World Library of Folk and Primitive Music Volume 17, Romania Compiled and edited by Alan Lomax Rounder (www.rounder.com) In her careful notes on this re-issue of the landmark field recordings of Alan Lomax, ethnomusicologist Speranta Radelescu states "...everyone who visits the Constantin Brailoiu Institute of Ethnography and Folklore in Bucharest still listens to it as an introduction to the study of Romanian folk music. Local specialists still consider it one of the most enjoyable and rewarding anthologies of Romanian music." This is high praise indeed, and completely merited. This release contains music that is fast disappearing, with the encroachment of western popular music and the withering away of the old village lifestyle. In addition, there does not seem to be any "folk revival" movement afoot in Romania as there is in neighboring Hungary. The selections are all somewhat brief. As Ms. Radelescu points out, this may be a blessing for the impatient listener, but a drawback in placing songs into accurate context. The effect however, is that a large number of tracks have been placed on a single CD, revealing a great breadth of styles. Some will sound familiar, as the various still extant tarafs of Romania are still playing some of this repertoire. Ms. Radelescu does inform us that she has made several alterations. Although the updating of spellings is welcome, she has also re-organized the compilation in what she feels is a more ethnomusicologically coherent sequence. One can't help but wonder if the original intention of the compilers has been served by this, and there is no way to know one way or the other. An alphorn fanfare opens the CD, which is then divided into Ritual music, Dance music, Pastoral music, (divided further into Long Songs, Ballads and Epics, and Lyric songs) and then Lautari (Rural and Urban professional musicians.) Highlights are: "De petrecut" from the Banat, a ritual for accompanying the deceased, with an eerie overlapping drone in the vocal, and "C�ntecul miresei" a wedding song sung by the Gypsies of Clejani (no coincidence that the Taraf de Haidouks have similar songs in their repertoire). "Braul" is a dance played with incredible nimbleness by Floreqa Netcu, who was a clerk in a cooperative store at the time. Another braul, the exciting "Braul se papte" is also a real barn burner. The possibilities of playing expressively on something as simple as a pear leaf are demonstrated by the then 29 year old Florica Mazgoi, in "De codru). Nicolae-Poant�-Husari's vocal on "Pa dealul Cerbalului" makes him a dead ringer for Geoff Moldauer; this strange comparison aside, all vocals on this CD are exceptionally powerful, with rich resonance and pleasingly regulated vibratos. In the "lautari" section of the CD, "Calusul" (made famous by cymbalom master Tony Iordache) stands out. These are all, however, utterly random and subjective highlights. The quality of all these tracks is remarkably high, and one would be hard pressed to find one that did not lack for some sort of merit. In all, so many years later, one can still find no better introduction to the folk heritage of Romania than this one. - Michal Shapiro Sound samples available at cdroots.com

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