**3. Inventory and archiving of the musical repertoire**

The inventory and archiving of the musical repertoire are two interdependent activities, without which the manifestations of the past would be based only on stories of the indirect witnesses, not on living documents, which surprised the phenomenon in its full unfolding. Both involve a first, chronological and logical approach to the facts which, once recorded, will be kept in optimal conditions to last in time.

The Folklore Archive Institute of the Romanian Academy represents one of the oldest research centers of traditional culture, being established in

<sup>13</sup> It is a journal of the CJCPCT published biannually since 2001. The journal publishes original research and reviews of cultural and social anthropology (ethnology, linguistics, traditional medicine) and areas of interference.

<sup>14</sup> The Hungarian settlers arrived in Maramureș and northern Transylvania, being attracted by the rich hunting of the forests in the area, and later they discovered the salt deposits (from the perimeter of Ocna Șugatag-Coștiui), as well as the Baia Mare-Baia Sprie mining basin. For this reason they decided to colonize this region with Germans and Hungarians, to ensure an efficient exploitation of resources.

*Research of the Musical Folklore From Maramureș: Chioar Area DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90682*

works could continue because the Chioar area still represents an interest for ethnomusicologists and not only as evidenced by the articles published in the *Memoria*

today the locality is individualized with this particularity in speech.

terms attested in the regionalisms of Maramureș County.

**3. Inventory and archiving of the musical repertoire**

With the arrival of the Hungarian colonists in the Depression of Maramureș, from the end of the thirteenth century,<sup>14</sup> there were also influences on the lexicon which were not only due to the political, administrative, or military factor but also to the coexistence of the native population with the groups of colonists, in the last seven centuries. Professor Gheorghe Radu mentions in the book *Observații asupra lexicului subdialectului maramureșean* (1970) that there are numerous Hungarian

In the field of music (collections and transcriptions of songs, identification of musical peculiarities of the area), we can say that there is no important work to clarify these aspects. For these reasons, the Chioar area represents a territory with many elements in the field of ethnology or ethnomusicology that are waiting to be

The inventory and archiving of the musical repertoire are two interdependent activities, without which the manifestations of the past would be based only on stories of the indirect witnesses, not on living documents, which surprised the phenomenon in its full unfolding. Both involve a first, chronological and logical approach to the facts which, once recorded, will be kept in optimal conditions to last

The Folklore Archive Institute of the Romanian Academy represents one

<sup>13</sup> It is a journal of the CJCPCT published biannually since 2001. The journal publishes original research and reviews of cultural and social anthropology (ethnology, linguistics, traditional medicine) and areas

<sup>14</sup> The Hungarian settlers arrived in Maramureș and northern Transylvania, being attracted by the rich hunting of the forests in the area, and later they discovered the salt deposits (from the perimeter of Ocna Șugatag-Coștiui), as well as the Baia Mare-Baia Sprie mining basin. For this reason they decided to colonize this region with Germans and Hungarians, to ensure an efficient exploitation of resources.

of the oldest research centers of traditional culture, being established in

Among the highly individualized areas, with customs, beliefs, and well-preserved habits, there is the Chioar area. Despite the interference with the neighboring areas (Codru, Lăpuș, Maramureș Istoric, Sălaj), this area has retained a series of characteristic elements in archaic form. An important feature of this region is the wheat, which Chis Ioan Șter states in the work *Graiul, etnografia și folclorul zonei Chioar* (1983) that it is almost confused with the Codru area and thus we are entitled to count the Chiorean dialect as belonging to the family of the Someanese dialect. We could say that the area is, rather, a "transition" between Codru (due to the many common elements of the Someşean type) and Lăpuș (against which there is no firm geographical delimitation). However, there are localities that are individualized in terms of dialect. An exception is the locality of Vălenii Șomcutei, where the vowel "ă" is not used properly; in some words it is replaced by the vowel "a" (e.g., *Maicuță când m-ai facutu/Doamne bine ți-o parutu/De părerea ta cea bună/Mi-ai facut fașe de lână/Și procuț di matragună*). An explanation of this fact was not found; it is certain that even

*ethnografică.*

*Heritage*

13

discovered and enhanced.

in time.

of interference.

