What are the characteristics of gypsy music? Despite a common exotic air, they are very diverse. They escape definition. Instead, we offer you an overview of gypsy music.
Gypsy musicians arrive in Europe
Gypsies arrived in Europe from North India around the 15th century. King Segismund mentions them in an official document in 1423. They are at the origin of a new music oriented towards dance. It quickly spread to Eastern and Central Europe, as well as to Spain. Gypsy musicians are protected by people at court who become their patrons. The taste for exoticism is then in vogue. Aristocrats like the rhythms of "ungaresca", a new style of dance. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, classical and then romantic composers were inspired by gypsy music. Among them, there is Haydn (who worked for the court of Nikolaus Esterházy), Mozart or Brahms . They create the "verbunkos", dances used in itinerant military recruitment campaigns. Indeed, the music attracts crowds of young people. In the 19th century, Bohemian music constituted the folk capital for building the cultural heritage of modern states. It gave a sound to the nascent national consciousness. A good example of this trend is the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt who reinvested the gypsy style in his operas. In addition, the development of urban centers attracted musicians and distanced them from their village roots. The style was thus affected by urban popular music. The 20th century was marked by a desire to return to the rural origins of gypsy music. Ethnomusicologists such as Zoltán Kodály and Bártok carried out extensive research and collection work.
The diversity of styles of gypsy music
Gypsies practice music as their profession in courts and villages. They then connect with local musical traditions. The latter is assimilated to the Gypsy idiosyncrasy resulting from long migrations across the Middle East. In addition, it establishes a bridge between cultures, whether with courtly dance or jazz in the 20th century. Overall, three large groups are distinguished according to the routes adopted by the Gypsies: Russian polyphonic choirs and the Central European music of the Roma, the flamenco of the Andalusian Gypsies, the string swing of the Manouches. The mixing of traditions occurs naturally. Oral transmission facilitates the amalgamation. This is also why we speak of Gypsy music in the plural! The Gypsies have notably rubbed shoulders with the klezmerims, itinerant Jewish musicians who share a similar fate to the Gypsies. They have in common a danceable and virtuoso music that is quite present in Eastern Europe. Klezmer music thus contributes to the richness of gypsy music. There is however a recurring trait. It is the exotic sound because of the augmented second interval. It marks a break from the main scale of folk music, the pentatonic. Then, the interpretation of the musicians is of a very pronounced expressiveness for the time. In Western Europe, we have to wait until the 19th century for as much interpretative freedom. It reflects the state of mind of the gypsy peoples marked by pain and precariousness.
Gypsy music and instruments
Nomadic in nature, the Gypsy people have borrowed the instruments characteristic of the host regions. In Romania, we find the violin (bratsch) and flutes (pan flute, caval and nai). In the southern Balkans, the piano accordion and the clarinet predominate. The seven-string guitar and the balalaika are characteristic of Russian Gypsy music. Turkey has transmitted the kanon, a type of zither, the darbuka and the oud. In Hungary, it is the cymbalum, a zither with strings struck with sticks, which is expressed. Finally, the two instruments that are heard most often are the violin and the guitar. Indeed, they are easy to transport! Today, Gypsy music has also integrated the saxophone, made popular by jazz. There are different group formats. On the one hand, groups where each person plays a different instrument are called Tarafs. Hungarians are famous for their orchestras. Then, the Roma brass bands are the military heritage of gypsy music. In gypsy jazz groups and flamenco, the guitar is the protagonist, even if the voice is very present in the latter.
The great names of gypsy music
Traditional music always has its great musicians. The great guitarists of gypsy music are Paco de Lucia, a flamenco figure, or Django Reinhardt, a symbol ofgypsy jazz in France. His cousin, Franz Schnuckenack Reinhardt, was also a virtuoso violinist. Still among violinists, Roby Lakatos is the son of a dynasty of Hungarian musicians and he excels in gypsy music. Kálmán Balogh is an important Hungarian cimbalom player. On the gypsy voice side, there are exceptional female singers. Maria Tănase was a great Romanian singer while Ljiljana Buttler was a popular Serbian singer. Esma Redžepova-Teodosievska was a Yugoslav and then Macedonian singer who represented her country at Eurovision in 2013. On the men's side, Florin Salam is a Romanian singer of manele, a musical style from the Balkans, in full career. And of course, the Marseille group Basilic Swing ! This is just a brief selection of excellent gypsy musicians.
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