The "religious" carols contain popular legends
of God end they are of ten imbued with pagan elements. God and the Saints
are personified: God as an old shepherd with a white beard, playing the
flute as he watches a flock of sheep; Got and St. Peter dressed as beggars
are driven out of the house of the rich, and the apocryphal content of
the latter has determined the churchmen to try to remove them.
The Star-songs, whose
poetical contents is inspired by the Scriptures, were created to that end.
Poor in artistic images, they differ from the genuine folk creations both
in language and style. Their melodies and rhythms draw them nearer to the
pious Christmas hymns of the West. Here and there, as in the western part
of Oltenia for instance, the texts of the Star- songs appear to have borrowed
ancient carol melodies. Persistently diffused by the Church and old time
schools, the star-songs have achieved a certain popularity. They are, as
a rule, sung by children carrying a paper star painted and sometimes illuminated
from within. This blending of creations pertaining to two different cultures
have much contributed to the false conception which certain people still
have of the "colinde", considering them as a whole to be religious, mystical,
etc. The aim of the carols is to greet and to praise in an allegoric way
those to whom they are sung. Hence their specialisation, here and there,
into carols for a young man, for a young girl, for a newlywed couple, for
a shepherd, for a hunter, for a fisherman, etc.
Reaming the village from house to house, play on flute
and drum the "Song of the drum". On this melody is superimposed a carol
for a young man, which the carollers sing as they march. The "Dube" (drums)
also accompany certain carols from the other villages of our county. The
poem tells gracefully of a young shepherdess who wanted to pluck a flower
in bud. The flower advises her to wait till it blossomed, to adorn herself
with it and to dance the "hora" with it: as its petals will be scattered
and tossed about by the winds so will her beloved be tossed about by his
thoughts of her.
The luck –visit of The Plough,
(Little Plough) is a very ancient fertility rite performed on New Year’s
Eve and New Year’s Day. A long recitation in verse representing allegorically
the whole work of the field, from the ploughing to the kneading and baking
of rolls of pure cornflower is intoned against a background of sounds produced
by the bellowing of a friction drum called bull ("buhai"). Also it is added
sometimes the melody of flute or other musical instruments:
Our plough works wonders
It has four or five coulters
Sharpened, tempered
Sharp and cutting,
Never sleeping
And where it passes it leaves
A soft and fertile furrow;
And where it furrows!
The field laughs and blooms!…
Among the masked dances performed during the winter
feast, the most remarkable are “Capra” (Goat)
and Vicleimul (Nativity Drama), emblem
of fecundity. This custom, whose magical significance has become lost during
the course of time, consists of the dance of a masked man generally representing
a goat or a stag. The muzzle of the mask is made of two pieces of wood
covered with hare-skin.
Many of the midwinter musical customs nowadays find excellent
means of diffusion through the activities of organized artistic groups,
whether amateur or professional.
