performance of lyric or epic
songs less fit to the performer's personal circumstances, s u
occasionally choose "unfitting” texts also.
Class C—an example of a veritable "Callup Poll —shows a om-
hundred per cent rejection of compulsory military servlct an|
soldiering. The tearing off of boys in the prime of their youth from
community life is felt as an insufferable interference, the aimy
as a form of slavery. No wonder! Whether under foreign or home rule
peasants in Eastern Europe are not patriotic, hhey cling o ui
village with an extended family solidarity; they cling perhaps <> u
narrow area surrounding the village witli a kind of dimly-developed
local loyalty and would probably defend their lands against attacks.
67 Though such laws exist concerning some classes of ceremonial songs.
[ Ixxxix 1
Introduction to Volume III
But that is all. To care for the welfare and fate of unknown millions,
even fellow countrymen, is beyond their horizon. If a peasant were
able to develop patriotism in the urban sense of the word, he would
cease to be a peasant. The same applies to the Slovaks and Hungarians.
In the folk song material of the latter, however, there are some “patri
otic” and even "pro-militarist” texts. The former derive from urban
sources (for example, No. 168, st. 9 11, in my book, Hungarian Folk Music),
in the latter they refer to the hussar’s life and present a special case. The
hussars are cavalrymen who wear (or wore) rather spectacular uniforms:
red-trimmed blue coat, spurred boots, and shako; all very appealing to
boys and girls alike. Such trifles account for the pro-militarism (more
correctly, "pro-hussarism”) of the Hungarian hussar texts.
Comparison of the number of texts in the parallel groups of A I and
A II (Love Songs) yields some remarkable data:
Tahle 23
4) Jealousy 17 4
5) Mistrust 10 4
7) Forsaken 29 6
8) Curses 17 7
10) Forsaking 5 11
18) Jeering 7
XC11
A Rural Community’s Sentiments and Character
1 11 n VV(“ could assume that sex relations play the most important role
'i "nal life. Next comes sorrow caused by various reasons (estrange-
rn< nt’ soJdiering, old age, poverty, and undefined troubles). Then follows
(nation (dancing, drinking, jesting, joking); and finally several sub-
1' ' Is, each represented only by a few texts.
special characteristic of all these lyrics is their directness and
o^nfidential intimacy. An outward sign of this characteristic is the
(flUint use of the first person singular; one gets the impression of
' < iving the confession of an intimate friend or overhearing a soliloquy
rn< <uit l°r anybody else except the singer herself or her lover.
[ xciii ]
Introduction to Volume III
of these various peoples has not been studied as thoroughly as the
Rumanian material of this book.
Class L (Kryptadia) contains indecent texts. Some of them, as for
instance No. 1055, probably are of urban origin and are sung, corre
spondingly, to melodies of foreign or urban source. The overwhelming
majority belongs, however, to the so-called “dance-words.” One can
fairly assert that indecent texts occur only in this category of the
Rumanian rural folk texts and, accordingly, only as fun and jest. The
case with the Hungarian and Slovakian material does not seem to be
similar in this respect. The situation there, however, does not look quite
clear because of a totally different stratification of the melody material,
which to explain here could become too detailed. Another remarkable
feature, probably rather baffling to Western Europeans, is the fact that
indecent texts are sung by men and women equally. The same applies
to the Hungarian and Slovakian material.71 We do not know how the
Serbo-Croatians behave in this respect, since the available printed
material does not contain—for well-known reasons— a single indecent
text.72
As it has been said above, many of the epic texts have international,
or at least inter-Eastern-European subjects. This book contains fifty-
three epic texts in twenty-eight variant groups; so far as it could be
established at present, five of the latter have variants in the material
of the neighboring peoples. And this small number could probably be
augmented by a more comprehensive comparative research.
The number of epic texts printed in this volume is insufficient for
general deductions. Yet if we extend our investigation to Rumanian
epic texts published elsewhere, then we will find a marked difference
between Rumanian and Hungarian epics. The former are, on the whole,
rather elaborate; in fact, they go into the description of minutest
details. The latter are concise, rapid in progress, and dramatic in design.
An appropriate illustration of this difference is given by No. 1182—
with 223 text lines- and its numerous, much shorter Hungarian variants.
Another example: the Rumanian “Manole" texts and their Hungarian
variants known as "Konuves Kclemen". The difference may be explained
71 See remarks on this subject in li. Bartbk, "Turkish 1'olk Music from Asia Minor,”
manuscript deposited at the Music Library of Columbia University, p. XXXI, fn. i.
72 Of seventy five songs in Serbo-Croatian folk Songs, only one, No. 6b., has such a text
(incidentally, sung by a woman). It relates a quarrel between three girls and a boy, mentioning
the most private organs. All this seems to be done, however, not for fun’s sake but in an
innocently realistic manner.