**188**

1930,<sup>15</sup> in Cluj-Napoca, its purpose being to study at a professional level the Romanian folklore, its links with the repertoire of other nationalities from Romania, as well as the cultural relations with the neighboring peoples. The Folklore Archive Institute of the Romanian Academy has a unique immaterial spiritual heritage in Europe, with over 750,000 ethnological and anthropological documents, and it has its own periodical publication, of international circulation, *Anuarul Arhivei de Folclor*, a remarkable scientific production. The institute has become a center of excellence in the institutional network of the Romanian Academy, carrying out some great works of national interest, among them are *Bibliografia generală a etnografiei şi folclorului* (1800–1930), *Ritualurile agrare româneşti*, *Cimiliturile româneşti*, *Proverbe româneşti*, *maghiare şi săseşti (dicţionar tezaur)*, *Cântecele populare ale maghiarilor din Transilvania*, and *Tipologia dansurilor populare*. Currently, within the institute the *Enciclopedia culturii tradiţionale românești* is developed*,* and ethnomusicologists and ethno-choreologists are concerned with monographic research on the most important areas of Transylvania.

University professor Ioan Cuceu, director of the Folklore Archive Institute of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca, mentioned in a press article that the idea of a research project with the theme *Enciclopedia culturii tradiționale românești* was launched in a public session of the Romanian Academy on May 27, 1920, by Ovidiu Densuşianu, who at that time criticized everything that had been done so far in terms of knowledge of traditional culture.

Returning to our research topic on the musical folklore of the Chioar Country, within the Folklore Archive Institute of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca, I have identified a unique material, which deserves a special attention to be used further. We are talking about a number of 602 vocal songs that we extracted from 17 catalogs, ordered by certain periods, the first catalog being from 1950. Respecting the pattern offered by the catalogs, we made a table in which we included all the extracted songs. With one exception, the table is made according to the model offered by the catalogs. It has ten fields and not nine:

(1) Criterion number; (2) band number; (3) the title; (4) played from; (5) gender; (6) informant; (7) origin; (8) collector; (9) place and date of registration; (10) observations.

From our table we excluded the tenth heading. In the catalogs at the *observations*, data about the song were passed, whether it was transcribed or not. In the table of the institute, in the case of the songs that have not been transcribed, nothing is completed in this section, space is left, and to those that have been transcribed, "Tr" is written. The 602 vocal songs represent a musical material that has not been transcribed or published, so this section is not necessary in the case of our table.

The musical materials can be found both in the original version, the recordings being made on tape recorders, as well as in electronic format, (currently a tape digitizing activity is carried out—this is part of the inventory and archiving process adapted to the technological evolution).

The selected musical material was collected between 1958 and 1980 by important researchers who worked in Baia Mare and Cluj-Napoca such as the following: Virgil Medan, Ioan Chiș Șter, Ileana Szenik, Ioan R. Nicola, Doina Truță, Nicolae Both, Pașca Valer, Florian Elena, Berindan Emilia, Levendula Florica, Covaciu

<sup>15</sup> "Cu denumirea Arhiva de Folklor a Academiei Române, institutul a fost înfiinţat, în urma memoriilor alcătuite de Ion Muşlea, pe lângă Muzeul Limbii Române al Universităţii Regele Ferdinand I din Cluj, în Sesiunea anuală a Academiei Române din mai 1930"—information taken over from the official website of the Folklore Archive Institute of the Romanian Academy—https://arhivadefolclorcluj.ro/despre-institut/ istoric.

Lucia, dar și de către studenți pe care aceștia i-au îndrumat: Loliciu Tiberia, Lăscuțiu Corina, Popescu Rodica, Anca Natalia, Marinescu Maria, Arsene Doru, Răciu Sever, Coltău Rodica, Olah Paul, Ilieș Doina, Giurgiu Dana, Hosu Vasile, Istrate Adriana, Jurj Dochița, Sibian Rodica, Pop Sabina, and Govor Mărioara.

