Fiddlers and Their Music in Romanian Principalities, from the Beginnings until the Nineteenth century: Artistic Aspects

Fiddlers and their music were a very important component of the music of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania. Mentioned in documents since the 16th century, fiddlers were indispensable at the princely court, where they participated in most of the ceremonies in which the ruler played the principal role. The fiddle music varied depending on the characteristic music of the regions in which they settled, as well as on various foreign influences, especially the Ottoman classical music practised in those areas bordering the two Romanian Principalities. Thus, it gradually became possible for the fiddle music to acquire an individual identity and a specific social profile. The present study by no means exhausts the documentary sources regarding general aspects of this category of ‘fiddlers’, nor of their music, but it should be said that comparable research is largely absent in Romanian scholarly literature. The main focus rather is on general aspects of the tradition, and less on the particular. This paper outlines the general framework in which fiddlers appeared, but also highlights their placement in Romanian musical culture. It also tries to promote some awareness of the foreign and domestic influences that have been imprinted on their music, as well as of the musical instruments they have used. One aspect of the study is represented by comparative analysis of different written sources to indicate how the fiddlers have been referenced over time. All these aspects captured in this first article represent a contextualization of the fiddlers’ practice, and at the same time serve as a broad introduction to a second article, which is unprecedented in its scope, and adopts an original historical approach to the entire ‘phenomenon’ of fiddle music and fiddlers. Both parts of the study should be considered complementary, and together they constitute a seminal contribution to the subject.