1. MUSIC
Doina – „known by various names throughout Romania, the doina is a lyrical, solemn
chant that is improvised and spontaneous. As the essence of Romanian folklore, until 1900 it
was the only musical genre in many regions of the country. Technically, the doina can be
sung in any context (outdoors, at home, at work or during wakes), and is always performed
solo, with or without instrumental accompaniment (which might include the traditional
straight flute, bagpipes and even improvised instruments). There are several regional
variants. The doina has a wide‐ranging expressive and thematic palette that spans joy,
sadness, solitude, social conflicts, brigand attacks, love and so on. Expressing as it does the
personal qualities, emotions and virtuosity of the creator‐performer, the doina also plays an
important social role by providing a cathartic outlet that strengthens solidarity. It has also
given rise to other artistic genres (dances). Today, the doina is under threat locally because
of a break in the line of transmission from parent to child. Although some fifteen people
have been identified as representatives of the various types of doina, an environment
conducive to performance and transmission must be restored in order to ensure that this
important feature of Romania’s intangible cultural heritage continues to flourish.”1
Doina is widespread throughout most of Romania. It may be related to and may even
have its origins in the cântec de leagăn, or lullaby. The doina is always sung in free rhythm
with varying degrees of embellishment and melisma. There are a number of tune types used
for these semi‐improvised performances of the doina.
There is no other form of musical expression which in the minds of the general
population of Romania conjures up so clearly the essence of all its music, and, indeed, the
best of the entire artistic expression of the culture as does the doina. This free lyrical song
form is widespread in the folk traditions of many regions of the country where it remains
strong. Doina is played by bands of professional musicians and it is even frequently used by
Romanian composers using the Western European Classical tradition.
The doina survives in Romania today as a very widespread folk form. It appears most
frequently in the regions of Moldavia, Muntenia and Dobrogea. Distinctive regional
differences can be noted in different areas of the country. In the Maramureș, region of
Northern Transylvania there is a song form called hora lungă, horea lungă, or cântec lung, all
meaning long song and referring to a song form clearly related to the doina. In this instance
1
Doina, at www.unesco.org visited at 11 july 2011.

2. the word hora does not refer to the well‐known dance form hora. The hora lungă of
Maramureș derives instead from horea, the Romanian word meaning „oration”.
Since the doina is an expressive song form in free rhythm, highly ornamented and
one which offers the singer great scope for individual expression, the possibilities for
influence from other music styles is great. Some Romanian scholars suggest that the doina
may have its origins in the cântec de leagăn, or lullaby. While there is some merit to this
argument it is also true that the cântec de leagăn, being also a free form performed in
personal and unstructured context may have equally been influenced by the doina itself.
A more significant argument is raised by the Romanian musicologist, Gheorghe
Ciobanu, who notes that there are notable parallels between the Muntenian doina of the
subcarpathian region and that of the hora lungă of Maramureș, from which he infers the
possibility that the form of the doina may originate in a very ancient Daco‐Thracian strata
dating back to a time when the tribes of what is now the North and South of Romania were
united.
In actuality, the term doina includes a number of subtypes, the hora lungă of
Maramureș, being one of the most distinctive. In addition there are other variant types
called haiducești, de codru, de jale and ca pe luncă, for example.
Of these the type, ca pe luncă is of particular interest. As it name implies it is a form
associated with the Danube plains region – from the word luncă, meaning the plains. The
region thus identified includes the Danube regions of the provinces (județ) of Dobrogea,
Muntenia and Oltenia. This special form of the doina has an expressive quality and a
particular melodic style which is generally associated with the performances by musicians
from that region. While the melody of the ca pe luncă is characteristically in free rhythm, its
accompaniment can be in the slow halting pattern of the Danubian plains șchioapa, or in a
fast even pulse which allows the melody to float freely. It is significant that also from this
same region comes another form, the cântec de dragoste, or doina de dragoste. This is
recognized as a newer and somewhat more popular form derived from the doina of
Muntenia and Oltenia.
The cântec de dragoste is a song in free rhythm with a high degree of ornamentation,
like the doina itself. While the doina itself regularly deals with the subject of love and longing
in its texts, in the cântec de dragoste this becomes the identifying focus of all the songs in
the genre. The emphasis is on a somewhat more direct and lighter level of expression than is

