Romanian traditional music

Romanian traditional music (Romanian: muzica populară românească) comprises the musical traditions of the Romanian ethnos, widespread in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and in adjacent ethnographic areas. It is a complex cultural formation that combines archaic autochthonous elements, features shared with the Balkan and Carpathian areas, oriental borrowings, and later influences from urban and Western European musical culture. Traditional music is characterised by syncretism (a close connection between melody, rhythm, text, and dance), oral transmission, and a high degree of variability: a musical work has no fixed form, but is re-created by the performer at the moment of performance. A fundamental feature of Romanian musical culture is a historically formed dualism that divides it into two interrelated layers: peasant music and lăutărească music (professional).