Musical folklore. Songs and dances

They were collected in the 1950s, mostly by the ethnomusicologist Ghizela Sulițeanu (1920-2006), who conducted researches on folklore and ethnography in the Turkish and Tatar communities of Romania.

The songs include all genres of traditional Turkish and Tatar folklore: song of military service, song of emigration, song of reunion, cradle songs, folk dance songs, romances, wedding rituals, baptism, mourning, prayers, from the submerged island of Ada Kaleh or from other communities with a specific traditional community life as Negru Vodă, Constanța, Năvodari, Medgidia or Tătaru. The source of these songs are Turks and Tatars, young and old, from these Dobrujan communities, some of them having as source the Tatar composer and musicologist, Sebat Husein. Ghisela Sulițeanu collaborated with him on the analysis of the collected folk materials.

The songs cover the whole existence of ordinary people, Turks and Tatars, who expressed themselves through these, at meetings (toplantı), at statute labor, at circumcision ceremonies (sünnet toy), at weddings (toy) and at funerals (cenaze).

The songs are followed by several video recordings capturing dance and song performances organized by the two communities and excerpts from shows dedicated to ethnic minorities, made by Romanian Television after 1990.

Limanu-Hagieni, Negru-Vodă, Dobruja, 1950s.

Source: Sebat Hüseyn.

“Constantin Brăiloiu” Institute of Ethnography and Folklore, Romanian Academy.