Here, we are already witnessing a phenomenon in which the archaic song coexists with the new song resulting from the process of transformation and adaptation of traditional folklore to the conditions of modern society. The functionality of these songs is different from the traditional one. This is explained in the first place by the fact that the ideological and artistic horizon of the folklore creator—the anonymous peasant—is considerably enlarged by the contacts he has within the

The rest of the songs (152) could not be the object of our research because, besides the audition criterion, there were also cases in which different technical problems appeared, for example, the same recording was encountered at different levels and informants, creating the feeling that we have a song recorded in two variants, when in fact we are talking about one and the same. In the table a song with a certain quota was passed, but on the band corresponding to the quota, that song did not appear; this is the situation in which the recording had problems, and

I have encountered other situations, but these did not represent an impediment with regard to the musical transcription: cases in which the informants' data were wrong, which resulted from the recording hearing, where the informant provides data about him (name, place of origin, age); in some songs the informer or the collector was not passed, sometimes the title—often I made additions to the table following the information provided by the one who sang during the recording. After selecting the material proposed for analysis, it was introduced in another table in which we made certain corrections or completions, such as name of informant and age, name of collector, name of song, or locality from which it was collected. All additions were made according to the data that resulted from the

We wanted to point out how important all these details are which in turn contribute to shaping the identity of a repertoire. Often these data are an important point in the research process, and if they do not exist, we are in a position not to

In the process of evolution of folk creations, the classification has developed in close interaction with the theoretical results of musical folklore. The methods of musical classification applied so far to the music of different ethnic groups are distinguished by the morphological element pursued and by the hierarchy of structural features. We will briefly list the main methods and their characteristics [9].

1.The lexical classification (dictionary-type ordering) consistently follows one of the morphological elements: the melody (the cadences, the ambitus), the metrical rhythmic structure of the verse, or the rhythm. These methods have benefits when archiving is discussed. In this case we only consider the closest

2.The method that takes into account all the morphological elements (melody, rhythm, verse, form) is that of grammatical classification. In the evolution of the research, this method overlaps with the descriptive stage, which is due to the fundamental theoretical knowledge regarding folklore. The research at this stage is able to characterize the genres and highlight the particularities of the

new village with the external factors from the urban environment.

we could not transcribe the respective song musically.

*Research of the Musical Folklore From Maramureș: Chioar Area*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90682*

consider a material that might be interesting.

**4. Methodology of classification of melodic types**

variants; it gives no clue as to the song.

hearing of the material.

area.

**191**

The localities investigated are the following: Cavnic, Groși, Cicârlău, Valea Chioarului, Vălenii Șomcutei, Stejera, Iadăra, Buciumi, Buteasa, Șomcuta Mare, Curtuiușu Mare, Hovrila, Durușa, Sârbi, Copalnic Mânăștur, Preluca Veche, Măgureni, Românești, Remetea Chioarului, Coaș, Berința, Cărbunari, Bontăieni, Negreia, Boiu Mare, Cetățele, Plopiș, Chiuzbaia, Codru Butesii, Remeți pe Someș, Remecioara, Finteușu Mare, Prislop, and Șurdești.

The informants from which the material was collected fall into the age category, 8–92 years.

Based on the data entered in the table, making a retrospective of the evolution of the material collection, quantitatively, in this case, most of the songs were collected between 1973 and 1979 (this appreciation is relative because in many cases, information boxes and the date and place of registration are missing).

Drawing on this statistic, we come to the conclusion that, from a musical point of view, the Chioar area has not so far been of great interest to researchers, with special attention being paid to the specific habits or certain crafts. We could not identify a specific reason for this fact, but we are convinced that any area has its specifics that it deserves and must be discovered step by step.

After identifying all the musical materials from Chioar, existing in the 17 catalogs of the Folklore Archive Institute of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca, I extracted each musical example from the tape recorder.16 The timings of each existing song within the bands were not mentioned in the catalogs, so it was necessary to identify and listen to each musical example.

Our aim in the present research is to bring to light a unique musical material, which has not been harnessed beyond the collection stage, and to identify certain local styles of the Chioar Country area. Until we reached this level of research, we went through several steps, the first being that of selecting the musical material. After a first hearing of the 601 songs, we divided the musical material into 2 parts:


<sup>16</sup> Over time, the musical material existing within each band often exceeded 50 minutes.

