Folk Song Collection in Csíkmadaras at the Turn of the 20-21st Century

Abstract

"Csíkmadaras is in the southern part of the microregion called Felcsík. The latter has always been a preferred area for ethnomusicologists, beginning with Béla Bartók. After I started collecting folk songs in the area in 1993, I set out to make a monograph of vocal songs of Csíkmadaras village. Between 1999 and 2011 I spent 18 days on the field, recording more than 12 and a half hours of vocal folk music. The collection contains 441 distinct melodies, along with variants and those repeated several times, a total of 644 tunes. What surprised me during the processing of the material was the great number of songs from the old strata. Along with the new-style melodies they represent almost 2/5 of the total collection. In comparison, the relatively small number of less valuable songs was below previous expectations. From the result of the collection, it appears that, at the beginning of the XXIst century, in Csíkmadaras there is still very valuable folklore material. Keywords: folk songs, collections, Csíkmadaras, monograph, old strata, new style"