3. common with the doina. Its appeal is considered much more immediate than the more rustic
yet often more profound doina. One other distinctive characteristic of the cântec de
dragoste is that it is usually accompanied by an instrumental ensemble and its
accompaniment is set in a fixed regular rhythm, in spite of the fact that the melodic line
itself, that is, the vocal or instrumental setting of the melody, remains in the free rhythmic
style of the doina.
Maria Tănase was a
renowned Romanian singer of
Romanian folkloric music. Born
in the Bucharest suburb of
Cărămidari, Maria Tănase
studied at Primary School nr.
11 Tăbăcari, making her stage
debut in Cărămidarii de Jos, on
the stage of the Ion Heliade
Rădulescu High School. In
1934, she joined the Cărăbuş
Theatre of Constantin Tănase
on the advice of newspaper writer Sandu Eliad, who, at the time was her domestic partner.
Her debut took place on June 2, 1937 with the stage name of Mary Atanasiu in the musical
hall theatres, Alhambra and Gioconda. She represented Romania at the International
Exhibition in Paris in 1937, as well as at the 1939 New York World's Fair. During World War II,
together with George Enescu, George Vraca and Constantin Tănase, she performed in a
series of shows for soldiers injured on the battlefield.
On February 20, 1938 she made her radio debut. Fame came shortly afterwards, as,
during the same year, she made her first recordings for the Romanian Radio Society. These
early recordings were destroyed by the authorities during the first months of the National
Legionary State, at a time when Maria Tănase had also been banned from performing in
public.
In December 1943, she sang at the Christmas festivities at the Royal Cavalry
Regiment, where King Michael I of Romania, Ion Antonescu, Mihai Antonescu and all the
members of the government were present as guests. After World War II, she performed in

4. the Review Ensemble and the Satirical and Musical Theatre Constantin Tănase. She had parts
in the plays The Living Corpse by Leo Tolstoy in 1945, and Horia by Mihai Davidoglu in 1956.
In 1944 Maria Tănase sang in Edmond Audran's operetta Mascota (The Mascot). In 1946 she
held the main part in the musical comedy The Hollywood Sphinx, by Ralph Benatzky. She
sang in the movie Romania in 1947, and in 1958 she performed in both Ciulinii Bărăganului
(The Thistles of the Bărăgan), and the short‐reel film Amintiri din Bucureşti (Memories from
Bucharest). In 1952, Maria Tănase was offered a position at the Music School No. 1 in
Bucharest, in the newly created folk song department; 1962 found her guiding Taraful
Gorjului (The Gorj Folk Music Band) in Târgu Jiu and the artists there, at her own request. On
May 1, 1963, after a concert in Hunedoara, she had to leave the long tour of the famous folk
ensemble, because of illness.
In 1955, she received the State Prize and in 1957 she was honored with the medals
Ordinul Muncii (The Order for Activity), Premiul de Stat (The State Award), and the title
Artistă Emerită (Honoured Artist of the Republic) for her contributions to the arts.
She toured many times in the last 15 years of her life, including over forty trips to
New York City. She died of cancer on June 22, 1963 and is buried at the Bellu cemetery in
Bucharest, Romania.
Ion Voicu (October 8, 1923
February 24, 1997) was a Romanian
violinist and orchestral conductor of
Romani ethnicity. In 1969 he founded
the award‐winning Bucharest Chamber
Orchestra, which is now conducted by
his son Mădălin Voicu.
Voicu was born in Bucharest,
into a family of professional musicians.
At age 6, he had his first music lessons
with Constantin Niculescu. At age 14,
he entered the Royal Academy of
Music in Bucharest, where he studied with George Enocovici. After graduating in 1940, he
became violinist with the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, where he was noticed by the
conductor, Willem Mengelberg; Voicu made his debut as a soloist with the orchestra soon

5. after. In 1946, he won the first prize at a musical competition organized in Bucharest by
George Enescu and Yehudi Menuhin.
In 1949, Voicu first appeared as a soloist with the George Enescu Philharmonic
Orchestra under George Georgescu, and he achieved great acclaim as a participant in their
1957 tour of Belgrade; from 1972 to 1982, he was the director of the Philharmonic.
Dumitru Fărcaş (May 12, 1938,
Groşii Băii Mari, Maramureş County,
Romania) is a Romanian tárogató player.
He played the instrument on all major
stages in the world and made the tárogató
known all over the world.
He was born in the Groşi village.
His father played the pipe, and his older
brothers played the clarinet. He studied
the oboe at the Gheorghe Dima Music
Academy in Cluj‐Napoca.
He is the leader of the Mărțişorul
orchestra from 1962, with which he won
many national and international awards.
He was made Honorary citizen of the cities Cluj‐Napoca, Bucharest, Reşița and Baia
Mare, as well as Pyongyang.
In 2008 he was awarded Doctor honoris causa by the Gheorghe Dima Music
Academy.