Lucia, dar și de către studenți pe care aceștia i-au îndrumat: Loliciu Tiberia, Lăscuțiu Corina, Popescu Rodica, Anca Natalia, Marinescu Maria, Arsene Doru, Răciu Sever, Coltău Rodica, Olah Paul, Ilieș Doina, Giurgiu Dana, Hosu Vasile, Istrate Adriana,

The localities investigated are the following: Cavnic, Groși, Cicârlău, Valea Chioarului, Vălenii Șomcutei, Stejera, Iadăra, Buciumi, Buteasa, Șomcuta Mare, Curtuiușu Mare, Hovrila, Durușa, Sârbi, Copalnic Mânăștur, Preluca Veche, Măgureni, Românești, Remetea Chioarului, Coaș, Berința, Cărbunari, Bontăieni, Negreia, Boiu Mare, Cetățele, Plopiș, Chiuzbaia, Codru Butesii, Remeți pe Someș,

The informants from which the material was collected fall into the age category,

Based on the data entered in the table, making a retrospective of the evolution of the material collection, quantitatively, in this case, most of the songs were collected between 1973 and 1979 (this appreciation is relative because in many cases, infor-

Drawing on this statistic, we come to the conclusion that, from a musical point of view, the Chioar area has not so far been of great interest to researchers, with special attention being paid to the specific habits or certain crafts. We could not identify a specific reason for this fact, but we are convinced that any area has its

After identifying all the musical materials from Chioar, existing in the 17 catalogs of the Folklore Archive Institute of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca, I extracted each musical example from the tape recorder.16 The timings of each existing song within the bands were not mentioned in the catalogs, so it was

Our aim in the present research is to bring to light a unique musical material, which has not been harnessed beyond the collection stage, and to identify certain local styles of the Chioar Country area. Until we reached this level of research, we went through several steps, the first being that of selecting the musical material. After a first hearing of the 601 songs, we divided the musical material into 2 parts:

• One by selection criterion, somewhat instinctively, was the belonging of the song to the area in question. We selected 335 songs from the Chioarului area

• A number of 115 songs have the following characteristics: they are well-known songs, belonging to interpreters representing the time; ballads; playing songs in aksak; and rhythm that is not specific to the neocational lyrics of Chioar Country. They have two rhythms within the same song (parlando rubato and divisional or in some cases aksak); ballad texts were adapted to a carol song; they have influences from the south of the country, either they were listened to, learned, and then transmitted by the men who were doing the army in those times in the southern cities or they were received by the media. The peasant of the past (as well as the one of the present), if he liked a song from a certain foreign area, even far away, consciously managed to acquire it, taking also the means of expression specific to the area from which he came; thus, over time it

became clear that we did not recognize the belonging of certain songs.

<sup>16</sup> Over time, the musical material existing within each band often exceeded 50 minutes.

Jurj Dochița, Sibian Rodica, Pop Sabina, and Govor Mărioara.

mation boxes and the date and place of registration are missing).

specifics that it deserves and must be discovered step by step.

necessary to identify and listen to each musical example.

that will be analyzed.

**190**

Remecioara, Finteușu Mare, Prislop, and Șurdești.

8–92 years.

*Heritage*

Here, we are already witnessing a phenomenon in which the archaic song coexists with the new song resulting from the process of transformation and adaptation of traditional folklore to the conditions of modern society. The functionality of these songs is different from the traditional one. This is explained in the first place by the fact that the ideological and artistic horizon of the folklore creator—the anonymous peasant—is considerably enlarged by the contacts he has within the new village with the external factors from the urban environment.

The rest of the songs (152) could not be the object of our research because, besides the audition criterion, there were also cases in which different technical problems appeared, for example, the same recording was encountered at different levels and informants, creating the feeling that we have a song recorded in two variants, when in fact we are talking about one and the same. In the table a song with a certain quota was passed, but on the band corresponding to the quota, that song did not appear; this is the situation in which the recording had problems, and we could not transcribe the respective song musically.

I have encountered other situations, but these did not represent an impediment with regard to the musical transcription: cases in which the informants' data were wrong, which resulted from the recording hearing, where the informant provides data about him (name, place of origin, age); in some songs the informer or the collector was not passed, sometimes the title—often I made additions to the table following the information provided by the one who sang during the recording.

After selecting the material proposed for analysis, it was introduced in another table in which we made certain corrections or completions, such as name of informant and age, name of collector, name of song, or locality from which it was collected. All additions were made according to the data that resulted from the hearing of the material.

We wanted to point out how important all these details are which in turn contribute to shaping the identity of a repertoire. Often these data are an important point in the research process, and if they do not exist, we are in a position not to consider a material that might be interesting.