[ xciv ]
A Rural Community’s Sentiments and Character
in two ways. Either it is the result of a difference between the Rumanian
;md Hungarian rural mind, the former having a more or less static, the
latter a dramatic disposition, or the sometimes fragmentary-looking
conciseness may account for a final degree of inordinate densification
°f originally more extended forms. It is rather difficult to take sides in
this question. For, on the one hand, there are numerous Hungarian epic
texts showing manifest signs of decay, shortened to a few, almost
incomprehensible stanzas- -remnants of pieces which once must have been
unimpaired. On the other hand, there are pieces, succinct in narration,
avoiding all less important details, which are real masterpieces of
perfection (for example, the aforementioned “Kdmives Kclemen texts)
which scarcely could be regarded as deteriorated merely because of their
conciseness.
1 he narrative style of the epics does not use the first person singular,
at variance with the lyrics: the narrator modestly stays in the back
ground, hidden behind the third person singular when telling his story.
I here are, however, epic pieces whose narrators lack such quiet modesty.
I hey come to the foreground like announcers of a village show, and—
using the first person singular- blare their story with an assumed
didactic air of “I told you” (for example, No. 1174a. in which the
narrator identifies himself with the main personage of the tale).73 Such
a narrative style is of urban or semirural origin and appears mostly in
so-called "Muritat" pieces (see p. Ixxxv).
1 he geographical distribution of epics shows certain peculiarities.
There are in this book 28 epics out of ca. 310 (9 per cent) from Banat
(Arad, Hunedoara, and Severin not included); 6 out of ca. 500 (a little
more than 1 per cent) from Bihor; and 19 out of ca. 610 (a little more
than j per cent) from all the other territories. The Bihor epic texts are
short, mostly fragmentary pieces, each consisting of ten to sixteen lines,
with a total of seventy-six lines (Nos. 1182 and 1183a., both from Banat,
alone have 223 and 139 lines respectively). This survey shows, on the
one hand, that the main district of provenance for epics is the Banat;
and, on the other hand, that epics in Bihor are in decay, if they ever
flourished there. Could the wealth in epics of Banat be ascribed to Serbo-
Croatian influence? The Serbo-Croatian territory is abundant in epics,74
73 Sec also No. 504.
74 Out of seventy-five songs in Scrbo Croatian bulk Songs, twenty {26 per cent) have epic
texts (Nos. 6a. c., 8a. b., 10a. b., 12a. e., 18, 20, 25, 27a. b., 28a., 34-36, 44a. b., and 46):
proportionately almost three times as many as in Banat, the Rumanian district richest in
epics.
[ xcv ]
Introduction to Volume III
though they seem to show features somehow different from those of
Banat—a difference not yet sufficiently explored.
Ceremonial texts as, for instance, wedding and mourning song texts,
cannot always be regarded as mirrors of de facto existing sentiments.
Originally they, of course, were expressions of such sentiments. In their
later development, however, they changed into more or less rigid
formulas. A bride-elect should be sad when leaving the parental house;
family members ought to be distressed at the death of one of them. If
they happen to be indifferent or even glad at such occasions, then they
are at least supposed to feign sorrow and distress. The performance of
the traditional rites accompanied by the respective songs is compulsory
whether or not their mood tallies with the sentiments of the persons in
question. In case of a forced marriage, especially that of a nearly-related
person—father, mother, child, and so forth—there generally is mood-
sentiment agreement. The sobbing which inevitably goes with the per
formance of the mourning songs by the near female relatives is usually
genuine.
“Sobbing” may appear in records of mourning songs, too. When
women were asked by the collector to sing a mourning song, at first they
refused with much giggling and laughing; they said it would be too
“queer” to sing without having a corpse on the spot. In a comparatively
short time, however, they yielded to the request, and generally chose a
mourning song (text) referring to a recent death in the family. It
frequently happened that the singer gradually became overwhelmed by
recollection of her grief to such a degree that she could not help but
intermingle sobs with her singing. The Museum for Anthropology
in Budapest possesses several records of Hungarian mourning songs
(by a mother for her son who died sometime ago) which consist of
almost continuous hysterical sobbing and crying, only occasionally
interrupted by shreds of the melody. A gruesome document of rural
life, indeed!
Incidentally, to “mourn” over a corpse is the duty of female members
of the family, an ancient usage, described already in Thucydides’
Peloponnesian War: “the female relatives of the deceased assemble at
the place of interment and make lamentations.” If such relatives are not
at hand, "professional” mourners are hired.75
[ xevi ]
Some Variants Published Elsewhere
[ xcvii ]