6. Gheorghe
Zamfir (born April 6,
1941) is a Romanian
pan flute musician.
Zamfir is known for
playing an
expanded version of
the traditional
Romanian‐style pan
flute (nai) of 20
pipes to 22, 25, 28
and 30 pipes to
increase its range, and obtaining as many as eight overtones (additionally to the
fundamental tone) from each pipe by changing the embouchure. He is known as The Master
of the Pan Flute.
Zamfir was born in Găeşti, Romania. Although initially interested in becoming an
accordionist, at the age of 14 he began his pan flute studies with Fănică Luca at the Special
Musical School no. 1 in Bucharest. Later he attended the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory.
He currently resides and teaches pan flute in Bucharest. He has a son, Emmanuel Teodor
who resides in Montreal, Canada also a drummer/musician.
Zamfir came to the public eye when he was „discovered” by Swiss ethnomusicologist
Marcel Cellier who extensively researched Romanian folk music in the 1960s. Brought for the
first time with his pan flute to western European countries in 1972 by the composer Vladimir
Cosma as soloist in Cosma's original music for the movie Le grand blond avec une chaussure
noire and made a big success, since then, he has been used as soloist in movie soundtracks
by composers Francis Lai, Ennio Morricone and many others. Largely through television
commercials where he was billed as „Zamfir, Master of the pan Flute”, he introduced the
folk instrument to a modern audience and revived it from obscurity. In the United States his
commercials were widely seen on CNN in the 1980s.]
Zamfir's big break in the English‐speaking world came when the BBC religious
television programme „The Light of Experience” adopted his recording of Doina De Jale, a
traditional Romanian funeral song, as its theme. Popular demand forced Epic Records to

7. release the tune as a single in 1976, and it climbed to number four on the UK charts. It would
prove to be his only hit single, but it helped pave the way for a consistent stream of album
sales in Britain.
After nearly a decade‐long absence, Romanian pan flute virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfir
returns to Canada in January 2006 for a seven‐city tour with TRAFFIC STRINGS quintet. In the
program was include a world premiere: Vivaldi's Four Seasons for PanFlute and string
quintet arranged by Lucian Moraru , jazz standards, and well‐known favourites.
Most recently, Zamfir has been sampled by Animal Collective in the song Graze on
their EP Fall Be Kind.
One of his most notable contributions was to the soundtrack for the classic Australian
film Picnic at Hanging Rock. His first appearance in 1972 as soloist interpreter in a movie
soundtrack was in Vladimir Cosma's Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire with a very
famous and successful melody known all over the world. His music has also been heard on
the soundtracks of many Hollywood movies. He was asked by Ennio Morricone to perform
the pieces Childhood Memories and Cockeye's Song for the soundtrack of Sergio Leone's
1984 gangster film Once Upon A Time In America. His music is heard throughout the 1984
film The Karate Kid, and his piece The Lonely Shepherd, recorded with the James Last
Orchestra, is featured in Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill Vol. 1. The melody The lonely
shepherd was written by James Last and first released on his album Memories from Russia,
released 1977 (Polydor Germany 2371 856). The panflute was played by Gheorghe Zamfir,
who had a contract with the Philips record company. An agreement was made that Philips
could release The lonely shepherd as a single (45 rpm) on the Philips label.
Although Zamfir is considered the most important person to popularize the pan flute
worldwide, he has also received significant criticism, mostly for his propinquity with easy
listening and kitsch. His personality often put him in disputes with other pan flute players
such as Dalila Cernătescu, Simion Stanciu or Damian Drăghici.
Another line of criticism came from his promotion of Romanian popular music as
opposed to the genuine traditional music.