''Hora lungă'' (Cântec lung, Rom., literally 'long song'), is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n regional

folksong Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has bee ...

style characterized by the union of a lyrical text and improvisational

melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

. Also called hora lunga or horea lunga, (hora here is derived from the Romanian word meaning 'oration'). The singing may be accompanied by a combination of the shepherd's flute, a leaf held between the lips and used as a reed, a bagpipe, and non-native instruments.

Characteristics

A variant of the

doina The doina () is a Romanians, Romanian musical tune style, possibly with Middle Eastern roots, customary in Romanian peasant music, as well as in lăutărească music. It was also adopted into klezmer music. Similar tunes are found throughout Eas ...

, the Hora lungă characteristics are: strong instrumental character, very ornamented, and indeterminate content structure. The musician may freely stretch or compress its rhythm, and often will highly ornament each note.

History

Discovered by

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

in the Romanian Northern

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

counties of Maramureş and

Satu-Mare Satu Mare (; ; ; or ) is a city with a population of 102,400 (2011). It is the capital of Satu Mare County, Romania, as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the region of Maramureș, broadly part of Transylvania ...

in 1912-1913. Bartók studied evidence of or listened to similar music in central Algeria, Ukraine, and Persia. Subsequent research has revealed similar music found as far west as Albania and Algeria, and as far east as India, Tibet, western China, and Cambodia."Hora Lunga."
Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music. Ed. Laura Kuhn. Schirmer-Thomson Gale, 1999. eNotes.com. 2006. 31 Jan, 2007

References

External links

Section of a hora lungá melody transcribed by Bartók
Music of Romania {{Improve categories, date=October 2023